SAN ANTONIO – As the city continues to grow, leaders created a new department to ensure that projects are kept on track in order to meet the needs of that growth.
The Capital Delivery Department was created last October out of the existing Public Works Department.
“My job is to make sure that we deliver projects that the community needs and wants, but in a manner that’s on time,” department director Michael Shannon said.
The new department is staffed by 188 employees formerly under Public Works.
Prior to leading the new office, Shannon served as the director of the city’s Development Service Department and as the interim director of Animal Care Services.
“Our job is to focus on the large-scale capital projects that the city has, most of it being the voter-approved bond projects,” Shannon said.
Those bond projects include things like drainage, police and fire stations, senior centers and libraries.
The new department has multiple tools at its disposal to ensure compliance on agreed timelines and budgets, beyond just fines.
“It’s not just about penalties or those type of things for being late,” Shannon said. “We’ve actually already started adding incentives to contracts.”
Shannon said that contractors can get more money from a contract if a project is finished significantly early, anywhere from 2-10%.
The department’s goal is to identify partners and contractors that will finish projects on time, Shannon said, and early if possible.
Shannon said he has already implemented additional communication methods and procedures to ensure overcommunication with residents and business owners who will be affected by construction.
Every project now has liasons and project managers available to the public, Shannon said, all the way up to himself.
“If people, they understand what’s going on, why things are happening, when they’re expected to be finished, and some of the challenges that we may have in a project, they feel better about knowing it,” Shannon said.
Shannon said the department is also piloting other tools to help businesses, such as shuttle service through construction zones to make it easier for customers to reach.
The department already has projects it is looking to target, while thinking about how it can improve future projects.
“We definitely have some projects that are currently underway that are over time and over budget,” Shannon said, “and our job is to finish those.”
“{We’re going to} take the lessons learned that we’ve learned over the past couple of years,” Shannon said, “and as we start the new projects, you know, find ways to not have that happen again.”
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