Permit plan packets, read from the right-of-way permit into a draft for your traffic control designer.

A customer sends a scope: a utility cut on a collector, a crane set on a downtown block, a paving shift on an arterial. Someone at your office reads the agency's permit conditions beside it, sorts out which hours apply, how many lanes can close and for how long, who must be told and how far ahead, which typical drawings the agency accepts, and what has to be attached. Only then does your designer open the drawing.

In the test, AI reads copies of those same papers and drafts the packet: hours allowed, lane closure limits as stated, notification periods with who gets notified, the typical plan references the agency names, and a list of every requirement with no matching document. It draws nothing and files nothing. Your reviewer checks each draft against the packet your team sent.

Allowed hours come in layers. San Diego's Information Bulletin 177, dated May 2026, sets standard workdays at Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and night work at Sunday through Thursday, 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Wilmington, North Carolina's September 2024 worksheet says contractors generally work 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., then takes away 6 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. on major roadways, weekends on those roadways, and city holidays along with the day before and the day after. Its school zone line says closures are generally restricted from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., which a careful reader could take either way. The draft quotes a line like that and hands it to your designer instead of picking a meaning.

Lane limits depend on what closes. Brazoria County's toll road authority, in a policy adopted in July 2022, allows a shoulder or a single managed lane to close from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. at night, with a weekend window from 10 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday. Two lanes, a ramp, a connector or a total closure get no weekday daytime window at all. Seattle's Client Assistance Memo 2111 holds a lane left open in one direction to a minimum of 11 feet, or 10 feet with spotters or flaggers, and wants separate work-hours and non-work-hours plans, with a new plan at each construction phase change even when the devices stay put. Houston takes its standard traffic drawings for a single lane, needs a plan before permit approval for multiple lanes or a full closure, and asks for the approved plan's EAM number on the application.

Notice runs on several clocks at once. San Diego wants five working days' warning before work begins, the same five days for police and fire dispatch, no-parking signs up 72 hours ahead, and any extension request five working days before the permit expires. Its permit runs up to three weeks, with extensions for up to six. Wilmington asks for 72 hours with businesses on the block, three days for handouts and three to five days for message boards. Brazoria County takes a standard closure request 48 hours out and a total or ramp closure three weeks out, and for a major pattern change wants changeable message signs posted two weeks ahead. Houston requires seven days of public notice for a full street closure. The draft turns each one into a line with its own party and its own lead time.

Typical plans are the agency's own shorthand. Wilmington's worksheet pairs closure types with MUTCD typical applications, TA-18 for a lane on a minor street and TA-28 or TA-29 for a sidewalk, and with North Carolina's drawings 1101.02 and 1103.03. It then sorts submissions into four levels, from standard details up to a site-specific plan with a detour or message boards and a written summary. On a Tukwila, Washington fast-track permit, the applicant just cites a state plan, TC-420 for flagging or TC-16 for a sidewalk. Pennsylvania's Publication 213 calls its figures PATA, and its March 2021 revision stretched a short-term operation from under 24 hours to under 72 and added PATA 116B, a red-arrow detour for roads carrying under 1,500 vehicles a day. Minnesota lists three district lane closure manuals beside its 2018 field manual. The draft copies each reference exactly and says nothing about whether it fits the street.

The signature line changes too. Tukwila's May 2026 guide sends higher-tier work to a custom 11-by-17 plan stamped by a certified Traffic Control Supervisor or a Professional Engineer, and any field deviation belongs to whoever stamped it. A speed limit of 40 miles an hour or more, night work, work within 300 feet of a signal or a pedestrian path in the roadway puts a job in the top tier, where the supervisor stays on site and files a daily log. Wilmington accepts a plan based on its standards or from a certified professional or engineer. Texas, in its 2024 Item 502, wants contractor-proposed changes to a plan signed and sealed by a licensed professional engineer. Brazoria's request form asks for the applicable standard or a signed and sealed drawing. So the draft names the credential each agency asks for and leaves the signature blank. Your reviewer will check that every stated restriction reached the page, that no limit was invented, that each attachment answers a requirement, and that the missing-document list holds up. None of this is legal or engineering advice, and each agency's current permit controls.

If your reviewer says yes, new permits get the same draft packet for about 30 days.

Someone on your team approves each packet before it goes anywhere, and a certified designer still draws and signs every plan. Your office files with the agency the way it does today.

The side-by-side comparison carries on with live permits. Any job after this one is a fresh decision with a price of its own, and monthly support once it runs.