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St. Tammany Parish engineering department rolls out phased project manual, Munis‑linked tracking
Summary
The Department of Engineering introduced a 30‑page project manual and a six‑phase approach, combined with a Munis‑integrated tracking database and quarterly public summary reports, to manage heavy project workloads and improve transparency.
Daniel Hill, director of the St. Tammany Parish Department of Engineering, told the council the department has adopted a standard, phase‑based project approach and a project manager manual to improve efficiency and reporting.
Hill said the department has three project managers who were managing roughly 60 projects apiece — far above industry norms — and that the new manual and phased workflow will make project status, budget utilization and funding gaps easier to track. "Project managers are the boss of a project," Hill said, describing a structure that gives project managers authority over day‑to‑day decisions while centralizing reporting.
What the changes include: a six‑phase project model (1: feasibility; 2: preliminary design; 3: rights‑of‑way and permits; 4: final design; 5: bidding; 6: construction), a database integrated with Munis financials so cost data pulls directly from the parish accounting system, red/yellow/green summary reports for council, and a capital projects coordinator role to aggregate information for elected officials.
Hill said the parish worked with the Department of Finance to avoid high commercial software costs and instead built an internal tracking tool tied to Munis. The system will show planned versus actual starts, percent of budget used, and projected funding shortfalls. Hill said staff aim to have the database fully populated and to post the first quarterly public summary report at the start of the next year.
Council members asked about contractor coordination and how project managers monitor construction schedules; Hill said project managers meet with contractors and the department limits concurrent construction projects per manager (roughly three to five) to preserve oversight capacity. Hill also said further process definition remains for right‑of‑way acquisition and utility relocations — two priorities for additional procedural streamlining.
The changes are intended to reduce rework, eliminate manual "sneaker‑net" handoffs and make status reporting consistent between staff and the council. Hill said more detailed SOPs and ongoing refinements will follow as the tool is populated and the department matures its practices.
