Nondiscrimination Programs Training Series, ODOT

Various Dates and Times: online Zoom meetings

Join ODOT’s Office of Equity & Civil Rights for a training series focused on nondiscrimination programs including Title VI (Civil Rights), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and environmental justice. We invite you to join us for one or more of the sessions listed below.

• Title VI (Civil Rights): Both sessions will repeat the same material, choose one:
• July 11 or October 11 (both 10:00 am - 11:00 am)
• Americans with Disabilities Act:
• November 1, 10:00 am - 11:00 am
• Environmental Justice
• August 1, 10:00 am - 11:00 am

Register now! Questions? Contact ODOT Title VI Program.

Image courtesy of ODOTFlickr.

Picture This! Identifying Non-Compliant Elements and Spaces, US Access Board

July 11; 11:30 pm - 1:00 pm PT: online virtual training

How often have you encountered an inaccessible element or space in your daily life? Recognizing that the biggest room in the house is the room for improvement, this presentation will be filled with visual imagery and description of scenarios that demonstrate real-life non-compliant elements and spaces, along with the applicable Standard or Guideline to further knowledge of best design practices. Examples provided in the presentation will cover relevant sections from the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA) Accessibility Standards, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Accessibility Standards, and the Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines (PROWAG).

For more information or to register, visit Great Lakes ADA Center’s Picture This! Identifying Non-Compliant Elements & Spaces webinar webpage. All webinars include video remote interpreting (VRI) and real-time captioning. Questions can be submitted in advance of the session or can be posed during the live webinar. Webinar attendees can earn continuing education credits. The webinar series is hosted by the ADA National Network in cooperation with the Board. Archived copies of previous Board webinars are available on the site.

Image courtesy of ODOTFlickr.

Final Rule Prompt Payment and Return Retainage Requirements, FHWA

July 24; 10:00 am - 12:00 pm: online virtual training

This session is for recipients that award Federally funded contracts. During this session, DBE Subject Matter Experts from FHWA will provide presentations on how to ensure a contract is compliant before the contract is awarded. The presentations will cover both what has and has not changed under the Final Rule. After the presentations, the SMEs will have an unmoderated conversation about pre-award dos and don’ts.

Register for this Zoom webinar today!

Image courtesy of Unsplash.com.

Fundamentals of Community Impact Assessment (CIA), FHWA

Self-paced, online virtual training

FHWA is offering a new course that explores the iterative process of evaluating the effects of a transportation action on a community and its quality of life. The CIA process offers a flexible approach that is scalable throughout the transportation decision-making process, from visioning to planning through project development and implementation.

The CIA process focuses on meaningful public involvement, dynamic community characterization, quantitative and qualitative data collection, and analysis to shape transportation decisions and monitor benefits and burdens. The information collected from the CIA process can inform decisions concerning transportation planning, project alternatives, design, and implementation. The CIA approach places a particular emphasis on understanding the needs of and addressing impacts on underserved communities.

This course will inform transportation practitioners from State DOTs, metropolitan planning organizations, regional and local agencies, and partners about resources and techniques to prepare for and conduct CIAs, act on their findings, and monitor results.

Search for course 142096 on the NHI Blackboard course catalog to register. First time Blackboard users should visit the instructions page. For further information visit the FHWA Community Impact Assessment page or contact Faith Hall, Office of Human Environment, (202) 366-9055.

Contract Administration Training Certificate, DAS Procurement

Self-paced, online virtual training

Did you know project staff working on consultant selection procurements for federal-aid projects are required to complete the DAS Contract Administration Training Certificate? If you haven’t taken this course, or haven’t taken it recently, we recommend taking this course in Workday Learning. The DAS Contract Administration Training Certificate consists of 11 self-paced modules and provides basic procurement training necessary for administering public contracts. Questions? Contact DAS Training.

Annual A&E Billing Rate Reminder

This is your annual friendly reminder to our contract administrators to share with all prime consultants (and primes to remind their sub-consultants) actively contracting with ODOT under architecture, engineering (A&E), and design related service contracts that they must submit an updated overhead/indirect cost rate schedule to ODOT annually, no later than 180 days from the firm’s fiscal year end.

A recent email had additional information about billing rate updates.

Please reach out to ODOTBillingRateUpdates@odot.oregon.gov with any questions and with your submittals.

Image courtesy of Unsplash.com.

FHWA Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Discretionary Grants

FHWA Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Discretionary Grants Guidance FHWA and ODOT recently partnered to provide information to local agencies about steps to take before applying for discretionary grants under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).

FHWA and ODOT have since developed an improved tool to assist local agencies in evaluating their level of experience with federal-aid project delivery and Determining How a Federally Funded Project Will be Delivered. This new tool developed by FHWA and ODOT is designed to help local agencies make informed decisions about delivering federally funded projects  (form 734-5440 in the Certification Forms Library). Note: The tool is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that you will download and complete.

If your agency is considering applying for or has been awarded a discretionary grant, please inform your regional ODOT contact.

Questions? Contact Ashley Bryers, FHWA.

Update on PROWAG

The U.S. Access Board issued its final rule for accessibility guidelines for pedestrian facilities in public rights of way (PROWAG) August 8, 2023. The PROWAG guidelines will become enforceable once they are adopted, with or without modifications, as mandatory standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act by the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), or the four Federal agencies that set standards for the Federal Government under the Architectural Barriers Act. The USDOT and USDOJ are still reviewing these guidelines. The ODOT Discipline Design Manuals will be modified as needed when PROWAG is adopted by the USDOT and USDOJ in its final form.

Until USDOT and USDOJ adopt accessibility standards for pedestrian facilities in the public right of way, public entities have some degree of flexibility in determining how they will comply with the general obligation under Title II of the ADA to ensure their facilities are “accessible to and usable by” individuals with disabilities. Review this statement and find additional ADA resources on the ODOT Engineering for Accessibility page.

Image courtesy of ODOTFlickr.

AASHTOWARE and OregonBuys

When ODOT Office of Equity & Civil Rights implements the new AASHTOWare system for collecting civil rights data, all prime contractors and subcontractors will be required to have an account in OregonBuys. Registering in OregonBuys assigns a unique identifier to each contractor to ensure data can be tracked across all ODOT and local agency projects. We encourage you to talk to your contractors about signing up for OregonBuys in advance of AASHTOWare implementation. Questions? Contact ODOT Certification.

Image courtesy of ODOTFlickr.

ODOT Teams Guest Access

Certified LPA staff, have you signed up for guest access to ODOT MS Teams? Join us!

Signed up but haven’t logged in recently? Please note: Teams access expires after extended periods of inactivity, so we recommend logging in on a regular basis.