August 31, 2017
Explore the Power of State Transportation Innovation Councils
State Transportation Innovation Councils (STICs) bring together transportation stakeholders to evaluate innovations and spearhead their deployment in each State. STIC members consider new technologies and processes from sources such as the Every Day Counts program, choose those that fit the State’s unique needs, and work together to put the innovations into practice quickly.
Participating in a STIC offers many benefits:
- Puts STIC members at the leading edge to learn about innovations that can save time, money, and lives.
- Gives transportation stakeholders a forum for sharing innovative ideas.
- Enables participants to collaborate on innovative initiatives that improve statewide processes, enhance communities, and save tax dollars.
- Allows stakeholders to deepen working relationships with colleagues at the regional, State, and Federal levels.
- Provides opportunities to access resources such as STIC Incentive funding, which offers up to $100,000 per STIC per year to support the costs of standardizing innovative practices.
View the Federal Highway Administration’s “Power of the STIC” video series to learn how the national STIC network, local public agencies, State transportation departments, academia, and industry collaborate to accelerate innovation use across the country.
Contact Sara Lowry of the FHWA Center for Accelerating Innovation for information on the STIC network.
Innovation of the Month:
Integrating NEPA and Permitting
FHWA offers a variety of resources to help the transportation community integrate National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and permitting processes to accelerate the delivery of transportation projects.
Watch an EDC-4 summit session on integrating NEPA and permitting processes.
Visit the Integrating NEPA and Permitting Resources Library for case studies, State agreements, and presentations.
See the FHWA Environmental Review Toolkit for information and resources.
Contact Mike Ruth of the FHWA Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty for information and technical assistance.
Arizona Bridge Project Wins Public Works Award
The Arizona Department of Transportation’s I-15 Virgin River Bridge No. 6 rehabilitation project won an American Public Works Association (APWA) Project of the Year award, which recognizes cooperative achievements of agencies and their partners. The project replaced the bridge superstructure and widened the road through the Virgin River Gorge. APWA cited the collaborative construction manager at risk (CMAR) delivery method, also known as construction manager/general contractor, as a hallmark of the project, which maintained traffic through the work zone without creating serious delays on a vital freight corridor serving 5,700 trucks a day. CMAR enabled the project team to partner with stakeholders to identify needs early in the process and develop solutions. This included extensive coordination with the Bureau of Land Management on access plans to minimize impacts on the Virgin River Gorge and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Arizona Game and Fish Department on measures to protect area wildlife.
