(Slide 1)

Web Conference: Highways for LIFE
September 27, 2005
Speaking: Byron Lord

Greetings and welcome!

My name is Byron Lord, and today I'm representing our FHWA Highways for LIFE team.

Originally, we had wanted to take the time to discuss with you all the reasons why Highways for LIFE is a much-needed approach to the way we do business. I also wanted to emphasize to you the importance in our roles as leaders in the highway community and stewards of the public trust, and how Highways for LIFE can enhance those items.

But we simply don't have the time available to do that. Instead, we've sent you an e-mail with several attachments, and we encouraged you to take a look at the Highways for LIFE website, which provides those same discussions. We've even got a video of Secretary Mineta in there.

So I'm going to take a very few minutes to do the following:

(Slide 2)

Agenda

• What is Highways for LIFE?
• What's in the new law?
• What's our implementation approach?
• Your questions and comments

First, to briefly tell you what Highways for LIFE is.

Second, to tell you what's in the new legislation regarding Highways for LIFE

Third, to tell you what how we perceive the program's working

And, finally, some time - most of it, in fact, for you to give us your questions and concerns. Please be sure to keep your phones muted until we get to the Q&A segment of this Web conference.

Due to the limited amount of time we've got, we're not going to focus on answering questions today as much as simply gathering them up. We will follow up with specific responses to your questions later.

We also plan to meet with representatives from the highway community from OUTSIDE our agency. People like State DOTs, construction contractors, trade associations, consultants, and groups representing the driving public. But before we did that, we wanted to get your input.

(Slide 3)

Participant Locations

Before we get started, though, let's see who we've got on our connection here.

In the upper right-hand corner of the screen, you should see a tool bar.

Select the marking tool.

Please mark your location on this map.

We'll wait a few seconds to see where everyone is... (PAUSE)

Great! Looks like we've got good representation out there. Of course, we don't know how many people are represented by each of those sites, but we DO know that you are pretty well scattered throughout the country.

(Slide 4)

Agenda

• What is Highways for LIFE?
• What's in the new law?
• What's our implementation approach?
• Your questions and comments

Just so we don't get too far ahead of ourselves, let's be sure we know what Highways for LIFE is about. Basically it's this: The agency has determined that we can get highways and bridges built faster, of better quality, and interrupt traffic less during the construction process, build them safer, and have them last longer. And we can also save money doing it.

Here's how we do that:

(Slide 5)

Agenda

What is Highways for LIFE?

1. Identifying great, but underutilized innovations and technologies
2. Getting people to use them... NOW.

Two things:

First, we identify some really great, but underutilized innovations and technologies.

But we've done that for years. There are dozens of innovations out there. The difference with Highways for LIFE is, we need to get the people who need to start using these approaches to do so. Don't wait around ten or twenty years to start using them. Use them NOW.

So that's the second thing in Highways for LIFE: Not just identifying the technologies and innovations, but getting people to use them... NOW.

In very simplistic terms, that's pretty much the story of Highways for LIFE: Identify the really good innovations, then accelerate the technology transfer process. Or, in layman's terms, get state DOTs, contractors, ourselves and others to leap, not creep along in our use of new innovations.

(Slide 6)

What is Highways for LIFE?

• Long lasting highways using Innovative technologies and practices to accomplish Fast construction of Efficient and safe pavements and bridges.
• Long lasting highways using Information technologies and practices to accomplish Funded construction of Efficient and safe pavements and bridges.

I'm curious.

Do you know what LIFE in Highways for LIFE stands for?

On your screen, you'll see two statements.

Using your seating chart, indicate which statement you believe best describes the Highways for LIFE program?

If you think the first statement is accurate, select BLUE (text says SPEED UP) on your seating chart.

If you think the second statement is accurate, select YELLOW (text says NEED HELP) on your seating chart.

Summarize the participants responses

(Slide 7)

"Highways for LIFE"

• Long lasting highways using
  Innovative technologies and practices to accomplish
  Fast construction of
  Efficient and safe pavements and bridges.

The "LIFE" in the initiative's name is an acronym for Long-lasting highways using Innovative technologies and practices to accomplish Fast construction of Efficient and safe pavements and bridges.

(Slide 8)

Agenda

• What is Highways for LIFE?
• What's in the new law?
• What's our implementation approach?
• Your questions and comments

The second item:

Exactly what's in SAFETEA- LU regarding Highways for LIFE? We've sent you an attachment showing what it says, but let's go over it briefly. This will further explain how Highways for LIFE can accomplish those goals of identifying innovations and then accelerating their use.

(Slide 9)

SAFETEA-LU

• Section 1101 - Funding
• Section 1502 - Description

Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users

First, the program is called a "pilot" program, because whatever good comes out of it will hopefully be used as a pattern for the future.

The portion of SAFETEA-LU that includes the Highways for LIFE information is Section 1101, which is all about the funding, and Section 1502, which is the description of the actual program.

(Slide 10)

SAFETEA-LU Sections 1101 and 1502

1. Projects
2. Technology Partnerships
3. Technology Transfer
4. Information Dissemination
5. Stakeholder Input and Involvement
6. Monitoring and Evaluation

It includes these six aspects, and the funding totals $75 million.

1. Projects
2. Technology Partnerships
3. Technology Transfer
4. Information Dissemination
5. Stakeholder Input and Involvement
6. Monitoring and Evaluation

(Slide 11)

SAFETEA-LU Sections 1101 and 1502

1. Projects
2. Technology Partnerships
3. Technology Transfer
4. Information Dissemination
5. Stakeholder Input and Involvement
6. Monitoring and Evaluation

$15 M in 2006, $20 M in 2007-09

You see the breakdown: $15 million in the first year, and $20 million in each of the following years.

(Slide 12)

Highways for LIFE SAFETEA-LU

Projects

• Federal-aid highways

Here are some of the thoughts provided under the topic of projects:

Highways for LIFE funds are eligible for Federal-aid highway projects only.

(Slide 13)

Highways for LIFE SAFETEA-LU

Projects

• Federal-aid highways
• Max of $5M/project, 20% &/or waive State match Max of 15 projects/year

We'll be able to allow up to a maximum of five million dollars per project, but not more than 20% of the project cost. Or a waive of the state match. As you know, typically on projects, federal funds cover either 80 or 90% of the costs and the state is required to pick up the other 20 or 10%. The Highways for LIFE legislation allows States to use the other federal funds provided them to cover that 10 or 20%. Some quick figuring and you can see that some states will prefer the latter approach.

We can have up to fifteen projects per year,

(Slide 14)

Highways for LIFE SAFETEA-LU

Projects

• Federal-aid highways
• Max of $5M/project, 20% &/or waive State match Max of 15 projects/year
• Goal of 1 project per State

... and the overall goal is to have at least one project in each state

(Slide 15)

Highways for LIFE SAFETEA-LU

Projects

• Federal-aid highways
• Max of $5M/project, 20% &/or waive State match Max of 15 projects/year
• Goal of 1 project per State
• Improve safety, reduce construction congestion and improve quality

States have to submit a formal application through their FHWA Divisions, outlining how their proposed project will include innovations that will improve safety, reduce construction congestion AND improve quality.

(Slide 16)

Highways for LIFE SAFETEA-LU

Projects

• Federal-aid highways
• Max of $5M/project, 20% &/or waive State match Max of 15 projects/year
• Goal of 1 project per State
• Improve safety, reduce construction congestion and improve quality
• Innovations and performance standards

And there's an emphasis on performance goals, as well.

(Slide 17)

Highways for LIFE SAFETEA-LU

Technology Partnerships

• Development, improvement and creation of innovations
• Improve safety, accelerate construction, improve quality
• Incentive funding, max of 80%

"Technology Partnerships" is discussed in SAFETEA-LU as well, and it talks about "development, improvement and creation" of innovations.

These innovations can come in such areas as safety, acceleration of construction and quality improvement.

Included is the potential for providing funding of up to 80% of the cost for the innovation.

(Slide 18)

Highways for LIFE SAFETEA-LU

Stakeholder Input and Involvement

• Establish a process to Inform and Involve
• States, industry, highway users, public

Stakeholder input and involvement is something we've been doing since Highways for LIFE's very beginnings, and it appears in SAFETEA-LU as well. It tells us we need to establish a process and gives us some examples of who might be included as "stakeholders."

(Slide 19)

Highways for LIFE SAFETEA-LU

Stakeholder Input and Involvement

• Establish a process to Inform and Involve
• States, industry, highway users, public

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of any activity

Another section, "Monitoring and Evaluation," will be how we make sure what are perceived as successes are really successes, and how successful they are. We're told to monitoring virtually everything.

(Slide 20)

Which of the phrases below represents the biggest change...

[Live Meeting Multiple Choice Poll.]

Before we move on to the next agenda item, I'd like to get a quick audience check.

We've explained the Highways for LIFE portion of SAFETEA-LU.

Which of the phrases on the screen in front of you represents the biggest change brought about by what SAFETEA-LU says about Highways for LIFE, in terms of the way we do business.

• We need to develop some better technologies for building highways.
• We need to be able to get existing innovations into broader use, faster.
• We need to get more money available for projects.
• We need to rebuild the entire Interstate System.

Correct Answer is "2. We need to be able to get existing innovations into broader use, faster."

(Slide 21)

Agenda

1. What is Highways for LIFE?
2. What's in the new law?
3. What's our implementation approach?
4. Your questions and comments

We've covered the elements in SAFETEA-LU. Now, let me go through with you our thoughts on how we need to implement Highways for LIFE.

(Slide 22)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

Stakeholder Input and Involvement
States, Industry, Highway Users

• Inform and Involve
• Help determine "How"
• Support in the implementation
• Build Projects
• Form partnerships
• Sustain the change

In the area of Stakeholder Involvement:

We believe the critical elements include the State DOTs, industry people such as contractors, consultants, equipment suppliers, and the like, and the users - the driving public, the truckers the bus companies, and other affected groups.

These groups and individuals can help us mold the program, they can help us with implementation and actually keep the idea of innovating going long after the pilot program has ended.

(Slide 23)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

Projects

• Target: 15 projects/year + ??
• ~ $500,000 to $1M+/project
• Set Performance Goals for
  • Safety
  • Construction Congestion
  • Quality
• Mix of innovations to meet all Performance Goals

Let's look at the Projects aspect:

To get the 15 projects a year, we're looking at funding around half a million to a million dollars per project. We'll want a State DOT to set its project's performance goals for safety, construction congestion and quality, and the project should include innovations and technologies that respond to all three performance goals, not just one.

(Slide 24)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

Project Performance Goals

• Focused on the highway user
• Set at a high level
• What not How
• Definition, metric and measure
• Questions:
  • Same for all roads?
  • Same for all States?
  • Same for all existing condition?

Here are some critical characteristics that we see for the performance goals for projects:

The need to be focused on the motorist, the highway user;

We're not looking for "good enough," we want high level goals;

We want DOTs to set those goals on what their final result needs to be. End-results based specifications, not method specifications.

As it shows here, we've still got some questions ourselves on these goals: Should they be the same for all roads; for all states, for all existing conditions? Or should we allow modifications according to the state's situation or local conditions?

(Slide 25)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

Technology Partnerships

• Innovation has proven success
  Highway industry, other industries or Internationally
• Adapt for routine highway use
• Industry input

Technology Partnerships is an area where SAFETEA-LU mentions "development, improvement and creation" of technologies and innovations. We believe there needs to be an understanding here that we're not talking about creating or developing new innovations, but rather adapting them to a new application, that of highway use. Highways for LIFE is NOT about research projects.

(Slide 26)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

• Technology Partnerships Innovation has proven success
  Highway industry, other industries or Internationally
• Adapt for routine highway use
• Industry input
• Start in FY 2007

Because of our limited funding, we're proposing not to fund anything in the area of Technology Partnerships until FY 2007.

(Slide 27)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

Technology Transfer

Technology transfer is a major area of Highways for LIFE because, in essence, Highways for LIFE is ALL about T-square, technology applications.

(Slide 28)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

Technology Transfer

1. Market innovations to highway practitioners and managers
2. Introduce and deliver innovations
3. Training and technical assistance

We see three primary areas we want to focus on:

1. marketing those innovations,
2. introducing and delivering them, and
3. providing training and technical assistance.

(Slide 29)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

Technology Transfer

So how do we get technologies and innovations adopted faster?

One thing we can do is look at how we do it now, and then find ways of improving it. The problem is, currently there IS no standard approach.

(Slide 30)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

Technology Transfer

• Safety: Road Safety Audits
• Congestion: Making Work Zones Work Better
• Quality: Prefabricated Bridge Elements & Systems

So we believe the ideal approach is to select an outstanding innovation from each of the three objective areas, or goals - safety, congestion, and quality - and then really focus some attention, time, and money on them.

Do it the best way we can with the level of urgency and involving as many people as we can.

Ultimately, we want to see how quickly we can get those three innovations adopted, and then use those approaches as models for how we do it from now on.

So, working with the directors of the Offices of Safety, Operations, and Infrastructure, we came up with these three technologies as our first push in technology transfer: Road Safety Audits, Making Work Zones Work Better, which is actually a whole suite of technologies aimed at that need, and Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems.

(Slide 31)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

Technology Transfer

• Safety: Road Safety Audits
• Congestion: Making Work Zones Work Better
• Quality: Prefabricated Bridge Elements & Systems
• HfL: Innovation workshops

In addition, we see the need for training in the area of Innovation itself. So we're going to develop some workshops on that theme. We believe training on innovation is important and will contribute to obtaining the Highways for LIFE vision and goals. We want your take on it, as well our State and industry partners.

(Slide 32)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

Information Dissemination

1. States, Industry, Public, FHWA
2. Highways for LIFE
   • Program
   • Projects
   • Success stories
   • Innovations

It's going to be critical that we get the word out on what we're doing, because that's going to influence others. If we communicate our success stories, other potential users of an innovation will be more convinced to use it.

If we tell the public, they're more likely to appreciate the effort the highway community makes on their behalf, as well as, perhaps, putting some pressure on their own state to do what the neighbor state is doing, creating an urgency to take advantage of the benefits of innovation.

(Slide 33)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Gathers information on all program elements
• Improve performance
• Document results and benefits
• Explain the investment

Finally, monitoring and evaluation. Only by keeping up with where we start, where we've gone, and what sort of improvements we've gained, can we show others what true success is. If we claim that an innovation will not just save them time and increase safety but also lower their initial cost, the only way we can convince them will be in having the real details, the numbers.

Another aspect of this, of course, is being able to show our responsibility in being good stewards of the public funds.

(Slide 34)

Highways for LIFE Implementation

• Projects * ~ 60 %
• Technology Transfer * ~ 30 %
• Technology Partnerships * ~ 5 %
• Information Dissemination * and Stakeholder Input & Involvement ~ 5 %

* Including monitoring and evaluation

And here's our estimate of the approximate breakdown of the spending on Highways for LIFE. Sixty percent for projects, thirty percent for technology transfer, and five percent each for technology partnerships and the combined area of information dissemination and stakeholder input and involvement.

(Slide 35)

Agenda

1. What is Highways for LIFE?
2. What's in the new law?
3. What's our implementation approach?
4. Your questions and comments

If you would like to ask the Facilitator a question, please select PURPLE on your Seating Chart

Now... let's take time to hear from you. If you've got specific questions, we'd like to take some of them today, but if we don't get to you, go to our website. I'll provide that web address later.

(Slide 36)

Let Us Hear From You

Visit the NEW Community of Practice Web Site and Participate in the online Discussion

We've had a nice discussion, but I'm sure there are many other questions and concerns we have not heard. We do want to hear from you.

To do that, the Highways for LIFE Team is delighted to announce the grand opening of the new Highways for LIFE Community of Practice web page. And, we invite you to participate often in the discussion threads out on that page.

I'm going to ask one of my colleagues to walk you through the process for using the new web page.

(Slide 37)

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hfl

(Slide 38)

Join the Community!

One can join the site by completing the My Interests page.

Be sure to click each checkbox to ensure that you are notified when content has been added to the site.

(Slide 39)

Next Steps

• External Stakeholders on Oct 4th
• Federal Register Notice on implementation plan

So what's next? We've got a meeting next week with external stakeholders, where we hope to receive more input. We'll gather up all the questions and concerns and provide responses through the Highways for LIFE website. And then we will be submitting our implementation plan via a Federal Register notice. Then, we'll probably be getting even more feedback. From that, we'll develop our plan.

What are the details? Those will be forthcoming as soon as we've gotten a firmer assessment on exactly where we're headed. But be assured that Highways for LIFE is dependent on support from all across the agency. So your office will be involved with it, one way or another.

(Slide 40)

Everyone has a Role in Highways for LIFE

But there's a role for everyone in the agency. And we will be addressing the role you need to play shortly.

(Slide 41)

Highways for LIFE

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hfl/

In the meanwhile, thank you for your attention. And, please send your comments and questions in, using our Community of Practice web page. Again, you can find a link to the Community of Practice web page on the Highways for LIFE web page.

To visit the Highways for LIFE site, use the URL shown on your screen: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hfl/.

(Slide 42)

Contact the HfL Team!

If you have a question or comment that you want to send personally to the Highways for LIFE team, you may send it to HfLT@fhwa.dot.gov.

Thank You!