More Innovations to Deploy in 2017
As Every Day Counts round four (EDC-4) moves into
high gear, the Federal Highway Administration is working with the
transportation community to deploy the EDC-4 innovations and make them
mainstream practices.
Last week’s EDC News highlighted five of
the 11 EDC-4 innovations. Here’s a look at the other six:
Integrating the National Environmental
Policy Act and permitting processes enables concurrent, synchronized
environmental and permitting reviews that save time and cut costs for the
agencies involved.
Pavement preservation (when, where, and
how) involves applying a pavement preservation treatment at the
right time on the right project with quality materials and construction,
offering a critical investment strategy for optimizing infrastructure
performance.
Road weather management is among the EDC-4 innovations that enhance safety and mobility.
Road weather management—weather-savvy
roads integrates mobile observations and Pathfinder strategies in
collaboration with the National Weather Service that can help agencies manage
road systems and inform travelers ahead of and during adverse road weather
conditions.
Safe transportation for every pedestrian
(STEP) features cost-effective countermeasures with known safety
benefits that can reduce pedestrian fatalities at uncontrolled crossing
locations and unsignalized intersections.
Ultra-high performance concrete
can be used to create the simple, strong, long-lasting connections needed for
successful construction using prefabricated bridge elements.
Using data to improve traffic incident
management focuses on increasing the amount, consistency, and
quality of data collection to support development of performance measures for
evaluating and improving traffic incident response.
View introductory webinars on the
EDC-4 innovations.
Idaho Innovation Program Chosen as Model
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation
Officials Innovation Initiative will
work with the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) to showcase ITD’s employee-driven
innovation program as a model for potential use by other State transportation
departments. According to an ITD news release, the
Innovate ITD program has harnessed the creativity of the agency’s 1,600
employees to generate 567 innovations, $2.2 million in cost savings and
efficiencies, and 190 customer service improvements so far. In a letter to ITD,
AASHTO called the program a “best-in-class process.”
FHWA Mobile Asphalt Testing Trailer Visits Oklahoma
Oklahoma State Transportation Innovation Council
members learned about FHWA’s Mobile Asphalt Testing Trailer program at a recent
meeting and had an opportunity to tour the trailer. The trailer is at the
Oklahoma Department of Transportation for several weeks to conduct evaluations
as part of FHWA’s Increased In-Place Pavement Density initiative. The initiative
enables highway agencies to experiment with construction techniques and
technologies to increase the in-place density of asphalt, which can result in
more durable pavements. FHWA staff also conducted hands-on training to
accelerate Oklahoma’s implementation of Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester
equipment to improve asphalt pavement performance.
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