Quality,
Safety, & Reliability:
Maintaining
the Highway Infrastructure
of the Future
By Vince
Schimmoller
With $1
trillion invested in highway and bridge infrastructure nationwide, the
United States enjoys the best transportation system in the world. Having
built that system and with our expansion days largely behind us, our
biggest challenge now in the 21st century is to preserve the quality
of our national investment. Key aspects of that vital quality maintenance
include:
- Improving
rideability by building smoother pavements.
- Minimizing
delays caused by work zones and making work zones safer for both road
workers and the traveling public.
- Reducing
the number of deficient bridges.
The Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA) is working with our State department of
transportation partners to address these key goals on several fronts.
Our pavement smoothness initiative, for example, has produced two videotapes,
Smoother Pavements: Highways Fit for a King and Smoother Roads Playbook,
which detail how to achieve smoother asphalt and concrete pavements,
respectively. The videos demonstrate how such techniques as using smoothness
clauses in highway contracts; maintaining a continuous, uninterrupted
paving process; and more accurately monitoring pavement conditions once
the road is in place can have a tremendous impact on the quality of
the roads we drive on.
Ultra-smooth
pavements bring the added benefit of lasting longer and requiring less
maintenance, which means fewer traffic disruptions caused by work zones
and less exposure for highway workers to the hazards of traffic. Maintenance
operations are also being improved through such varied practices as
using temporary road closures to complete road work faster and enhancing
public information programs that encourage motorists to use alternate
routes during construction. By improving maintenance operations, we
can better satisfy our customers, who have told us that they want construction
and reconstruction work to be completed in a more timely fashion. Our
goal should be to get crews into a work zone, accomplish the work as
quickly and efficiently as possible, and then get out and stay out.
In the
area of bridges, new materials and construction techniques are being
used to build stronger, more durable structures that require fewer repairs.
High-performance concrete (HPC), for example, is made using the same
basic materials as conventional concrete, but the proportions and curing
conditions are engineered to produce concrete mixes that meet the requirements
of specific bridge projects. Bridges that are being built with HPC are
expected to last twice as long as conventional bridges in certain environments.
Another
promising solution that FHWA and State highway agencies are exploring
involves using high-performance, nonmetallic materials, known as fiber-reinforced
polymer (FRP) composites, in bridge construction, repair, and rehabilitation.
The composites are typically made of such fibers as glass, aramid, and
carbon, as well as polymer resin matrixes. These composite materials
are more corrosion resistant than conventional steel. FRP materials
are also lightweight and easier to handle and install, resulting in
more rapid construction.
Maintaining
a high-quality road system in the future will also increasingly involve
designing roads that fit their physical setting and preserve scenic,
historic, and environmental resources while maintaining safety and mobility.
FHWA's efforts to advance this context-sensitive design (CSD) approach
include cosponsoring "Thinking Beyond the Pavement," an influential
national workshop held in 1998 that led to five State and FHWA Eastern
Federal Lands CSD pilot projects. FHWA will also be cosponsoring an
upcoming September 2001 workshop on "Context Sensitive Highway Design:
Transferring Lessons from Our Collective Experiences."
Recycling
highway materials and using byproduct materials are both growing parts
of the infrastructure equation. The use of recycled asphalt pavement
has become prevalent in many States, and numerous research projects
on other forms of pavement recycling are underway.
As FHWA
moves forward on these many infrastructure initiatives, one of the keys
to success will be our continued partnerships with others in the highway
community, including the Transportation Research Board, State departments
of transportation, industry, metropolitan planning organizations, and
city/local highway agencies. Working together, we can ensure that our
$1 trillion investment will continue to pay dividends for decades to
come.
Vince Schimmoller
is the Deputy Executive Director of FHWA.
Other
articles in this issue:
In
Brief
Highway
Materials Recycling: Partnering for sustainability
Value
Engineering Improves Quality, Cuts Costs
A
new generation of concrete pavement technology
Quality,
Safety, & Reliability:
Maintaining the Highway Infrastructure of the Future
Bridge
study analyzes accuracy of visual inspections
Highway
technology calendar