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MDOT: consultants handle most large design work; in-house staff cover smaller projects and oversight
Summary
MDOT told the House subcommittee that about 60 percent of design dollars and roughly 55 percent of construction engineering dollars are contracted to consultants; decisions to contract depend on regional staff capacity and project complexity.
Demetrius “Dee” Parker, bureau director for MDOT’s Bureau of Development, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee that MDOT uses a hybrid model for design and construction engineering.
“Those percentages, let's take design for instance. So 60% of the projects that we deliver, we have consultants that do the work,” Parker said, and he added that the split is best understood as a dollars-and-capacity calculation: "60% of the dollars that we contract out with our consultants ... and then 40% of the consulting work on projects is done in house by MDOT employees." He said construction engineering is “about 55%” consultant-driven with the remainder performed by MDOT staff.
How decisions are made
Parker described the primary test as resource and complexity: regions and TSCs assess whether they have experienced staff available. If a regional or TSC office lacks capacity to deliver a complex reconstruction (he used the example of a major I‑94 reconstruction), that work is contracted out. When a region or a seasoned region design lead has sufficient experience and bandwidth, MDOT keeps work in house.
Parker also described “as‑needed” consultant contracts, under which MDOT calls on consultant staff for short-term needs when internal staff are insufficient.
Why it matters: contracting decisions affect project cost, local oversight and the workforce mix. Committee members pressed MDOT to produce a clearer breakdown tying those percentages to appropriation lines and to give region-level FTE and workload detail.
Ending: MDOT said it would provide additional reporting showing which appropriation lines fund consultant work and how that maps to regional workloads.
