The FHWA Asset Management program has expanded under the latest transportation legislation with new corporate oversight and stewardship responsibilities. FHWA Division Offices have many new roles and responsibilities including the review, certification and consistency determination for initial and final Transportation Asset Management Plans (TAMPs) that State Departments of Transportation (DOT) are required to prepare and submit to FHWA. Positive certifications and consistency determination are required for a State DOT to fully access its National Highway Performance Program funds.
FHWA leadership has focused significant attention in the past two years on strengthening Division professional capacity and in providing additional resources and technical support to assist Division Offices in their oversight roles. In 2018, in response to these corporate needs, the FHWA Resource Center formed a multi-disciplinary team of data analysts, bridge and pavement experts and financial, risk management and life-cycle cost planning experts. These RC specialists include members from three teams:
During the past year, this multi-disciplinary RC team has proactively worked with all 52 FHWA Divisions to provide services and assistance for multiple activities:
In support of the Divisions’ oversight and approval roles for both the initial and final TAMPs, the RC team provided in-depth review of process and content issues to ultimately improve the final submittals and to help ensure a positive outcome. This effort included providing illustrative examples and approaches on key asset management topics, such as system performance gap analysis, work types, inclusion of new construction, management systems and multiple issues related to National Highway System local ownership and financial plans.
In addition to the RC support for individual Divisions and their State DOT partners, the RC also initiated capacity-building resources for FHWA Divisions on asset management. One new significant resource included the launch of “TAMP Office Hours” sessions for Division Asset Management specialists. “Office Hours” were held in April and June 2019. The “Office Hours” sessions were designed to foster peer dialogue and address specific questions from FHWA Division staff. Discussions centered around several topics:
The RC is committed to continuing to support Division needs and build internal knowledge and professional capacity on asset management capacity in the coming years.
The FHWA Resource Center (RC) has made significant contributions toward meeting the Department and agency’s Safety goal of reducing transportation-related deaths and serious injuries by promoting the use of Road Safety Audits (RSA). RSAs have been encouraged as an FHWA Proven Safety Countermeasure since 2008. RSAs are a multidisciplinary approach to identify safety issues based on roadway and safety data that result in providing the owning agency and community a range of solutions to improve the roadway for all users. The RC Safety and Design Team has led many of these RSAs across the United States and abroad over the last 15 years. These RSAs have included partnerships with State Departments of Transportation, planning agencies, law enforcement, tribal governments, and local agencies. The RC Safety and Design Team also works closely with the Headquarters Office of Safety to encourage FHWA’s transportation customers and partners to employ RSAs.
An ambitious multi-year, statewide campaign to reduce the number of pedestrian deaths and injuries in Florida – a State where a significant portion of the Nation’s pedestrian fatalities occur – was started in 2013 with support of the RC Safety and Design Team. This effort included a significant collaboration with Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), Florida Highway Patrol, and local transportation agencies. RSAs have been institutionalized in Florida as a tool to identify and address pedestrian safety risks. In 2017, Florida expanded the RSA program to include a Law Enforcement RSA workshop where more than 50 officers worked with FDOT District Offices to conduct routine RSAs. The RSA workshops developed by the RC Safety and Design Team brought engineering, enforcement, and education together to help Florida improve safety on its roadways.
A statewide safety and roadway data-driven program was developed by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to address bicycle safety. The FHWA RC Safety and Design Team led the Bicycle RSA workshops and training for Caltrans District staff, where staff completed a train-the-trainer class and bicycle ride audit. The goal of this RSA program was twofold: 1) to educate planning and engineering staff about the important steps in conducting an RSA, and 2) to have practitioners gain a better understanding of bicycle safety and design through a customized FHWA Bicycle Safety Workshop.
The RC Safety and Design Team delivers training and assistance to support Road Safety Audits throughout the year. Following are a few noteworthy examples:
The FHWA Resource Center’s involvement in transportation activities outside the 50 U.S. States helps advance innovation and assure that FHWA is recognized as a leader in the advancement of solutions to transportation issues. The Resource Center promotes technical solutions and best practices in the form of conference presentations, site visits, discussions with professional peers, and more fostering worldwide technical exchange.
FHWA’s participation in events, such as the European Road Profiler User Group (ERPUG) Conference, is important to promote the exchange of technical skills and knowledge internationally. In 2019, the RC Pavement and Materials Team sent a representative to the ERPUG conference in Madrid, Spain to deliver a technical presentation, share information, and build contacts.
ERPUG serves as a forum for exchanging information between end users, industry, and researchers who have an interest in analyzing pavement surface characteristics. The European community uses similar technology as the United States in assessing pavement performance features such as those in the MAP-21 regulations (ride, rutting, cracking, and faulting).
The Pavement and Materials Team has several ongoing projects related to the 21-State pooled fund study, TPF-5(299), that are of interest to the European community and it was beneficial to understand the European community’s perspective on the projects. TPF-5(299) is developing and refining the field data collection and analysis quality standards that are a key element of the MAP-21 regulations.
The information shared at the conference confirmed that there are many outstanding challenges in developing these pooled fund quality standards that exist both in the United States and abroad. The RC Team made contacts at the conference that will prove essential to the pooled fund study over the next several years.
The RC Environment, Air Quality and Realty Team was involved in organizing, planning, and conducting the 2019 Air and Waste Management Association Annual Conference and Exhibition in Quebec City. The RC Team delivered two presentations in the transportation track of the event: 1) Comparing Prediction Trends Among Highway Air Dispersion Models – AERMOD, RLINE, and CAL3QHC; and 2) Case Studies of Mobile Source Air Toxics Modeling of Highway Projects. The RC Team also acted as secretary for the Technical Council, part of the association’s leadership and governance group. The FHWA Resource Center will now begin its participation in the planning process for the 2020 annual conference event in San Francisco, California.
The RC Safety and Design Team provided technical assistance and training on innovative intersection designs — an Every Day Counts (EDC) innovation — to Canadian transportation colleagues at both the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and the Toronto Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). Innovative intersection designs have demonstrated great results to improve safety and reduce congestion on streets and highways, and the EDC program was a key component in their deployment and implementation. Because of significant interest and opportunity within Canada to use these intersection designs, the RC Team highlighted the safety and mobility benefits and lessons learned from implementing them in the United States. The RC also assisted the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation with a series of three webinars dedicated to this topic that focused on evaluating and selecting appropriate intersection and interchange configurations for high volume constrained and challenging conditions.
In February 2019, members of the RC Safety and Design Team arrived in Guam to fulfill a request from the FHWA Hawaii Division Office to deliver the National Highway Institute’s Geometric Design Applying Flexibility and Risk Management course. The RC Team met with the local authorities and their consultant staff to discuss local issues and gain insight into the context of Guam’s road management program. The RC Team then accompanied local authorities in site visits to view first-hand the roadway concerns and project locations for future work. The workshop was delivered to Guam resident staff with a few participants coming from the Northern Marianas Islands (Saipan). The Safety and Design Team addressed topics of interest to the attendees—including the American Association of States and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Highway Safety Manual, roadside hardware, roadside design, performance based practical design, and roadway and highway lighting.
The New Brunswick Ministry of Transportation contacted FHWA Headquarters to inquire about Performance Based Practical Design (PBPD). They requested assistance and training in the topic from FHWA. The RC Safety and Design Team fulfilled the request by delivering an executive briefing to Ministry of Transportation leadership followed by a full-day workshop on PBPD that emphasizes safety performance and predictive safety tools for a session attended by more than 100 employees.
In October 2019, the RC Safety and Design Team delivered a workshop on the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual (HSM) and FHWA Interactive Highway Safety Design Model. The workshop was the result of a partnership among FHWA, the Transportation Research Board (TRB), and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Safety Council. The workshop materials and discussions will contribute to a second workshop at the TRB 2020 Annual Meeting on U.S. and Canadian experiences using the Highway Safety Manual. It is an example of great partnerships between ITE, FHWA, AASHTO, and TRB.
Every Day Counts (EDC) is an FHWA program designed to accelerate the delivery of highway projects and foster an innovative culture in the transportation community. In 2019, the FHWA Resource Center (RC) continued to provide leadership and technical expertise in support of multiple technologies and innovations under Every Day Counts. Throughout the various cycles of the EDC, the RC has led implementation efforts across numerous program areas including the fifth cycle, which began in January 2019.
The e-Construction and partnering initiative is focused on an electronic delivery process for construction administration. The RC Construction and Project Management Team—which is the technical lead for implementing e-Construction tools — facilitated and delivered a peer exchange on the EDC-4 innovation. In April 2019, the RC partnered with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (DOT), the FHWA Office of Infrastructure, the FHWA Center for Accelerating Innovation, the FHWA Pennsylvania Division, and others to organize and host the e-Construction and Partnering Regional Workshop in Pittsburgh, PA. The event brought together representatives from FHWA, State DOTs, consultants, and contractors from across the country. The peer exchange provided participants an opportunity to network, collaborate, learn about technology, and share best practices. The event featured an area for participants to gain hands-on experience with the various software and technologies currently deployed by various State DOTs nationwide—including FHWA’s Mobile Solution for Assessment and Reporting app. More than 130 industry professionals benefitted from the peer exchange.
The RC Pavement and Materials Team and the Safety and Design Team partnered to use EDC technologies and Road Safety Audits to improve safety on Florida’s roads using cutting-edge methods. The identification of intersections for safety improvements based on friction measurements is a new process that uses a continuous friction measurement vehicle to assess friction and identify potential unsafe sections of roadway. The RC teams coordinated with FHWA’s Turner Fairbank Highway Research Center to use a SCRIM (Continuous Friction Measurement Vehicle) to complete a friction analysis on Florida’s network. The analysis highlighted five intersections that warranted a closer look for safety improvements. The RC Road Safety Audit team began working with Florida DOT, the FHWA Florida Division Office, and local police to evaluate the sites in person and consider treatments that will improve safety. One of those treatments may be High Friction Surface treatments (HFST), an EDC innovation supported by the RC Teams. HFSTs are pavement overlay systems with exceptional skid resistance not typically provided by conventional paving materials. One Florida DOT employee called this use of new technology to perform an RSA a “First in the Nation Road Safety Audit.”
The FHWA RC Structures Team is a leader in the effort to implement EDC Ultra High-Performance Concrete (UHPC). UHPC is a steel fiber-reinforced, portland cement-based composite material that delivers performance far exceeding that of conventional concrete and makes using prefabricated bridge elements (PBEs) simpler and more effective. RC Structures Team provided technical assistance with UHPC to 30 transportation agencies on at least 100 highway bridge projects across the country. Additionally, they organized multiple webinars and partnered with 33 different transportation agencies to host UHPC connections workshops. The team developed a construction checklist to assist bridge owners with inspection procedures for the construction of UHPC connections. Deployment efforts have also included performing a technical review on a UHPC article for Public Roads magazine, providing input for a newly developed chapter for the bridge inspection manual, and creating a construction checklist to assist bridge owners with inspection procedures for the construction of UHPC connections. In June 2019, the Structures Team continued its outreach at the 2nd International UHPC symposium. As EDC-4, transportation agencies in 33 States had attained demonstration, assessment, or institutionalized stages of implementing UHPC connections for Prefabricated Bridge Elements—thanks in large part to activities of the FHWA Resource Center.
The RC’s Environment, Air Quality and Realty Team implemented EDC-4’s Integration of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Permitting across the country through peer exchanges, workshops, and facilitated discussions about developing programmatic agreements. One EDC-4 peer exchange focused on the implementation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and its integration with NEPA. The workshop was held in Indiana and brought together Federal and State transportation and resource agencies to deliver ESA Section 7 training and discuss regional challenges and best practices in implementing ESA.