ODOT director urges restoration of administrative funds, pushes utility-delay language and technical study in biennial transportation bill

Director Pamela Abourd of the Ohio Department of Transportation told the Ohio Senate Transportation Committee on the formal hearing for House Bill 54 that ODOT supports the Legislature’s multi‑billion dollar transportation investment but asked senators to restore reductions and adopt several agency amendments.

The department asked the Senate to restore an administrative line‑item reduction of $58,200,000 over the biennium, saying those funds pay for internal support functions — including human resources, information technology, finance, communications and legal services — and required contracts such as the memorandum of understanding with the attorney general. "Those services along with IT staff . . . support many of our software applications and projects," Abourd said, warning that cuts could affect modernization efforts including cybersecurity, help desks and highway safety data systems.

Why it matters: ODOT said the administrative funds are needed to meet contract obligations and maintain core systems that support the statewide capital program and reimbursements. The department said reduced state administrative funding would make it harder to match and deploy federal project money and could slow or reduce the number of projects completed.

Utility delays and proposed legislative language

Abourd described a central operational problem for highway construction: utilities that do not relocate facilities on schedule. She told the committee the House version of the bill contains language shifting costs from the department and contractors to the utility that causes the delay and asked the Senate to retain the language. "Historically, we've had to pay additional costs and delays to utilities. . . . That just simply shifts the burden of the change arising from those delays to the entity who's responsible for the delay," Abourd said.

ODOT provided an aggregated figure that it said represents utility‑related delay costs over roughly a decade: "$56,000,000" across 497 impacted construction projects, and gave project examples including a 12‑month delay in Columbiana/Salem that added about $160,000 and a nearly two‑year delay in Lorain County (North Ridgeville) that added about $2,500,000 in claimed costs. Abourd said the department does not seek money from utilities as a first step but wants a stronger enforcement mechanism — which she repeatedly described as a "hammer" — to prompt utilities to meet schedules.

Pavement selection study and timeline

ODOT asked the committee to adopt the House language creating an industry and legislative council to study material selection (concrete vs. asphalt), but said the bill’s current deadline is too short. Assistant Director and Chief Engineer Dave Slater described the department’s move from older design tools toward a mechanistic‑empirical pavement design (PMED) approach and said a local calibration research project is scheduled to finish in October 2026, with implementation targeted for calendar year 2027. Slater said the new software requires more inputs (climate, material properties, performance tolerance) and that the department believes its engineers are best positioned to make pavement decisions for specific projects.

Staff and members raised a longstanding demonstration project on U.S. 30 comparing 10 miles of concrete to 10 miles of asphalt. Slater told senators that total maintenance for the corridor over a specified period was difficult to attribute precisely to one side or the other because of changes in data systems; he confirmed an overall maintenance number and noted a capital contract in 2023 to repair the concrete section.

Other ODOT requests in HB 54

Abourd also asked senators to consider two additional items attached to ODOT testimony: - A change to indemnification language the department said arises from a grade‑separation statute cited in committee as "55 25 16, the Revised Code," which ODOT says can produce effectively unlimited liability for contractors and insurers in rail grade projects. Abourd said the affected railroad supports the change and that the Contractors Association and insurance industry groups also back the amendment. - Codifying and expanding indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts statewide. ODOT asked to permit use in all 12 districts, keep the existing dollar limit of $2,000,000 per contract for a two‑year period, and the current limit of two permitted contracts per district.

Private transit vouchers and workforce mobility

Abourd said the House included a $1,000,000 earmark of federal highway funding for a private transit voucher pilot and that ODOT supports evaluating innovative mobility options. But she told the panel she believes the earmarked funding may be ineligible under the cited federal program and "will just sit there and we will carry it forward" if the feds do not approve the use. She also thanked the House for including $30,000,000 for a workforce mobility partnership but warned that restrictive federal eligibility rules for transit flex funds limited the types of operating requests ODOT could fund in previous rounds.

What the committee asked and next steps

Senators pressed ODOT staff for details about how contract delays are measured (ODOT said delays are documented when contractors are unable to perform work because a utility occupies the required right of way) and whether ODOT has leverage to compel utilities to move (ODOT said not reliably). Multiple members pressed for more data on how much of the maintenance and rehabilitation budgets go to the local network versus major state routes; ODOT said it can provide district breakdowns on maintenance spending.

ODOT closed by asking that technical timelines be extended if the committee wants a robust third‑party study of payment selection, and recommended that any industry council rely on academic and technical experts; Slater requested the study deadline be extended to June 30, 2026 for a more robust evaluation.

Ending: The department reiterated support for the broad capital funding in House Bill 54 while asking the Senate to restore administrative funding, retain utility‑delay language, adjust indemnification for railroad projects, extend study timelines for pavement selection, and codify limited IDIQ use across districts. Several senators said they want more detailed district spending breakdowns and follow‑up data on specific examples Abourd provided.