The Federal Investment in Highway Research, 2006-2009 Strengths and Weaknesses - Special Report 295 (2008) / Chapter Skim
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3 Highway Research Programs Funded Under Title V
3 Highway Research Programs Funded Under Title V
Pages 28-79
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From page 28... ...
, authorized $14 million annually for advanced research, or "longer-term, higher-risk research with potentially dramatic breakthroughs for improving durability, efficiency, environmental impact, productivity, and safety (including bicycle and pedestrian safety) aspects of highway and intermodal transportation systems." This compares with an authorization of $1 million annually for advanced research under the previous authorization.
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From page 29... ...
in January 2007. The BAA solicited preproposals for "research and development projects that could lead to transformational changes and truly revolutionary advances in highway engineering and intermodal surface transportation in the United States." Eligible topics in the first BAA included highway safety, planning and environment, transportation policy, traffic congestion, highway infrastructure, and crosscutting topics.
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From page 30... ...
TABLE 3-1 Exploratory Advanced Research Program, Round 1 Awards as of July 2008 Topic Institution Intelligent Multi-Sensor Measurements to Enhance Vehicle Auburn University, GPS and Vehicle Navigation and Safety Systems Dynamics Laboratory Intersection Control for Autonomous Vehicles University of Texas, Austin Next Generation of Smart Traffic Signals University of Arizona, ATLAS Center Development and Evaluation of Selected Mobility University of California, Berkeley, Applications for Vehicle–Infrastructure Integration PATH Program Institute of Transportation Studies Development of Soil Stiffness Measuring Device for Pad Colorado School of Mines, Division Foot Roller Compactor of Engineering Development and Demonstration of Systems-Based University of Central Florida, Monitoring Approaches for Improved Infrastructure Department of Civil and Management Under Uncertainty Environmental Engineering High-Performance Stress-Relaxing Cementitious Composites Texas Transportation Institute for Crack-Free Pavements and Transportation Structures Increased Understanding of Driver Visibility Requirements Science Applications International Corporation Layered Object Recognition for Pedestrian Collision Sensing Sarnoff Corporation
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From page 31... ...
, addressing pavements and structures, is a central and long-standing area of FHWA research activity. The "ultimate goal of FHWA's pavement research and development is to provide performance-based models and tools to facilitate effective management of the national highway infrastructure."1 The structures programs are intended to result in four outcomes: • Outcome 1: Highway structures are designed, constructed, and reha bilitated with standards and materials that provide longer and more reliable performance.
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From page 32... ...
FHWA's pavements and structures programs and SHRP 2's Renewal Program are described below. Pavements FHWA pavements RD&T includes three designated programs and two significant earmarks.
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From page 33... ...
, and improved aggregates used in highways on the National Highway System. In total, these suballocations account for approximately 65 percent of IPRD funds, leaving some flexibility within the overall IPRD framework.
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to the Western Research Institute to conduct, as the title suggests, research on the fundamental properties of asphalts and modified asphalts. The Asphalt Research Consortium earmark (about $6.2 million annually)
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From page 35... ...
The resulting LTBP database is expected to provide high-quality, quantitative performance data for highway bridges that will support improved designs, improved predictive models, and better bridge management systems. The IBRD Program was established to encourage highway agencies to accept more rapidly the use of new and innovative materials and technologies or practices in the construction of highway structures.2 The intent of the program is to promote, demonstrate, evaluate, and document the application of innovative designs, materials, and construction methods in the construction, repair, and rehabilitation of bridges and other structures.
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From page 36... ...
ILLUSTRATIVE RESEARCH BENEFITS Prefabricated Components Manufacturing steel and reinforced concrete components off site for bridges and tunnels is nothing new. Today, however, the task of reconstructing or replacing heavily used highway facili ties has expanded the use of prefabricated components in some startling ways.
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From page 37... ...
Used on the project, the precast bents cut construction time from 18 months to just over 3 months. As part of a massive project to replace the San Francisco– Oakland Bay Bridge, the California Department of Transportation and the Bay Area Toll Authority needed to replace a 350-foot, four-lane viaduct section on Yerba Buena Island.
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From page 38... ...
Under the UHPC Research Program, additional work is being conducted to further characterize the material and assess its corrosion-resistance properties while addressing its use in other structural components, including precast bridge deck panels and prestressed I- and bulb-tee girders. The HPS Bridge Research and Technology Transfer Program is a broad-based effort aimed at resolving a number of issues and concerns with respect to the design, fabrication, erection, and long-term performance of both conventional and high-performance steels.
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From page 39... ...
Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory has developed new concrete formulations that retain the necessary strength and durability properties and allow for concrete construction at temperatures as low as 23°F. This significantly reduces construction costs compared with insulation techniques and can extend the construction season in cold-weather regions.
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SHRP 2 Renewal Program SHRP 2 is funded by FHWA and administered by the Transportation Research Board (TRB)
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until passage of the Technical Corrections legislation in June 2008, which shifted the program's funding to Title I The governance structure for the program is designed so that stakeholders set the program direction and approve research funding.
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Thus SHRP 2 is in a gray area -- an earmark by one definition, but not by the definition used by the association representing the scientific community. ILLUSTRATIVE RESEARCH BENEFITS Visualization, Global Positioning Systems, and Other New Tools for Design and Construction For more than 20 years, highway engineers have used two dimensional computer-aided drafting and design systems to speed the design process and reduce its cost.
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From page 43... ...
This section reviews the operations RD&T programs of FHWA's Offices of Operations and Operations RD&T and the SHRP 2 Travel Time Reliability Program. FHWA's Offices of Operations and Operations RD&T In May 2006, the Secretary of Transportation stressed the importance of improving operational performance by issuing a National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America's Transportation Network (USDOT 2007)
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From page 44... ...
In alignment with SAFETEA-LU and the Secretary's congestion initiative, FHWA has grouped its operations-related RD&T activities -- including those in ITS -- into the following priority areas: • Reducing recurring congestion,5 • Reducing nonrecurring congestion,6 • Improving global connectivity by enhancing freight management and operations, and • Creating a foundation for 21st-century operations. RD&T activities in the first of these areas, reducing recurring congestion, range from the development of a traffic signal timing manual to the scanning of travel demand management practices in Europe.
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Each is described in turn below. This is followed by a discussion of the SHRP 2 Travel Time Reliability Program.
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From page 46... ...
FHWA supports congestion pricing through various means, including funding research to assess the impact of road pricing on vehicle throughput, sponsoring congestion pricing workshops, developing primers on congestion pricing techniques and experiences, and providing state and local governments with a central source of information on pricing strategies and techniques. Through the Value Pricing Pilot Program, FHWA has worked with agencies in more than a dozen states to demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of congestion pricing on transportation facilities.
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From page 47... ...
To aid in training personnel for effective TIM, the National Highway Institute is offering a course for emergency responders on the use of incident command systems during highway incidents. To further the adoption of comprehensive and multijurisdictional approaches to incident management, FHWA is working through the National Traffic Incident Management Coalition (NTIMC)
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From page 48... ...
Electronic Freight Management One of the reasons given for the Secretary's congestion initiative is that delays and unreliability are so pervasive in the transportation system that they are threatening the productivity of the freight supply chain on a national level. FHWA's Office of Freight Management and Operations, within the Office of Operations, has responsibility for numerous freightrelated activities within FHWA, including those related to freight forecasting and research, the promotion of cost-effective infrastructure for freight, and border-crossing issues and technologies.
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From page 49... ...
Monitoring systems and information dissemination technologies are providing travelers with better information about traffic incidents, which allows those who can do so to choose alternative routes or travel times. Electronic information is making the collection of tolls and parking fees more efficient for both agencies and travelers.
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, and other government agencies will be examined. SHRP 2 Travel Time Reliability Program The $18 million SHRP 2 Reliability Research Program targets the variability of travel time, which affects how much time is needed to reach a destination and how much extra time drivers must allow to arrive within a
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From page 51... ...
All contracts are competed and awarded in full and open competition. The travel time reliability research plan is based on four themes that provide context for individual projects: • Data, metrics, analysis, and decision support; • Institutional change, human behavior, and resource needs; • Incorporating reliability in planning, programming, and design; and • Fostering innovation.
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From page 52... ...
An archival system will be developed to support transportation agencies at all levels in monitoring travel times and related reliability measures, developing and using performance measures and models, and evaluating actions to control and mitigate nonrecurring congestion. A guidebook will help practitioners establish reliability monitoring programs.
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From page 53... ...
Incorporating Reliability in Planning, Programming, and Design The data, tools, and information about institutional and human behavior developed in the above two areas will need to be consolidated and incorporated into the planning, programming, and design processes used by transportation agencies to improve traffic conditions and reduce and mitigate nonrecurring congestion. Currently, the technical procedures needed to incorporate mobility and reliability performance measures into the transportation investment process are not available, and as a result, the effects on traditional capital expenditures of short- and longterm strategies aimed at achieving improved reliability cannot be determined.
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From page 54... ...
Yet many technological, social, and institutional developments are occurring and will continue to do so; thus highway operations must be capable of functioning in new environments and even of generating these environments. Research in this area will focus on fostering innovative thinking that can form the foundation for long-term reductions in nonrecurring incidents and improvements in travel time reliability.
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From page 55... ...
Included in this amount are two earmarks totaling about $1.3 million annually in FY 2007–2009 (a third earmark for $700,000 in FY 2006 was for 1 year only)
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From page 56... ...
to improve the quality of public involvement, the ramifications of various new financing techniques, strategies to better link land use and transportation planning, opportunities for metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to work together, analysis of causes of border congestion, quantification of the costs of border delay, digital mapping of the National Highway System, and case studies of the economic development consequences of rural highways.
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From page 57... ...
Planning Congestion 1 750,000 Safety Planning 1 100,000 Freight Planning 1 100,000 Public Involvement, Environmental Justice, Visualization 1 375,000 in Planning Other Activities That Support State/Local/Tribal Planning 9 2,425,000 Capacity Building U.S./Canada and U.S./Mexico Border Planning 2 400,000 National Security, Defense, and Interstate Planning 3 300,000 Environment Air Quality and Global Climate Change 4 1,148,500 Water, Wetlands, Vegetation, Wildlife Habitat, Brownfields 8 1,070,000 Historic Preservation 2 225,000 Bicycle/Pedestrian and Health 1 70,000 Noise 1 200,000 Outdoor Advertising Control/Realty Program Management 4 300,000 Environmental Streamlining/Stewardship 5 1,663,500 Context-Sensitive Solutions 2 500,000 Tools to Support Planning and Environment Travel Modeling 1 730,000 Geographic Information Systems/Spatial Information for 6 400,000 Improved Decision Making Program Management and Outreach 3 1,000,000 Associate Administrator for Planning, Environment, 659,491 and Realty Total 55 12,416,491 communication, evaluation of new emission models, and analysis to support project-level emissions estimates. In the Water, Wetlands, Vegetation, Wildlife Habitat, Brownfields area, possible activities include technical exchange of research and other information with professionals; support for a best management practices storm water database; collaboration on research with other federal agencies; development, compilation, and sharing of the latest informa
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From page 58... ...
• Crumb rubber from old tires, for example, has received increased acceptance as an additive for selected hot-mix asphalt pavement mix designs, and a number of patents have been issued concerning the production and design of "crumb rub ber" or "asphalt rubber" pavements. Several states, notably California and Arizona, use asphalt rubber hot mix as an over lay for distressed flexible and rigid pavements and as a means of reducing highway noise.
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From page 59... ...
NAPA reports that asphalt pavement is the most recycled material in the country. SOURCE: Skinner 2008.
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From page 60... ...
Technical Tools Funding provided for travel modeling will support the outreach components of the Travel Model Improvement Program, which include training; technical assistance; development of case studies of best practices; support for peer exchanges on modeling topics; and mechanisms to share information through websites, reports, brochures, and workshops. The funding will also support follow-up work to respond to the recommendations made with regard to improvements to travel models and modeling practice in Metropolitan Travel Forecasts: Current Practice and Future Direction (TRB 2007)
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From page 61... ...
"Fully integrated" meant that the program would result in earlier and more complete consideration of all important community, environmental, economic, and other issues in the planning process for highway capacity expansion. When the Capacity Program was reduced to $18 million over 4 years in SAFETEA-LU, the TCC overseeing the program had to start over; the reduced funding would not have been sufficient to allow for the envisioned levels of process and technological innovation.
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From page 62... ...
about $12 million annually for the SHRP 2 Safety Research Program. FHWA's safety RD&T activities were reduced by about 30 percent between TEA-21 and SAFETEA-LU.
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9 To ensure that federal efforts are coordinated, FHWA works closely with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has primary responsibility for driver- and vehicle-related contributing factors, and FMCSA, which has responsibility for truck crashes.
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MDOT determined that for long-distance installation on rural Interstates, cable barriers are a more cost-effective safety device than concrete barriers or guardrails. When a cable barrier is struck, the posts yield, and the cable deflects up to 12 feet, effectively catching and decelerating the vehicle and keeping it in the median.
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From page 65... ...
Pedestrians Through the Pedestrian Safety Program, FHWA works to raise the quality of pedestrian facilities -- for example, by offering technical assistance in the development of pedestrian safety action plans with the potential to have immediate results. The program is also aimed at ensuring that engineers are educated about pedestrian safety and accommodation so they will consistently incorporate these considerations into the design of pedestrian facilities.
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From page 66... ...
No single technique can effectively accomplish the goal of reducing speed-related fatalities and injuries. Accordingly, the Speed Management Strategic Initiative was developed jointly with the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration and FMCSA in 2005.
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From page 67... ...
Despite the known importance of driver error as a cause of crashes, understanding of behaviors associated with this risk has been lacking, in large part because of the difficulty of conducting such research. The development of in-vehicle technologies to monitor behavior, coupled with successful pilot studies employing these technologies and demonstrating approaches to data management and risk measures, has opened up an entirely new and promising area of highway safety research.
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From page 68... ...
In addition to supporting research, the office collects, analyzes, and distributes highway-related data; provides access to international sources of information on highway practice and research; initiates key policy reports on the condition and performance of highways that inform decisions about total levels of funding needed for the federalaid highway system and provide the technical basis for federal highway taxes on various classes of highway users; develops analytical tools and data systems for policy development and studies; conducts analyses and studies to support the formulation of transportation policy and legislative initiatives; and monitors and forecasts economic, demographic, and personal and commercial travel trends. Policy research at FHWA is an important but relatively small-scale activity within FHWA's overall RD&T activities.
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From page 69... ...
The Office of Policy and Governmental Affairs has several "product lines" that are well known and relied on by professionals working in transportation policy. Perhaps best known is the semiannual Status of the Nation's Highways, Bridges, and Transit: Conditions and Performance.10 These reports to Congress are relied upon for several purposes, including the development of estimates of the funding levels for surface transportation reauthorization legislation.
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From page 70... ...
70 The Federal Investment in Highway Research 2006–2009: Strengths and Weaknesses ILLUSTRATIVE RESEARCH BENEFITS Roundabouts -- A Successful Innovative Technology As a result of exposure to new designs and research results during an international scan, U.S. practitioners became excited about the potential of modern roundabouts to improve traffic flow and safety.
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The Office of Policy and Governmental Affairs is involved in international activities as well. These include seeking out and sharing information about innovations and practice throughout the world that would be useful to FHWA and the states.
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the funding for this program has grown sharply over the last three authorization cycles to the point where it represents a significant portion of the total research authorized under Title V, and therefore an important share of the total highway research funded by Congress. The UTC Program was initiated under the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987, which authorized $10 million annually for the establishment and operation of transportation centers in each of the 10 federal regions.
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These schools recompeted in FY 2006 and will compete on a 4-year cycle. They are authorized to receive $1 million annually.
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In reviewing the UTC Program, RTCC identified three significant issues: (a) relevance, (b)
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From page 75... ...
The Technical Corrections legislation increased authorized funding for program administration and UTC evaluation to about $1.15 million annually for FY 2008 and 2009. The main mechanism for ensuring the relevance of the UTC Program is the matching requirement: as noted, both competitively selected and earmarked schools funded through Title V must match federal funding on a one-to-one basis.
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. Second, FHWA is unable to influence the direction of UTC programs because it has almost no resources to provide as matching funds.
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19 Contract authority for the Title V UTC Program in FY 2006 was about $61 million annually (lower than the authorized amount of more than $70 million) , and the funds were not divided evenly since national centers were authorized to receive $3.5 million, regional centers $2 million, Tier I centers $1 million, and Tier II centers $500,000.
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From page 78... ...
Yet the researchers allowed to compete are typically restricted to the center's faculty or universities that make up its consortium.20 RITA requires UTCs to have a peer or merit review process for awarding their research funds, but it does not require that the funds be competed outside of the home institution or consortium. REFERENCES Abbreviations AAAS American Association for the Advancement of Science FHWA Federal Highway Administration FTA Federal Transit Administration GAO Government Accountability Office TRB Transportation Research Board USDOT United States Department of Transportation AAAS.
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From page 79... ...
29, 2008. National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.
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