September 6, 2018
Innovation of the Month:
Community Connections
The Every Day Counts innovation of the month for September is community connections, which promotes tools and strategies for developing transportation systems in a way that is inclusive and interconnected.
With community connections approaches, transportation agencies can plan, design, and manage public spaces that promote people’s health, happiness, and well-being. The focus is on retrofitting, rehabilitation, and removal options that turn aging infrastructure into opportunities for advancing community development and reestablishing cohesion.
Using community connections tools offers many benefits, enabling agencies to make more informed decisions on projects that support community revitalization and ensure that all users have access to safe, reliable, affordable, and multimodal transportation networks.
More than half the country uses community connections in some form. Eleven States and Washington, DC, have institutionalized community connections approaches and another 21 States are developing, demonstrating, or assessing innovative approaches to planning, project development, or design.
Watch the community connections Innovation Spotlight video.
Visit the Federal Highway Administration’s community Connections website.
Contact Corbin Davis or Kenneth Petty of the FHWA Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty or Robert Mooney of the FHWA Office of Infrastructure for information and technical assistance.
Learn About EDC-5 Innovations
FHWA is offering free introductory webinars this month on the 10 innovations to be deployed in Every Day Counts round five (EDC-5), starting in 2019. Go to the EDC-5 innovation orientation webinars page to see the schedule and register for individual webinars, including next week’s sessions:
- Weather-Responsive Management Strategies—September 10, 10 to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 to 3 p.m. ET
- Collaborative Hydraulics: Advancing to the Next Generation of Engineering (CHANGE)—September 11, 10 to 11:30 a.m. and 3 to 4:30 p.m. ET
- Reducing Rural Roadway Departures—September 12, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET, and September 13, 2 to 3:30 p.m. ET
- Advanced Geotechnical Exploration Methods—September 13, 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon ET
See the Latest Issue of Innovator
Read the September/October issue of the Innovator newsletter to learn about the 10 innovations to shorten project delivery and enhance the transportation system in Every Day Counts round five, which kicks off in January 2019. Also, read how community connections tools are helping agencies develop inclusive, interconnected transportation systems and how the Maryland State Highway Administration is streamlining its construction process with an electronic bidding system as part of its e-Construction and partnering deployment.
Ohio Explores Use of 3D Models as Construction Project Deliverable
The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) used State Transportation Innovation Council Incentive funds on a pilot to provide a three-dimensional (3D) engineered model to a contractor for use in constructing an Interstate 71 project. Transferring digital information eliminated the need for the contractor to develop a 3D model from two-dimensional (2D) plans. At the end of the project, ODOT required the contractor to deliver an as-built 3D model, a phased visualization of the baseline construction schedule, and coordinates for uncovered utilities in the right-of-way. This pilot enabled ODOT to identify steps and resources needed to replace 2D plan sets with 3D models as the standard deliverable to contractors. The project also encouraged collaboration between ODOT offices on other improvements, including efforts to make existing plan sets more interactive and to use future 3D models as an inspection tool in a mobile application. For information, contact Chase Wells of ODOT.
About EDC
Every Day Counts, a State-based program of the Federal Highway Administration’s Center for Accelerating Innovation, works with State, local, and private sector partners to encourage the adoption of proven technologies and innovations to shorten and enhance project delivery.
