U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
Washington Division
In June, 2021 to assist Washington in planning and preparing for the current and future needs to address truck parking, the FHWA Resource Center; in collaboration with the Washington Division and Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), delivered a virtual Truck Parking Workshop (4-part series) to freight stakeholders. Participants included WSDOT, Washington State Patrol (WSP), Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), Regional Transportation Planning Organization (RTPOs), cities, counties, ports, the Washington Trucking Association, and many private sector freight stakeholders.
This workshop educated participants on the causes, challenges, and impacts surrounding truck parking, provided attendees with an overview of the Federal requirements and funding opportunities to assist states and local governments, included peer presentations and discussions with states across the country to better assist Washington in long-range planning for truck parking, and developed strategies to lay the groundwork for developing a truck parking action plan in Washington. The truck parking action plan will address capacity needs, programmatic solutions, technological advancements, and cross-cutting solutions. WSDOT plans to continue working with freight stakeholders, as this truck parking action plan will be used to inform the update to the state freight plan and future truck parking studies and projects.
In April, 2021 The FHWA Washington Division arranged a two-hour training session with WSDOT and Carolyn Nelson (FHWA Project Development Specialist.) In recent years, many new employees have come on board in the WSDOT environmental offices and with the focus on EJ and equity, there was strong interest from other parts of the agency. Carolyn provided an excellent overview to over 250 participants. The wide reach of this training included participants from WSDOT management, environment, engineering, planning and more across the state and included several FHWA Washington Division participants.
In June, 2021, FHWA Washington Division staff participated in the second virtual peer exchange on locally administered projects presented by the FHWA Resource Center. This peer exchange allowed more State DOT’s to provide presentations on their Local Public Agency (LPA) Federal-aid Program. This year’s peer exchange participants included the Oregon DOT, Florida DOT, Ohio DOT, Virginia DOT, Caltrans, Washington State DOT and their respective FHWA Division representatives, along with a FHWA Resource Center representative. These yearly exchanges provide an opportunity to discuss best practices and lessons learned with participating State DOT’s. In addition, these virtual meetings have the benefit of allowing for larger participation and incorporating State DOT’s that do not currently have an LPA Certification Program but may have questions or seek guidance in establishing their own program.
Chart source: FHWA Washington Division
The chart above reflects the number of days taken for the FHWA Washington Division to approve authorizations / modifications submitted into the Financial Management Information System (FMIS) from WSDOT. Our Stewardship & Oversight agreement states we will turn around at least 90% of all requests within 5 days or less. For Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2021 a total of 1,463 approvals out of 1,516 project transactions in FMIS were approved within 5 days or less which equals 97%.
A total of 548 projects were inactive in the 3rd and 4th quarters (04/01/2021—09/30/2021) of FFY2021 (232 and 316), representing an inactive percentage of 0.8% and 2.2%, respectively. FHWA’s quarterly tar-get is under 2% inactivity of total obligated Federal funds. The quarterly inactive percentage is found by dividing all projects inactive (projects with no expenditures processed for 12 months or more) unexpend-ed obligation by each state’s total annual apportionments.
Environmental Approvals: 19 (Documented CEs, Endangered Species Act, Section 4(f), Section 106, etc.)
Design Approvals: 10 (Basis of Design and Analysis, Project Development Approval, Methods & Assump-tions, etc.)
Interchange Justification Report Approvals: 1 – Various projects throughout the state.
Miscellaneous Construction Approvals: 0
Change Order Approvals: 1
Miscellaneous Project Approvals: 1 – Various projects throughout the state.
Major Projects Approvals: 1 – Plans, Project Management Plans, Cost Estimates, etc.
Chart source: FHWA Washington Division
The chart above shows the timeliness of FHWA Washington Division approval for Emergency Relief (ER) damage in-spection reports. Our goal is to approve 90% of these reports within 10 days of receipt. ER reports that exceed 16 days are delayed typically due to external permits, need for additional information, and other factors.
For State highway agencies and contractors, recruiting qualified construction workers can be challenging. For local community officials, a construction project can represent an employment opportunity for resi-dents, and perhaps an opportunity to start on the path to a construction career. This opportunity can be especially critical for those who historically have experienced barriers to entering the transportation con-struction industry. Under FHWA's Special Experimental Project 14 (SEP-14) authority, FHWA is offering a four-year pilot program to help States, local communities and the construction industry meet these chal-lenges. The program provides contracting agencies with the flexibility to use hiring preferences and/or innovative contracting approaches not otherwise authorized by law. The approaches must have the po-tential to enhance workforce development opportunities in the transportation construction industry, in-cluding for those in low-income communities.
The City of Seattle applied to use this pilot on the West Seattle Bridge project. The West Seattle high bridge was closed in 2020 after inspections of the bridge, showed rapidly growing cracks. Historically, the West Seattle Bridge is the City's most used street, typically carrying more than 100,000 travelers every day. The concrete bridge was built in 1984 and has since been a major route for moving people and goods to and from West Seattle and providing connections with neighboring communities, such as the Du-wamish Valley and South of the Dome (SODO.) Rising 140 feet above the Duwamish Waterway at its peak, the high bridge is approximately 1,300 feet long across three spans. It is a cantilevered and segmen-tal concrete bridge, which means that the bridge was constructed on site, with crews building segments on either side of the piers until the segments all connected. The city announced they would repair the bridge instead of replacing it with a new span. The decision was based on input from the community, speed of traffic restoration, minimizing impacts, and cost effectiveness.
Image Source: Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images – http://alphastockimages.com
As the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), Regional Transportation Planning Organizations (RTPOs), and local jurisdictions in Washington continue to incorporate various data sources in their efforts to conduct performance based planning and programming, analysis remains an essential aspect of effective transportation decision-making.
To assist our Washington transportation partners in planning and preparing for these current and future needs, Eric Pihl and Walt Satterfield of the FHWA Resource Center, in collaboration with the Washington Division, delivered a virtual Role of Analysis in Transportation Decision-Making Workshop (4-part series) to WSDOT, MPOs, and RTPOs in July, 2021.
This workshop educated participants on transportation analysis basics, strategic analysis/scenario analysis approaches, analytical methods and approaches to target setting, analysis for performance-based planning and programming, and analytical methods and approaches for reporting, monitoring, and evaluation of projects. Examples of current practices across the country were included in the workshop, and guest speakers included WSDOT subject matter experts and MPO/RTPO staff in Washington.
In August, 2021, FHWA announced that the City of Seattle was awarded an Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant of $11,250,600 for the West Seattle Corridor Bridges Rehabilitation and Strength-ening. Division Staff worked with Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), City of Se-attle, HOFM, HCC, and OST to complete the INFRA term sheet, and obligate the 2018 INFRA funds. This GMGC contract will repair the damaged portions of the West Seattle Bridge.
This regionally significant project is the main crossing to and from West Seattle, which is currently closed to traffic. The project will make significant bridge repairs on the West Seattle High-Rise bridge that is cur-rently closed due to structural deficiencies, as well as the Spokane Street Swing Bridge ("low bridge") running adjacent to the High-Rise bridge. The project will provide structural stabilization repairs to reo-pen the High-Rise bridge and will make repairs related to load rating compliance on the low bridge.
For more information contact:
Bruce Moody
Program Management Analyst
FHWA
503-316-2542; Bruce.Moody@dot.gov
Melinda Roberson
Deputy Division Administrator
FHWA Washington Division
360-753-9480; Melinda.Roberson@dot.gov
