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FHWA Home / Accelerating Innovation / Every Day Counts / EDC News: January 9, 2025

EDC News

January 9, 2025

Innovation of the Month - Weather-Responsive Management Strategies

Adverse road weather conditions are present during nearly 14 percent of fatal crashes in the United States, representing nearly 72,000 fatal crashes from 2013 to 2022. Additionally, during this time, approximately 1 percent of total motor vehicle crashes occurred during severe crosswinds.

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has implemented a high-wind alert system on multiple bridges across the State to provide real-time wind speed information during severe weather events from each monitored bridge structure. This system, the Bridge Wind Speed Alerting System, gathers information that assists transportation managers with bridge closure decisions. Wind data are then instantly delivered to FDOT regional traffic management centers and public safety officials.

Prior to this innovation, Florida’s law enforcement officers were taking periodic wind speed measurements during inclement weather and high wind conditions to inform agency staff for making bridge closure decisions. Doing so put law enforcement personnel in harm’s way and occupied an officer during a time when their support may have been needed elsewhere.

Installation of these bridge wind speed monitors required FDOT develop a mounting method that could be performed quickly to minimize lane closure time but also robust enough to withstand bridge vibrations and severe wind conditions. FDOT configured and tested each data collection platform on a rooftop test stand prior to deployment to avoid return visits to installed bridges.

Since implementation, the Bridge Wind Speed Alerting System has been deployed across 18 locations, including critical waterway bridges, interchange flyovers, barrier island bridges, and other critical locations in the Jacksonville area.

FDOT has also integrated wind speed data and alerts into its Data Integration and Video Aggregation System (DIVAS), which was developed to provide authorized local public safety and emergency management personnel with accurate real-time information. DIVAS enables FDOT and local officials to monitor wind alert data securely online without compromising FDOT internal network performance or security.

The Weather-Responsive Management Strategies (WRMS) initiative promotes using road weather data from mobile and connected vehicle (CV) technologies to support traffic and maintenance management strategies during inclement weather. The goal is to improve safety and reliability, as well as to reduce the environmental impacts on the transportation system from adverse weather.

To learn more about this FDOT innovation or other WRMS technologies, please contact David Johnson, FHWA Office of Operations.

New Funding Opportunity to Accelerate Adoption of Emerging Technologies

The Federal Highway Administration’s Accelerating Market Readiness (AMR) Program builds a bridge between research and practice and provides resources to assess whether innovations emerging from research will perform as intended in their operational environment. FHWA issued a multi-year Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the AMR program on October 29, 2024. White papers under the first solicitation period are due January 15, 2025. White papers are due January 15, 2025.  The purpose of this BAA is to solicit a variety of solutions that will support the strategic objectives of the AMR program. The AMR program will provide resources for the assessment of emerging innovations and for the objective-written documentation of these assessments.  These activities are intended to help advance the innovations to a more complete market-ready status, which in turn should accelerate the adoption of the innovations by transportation agencies. 

Call for Ideas Opens for Every Day Counts Round 8

Every day Counts Call for Ideas video

FHWA is seeking suggestions for market-ready innovations to deploy in 2026 as part of the eighth round of Every Day Counts (EDC-8). The agency is encouraging State, local, Tribal, and industry partners, as well as the public, to submit innovative technologies or practices that can enhance safety for all road users and expedite the project delivery process. The deadline for submissions is February 4, 2025. Watch video here.Visit the EDC webpage for information on how to submit suggestions.

NextGen TIM- Supporting Postcrash Care

The Next-Generation Traffic Incident Management (NextGen TIM) team has recently posted several new fact sheets on their website. One fact sheet focuses on supporting postcrash care, which encompasses caring for the injured, protecting responding personnel, and preventing secondary crashes.

While on-scene, a number of TIM technologies help make incidents safer. Drivers can first be warned about an upcoming event through mapping or navigation systems. As they get closer, smart emergency vehicle lighting directs them around the incident without an overload of blinding, bright flashing lights. TIM training teaches first responders how to position vehicles strategically to protect responders from traffic, creating a barrier. These technologies and techniques create a safer working environment for responders, making it easier for them to care for the injured.

To learn more about postcrash care or other Next Generation TIM technologies and strategies that your agency can use to protect motorists and responders after a traffic incident, please contact Joe TeboJames Austrich, or Paul Jodoin, FHWA Office of Operations.

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About EDC

Every Day Counts, a State-based initiative of the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Innovation and Workforce Solutions, works with State, local, and privatesector partners to encourage the adoption of proven and underutilized technologies to deliver transportation projects more efficiently, enhance safety forall users, support a sustainable and resilient infrastructure, and incorporate equity inproject planning and delivery.

EDC News is a weekly publication highlighting successful EDC innovation deployments across the country.

EDC News is published weekly by the FHWA Center for Accelerating Innovation.

Disclaimer: The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers’ names appear in this document only because they are considered essential to the objective of the document. They are included for informational purposes only and are not intended to reflect a preference, approval, or endorsement of any one product or entity.

Except for the statutes and regulations cited, the contents of this document do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind the States or the public in any way. This document is intended only to provide information regarding existing requirements under the law or agency policies.

Recommended Citation:
U.S Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration
EDC News; December 5, 2024
Washington, DC

https://doi.org/10.21949/22zc-wa93

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Page last modified on January 17, 2025
Federal Highway Administration | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590 | 202-366-4000