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| 7th Edition 2022 |
Winter/Spring |
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| Welcome! |
| Welcome
to the first 2022 FHWA Local Aid Support Newsletter. Our team is busy working with transportation partners on a variety of projects such as more online training, Build a Better Mousetrap 2022, celebrating 40 years of LTAP, and continuing the peer to peer Innovation Exchange webinars. |
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| We are most excited about the return of the Tribal Technical Assistance Program (TTAP). The U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) FHWA recently announced the availability of $17.8 million to re-establish the TTAP centers to assist the tribes with administering their transportation programs. Under the new TTAP model, there will be seven TTAP centers serving the 12 Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) regions and associated tribes. You can find the Notice of Funding Opportunity at www.grants.gov. |
| We are also excited to announce a new agreement between the FHWA National Highway Institute (NHI) and the National LTAP and TTAP Association (NLTAPA) to expand the catalog of training classes offered to transportation professionals. This agreement establishes a process for refining and delivering existing NHI training course materials as well as a review and acceptance process prior to use of the training materials. FHWA is dedicated to continuing our goals to develop a highly competent workforce that moves transportation into a safer and more technically advanced future for all. For more information on NHI, visit https://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/. For more information on NLTAPA, visit https://nltapa.org/. |
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| Finally, a big thank you to the LTAP centers for completing their Program Assessment Reports (PAR) submissions. The information provided will be essential to strategically shaping our goals and objectives in this current fiscal year and beyond. We are here to support all programs of the LTAP/TTAP community. For more information on the FHWA Local Aid Support team, visit https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/clas/. |
Sincerely,
Joe Conway
Director, FHWA Local Aid Support |
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| Local Innovation
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Please contact your State’s LTAP Center for information on submitting your nominations for Build a Better Mousetrap 2022. The deadline for national submissions is June 10. Please visit https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/clas/babm/ for details. |
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| Excavator Extension Prevents Bridge Erosion
Crawford County, Iowa |
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| Photo credit: 2021 Crawford County, Iowa |
| Riprap is material placed beneath bridges near abutments or piers to protect against scour and erosion. It can greatly improve structural safety, but can be very difficult to install due to clearance and slope issues. Benching a slope can be both time consuming and disturbing to stable vegetated areas.
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| After 10 years of searching for a solution, Crawford County’s bridge crew developed a highly effective device for placing riprap under a bridge using equipment situated on the top or deck portion of the structure. For less than $500, they were able to repurpose a used section of heavy boilerplate pipe to fabricate an extension that fit the bucket of an excavator. “Five hundred dollars was basically spent on welding rods, a latch system, and labor. All other steel we had from old bridges or previous culvert replacements,” said Tim Beery of the Crawford County Bridge Crew. The extension has become a particularly useful tool after flood events. |
| “Some projects that took a week or so to complete can now be done in days and sometimes even hours,” said Tim. His advice to other agencies, “If there is an idea to possibly reduce time and labor, try it! You will never know if it works if you don’t try, and if it doesn’t work exactly how you would like it to, you can rework your ideas.” |
| Contact: Crawford County Engineer, Paul J. Assman, P.E. & P.L.S. Passman@crawfordcounty.org
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| Crawford County, IA is a 2021 Build a Better Mousetrap State Winner and National Honorable Mention.
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| Tack Coat Sprayers Makes Patching Potholes Simple
Bridgeport, West Virginia |
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| Photo credit: WVDOH |
| Tack is an asphalt mixture that promotes bonding between old, weathered roadway surfaces and new pavement; it also can be useful in filling potholes. However, mixing, transporting, and applying tack manually had always been a slow process for the West Virginia Division of Highways (WVDOH). Crews had to take the tack to job sites in 5-gallon buckets, mix it onsite, and apply it to potholes using paint brushes or brooms. “We needed a better way to apply tack and started brainstorming what would be the most efficient way to do so,” said Michael Cronin, district engineer/manager with the WVDOH.
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| Using less than $200 worth of materials from their shop—including a metal drum, gas valves, and water hoses—the Division created a tack coat sprayer that allows workers to mix, haul, and spray up to 55 gallons of tack. Michael said, “Some of these materials had been left over or previously bought.” The new tack coat spraying device has made it more efficient to fill potholes, and additional units have been fabricated for other WVDOH maintenance crews. According to Michael, “This saved a considerable amount of time as it was previously done by hand. By using this tool, the patches last three to four times longer than they previously did.”
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| As far as advice for other organizations who have not yet built a better mousetrap, Michael said, “If you don’t try, how will you know if your idea would have ever worked? Don’t be afraid to try new things because you never know what the outcome could be.”
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| Contact: WV Division of Highways, Mike Cronin michael.g.cronin@wv.gov
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| West Virginia Division of Highways (District Four) is a 2021 Build a Better Mousetrap State Winner and National Honorable Mention.
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| Technical Brief Summary |
| Cold Weather Concreting
Writer: Andrea Kirk, Local Aid Support Program Manager
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The weather and the calendar don’t always favor road construction timelines. Completing a concrete installation before the advent of cold weather can be especially challenging. In a recent Coordinated Technology Implementation Project, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) developed Cold Weather Concreting technology to help move projects despite freezing temperatures.
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| CRREL developed the Cold Weather Admixture Systems (CWAS) process. CWAS is an approach to design, mix, transport, place, and cure concrete at or below freezing temperatures without the need for external heat. The antifreeze concreting approach protects freshly placed concrete from freezing down to an internal concrete temperature of 23°F, lower than the current air temperature threshold of 40°F. Below 40°F, hydration in normal concrete is considered insignificant (American Concrete Institute 2010), whereas in antifreeze concrete, hydration continues to an internal concrete temperature of 23°F, even when the air temperature is much colder.
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| Antifreeze concreting extends the concrete construction season because it allows concrete placement later in the fall and earlier in the spring, increasing scheduling alternatives, and enabling timely or even early project completion. It is possible to place antifreeze concrete during the winter, even when air temperatures are near or below freezing.
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| The chemical admixtures used to place concrete at lower temperatures are cost competitive with conventional cold-weather concreting. If you are interested in learning more about this innovative construction process, you can access the full technical brief on the Local Aid Support website at the following link: https://bit.ly/3rJNjxy.
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| To learn about other innovative techniques, visit the FHWA Local Aid Support webpage: https://bit.ly/3oK8kpP.
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| News & Happenings |
| Federal Highway Administration Marks 40 Years of Support for Local and Tribal Transportation Agencies
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| Graphic: FHWA |
| Since 1982, FHWA’s LTAPs and TTAPs have offered support for rural road agencies across the Nation. LTAPs and TTAPs provide training, technical assistance, and technology transfer services to help maintain and improve roadways in every state and Puerto Rico. |
| Throughout their 40-year history, LTAPs and TTAPs have served more than 38,000 local agencies and American Indian Tribal Governments. Their support includes help with growing the transportation workforce, encouraging the use of innovations that improve safety, and providing subject-matter expertise on transportation issues that help build communities. |
| David Orr, Director of the New York State LTAP, says the programs sometimes serve as the only resource for rural transportation agencies. “Over 30,000 of them are trying to do the same thing—to make roads better,” says Orr. “We are advocates for good roads and streets. If someone has a problem or question, we are there to help them solve it.” |
| According to King Gee, AASHTO Director of Safety and Mobility, partnership is a cornerstone of the programs’ successes. “There is a long list of services that have been provided by LTAPs and TTAPs,” says Gee. “Most notably is the dissemination of needed information and training to local professionals. It’s a proven partnership between the Federal Highway Administration, State departments of transportation, and the centers throughout the country.” |
| Through that integrated network, the programs remain dedicated to serving the individual needs of local communities in each State. North Carolina’s LTAP Director, James Martin, says it is this flexibility that has allowed the programs to thrive. |
| “Every State has an amount of freedom to become what’s necessary to meet the need in that State,” says Martin. “I’ve appreciated that over the years, because trying to be too prescriptive—even with good intentions—doesn’t always lead to the best outcomes.” |
| According to Al Alonzi, Texas Division Administrator and former national program manager, that personalized service is crucial to communities and tribes that often operate with minimal funding. |
| “It’s the people who have always made this program special and effective,” said Alonzi. “To be able to do what they do on a shoestring budget has always been just astounding to me. That’s why it has lasted for 40 years and likely will for 40 more.” |
| Richard Domonkos, a Program Manager with the Indiana LTAP, says the programs’ shared focus on innovation will take LTAPs and TTAPs into the future. “The advancements we see occurring right now are with the online individual achievement training programs,” says Domonkos. “With that ability to connect to the individual, these online programs are really going to shape the programs moving forward.” |
| Dr. Ben Colucci serves as Director of the Puerto Rico LTAP and has been with the center for 37 years. He says connection has always been key to advancing LTAPs and TTAPs. |
| “If you have that passion, and you transfer that passion—it’s going to work,” says Colucci. |
| Learn More |
| To get information about how LTAP and TTAP centers continue to strengthen the nation’s rural roadways, visit https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/clas/ or email CLAS@dot.gov. |
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- For all transportation professionals
- No registration required
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No cost and available 24 hours a day
- Take at your own pace
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Courses provide anytime, anywhere access to dozens of training topics designed to meet your individual transportation needs.The training modules may qualify for Professional Development Hours (PDHs), however Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are not available. Start your training today!
Visit https://bit.ly/LASOnlineTraining. |
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| Visit our website for more information. |
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| LTAP Spotlight |
| Design Build and Public Involvement Raise New Bridge for New Hampshire DOT |
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| Photo credit: New Hampshire Technology Transfer Center |
| The Bunker Creek Bridge in Durham, NH, is an essential tidal river crossing on U.S. Route 4. The bridge was built in 1933 as a 15-foot concrete slab, rehabilitated in 1970, and underwent a $7.1 million replacement that finished in October of 2020. The Design-Build (DB) team of WSP USA Inc. and SPS New England Inc. were awarded the winning bid by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT). The new bridge is both impressive in design and by the use of accelerated bridge construction.
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| There were several innovative aspects to the design of the bridge and to the project delivery method. NHDOT put out a request for proposal for a DB team to produce a design for the bridge. Contrary to design-bid-build, DB project delivery has both the designer and builder working together from the beginning of the project. This allows the contractor to provide input during the design phase, and for both parties to introduce innovative components to the design, construction, and construction scheduling. Bunker Creek Bridge benefitted from this method as WSP coordinated with SPS New England to bring a feasible design to combat marine soils, tide cycles, heavy traffic, and a tight construction window.
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| Bunker Creek is a tidal river, which meant the existence of clayey marine soils. These soils are prone to significant settlement when loaded, so a material called foam glass aggregate (FGA) was used as a road sub-base. FGA is an extremely lightweight material made of 100 percent post-consumer recycled glass. The aggregate takes on a pumice-like texture, has high friction between particles and great permeability, and is 85 percent lighter than most quarried aggregates. This material was ideal as backfill as it caused much less soil settlement. When the roadway was widened 4 feet to accommodate 12’ travel lanes and 5’ shoulders, the extra weight was almost negligible due to the ultra-lightweight fill. The bridge foundation was constructed using micropiles, which provided the appropriate solution to support the bridge structure through the weak soils. Micropiles were also used in lieu of other foundation alternatives, such as drilled shafts, due to the mobility of the drill rig required to install these smaller diameter piles.
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| For the bridge deck, the use of prefabricated bridge units (PBUs) offered the optimal solution to replace the superstructure with a durable system that minimized onsite work. Three PBUs were made for Bunker Creek, and their design allowed them to fit together like Lego pieces when constructed. At the joints, ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) was applied to seal the three PBUs together. UHPC carries a strength five times larger than normal strength concrete, and steel fibers in the mix contributed to increased tensile strength in the mix as well. The concrete sets very quickly and bonds well to the exposed aggregate interface of the PBUs. The new bridge, once placed and sealed, becomes integral, meaning that the bridge moves as one unit during loading. The choice of an integral bridge worked well with the site, and the projected design life is 75 to 100 years because the absence of expansion joints ensures that no water infiltrates under the superstructure.
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| Part of what made the Bunker Creek Bridge such a unique and admirable engineering feat was the community involvement incorporated by the NHDOT. Route 4 carries thousands of vehicles per day, conveying traffic from Concord, NH, to the NH Coast. There were many stakeholders in the project including law enforcement, emergency responders, commuters, and heavy seasonal traffic from the University of New Hampshire. NHDOT and the DB team had great success in conveying information by means of press releases, email chains, and social media. Any information regarding lane closures or the full road closure was relayed swiftly to the parties involved. When the full road closure began, there were few travelers who were surprised at the closing because they had been well informed of the detour route that would be available.
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| NHDOT had a maximum road closure requirement of 14 days. The bridge deck was completely replaced and ready to operate in only 4 days, 10 days ahead of schedule. Many portions of the construction were carried out by closing one lane, leaving the other open for one-way alternating traffic. While the road was partially closed, SPS worked on drilling micropiles for the bridge foundation and roadway, excavating and grading the new roadway, and completing other efforts that left the replacement of the bridge deck the primary focus of construction during the road closure. Additionally, the use of PBUs and UHPC significantly sped up construction of the bridge deck. Once the road closure went into effect, the three PBUs were brought to the site, placed, and sealed in a quick and efficient manner.
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| The benefits of DB and public involvement were on full display during the Bunker Creek Bridge replacement. The team was quick to incorporate sustainable materials into the new design and found ways to minimize work onsite and speed up construction. This efficiency and innovation do not occur as often in other project delivery methods, and the efforts of WSP, SPS New England, and NHDOT caused the new bridge to receive an American Council of Engineering Companies Engineering Excellence award. The bridge has been fully operational since the fall of 2020 and will be providing a safe crossing across the beautiful views of the Great Bay for many decades.
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| Contact: New Hampshire Technology Transfer Center @ T2.center@unh.edu
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| About the Local Aid Support Team |
| Giving is what she does! |
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| Trinette Ballard is one of the newer members of the FHWA Local Aid Support Team, although she has now been with the team almost 2 years! Trinette is a mid-career hire to FHWA and came to the agency with extensive experience working in other government roles and as a television news producer. |
| Outside of her career as a public servant, Trinette is involved in her community serving on committees with the Parent Teacher Organization and the League of Women Voters. She is active with her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, where she mentors middle school girls ages 11-13 on one Saturday each month during the school year. She recently led a session on building proper communication skills and the girls impressed her with how engaged they were on the topic. Trinette also assists her alma mater, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, with reviewing and evaluating communication students’ resume portfolios each semester. |
| Trinette is a great addition to the Local Aid Support team. We hope you get to meet her soon, if you haven’t already. |
| Source: Trinette Ballard, FHWA |
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| Bulletin Board |
| The Road to Success |
| The FHWA Local Aid Support sponsors 24/7 access to hundreds of “need to know” transportation topics for local and Tribal agencies. Please use your government email to register for courses. If you have questions, please contact us at CLAS@dot.gov. |
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| Source: FHWA |
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National Highway Institute
Over 180 web-based courses available
https://bit.ly/nhitrainings |
AASHTO TC3
Over 190 web-based courses
https://bit.ly/tc3trainings |
Institute of Transportation Engineers
15 online modules for smaller jurisdictions
http://bit.ly/itetraining |
Federal Aid Essentials
Online library of 112 informational videos
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/federal-aidessentials/indexofvideos.cfm |
Innovation Exchange
FHWA’s bi-monthly webinars on innovative market-ready technology
https://bit.ly/IEWebinars |
LTAP
Check with your local LTAP Center for available online training
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/clas/ltap/ |
Local Aid Support
A series of training modules available through FHWA LAS Learning Management System
https://bit.ly/LASOnlineTraining |
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| The FHWA Local Aid Support Innovation Exchange Webinar series encourages peer to peer sharing of knowledge and information to improve transportation programs. No pre-registration is required. Subscribe to the Local Aid Support newsletter for updates on log-in information. You can also visit our webpage: https://bit.ly/IEWebinars. |
| Here are the planned topics: |
Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC)
February 17, 2022
2 p.m.–3:30 p.m. ET
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Bicycle Safety Operations - Dynamic Warning Systems
March 17, 2022
2 p.m.–3:30 p.m. ET
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Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)
April 21, 2022
2 p.m.–3:30 p.m. ET
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Phased Array Ultra Sonic Testing (PAUT)
May 19, 2022
2 p.m.–3:30 p.m. ET
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| Additional Training Webinars |
Every Day Counts: Digital As-Builts
February 28 - Connecticut DOT
3 p.m.–4:30 p.m. ET
| To Join |
Every Day Counts: Digital As-Builts
March 28 - Minnesota DOT
3 p.m.–4:30 p.m. ET
| To Join |
| See your state LTAP for even more training options. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/clas/ltap/ |
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| Upcoming Events |
ARTBA World of Asphalt 2022
Nashville, TN
March 29–31
| For information |
National Association of County Engineers (NACE) Annual Conference
Erie County (Buffalo), NY
April 24–27
| For information |
AASHTO Spring Meeting
New Orleans, LA
May 9–12
| For information |
National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) Annual Conference and Exhibition
Columbus, OH
June 12 - 15
| For information |
National Local Technical Assistance Program (NLTAPA) Annual Conference
Seattle, WA
July 18 - 21
| For information |
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