December 9, 2020

Last Opportunity to Attend the EDC-6 Virtual Summit - Don't Miss Out

The EDC-6 summit is THIS WEEK. Registration is still open for anyone who wants to learn more about the innovations featured in this round during the day 2 and day 3 events. State transportation departments, local agencies, Federal land management agencies, tribes, and industry are all welcome.

Hear from featured speakers including FHWA leadership and innovation champions from the public and private sectors.

The summit also features an opportunity to learn about over 200 home grown innovations being developed and deployed across the country through the National STIC Network Showcase. Innovations are organized into eight categories for ease of browsing and give you an opportunity to connect directly with those deploying innovations and download reference documents to a virtual "briefcase" for future use.

Don’t miss your opportunity to interact with professionals from all over the country and learn about what’s coming in EDC-6! Register now to participate and view any content you may have missed on-demand.

EDC-6 Summit Preview:
Ultra-High Performance Concrete for Bridge Preservation and Repair

The beginning of EDC-6 is just around the corner, and each week through the end of the year, we will give you a preview of the seven innovations being featured. This week, we will take a sneak-peak at ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) for bridge preservation and repair.

Keeping bridges in a state of good repair is essential to keeping the transportation system operating efficiently. Agencies at all levels can deploy UHPC for bridge preservation and repair to cost-effectively maintain or improve bridge conditions.

UHPC is a fiber-reinforced, cementitious composite material with mechanical and durability properties that far exceed those of conventional concrete materials. This has made it popular for bridge construction, especially for field-cast connections between prefabricated bridge elements (PBE). Bridge infrastructure preservation and repair (P&R) is a new application of UHPC that offers enhanced performance and improved life-cycle cost over traditional methods. UHPC can generally be used anywhere other types of concrete would be used and because of its strength and durability, UHPC can be an optimum solution for some repairs. UHPC can be used in situations that normally use conventional concrete or repair mortars, and in some cases those that use structural steel. Some UHPC mixes gain strength rapidly, so bridges could be opened to traffic 24 hours after completing the necessary repairs. Additionally, UHPC repairs are long lasting and resilient, requiring less maintenance and fewer follow-up repairs than conventional methods.

Examples of UHPC P&R applications include bridge deck overlays, girder end repairs, expansion joint repairs, PBE construction joint repairs, and column or pile jacketing. Some applications, such as bridge deck overlays and replacing expansion joints with UHPC link slabs, can extend the service life of bridges well beyond that of traditional repair strategies and are more cost-efficient than bridge replacement.

To learn more about UHPC for Bridge Preservation and Repair, contact Zach Haber or Mark Leonard, EDC-6 team co-leads, register for the EDC-6 virtual summit and attend the breakout session on Dec 9, or visit FHWA’s EDC website.

Arizona and Maryland State Transportation Innovation Councils Demonstrate Success

State Transportation Innovation Councils (STIC) in Arizona and Maryland received 2020 STIC Excellence Awards for demonstrating success in fostering a strong culture of innovation. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and Federal Highway Administration collaborate on the annual award, which was presented to the winning STICs at AASHTO’s annual meeting.

Arizona

The Arizona Council for Transportation Innovation (ACTI) uses a three-pronged approach of diverse membership, ongoing outreach, and a long-range perspective to advance innovation. ACTI leverages perspectives from public agencies and private organizations to better evaluate and capitalize on innovation opportunities.  To plant the seeds for innovation, ACTI’s outreach includes Innovation Exchange Days on Every Day Counts (EDC) innovations and transportation’s future. The council brings together the right people, selects innovations that are a good fit for Arizona projects and communities, and provides training and funding.  ACTI is reaping the fruits of its efforts with an AZ STEP website with an interactive countermeasure selection tool based, developing a Sun Cloud data portal to serve the transportation planning needs of Arizona’s Sun Corridor, and Sun Corridor Value Impact Analysis project that combines two travel demand models of three metropolitan planning organizations to quantify the economic impact of transportation investments.

Maryland

The Maryland Transportation Innovation Council established multi-stakeholder leadership to embrace innovation at a strategic level and create a culture of innovation. The Maryland STIC and Maryland Quality Initiative (MdQI), a forum that fosters quality improvement in transportation, launched the MdQI Innovation Subcommittee to facilitate rapid implementation of technology and techniques in the public and private sectors.  The culture of innovation has inspired innovative efforts at the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), such as Project Green Light in which employees proposed ideas in a friendly “pitch” environment and Operations Innovation Showcase to highlight innovations developed by staff throughout the State. The Maryland STIC has advanced 35 EDC initiatives to make innovation a permanent tool in the project delivery toolbox. The Maryland STIC credits having a MDOT employee dedicated to overseeing innovation deployment as a key factor in the STIC’s success.

For more information on the STIC Excellence Awards, contact Sara Lowry of the FHWA Center for Accelerating Innovation. Additionally, you can join us for a National STIC Network Showcase during the EDC-6 Summit today (Dec 9) and tomorrow (Dec 10) from 3-4pm ET.

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.