Transportation Infrastructure: Impacts of Utility Relocations on Highway and Bridge Projects

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO assessed the impact that delays in relocating utilities are having on the delivery and cost of federal-aid highway and bridge projects, focusing on the: (1) extent to which states are experiencing such delays and the causes and impacts of the delays; (2) number of states that are compensating construction contractors for the added costs incurred on their projects because of untimely relocations by utility companies; (3) available technologies, such as subsurface utility engineering; and (4) mitigation methods that states are using, such as incentives, penalties, and litigation, to encourage or compel cooperation by utility companies that are relocating utilities on federal-aid highway and bridge projects.