Modernizing Project Design and Delivery in Pennsylvania

Jennifer Steen and Matt Blake on the Benefits of Embracing Technology and Digital Delivery

With its ongoing program known as Digital Delivery Directive, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is on the leading edge of an industry transition. In September 2024, the department let its first construction project using Model as the Legal Document, or MALD, a milestone years in the making. 

This effort has modernized the department’s project design and delivery processes along with contract document requirements, with the next steps to advance construction data to asset management.

HDR’s Jennifer Steen, highways and local roads BIM director, and Matt Blake, transportation construction and digital delivery principal advisor, recently co-authored an article for Transportation Builder magazine discussing the numerous benefits of PennDOT’s ongoing program to both the department and contractors. 

“In the new data rich environment, with accurate and timely information just a mouse click away, designers, contractors and asset owners must change how they consume information and learn how to leverage it to design, build and maintain projects moving forward,” Steen and Blake wrote. 

Read “Constructing a Digital Future in Pennsylvania” in the March-April issue of Transportation Builder, published by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.