How Lake County Modernized Its $950M Capital Program with SOVRA Plan-to-Program

After outgrowing a legacy custom system, Lake County Division of Transportation used SOVRA Plan-to-Program to streamline capital program development, centralize project information, simplify reporting and mapping, and improve transparency into transportation investments.

At a glance 

Customer: Lake County Division of Transportation, Illinois


Challenge: An aging custom system, increasingly complex capital programming, and time-consuming reporting and mapping processes 


Solution: SOVRA Plan-to-Program 

Results: 

• Faster capital program development
• Multiple plan versions for more flexible project development
• Less manual work for GIS staff
• Centralized project information and documentation
• Faster reporting for leadership
• Greater transparency into transportation investments
• Faster bid tabulation  

A Growing Capital Program Needed a More Modern Approach

Lake County’s transportation capital program has grown significantly since the early 1990s. What started as a five-year program of roughly $90 million supported by three tax funds has evolved into a six-year, $950 million program with five tax funds, 19 federal fund sources, and six state fund sources.

As the program grew, so did the complexity of managing projects, funding, reporting, and documentation.

For Michael Klemens, Transportation Planning Manager at Lake County Division of Transportation, the challenge wasn’t simply managing a larger capital program. The county was also relying on a custom system that had been developed in the mid-1990s and had evolved over the years from a Microsoft DOS application to a Microsoft Access database and eventually a SQL Server database.

Despite those upgrades, the system was still a highly customized, one-off solution originally developed and supported by a single person.

As Lake County’s needs continued to evolve, the limitations became harder to work around. The team faced character limits across fields, data reliability issues, and project changes that could get lost. At the same time, the county was managing more funding sources and larger projects.

“We needed a much more robust system,” Klemens said.

For Klemens, finding a system that could keep pace with the county’s growing capital program was becoming increasingly important.

Finding Transportation Project Management Software Built for Capital Programming

Lake County was introduced to Plan-to-Program through the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), which was already using the platform.

The team was looking for capabilities that its existing system didn’t offer, including reporting, versioning, public transparency, and project mapping. Seeing those capabilities in action helped the team recognize new possibilities for how it could manage and communicate its capital program.

Lake County also wanted a solution that understood the specific requirements of transportation capital programming, particularly when federal funding is involved.

“There’s so many solutions out there, so many… It’s real easy to get lost in products that it feels like your, the capital programming piece is maybe just one small piece of this big, endless, like project, like life cycle thing,” Klemens said.

For Lake County, that specialized understanding was important.

“Having, you know, a platform that understands that, a vendor that understands that, and that’s what we found with Plan-to-Program. They absolutely understood that,” Klemens said.

A Smooth Transition to Plan-to-Program

Lake County timed its implementation around its annual capital program development cycle.

The team developed its five-year capital program alongside the implementation of Plan-to-Program, allowing both efforts to finish at the same time. Once the program was approved, Lake County moved directly into Plan-to-Program.

The team had a test environment ready in March and went live in June, as planned. Rather than running the old and new systems side by side for months, Lake County immediately began using Plan-to-Program and never returned to its previous system.

Klemens described the transition as one of the smoother system implementations he had experienced.

“I’ve done a couple others, you know, system implementation journeys in my career. You know, it’s one of the smoother systems, you know, implementations that I’ve been a part of this one really went very, very well for us,” Klemens said.

Streamlining Capital Planning and Project Management

One of the biggest changes for Lake County has been the ability to manage multiple versions of its transportation capital program during the development process.

Under the old system, only one version could be active at a time. If one part of the process was delayed, it could hold up the rest of the work.

With Plan-to-Program, Lake County can create multiple versions within a plan cycle. If one part of the process is delayed, the team can keep working on other areas without losing the ability to report from previous versions.

“It saves me weeks in project development,” Klemens said.

That efficiency has become increasingly important as the capital program continues to grow.

Lake County has been able to complete its annual program development on schedule, and sometimes earlier, even as its projects, costs, and funding sources have become more complex.

Giving GIS Staff Time Back with Project Mapping

Project mapping has also changed how Lake County’s GIS team spends its time.

Previously, GIS staff had to manually draw hundreds of projects at the end of the plan development cycle. With Plan-to-Program, they can export project information and focus their time on analyzing projects rather than manually creating maps.

“They spend their time analyzing the projects and telling the story in really compelling ways,” Klemens said.

Klemens said the combination of improved versioning and mapping has “saved us tons of time.”

Creating a Centralized Hub for Transportation Project Data

Plan-to-Program has also become a central source of information for Lake County’s transportation projects.

The team uses project attachments to keep important documents accessible, including agreements and change orders. While documents may still have an official home elsewhere, staff know they can go to Plan-to-Program to find the information associated with a specific project.

“It really is the hub of our project,” Klemens said.

The centralized information has also helped Lake County respond quickly to requests from county leadership.

Lake County has the largest capital program in the county, yet when the county administrator asks departments to report on their capital projects, the team can quickly generate the information needed.

“Even though we have, you know, a billion dollars’ worth of projects there, far and away the largest, we can always get them the information the fastest. You know, we can get the most reliable information. And I think that is incredibly valuable for us,” Klemens said.

Improving Public Transparency into Transportation Investments

For Lake County, managing the capital program isn’t just about internal efficiency. The team also needs to communicate how public dollars are being invested.

Klemens explained that if the county only needed to balance its program internally, a spreadsheet could accomplish that. But Lake County also needs to explain its investments to the public, county board, and other stakeholders.

“We have to be able to tell the story because we’re using public dollars,” Klemens said.

Plan-to-Program’s reporting tools, visualizations, project mapping capabilities, and public-facing site give Lake County a way to communicate that information.

The county board has responded particularly well to the public-facing site.

“They absolutely love that. That has been the most consistent feedback we’ve gotten from elected officials,” Klemens said.

Streamlining Transportation Bid Tabulation

Lake County also turned to Plan-to-Program when it needed to replace another aging custom system used for bid tabulation.

The previous solution took electronic contractor bids and compiled them into a single sheet. When the county’s IT department determined that the system would eventually stop being supported, Lake County explored whether Plan-to-Program could provide a replacement.

Plan-to-Program developed a bid tabulation module that allows Lake County’s design engineers to enter project estimates and pay items, generate an Excel file for contractors to complete, and then tabulate the returned bids.

The result is a much faster process.

“And within, you know, just a couple minutes after, after we open bids, we can have, you know, all those bids tabulated up,” Klemens said.

Looking Ahead with Plan-to-Program

Lake County’s goal is to continue making Plan-to-Program the hub for its projects.

The county is currently transitioning to a new ERP system, creating an opportunity to connect financial information with the data already managed in Plan-to-Program.

In the future, Lake County wants to be able to see what it has programmed, what has been appropriated, and what has been spent, alongside project attachments and other information, all in one place.

“And it really will be that hub for the projects, you know, and make us that much more efficient,” Klemens said.

The Takeaway: Modernizing Transportation Capital Program Management

Lake County’s capital program isn’t getting simpler. Its projects are getting larger, funding sources are increasing, and the amount of information the team needs to manage continues to grow.

Plan-to-Program has given the county a platform that can keep pace with that complexity while helping the team work more efficiently, centralize project information, improve reporting, and provide greater transparency into how public dollars are invested.

For agencies that have relied on the same processes for years, Klemens’ advice is to consider what could be gained by trying a different approach.

“Just because you’ve done it one way, you know, doesn’t mean that there, you know, is not another way to do things that could save you a lot of time and a lot of effort,” Klemens said

He added that making a change can require some upfront effort, but the long-term payoff can be significant.

“A little bit of work up front to make a change could really lead to long-term savings in terms of staff time and effort,” Klemens said.