2.5. — Roles and Responsibilities in the Program and Project Lifecycle

The Transportation Commission holds the statutory authority to provide oversight, policy direction, resource allocation, and other strategic decisions. The Commission consists of eleven appointees of the Governor, each representing a specific geographic portion of the state and each appointed to a 4-year term on a staggered schedule. The TC has final authority on many statewide planning activities.

CDOT is geographically divided into five regions. The Region Transportation Director (RTD) provides day-to-day leadership for the region’s management team to ensure seamless delivery of the region’s maintenance operations and construction projects. As five members of CDOT’s Executive Management Team, RTDs help to establish and enact policies that dictate investment and project priorities. They guide their Program Engineers and other staff in delivering those projects and in maintaining CDOT’s infrastructure.

The Region Program Engineer is responsible for a specific geographic area within a region (e.g., North Program) and/or a specific function (e.g., Traffic Services). The Program Engineer reports directly to the RTD and guides the work of Resident Engineers and other key staff responsible for delivering projects within their program. They help enact policy and lead engineering, communications, and other critical tasks for their area.

The Region Asset/Fund Managers are responsible for the prioritization, planning, and funds associated with a specific asset program (surface treatment, bridge, etc.). They share the task, with their counterparts at headquarters, of identifying project-level funds out of each region’s allocation or out of a statewide allocation.

Each asset or fund within this Guidebook generally rolls up to a single HQ Asset/Fund Managers. For example, the Materials and Geotechnical Branch Manager oversees the Surface Treatment and Geohazards programs. The State Bridge Engineer Asset Manager oversees Bridge and Bridge Enterprise, Culverts, and Walls. While each manager’s job description varies, they maintain responsibility for the prioritization of treatments within their funds and coordinate between headquarters and regions on the delivery of those programs.

The Region’s Business Manager directs the preparation and oversight of budgets, financial reports, project financial status, and the timely execution of financial transactions. They will routinely provide financial data to the RTD and section managers, such as individual project budgets and budget pool adjustments for their region.

The Division of Transportation Development is responsible for long-range multimodal transportation planning and grant administration, environmental policy and programmatic improvement, project review and compliance, transportation data management, asset management coordination, and geographical information systems in support of planning and project research and delivery.

The Division of Accounting and Finance (DAF) is responsible for oversight and delivery of CDOT's more than billion-dollar annual budget. The Office of Financial Management and Budget (OFMB) provides DAF's link to program management, providing mission-critical fiscal information. The Revenue Planning, Resource Allocation, STIP, CDOT Annual Budget, Project and Cost Center Budgeting, Project Accounting and Fiscal Management, and Federal Program processes, including daily federal aid billings, obligation and authorization, and management of obligation limitation and apportionments are in SAP and managed and facilitated by OFMB.