Assessing, Coding, and Marking of Highway Structures in Emergency Situations, Volume 1: Research Overview (2016)

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86 C H A P T E R 8 8.1 Intent This chapter is intended to provide an overview of the critical factors that need to be considered when incorporating the recommended assessment process and the accompanying guidelines for coding and marking of highway structures during emergency events into an SHA’s standard oper- ating procedures. To realize the full potential of establishing these uniform methods, a number of organizational issues need to be addressed. This plan will act as a guide to the implementation process across the entire agency as well as with the other emergency response groups at the federal level and in each state. 8.2 Background 8.2.1 More with Less Transportation agencies in the United States are experiencing significant reductions in fund- ing while at the same time being asked to improve the level of service that they provide the traveling public. This situation is highlighted during an emergency event. Whether it is a natural or man-made disaster, in today’s “mobile app” and “social network” world, everyone expects immediate or even real-time information and response. As seen with some of the recent major storm events such as Hurricane Sandy, this can be a tremendous challenge with the potential for dire consequences to occur. A few SHAs have adopted processes for the assessing, coding, and marking of highway struc- tures in the event of emergencies. However, these processes do not provide a uniform means for conducting these assessments, or a common method of coding and marking across all U.S. transportation agencies. Also, these processes do not generally address the different highway structure types, the full range of emergency events, or the range of traffic levels. In addition, many of these processes do not explicitly consider the practices of other organizations that often respond to such emergencies with support and assistance. 8.2.2 First You Plan The guiding principle for this project is “First You Plan.” Encouraging this approach estab- lishes pre-emergency event planning as the top priority within a transportation agency with regard to emergency response. If all of the stakeholders, including the traveling public, under- stand that investing in pre-event planning is required in order to streamline the operational plans and test the lines of communication, then many of the problems can be identified and addressed prior to an actual event. Implementation Plan

Implementation Plan 87 An integral part of the “First You Plan” strategy is the recommendation to assign ownership of each structure and highway segment within the state to an individual at the local level who has knowledge of the day-to-day performance of the structure in question. Given this responsibil- ity, over time this person can develop an in-depth working knowledge of the condition of the structure during a range of weather and traffic conditions. This will support a more knowledge- able and efficient inspection process as compared to someone visiting the structure for the first time under emergency conditions. Since much of the early inspections are visual, these local individuals will not require a high level of training or expertise in order to be of great value. The assigned person should consider training a backup in case the primary person is not available for any reason. 8.2.3 Organizational Change To take full advantage of the recommendations contained in this report, many transportation agencies will have to modify their standard operating procedures for emergency response. Most organizations and people by their nature are resistant to change. The larger the organization, the more difficult (and potentially costly) this can be. However, the “no change” alternative may be the most costly option in the long run, particularly if the emergency response programs are out of date or, in some cases, do not exist. As noted previously, this research was intended to establish uniform processes for conducting structural assessments and to create guidelines for coding and marking structures that can be recognized and adopted by highway agencies and all other organizations that respond to such emergencies. By establishing a national set of processes, all of the transportation agencies will have access to the same knowledge base regardless of their size. This will hopefully lead to a flat- tening of the learning curve and more confidence in making the organizational changes needed to improve the emergency response procedures. This report has been formatted to encourage the adoption of this methodology on a national scale, perhaps through the support of AASHTO. The implementation of any new methodology with this level of importance requires the support of senior management in order to encourage the staff to take the required, reasonable risks associ- ated with modifying the standard operating procedures. Introducing a new methodology requires both technical and organizational leadership—a “team of two” as some have described it. To get the most out of a new methodology, often the business process has to be re-engineered. The staff involved in this process must be encouraged to take risks and be allowed to learn by doing. It is a natural part of the transformational process to make mistakes. The key is to manage everyone’s expectations as progressive improvements are made and to communicate the results. Managing business process re-engineering is not for everyone. There is no one size that fits all. To increase the likelihood of success, each organization must identify early those individuals who tend to thrive in this kind of environment and nurture them to demonstrate the benefits of the new methodology. It will require a team effort along with the support of senior management to implement the new methods. 8.3 Strategic Plan Before discussing specific recommendations for implementing these procedures and guide- lines, the research team would like to briefly discuss the issue of developing a strategic plan to guide the transition. The power of strategic planning comes in the ability to reach consensus on how an organization will look in the future and then working back to the present to identify and prioritize the changes that need to be made.

88 Assessing, Coding, and Marking of Highway Structures in Emergency Situations: Research Overview A major challenge in the development of the required emergency response strategic plan is the coordination that is going to be required with external entities, including the public. It is essential that the plan be coordinated with all appropriate agencies and other states in the region taking into consideration the needs of the traveling public. This will have an impact on the implementation plan; therefore, the two must be developed in harmony and preferably updated on an annual basis. Selecting and appointing the key people responsible for the plan’s implementation early in the process will demonstrate commitment, create buy-in, establish ownership, and provide leadership. Another critical component that has been discussed previously is data management. In many respects, a strategic plan for emergency management in a transportation agency is largely about data and its integration with many of the key workflows that support emergency response. This will become even more important as the use of mobile computing increases. Transportation agencies can reap significant benefits as they become more mobile data driven in many areas of operation. 8.4 Innovation Group One strategy that is being used with success at some transportation agencies is the concept of an “innovation group.” This group’s focus and responsibility is to manage new methodologies/ technologies and the change associated with their introduction into an organization. Gener- ally this group is made up of progressive individuals from a number of departments within the transportation agency. By placing the responsibility for evaluating and introducing new methodologies with an inno- vation group, senior management and vendors can better manage the process. For this group, technology evaluation and adoption is their primary focus and responsibility. They can develop a set of standard procedures for evaluating new methodologies/technologies and decide how best to introduce them into their organization. As mentioned earlier, this group must have permission to learn by doing. All pilot projects will not be a success. This is where the support of management and the ability of the group to demonstrate the return on investment in new methodologies/technologies are critical. The FHWA’s Every Day Counts program is focused on innovation. One of the programs to emerge from this effort is the State Transportation Innovation Councils (STICs) (FHWA 2015). The STICs are reporting significant progress in identifying and implementing innovative meth- ods and technologies across the United States. Funding is available from the FHWA for projects that the STICs identify as being important to their state. 8.5 Implementing the Processes and Guidelines The successful introduction of these processes and guidelines within a transportation agency depends on a number of technical and organizational factors. It is not as simple as replacing the current methods with a new set of published procedures. No matter how much pre-event planning is invested, there will always be unknowns. It will always be difficult to predict how the emergency event is going to impact the structures, the access routes, and the communication networks, which is why the implementation is so critical to success. The assessment procedures and coding/marking guidelines detailed in this report represent the best practices currently available for emergency response, but at the same time the research team

Implementation Plan 89 recognizes that each state may have the need to make changes. One of the primary potential ben- efits of adopting a uniform approach is that, if an event involves multiple states, coordination of the response will be much easier if the same procedures are being used throughout the country. States are urged to consider this during implementation. As noted in the previous section, if an innovation or long-range planning group is available, it would be the likely candidate to develop and manage this implementation plan. This group could start by developing a strategic plan that all of the key stakeholders can review and ulti- mately agree to. There must be a clear, top-down mandate establishing the new methods as the new standard operating procedures. The innovation group should then decide how best to communicate the plan to all involved parties, including the public. This could involve the development of a website that could support both internal and external information sharing as well as the actual inspection, coding, marking, and reporting. Once a strategic plan has been developed, one of the best methods for introducing a new methodology is to use a pilot, or series of relatively small demonstration projects, to better understand what is involved. This report discusses the need for the use of regular mock events to identify the issues related to implementing these procedures as well as the training required under real-world conditions. These should be part of a phased implementation strategy. Once again it is worth mentioning the concept of the “team of two.” The most successful technology implementations typically involve someone who is responsible for managing the technical issues and someone who is managing the organizational side. As noted in a previous section, a coordinated staff training program is essential to the success of the implementation of these methods and guidelines. A detailed training manual has been prepared to facilitate this ongoing process. 8.6 Documenting Results It is always a challenge to take the time to meticulously document the results of the intro- duction of a new methodology or program, but this can prevent others from making the same mistakes and create an important set of “lessons learned.” Sharing results of lessons learned from implementing this assessment process and coding and marking guidelines will be of high value to the community. In addition, new insights are learned with each event that are important to document so they can be implemented in the future. A related report, NCHRP Synthesis 446: Use of Advanced Geospatial Data, Tools, Technologies, and Information in Department of Trans- portation Projects, shows documented lessons are in short supply for transportation agencies but would be of great benefit. Once again, this brings up the issue of being allowed to learn by doing. In fact it can be said that setbacks should be expected, even planned for. In many cases, those involved learn more from failures than when the projects “seem” to be going along smoothly. The level of documen- tation will vary with the complexity of the project, but in general the more detail of the process, the better. Assuming the initial demonstration projects are documented, it is equally important to publish the results to a larger audience. This can be a challenge when the project has problems, but as discussed, others can learn from mistakes. At the very least, the project documenta- tion should be available within the transportation agency, if not to the entire transportation community.

90 Assessing, Coding, and Marking of Highway Structures in Emergency Situations: Research Overview 8.7 Workflow Integration The final step in the implementation plan will be to integrate the new methods and guide- lines into the standard operations of the agency. It may take 6 to 12 months before the key people have been identified, the new methods have been agreed upon, the training and mock events conducted, and all of the potential integration issues, both internal and external, are addressed. The challenge with the integration is that responding to an emergency event is not part of the normal operations of a transportation agency, at least not on a regional or larger scale. This makes it difficult to gain the experience that in many cases can only come from doing. There is only so much that training courses and meetings can accomplish, but at the same time these are needed to maintain a proper state of readiness. It will be up to the leadership team to determine the proper level of contingency planning, training, and education that makes sense for their agency. It would also be important to further study whether the developed process can enable more streamlined collaboration across borders of states to avoid inconsistent data analysis and report- ing caused by human factors or poorly coordinated data collection and processing workflows. On a final note, it is important to encourage all members of the response team to provide their input and feedback on the methods and procedures being employed. The people closest to the work will have the best opportunity to provide this valuable insight. At the same time, there will be the need to maintain a uniform approach. 8.8 Future Opportunities Transportation agencies are transitioning from analogue to digital/mobile workflows. These workflows include the assessing, coding, and marking of highway structures during emergency events. Significant changes in the standard operating procedures of many of the agencies will be disruptive, but at the same time, it is an opportunity to increase pro- ductivity as well as the overall quality of services that transportation agencies can provide. This is certainly true with respect to emergency response where, if it is properly planned and organized, the traveling public can become a valuable source of real-time informa- tion, and mobile computing can significantly improve the level of communication and data processing. As noted previously, the FHWA is encouraging transportation agencies to be more innovative through their Every Day Counts initiative. The program is “designed to identify and deploy inno- vation aimed at shortening project delivery, enhancing the safety of our roadways, and protecting the environment.” For example, research is in progress to design highway structures that use new construction materials (including self-healing materials) and monitoring/inspection methods that are more sustainable and can work with a wider variety of environmental conditions to provide increased safety for the traveling public. Therefore, transportation agencies are going to be presented with the opportunity in the next decade to make use of a number of exciting emerging tech- nologies to better respond to emergency events. This will include mobile computing, wear- able computers, UAVs, three-dimensional laser scanning, satellite communications, real-time instrumentation, smart materials, and many technologies that are currently in research labs. Finally, transportation agencies are well positioned to drive improvements in new technologies and methods. Agencies represent an important market segment for hardware and software vendors. Most of the current technologies are in their first generation. There is significant opportunity to improve the ease of use, the level of systems integration, and data interoperability going forward.