by Dennis C. Judycki and Arthur
E. Hamilton
One of the guiding principles of the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA), as defined in the FHWA National Strategic Plan, is to "be
an international leader in researching, developing, and advancing
technology to ensure the most efficient, effective, and environmentally
sensitive intermodal transportation system." The plan further
states, "Technology deployment will be a key factor to accomplish
strategic objectives in all goal areas." That means that we must
leverage technology and innovation to improve processes and services
for a wide range of highway-related areas, including policy, planning,
environment, design, safety, construction, maintenance, system management,
and operation.
The agency can be successful only if its internal offices are working
together in harmony. The FHWA offices with an active role in technology
development and deployment include the core business units; the service
business units; the resource centers; and our chief delivery and deployment
component, the division offices. Success requires each office to contribute
and to work in unison with its internal and external partners.
About two years ago, FHWA restructured its organization and realigned
associated roles to continuously raise the state of the art through
collaborative research and to raise the state of the practice through
technology delivery and putting innovations into action.
Because of their agency roles and responsibilities, two organizations
within FHWA are fostering a long-standing, internal FHWA partnership
that provides a very special opportunity for research and technology
delivery to our customers. The
Research, Development, and Technology Service Business Unit (RD&T)
and the Federal Lands
Highway Core Business Unit (FLH) have a rich history and a continuing
program of internal partnering to enhance the delivery of FHWA research.
RD&T has the responsibility to serve the agency and our external
partners with research and development in infrastructure, safety,
and operations and intelligent transportation systems. And because
of FLH's role for the design and construction of highways on government
property, FLH is a unique, internal customer for the operational testing,
evaluation, and application of state-of-the-art research practices
and products. This internal "twinning" relationship has
served FHWA very well for decades, providing robust technical staff
synergy, complementary knowledge-sharing and teaming, and an exceptional
opportunity for an FHWA "laboratory" spanning the innovation
process from research to application.
As we look to the future, we see an even stronger partnership. With
its laboratories at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research
Center, RD&T
strives to become increasingly indispensable and connected to its
customers and partners. FLH has established a technology team that
is focused on improving the opportunities for the application of advanced
practices, procedures, and products. And the desired outcome of an
RD&T-FLH workshop that will be conducted later in 2001 is a joint
plan of action that identifies and prioritizes unique research and
innovation delivery opportunities.
The bottom line, of course is putting effective innovation into practice.
The RD&T-FLH internal partnership continues to be very special
and almost unique, but it also provides an outstanding example for
others to model.
We are pleased that this article highlights some of our collaborative
projects and mentions some of our outstanding staff whose collaboration
and expertise are making this internal partnership a success.
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Cooperate &
Graduate
Dennis
C. Judycki is the director of research, development, and technology
for the Federal Highway Administration.
Arthur
E. Hamilton is the program manager for the Federal Highway Administration's
Federal Lands Highway Core Business Unit.
Other
Articles in this Issue:
Learning
to Beat Snow and Ice
Safe
Plowing - Applying Intelligent Vehicle Technology
Improving
Roadside Safety by Computer Simulation
Using the Computer and DYNA3D to Save Lives
LS-DYNA: A Computer Modeling Success Story
Preservation
of Wetlands on the Federal-Aid Highway System
Internal FHWA Partnership Leverages Technology and Innovation
New
Applications Make NDGPS More Pervasive
Center
for Excellence in Advanced Traffic and Logistics Algorithms and Systems
(ATLAS)
National
Work Zone Awareness Week (April 9 to 12) - Enhancing Safety and Mobility
in Work Zones