January 19, 2017
More Innovations to Deploy in 2017
As Every Day Counts round four (EDC-4) moves into high gear, the Federal Highway Administration is working with the transportation community to deploy the EDC-4 innovations and make them mainstream practices.
Last week's EDC News highlighted five of the 11 EDC-4 innovations. Here's a look at the other six:
Road weather management is among the EDC-4 innovations that enhance safety and mobility
Pavement preservation (when, where, and how) involves applying a pavement preservation treatment at the right time on the right project with quality materials and construction, offering a critical investment strategy for optimizing infrastructure performance.
Road weather management—weather-savvy roads integrates mobile observations and Pathfinder strategies in collaboration with the National Weather Service that can help agencies manage road systems and inform travelers ahead of and during adverse road weather conditions.
Safe transportation for every pedestrian (STEP) features cost-effective countermeasures with known safety benefits that can reduce pedestrian fatalities at uncontrolled crossing locations and unsignalized intersections.
Ultra-high performance concrete can be used to create the simple, strong, long-lasting connections needed for successful construction using prefabricated bridge elements.
Using data to improve traffic incident management focuses on increasing the amount, consistency, and quality of data collection to support development of performance measures for evaluating and improving traffic incident response.
View introductory webinars on the EDC-4 innovations.
Idaho Innovation Program Chosen as Model
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Innovation Initiative will work with the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) to showcase ITD's employee-driven innovation program as a model for potential use by other State transportation departments. According to an ITD news release, the Innovate ITD program has harnessed the creativity of the agency's 1,600 employees to generate 567 innovations, $2.2 million in cost savings and efficiencies, and 190 customer service improvements so far. In a letter to ITD, AASHTO called the program a “best-in-class process.”
FHWA Mobile Asphalt Testing Trailer Visits Oklahoma
Oklahoma State Transportation Innovation Council members learned about FHWA's Mobile Asphalt Testing Trailer program at a recent meeting and had an opportunity to tour the trailer. The trailer is at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation for several weeks to conduct evaluations as part of FHWA's Increased In-Place Pavement Density initiative. The initiative enables highway agencies to experiment with construction techniques and technologies to increase the in-place density of asphalt, which can result in more durable pavements. FHWA staff also conducted hands-on training to accelerate Oklahoma's implementation of Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester equipment to improve asphalt pavement performance.
