Innovation of the Month:
Collaborative
Hydraulics: Advancing to the Next Generation of Engineering
Transportation agencies
participating in Collaborative Hydraulics: Advancing to
the Next Generation of Engineering (CHANGE) are adopting modern
hydraulic tools that can lead to better design and more efficient delivery of
projects involving waterways.
Next-generation hydraulic design
tools can be used in a variety of applications:
- Analysis
of bridge options
- Evaluation
of complex floodplain geometry
- Flood
risk assessment and flood mapping
- Bridge
scour and scour countermeasure analysis
- Channel
stability analysis and channel restoration
- Fish
habitat analysis
After taking 2D hydraulic modeling training
from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Highway Institute, the
Georgia Department of Transportation completed 2D modeling on several bridge
projects. The agency found that using 2D hydraulic modeling provided more
accurate visualization of water surface elevations and flow distributions
through multiple bridge openings.
The Alaska Department of
Transportation and Public Facilities developed a 2D hydraulic modeling review
guidance document with the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The agency developed
a 2D model for the Chilkat River for a road project. The model was used to
verify the proposed locations of bank protection and habitat enhancement
features.
The
Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) first used 2D modeling on a bridge
repair project to better understand the hydraulic conditions that caused the
bridge to fail because of scour, the erosion of riverbed material around bridge
foundations. Since then, MDT has expanded the use of 2D hydraulic modeling to
most of its bridge projects and obtained FHWA training for the agency’s entire
hydraulic design staff and consultants.
See
FHWA’s hydraulic engineering web page for guidance, research, and training information.
View a series of on-demand videos on collaborative hydraulics.
Delaware Fair Showcases Employee
Innovations
About 150 Delaware Department of Transportation
(DelDOT) employees attended the agency’s first Innovation Fair to see displays
on innovations their colleagues designed to meet the agency mission to be innovative and efficient and provide superior
customer service. An example is the Third Eye, a mirror that mounts on
the plow on snowplows with wings to eliminate the blind spot when the wing is
raised. This improves visibility and safety during snow removal operations.
Another innovation is a truck hitch mount to hold maintenance operation warning
signs, such as “MOWER AHEAD.” This saves time on moving and setting up signs
and ensures that signs remain close to work in progress, enhancing safety for
workers and motorists. View a video of event highlights.
Contact LiWen
Lin of DelDOT for information.
Explore Innovation at
Transportation Research Board (TRB) Meeting
Meet the EDC team and learn about
the eleven innovations in Every Day
Counts round four, at booth #526, during the TRB Annual Meeting
(January 7–11, 2018, in Washington, DC).
Also join us for the following
sessions:
-
FHWA: Leadership in Innovation (session #443 at 3:45 p.m. on Monday, January 8th) – a panel from around the nation will explore strategies to mitigating risk when deploying innovations, with a focus on financial, organizational, and performance risk.
-
The Power of Innovation: Capturing the Value of Investments in Innovation (session #797 at 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday, January 10th) – a discussion on quantifying return on investment, qualifying value, and communicating the impact of innovations.
See a list of innovation-related exhibits and sessions to plan your TRB
schedule.
Send Us Your Best Innovation Suggestions
This is your opportunity to help identify proven, market-ready innovations to enhance highway safety, shorten transportation project delivery time, cut traffic congestion, and improve environmental sustainability. Your ideas could be included in the roster of Every Day Counts round five (EDC-5) innovations that transportation stakeholders will collaborate to implement in 2019 and 2020. See the EDC-5 Call for Ideas web page for information on submitting suggestions and send ideas to EDC-5sugggestions@dot.gov by January 18, 2018. Contact Julie Zirlin of the FHWA Center for Accelerating Innovation with questions. |
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