FHWA Resource Center
TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYMENT
Solutions/Best Practices
States and their Technology Deployment Projects FY 06 & 07
Technology & Innovation Deployment Phases for Measuring/Tracking Performance
Mendocino County Showcase
The Utah and Florida Division, partnering with the LTAP community and CALTRANS, sponsored, utilizing RC technology deployment funds, the Mendocino County Road System Traffic Safety Review Showcase in Ukiah, CA in October 2004. The project showcased Mendocino County's Road System Traffic Safety Review Program which has delivered a remarkable 42% reduction in vehicle crashes on Mendocino County's low volume roads. The 2 day showcase covered all aspects of a road system Traffic Safety Review program and provided short and long-term support for small counties to return home and immediately implement a similar program. Showcase presentations included a complete overview of the Mendocino County project, grant funding resources, a grant specialist for one-on-one assistance, presentations and distribution of free supporting Sign Management and Asset Management software programs (developed by the NH & Utah LTAP), and a post-showcase support group was created to assist small counties during their implementation period -- all the tools needed to encourage small and rural counties to immediately implement a similar program locally. 188 participants representing 108 local agencies in 42 states plus Puerto Rico attended. 58 percent of the participants indicated they would implement within 1 year. This results of this showcase will have a high level, direct and immediate impact on vehicle crash reduction rates on low volume roads across the country and is in support of the Agency's safety vital few goals and objectives.
Peer Review for Developing Integrated NEPA Procedures
The Tennessee Division, through funding provided by the RC technology deployment funds, provided a venue where professionals from six (6) DOT's presented their best practices from their successful programs in an effort to integrate NEPA into TDOT's project development process. Members of the North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Washington State and Kentucky DOT participated in this exercise in June 2004. The 3-day workshop provided an Environmental Peer Exchange that began with TDOT's challenges in the way they were doing business. The discussions that followed were, "The evolution of the NEPA Integration Process", "Institutionalization", "Agency Coordination", "Streamlining", "Performance Measures" and "Context Sensitive Solutions". This was a major step in TDOT's Environmental Streamlining process. In September 2004, TDOT held another peer exchange that focused on planning and project development. TDOT views these lessons learned as milestones in the evolution of developing their Project Development Process. A few of the potential areas of improvement that TDOT plans to address as a result of these peer exchanges include: 1) Dispute resolution procedures for environmental streamlining; 2) Improved decision-making using GIS; 3) Interagency funding guidance for Environmental Streamlining. These initiatives are all in support of the FHWA's vital few goal to improve the environmental quality of transportation decision making by September 30, 2007 all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Federal Lands Highway (FLH).
Rapid Soil Processor
WYDOT/FHWA Technology & Innovation Project
While the Rapid Soil Processor is not a new technology, it had never been tested in Wyoming. With the help of the Resource Center/Wyoming Division's technology and deployment funds, WYDOT purchased a Rapid Soil Processor and quickly employed it on the US 16 project, which needed extensive density testing on approximately 1.3 million yards of unclassified excavation. The Rapid Soil Processor allows up to 30lbs. of hard soils and tough clays to be processed in fewer than 15 minutes. The use of this technology substantially reduces the time required to develop the family of curves for proctors; the test frequently employed to evaluate soil densities. WYDOT reports that the machine met expectations and is pleased with the performance. While the technology is not as effective in gravely soils such as those found in the Cody area and can be cumbersome to operate, WYDOT believes the value added in time savings thru the use of this technology warrants the acquisition of additional machines and has already purchased a machine for the Gillette area of District 4. WYDOT is also now considering acquiring machines for the other Districts and/or adding the machine to the contractor specifications for appropriate jobs. The testing of rapid soil processor resulted in reduced time and increased efficiency of testing in the field and supports the Agency's congestion mitigation goal by decreasing construction time and costs.
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