The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) Project Coordination Office was started to prevent doing the same work twice. Traditionally, CDOT and Chicago’s Department of Water Management would coordinate work, but this new division went to the next level by working with private utilities including Peoples’ Gas and Commonwealth Edison. By coordinating the work of City departments, the Chicago Transit Authority, and the utilities, savings exceeded over $10 million in the first year in 2012. While they did use a high-tech database to geocode their work, they also used weekly meetings to sort out opportunities to combine and schedule work. Working differently and together can achieve results for everyone.
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