TxDOT Glossary - Texas Department of Transportation

1 TxDOT GlossaryOctober 2013 2013 by Texas Department of Transportation (512) 302-2453 all rights reservedTxDOT Glossary1-1 TxDOT 10/2013 AA+B BiddingA+B bidding, also known as cost-plus-time bidding, involves time (with an associated cost) in the low bid determination. Bids consist of two components: 1.)The A component is the traditional bid for the contract items and is the dollar amount for all work to be performed under the )The B component is a bid of the total number of calendar days required to complete the project, as estimated by the bidder. The bid for award consideration is based on a combination of the bid for the contract items and the associated cost of the time, according to the following for-mula: (A) + (B x Road User Cost per Day)The formula is only used to determine the lowest bid for award and is not used to determine pay-ment to the contractor. A disincentive provision, that assesses road user costs, is incorporated into the contract to discourage the contractor from overrunning the time bid for the project.

2 In addi-tion, an incentive provision should be included to reward the contractor if the work is completed earlier than the time bid. A+B bidding should be considered for critical projects having high road user delay Abandonment is the relinquishment of the public interest in right-of-way or activity thereon with no intention to reclaim or use again for highway District ABLThe Abilene District is a TxDOT district office including the following counties: Bordon, Callahan, Fisher, Haskell, Howard, Jones, Kent, Mitchell, Nolan, Scurry, Shackelford, Stonewall, and Taylor. Area offices are located in Abilene, Big Spring, Hamlin and Snyder. The Abilene District also has a Vehicle Title and Registration Regional Office in TxDOTabnormal end ABENDAn Abnormal End is when a computer job cannot be allowed to continue running. Either the oper-ating system or an operator may give an ABEND condition to a job on the computer. Messages and codes are used to inform the user about what the condition is and in some cases a remedy is Absorption is the amount of either water or asphalt cement absorbed by aggregate.

3 It is expressed as a percent of the oven-dry weight of the same aggregate moisture content TxDOT Glossary1-2 TxDOT 10/2013 Absorption moisture content is the moisture content at saturated surface dry of Testing Proceduresabuse Abuse is defined as the intentional deviations from approved procedures. Quality Assurance Program Manualabutment An abutment is the part of a bridge consisting of the cap, backwall, and wingwalls at the ends of a bridge which supports the superstructure, contains the earth in the approach fills, and directly receives the impact loads produced by traffic passing from the roadway onto the abut-ment is a wall supporting the end of a bridge or span, and sustaining the pressure of the abutting Detailing Manualacceleration laneAcceleration lane is a speed-change lane, including tapered areas, for the purpose of enabling a vehicle entering a roadway to increase its speed to a rate at which it can more safely merge with through traffic. Access Management Manual acceptable appraisal reportAn acceptable appraisal report is an appraisal report free from errors and omissions developed using methodology appropriate to the property being appraised.

4 Right of Way Collectionacceptable entry conditions Acceptable entry conditions are those that must exist in a permit space to allow entry and to ensure that employees involved with a permit-required confined space entry can safely enter into and work within the Safety ManualAcceptance Program An Acceptance Program is defined as all factors that comprise the State highway agency s (SHA) determination of the quality of the product as specified in the contract requirements. These factors include verification sampling, testing, and inspection and may include results of quality control sampling and testing. Quality Assurance Program Manualaccess TxDOT Glossary1-3 TxDOT 10/2013 is the means by which a computer gains entry to a network in order to access another computer's resources. Access can also mean to approach, interact with or otherwise make use of information Security Manual is the process of seeking data, reading data from, or writing data to a storage Data Managementaccess connectionAccess connection is a facility for entry and/or exit such as a driveway, street, road, or highway that connects to the highways under the jurisdiction of the Department or Management Manual access control Access control is the enforcement of specified authorization rules based on positive identification of user and the systems or data they are permitted to criteriaAccess criteria are sets of rules used as procedural controls to protect information resources.

5 The objectives of access criteria are to protect data, software, and other information resources from unauthorized access and to facilitate authorized access for employees whose job functions require use of the information Security Manual access path diagram An access path diagram is a graphic representation of the data requirements for computer programs, consolidated into a common set of data paths used for the physical database design. As a result, when physical database structures are developed, the Database Analyst (DBA) can utilize the phys-ical implementation options available to obtain the best possible system Data Managementaccess rights Access rights are the rights of ingress to and egress from a property that abuts upon a street or high-way. Access is a private right as distinguishable from rights of the public. It is a well-established law in the United States that the right of access cannot be denied or unreasonably restricted unless other reasonable access is available or roadway ARAn access roadway is a connection to a highway or ID TxDOT Glossary1-4 TxDOT 10/2013 ACIDAn ACID is a mainframe accessor ID consisting of a three-to-seven character identifier used to define a process, organizational element, or individual to CA-Top Secret.

6 See Department accessor Security Manual accident An accident is any occurrence involving a vehicle or motorized equipment which results in death, injury or property damage. Unless such vehicle is properly parked; it is intended that those occur-rences which occur because of errors in judgment, technique of drivers, or maintenance, be considered accidents. See Safety ManualTraffic Safety Program Manual accountA record of debit and credit entries chronologically posted to a ledger page to cover transactions involving a particular item or a particular person, concern, or Division accounting codes Accounting codes are a list of codes assigned to highway safety program areas by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) or the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).Traffic Safety Program Manual accounts payable APAccounts payable means a liability account to record amounts owed by the fund between incur-rence of the liability and preparation of the voucher for receivable ARAccounts receivable means an asset account to record amounts due to the receivable namePerson or entity owing on an Division account totalAccumulation of charges and hours for one month, annually, or life-to-date for a specific Division TxDOT Glossary1-5 TxDOT 10/2013 accrual basis Accrual basis is an accounting system in which costs and revenues are recognized at the time they are incurred without regard to when cash is paid or received.

7 The Department uses a modified accrual basis that recognizes revenues when earned and expenditures when depreciationAccrued depreciation is the credit due for expired service life of capital Utility Manualaccuracy Accuracy is the error or deviation of the device s indicated value from the true value. Error is often expressed as a percentage of the true of Testing ProceduresAchieving Service Excellence ASEA chieving Service Excellence is a course developed by the Travel Division to educate travel coun-selors working in the Department s Travel Information Centers. ASE is the first phase of the professional travel counselor certification Acquisition is the process of obtaining right of way by negotiation and/or eminent domain proceed-ings. Negotiation would involve getting the owner to convey, dedicate, or possibly option the property to the public agency. Just compensation must be paid in all acquisitions or An acronym is a word made up of first letters or parts of words of a compound term.

8 At TxDOT , an acronym may also refer to a set of initials pronounced as individual - radio aid to detection and rangingFTE - full time equivalentEnterprise Data Managementaction plan An action plan is a schedule of planned activities on a form that indicates in which month during the project period each activity will An activity is the line item in the Appropriation Bill that identifies a portion of one of the programs of the Glossary1-6 TxDOT 10/2013 activity line item ALIAn activity line item is a numerical code supplied by the Federal Transit Administration to identify an eligible expense budgeted within a Transportation Collection actual cost advance funding agreementAn advance funding agreement is used when some portion of a project s funding is derived from an outside source (third party) other than FHWA. The agreement is entered into between TxDOT and the third party. For an actual cost advance funding agreement, an initial payment is made based upon estimated cost of the work.

9 After a final accounting of project costs, a final adjustment is made based on the actual cost of the project. The adjustment may increase or decrease the cost to the third party when compared to the original estimate. This is referred to as the standard fund-ing arrangement in 43 TAC cost basisActual cost basis is the actual reasonable moving expenses that may be paid to a relocatee whose move is performed by a qualified mover. Also, actual cost of replacement of Way Collection actual percent density Actual percent density is the quotient obtained from the nuclear gauge density of a roadway core divided by the density of the same roadway mix compacted in the gyratory press times of Testing Proceduresactual quantity item An actual quantity item is an item where final quantities of work are determined by actual measure-ments taken in the Data Base ADABASAn adaptable Data Base is a commercially-available software package used for database computer functions. ADABAS stores information in accordance with prearranged identification keys for retrieval.

10 ADABAS is the primary mainframe management system installed at the Texas Depart-ment of Adapters are devices that connect systems through circuits or channels which enable them to Services Business Improvement Project Technology 1added capacity projectTxDOT Glossary1-7 TxDOT 10/2013 An added capacity project is work proposed to add one or more through travel lanes to an existing An addendum is a document used to modify an original proposal and/or plans. Becomes a legal part of the bid Manual additional cost Additional cost is the extra cost of sampling in a remote location compared to sampling in a local An additive is a substance or agent added in small amounts to the basic ingredients of a mixture. ad hoc reportingAd hoc reporting is local programming of customized reports by accessing the FIMS database and the FIMS database file definitions (Data Dictionary) when a standard FIMS report does not contain the needed Divisionadjustment costAdjustment cost is the total cost of the utility adjustment, after deduction of applicable credits and eligibility Utility Manualadjustment workAdjustment work is the curative measures on remainder property.