Institute for Transportation

About the research

The objective of BTS-24 is to develop a practical toolkit that can help redefine stakeholder engagement during the development of safety plans, interventions, programs, projects, and policies, so that outcomes focus on multisolving decision-making and implementation. The desired outcomes are to develop a guide to promote and facilitate diverse, cross-sectoral groups to collaborate on multisolving decision-making and implementation.

The team has broken this down into three specific goals:

1. Explain the Safe System and multisolving: Provide background informational materials that help practitioners such as planners, engineers, and law enforcement officers understand their occupational roles in the Safe System and multisolving transformation
2. Make safety a fundamental part of the planning process: Identify data sources, analysis tools, and techniques that support Safe System and multisolving approaches applicable to various stages of the safety planning, policy development, and implementation processes, and provide information on how these resources can support integrating safety with agency workflows
3. Support interdisciplinary collaboration: Develop frameworks (and supporting tools or templates) to facilitate interdisciplinary local safety reviews designed to support broader crosscutting safety, transportation, health, environmental, and social goals

About the research

This research aims at addressing the problems and needs identified by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program regarding the ability of state transportation agencies to implement timely, well-funded maintenance programs, especially for ancillary assets. This warrants decision-support materials and tools for a data-driven maintenance program applicable to various non-pavement-and-bridge asset classes.

This research will primarily focus on developing a practical tool that transportation agencies can utilize to accurately estimate and justify their funding needs for maintenance and preservation of transportation assets. The tool will enable agencies to do the following:

• Quantify the optimal annual costs for maintaining different asset classes in a state of good repair over their life cycle. This includes analyzing the impacts and costs of deferring or delaying maintenance activities.
• Compare maintenance strategies and scenarios to determine the most cost-effective approach for achieving the desired asset condition levels within available budget constraints.
• Produce visualized reports and summary outputs that effectively communicate maintenance and preservation funding needs to technical and non-technical audiences, including decision
  makers.
• Provide a flexible framework that agencies can adapt to their specific asset inventories, condition assessment methods, and data availability for both existing assets and future system expansion.

The tool and supporting research will enhance agencies’ ability to develop comprehensive transportation asset management programs (TAMPs) and state highway improvement programs. It will also facilitate data-driven investment decisions that minimize life-cycle costs and optimize system performance across all asset classes.

About the research

State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) employ risk management, performance management, and process improvement processes across various scales and levels, spanning daily operations to strategic planning.

Because of the substantial overlap between these three disciplines, state DOTs stand to gain significant advantages from a comprehensive framework that seamlessly integrates these disciplines. This framework will establish a clear and cohesive connection between performance management, risk mitigation, and process improvement, exposing the similarities, differences, overlap, and disjoint. Identifying commonalities will reduce processes’ redundancies, providing financial benefits. Furthermore, by creating a common language, communication among diverse stakeholders will be fostered, including asset owners, performance managers, and process champions. Since communication is key to success, the integration of these disciplines will enhance agency efficiency and improve decision-making processes. Ultimately, this framework will ensure the judicious allocation of resources, contributing to the overall success and effectiveness of DOTs.

About the research

State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are making fundamental changes in the delivery of project plans and specifications to contractors and how they estimate project costs. While DOTs are making changes, the construction industry is changing, as is the world. This is impacting everything from the way business is conducted, technology, value and belief systems, work-life balance, and the impact of humans. Each of these impacts the cost of a project and therefore the cost estimating process.

The goal of the research is to deliver material for an updated edition of the AASHTO Practical Guide to Cost Estimating (PGCE). To do this, the research team will synthesize reports on the state of-the-art practices used by agencies, with an emphasis on how emerging technologies may support estimation. Equally importantly, they will identify reported limitations related to the technologies and estimation workflows to help agencies understand the ways in which emerging technologies may not be fully reliable and where it may be necessary to involve manual double-checks to ensure accurate results. This approach will provide an easy-to-understand PGCE for practitioners. It should also support future researchers considering innovative strategies related to estimating.

About the research

Data is the fuel of the modern world, powering informed decisions, driving innovation, and shaping our understanding of everything from driver behavior to traffic operations itself. The
objective of this research is to empower agencies by developing two technical reports focused on improving data subsystems and data management plans within their traffic management systems (TMSs). Currently, information available to agencies is often limited, hindering an agency’s ability to establish a long-term vision and decision-making process for improvements to their TMS data subsystem. The research will delve into the unique considerations of data management within TMSs, ensuring practical and relevant recommendations for agencies. Through these practitioner-focused research products, agencies will better understand the opportunities and considerations when improving their TMS data subsystem and corresponding data management plans.

About the research

Section 9 of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) LRFD Bridge Design Specifications (BDS) provides designers with requirements for the analysis and design of various bridge decks and deck systems for multiple types of bridges. Section 9, in the current AASHTO LRFD BDS, primarily addresses the design of bridge decks using three material types: concrete, metal (steel and aluminum), and timber. A review of the current and previous AASHTO LRFD BDS shows that no significant changes were made to the content through these different versions and interim revisions. In other words, the requirements for the analysis and design of bridge decks and deck systems have not been comprehensively updated since the adoption of the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) methodology in 1994. With advancements in materials, design methodologies, and the completion of extensive research over this period, a plan is needed to modernize the bridge deck design specifications. This plan includes the incorporation of new materials research, an evaluation of methods used in other bridge deck design codes, and bridge deck design philosophies that are more centric on service life rather than strength.

About the research

This research project seeks to develop guidance on updating the Signal Timing Manual (STM) to incorporate the results of research products developed after the publication of the second edition (STM2). The research will evaluate the current manual content and structure and develop a portfolio of content centered around an updated third edition (STM3). In addition to integrating new technical content, this research will establish a roadmap for future long-term maintenance of the STM as a document to serve as a knowledge base for traffic signal timing, by investigating how the STM is currently used, identifying the audiences for the manual, and whether this user base has additional needs that can be better served with refinement of the document.

About the research

State departments of transportation (DOTs) and other transportation organizations have a wealth of data. This data is stored in multiple environments and formats and is accessible by various methods. Some of these environments easily integrate, while others require complex programming. At times, the cost of this integration outweighs the potential benefit.

This research aims to develop a guide for enterprise data warehouse (EDW) development and best practices to support DOT business needs. While many warehousing technologies can be chosen and implemented, from SAS to Snowflake, for example, many of these can meet the basic needs of a DOT. What gets overlooked when deploying an enterprise data environment is not directly related to the technology. This research will not only look at technology and traditional data governance practices but address how best practices in services/APIs, software ecosystems, security of data and systems, and the culture of an organization complement a thriving data ecosystem.

About the research

The project will gather information about factors that encourage speeding, speed reduction strategies, and how agencies holistically address speed management. This will be accomplished through a formal literature review and a survey of agencies, followed by several workshops that will engage diverse teams to generate insights into factors and behaviors that encourage speeding. Building on this, the research team will first develop an outline and then fully develop an Integrated Strategies for Speed Management Framework (ISSMF) guidebook. It is anticipated that the ISSMF will be patterned as a guidebook to assist state Departments of Transportation (DOTs), transportation agencies, and their partners in accessing tools and strategies to manage excessive speeds. The guidebook will also provide strategies to overcome institutional barriers in various communities with the help of strategic partners (e.g., county public health departments, local hospitals, local news media, enforcement,
and judication).

The guidebook will provide developed, integrated strategies for the speed management framework. These strategies will be flexible enough to deal with and address issues such as global pandemics and any siloed funding of the disconnected parts of the system, as well as provide an increased awareness of social inequities in transportation safety and access to transportation, along with technological breakthroughs. The guidebook will include development of speed modification factors (SMF) when sufficient information is available for a particular countermeasure. SMFs will be developed using a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing studies.

About the research

The objective of this research is to develop recommendations for effective bridge construction requirements that align with current bridge design and construction methods to provide clear expectations and minimize ambiguity. As part of the preliminary study on the Evaluation and Updating of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) LRFD Bridge Construction Specifications (BCS Report 2021), two partners of the research team conducted a comprehensive survey of state transportation agencies (STAs) and other public owners to understand how they are currently using the AASHTO LRFD BCS. The specific objectives were to determine the use of the document, a review of the document contents, the development of a prioritized approach for reorganizing and maintaining the document, and the development of prioritized recommendations for updating the document. The study concluded that the AASHTO LRFD BCS is being used by many STAs on a regular basis, justifying future updates and maintenance.