ROADWAY DESIGN UNIT​

The Roadway Design Unit's mission is to provide design and technical expertise to NCDOT staff and our consultant partners to ensure the production of quality products throughout the project delivery process.  As the Unit implies, our primary focus is on the design of roadway plans.  However, we also have a team who are responsible for the development of lighting and electrical plans for NCDOT-owned roadway lighting and other infrastructure.  The support provided by the Roadway Design Unit takes many forms including the development and maintenance of design guidance, technical support for CADD design software and associated tools, serving on technical committees, and responding to inquiries from customers internal and external to the agency.  To learn more about the different teams in the Unit (Design Development and Support, Support Services, Research Standards and Innovation, and Lighting and Electrical), click on the link for each.

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DESIGN DEVELOPMENT & SUPPORT

Design Development & Support (DD&S) groups are organized into eastern (Divisions 1-6, 8) and western (Division 7, 9-14) regions. Each region consists of two teams that are responsible for providing design, plan review, and design support services, in support of project delivery teams for Central and Division managed projects.

Our teams provide support for project managers by developing and reviewing roadway design scopes and workday estimates.  We complete requests for Quality Assurance reviews for design submittals and provide technical expertise for roadway design, roadway design policies, and plan preparation.

We develop designs and quantity calculations for all stages of project development for projects that are managed by the Feasibility Studies, Divisions, and Central Units. Our teams also prepare right of way and construction revisions on projects developed internally.​

Our DD&S Teams are also responsible for managing all the Special Studies (specialstudies@ncdot.gov) requests submitted by Divisions statewide. These requests include municipal projects, greenways, non-utility encroachments and other special projects.  We also support the Surplus Right of Way Disposal and Control of Access Review Committee through the organization and creation of supporting documentation.​​

SUPPORT SERVICES

The primary responsibility of the Support Services Team is CADD Support. We create and maintain the CADD standards for the unit in the form of CADD workspace files; develop and conduct training to apply those standards; and provide technical support to staff developing projects using those standards.

For the last six years, our main focus has been to help move the department in the direction of 3D model-centric design and transition to OpenRoads Designer.  We are involved in many innovation and restructuring initiatives supporting the Department's efforts toward Digital Delivery, including; ORD Migration, Model-Based Construction, Digital As-Builts, and Workspace & Asset Management.  We coordinate with construction and preconstruction units in solving current design and modeling issues, developing new business workflows and creating new tools for design, review, and reporting.

Training and user support are the other big components of our team. We regularly provide training outreach to our fellow NCDOT employees and PEF partners though NCLUG events, presenting at several engineering conferences, and hosting virtual and in-person classroom training.  We support users with their CADD problems in-person, through e-mail (roadwaysupport@ncdot.gov), virtual MS Teams calls and (soon) using the ORD Service Portal.

We also, manage the Unit's physical and computer assets, software licenses, and website resources.  Let us know how we can help!​​

RESEARCH, STANDARDS, & INNOVATION

The Research, Standards, and Innovation (RSI) team is responsible for maintaining the Roadway Design Manual as a living document providing design guidance for our North Carolina Roadway Designers. This involves researching, reviewing, and coordinating with other technical units to respond to comments or questions received through our Contact Us link. We meet regularly with the Roadway Design Manual Committee, comprised of NCDOT Staff and industry partners, to present our findings or proposed changes for resolution. Updates to the manual are made twice a year (currently May and November).​

The team works in partnership with the Contract Standards Unit to update Roadway Standards and Standard Drawings as well as other technical support spreadsheets and checklists that aid roadway designers in the development of estimates and final plan packages.

A portion of the team’s time is spent researching and evaluating innovative industry trends. Reading research papers and attending presentations and conferences allows our team to identify best roadway practices and share research results with Roadway Design Leadership in an effort to better support Roadway’s Design Development & Support Groups. Additionally, the team contributes to the design of internal project development and reviews some smaller projects per review period.​​

​​ LIGHTING & ELECTRICAL

​​​​​​Develops lighting, electrical and conduit designs for the Department and assists municipalities with designs ​​inside the NCDOT right of way. Reviews all lighting plan submittals, from private engineering firms and contractors, and physically tests all completed lighting installations to assure compliance with the contract.​​​