FHWA R&T Now ~ March 2012~

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A news update of research, technology, and development from the U.S. Department of Transportation 

(USDOT), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) 

GENERAL/ADMINISTRATIVE 

FHWA Begins to Implement SHRP2 

The Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) has been underway since 2007, and over 50 

percent of the research is finished or nearing completion. FHWA, working with the American Association 

of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has targeted seven early products as immediate 

priorities for the Agency to begin leading deployment efforts in 2012. FHWA and AASHTO, with 

assistance from the Transportation Research Board (TRB), are developing implementation plans for these 

joint priority products. The collaborative plans will establish deployment goals, strategies, costs, and 

measures. FHWA program and technical staff are closely engaged in TRB’s SHRP 2 pilots, training, 

workshops, and webinars. This high level of involvement will expedite the transfer of knowledge from the 

researchers to the deployment agents and practitioners and serves to further refine or prepare these products 

for full-scale deployment. 

For more information, contact Margie Sheriff, 202-366-1747, margie.sheriff@dot.gov

ADVANCED RESEARCH 

New Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) Fact Sheet on Preventing Fuel Tax Evasion 

 

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) Program and 

Office of Highway Policy Information, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge 

National Laboratory (ORNL), aims to reduce or eliminate fuel tax evasion schemes. This research 

integrates multiple innovative measures to create the Fuel Tax Evasion Detection System including entirely 

new inline sensors are being developed, and other advances in sensor technology are being integrated to 

combine wireless communications, vehicle tracking, and information analysis. 

A short description of the research project is located at

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/advancedresearch/pubs/12020/index.cfm. 

Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) Program Seeks Expertise on New Topics

To take advantage of a broad variety of scientific and engineering discovery, the Federal Highway 

Administration (FHWA) Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) Program involves traditional and 

nontraditional stakeholders throughout the research process from topic identification and scoping through 

research project evaluation. For new topics, the EAR Program seeks advances in science and engineering 

that could but are not currently being considered in highway research. For example, the EAR Program is 

seeking advances related to 

Virtual Worlds as an Experimental Research Tool – What research groups could address using virtual 

worlds for testing transportation and land use issues to develop data warehouses or synthetic data to 

conduct virtual world experiments? 
Adaptive Materials – What researchers are investigating adaptive materials that could respond to dynamic 

and extreme loading conditions on structures (such as earthquakes, blasts, vehicle impacts, high winds, 

waves or water flow, etc.)? Likewise what adaptive materials could be considered for safety hardware? 

The materials must have the potential for being scalable and cost-effective, which may preclude 

consideration of some materials of interest to the defense industry. 

People with knowledge or interest in these two topics or who want to suggest other topics for the EAR 

Program to consider should contact David Kuehn, 202-493-3414, david.kuehn@dot.gov. 

INFRASTRUCTURE 

Highways for LIFE Technology Partnerships Program Offers Additional Grants to Spur 

Innovation 

FHWA is soliciting for proposals for a fourth round of grants under the Highways for LIFE Technology 

Partnerships Program. The focus of the 2012 Solicitation will be to work with the highway industry to 

accelerate the adoption of promising innovations that have the potential to directly reduce crashes or crash 

severity; or innovations that significantly enhance decisionmaking relative to the deployment of treatments 

to reduce crashes, crash severity, and the understanding of the effectiveness of the treatments. The program 

is intended to fund proven innovations that have been developed to a late-stage prototype with the proof of 

concept well established. Before they would be available for commercialization, these prototypes would 

require further development, testing, and evaluation in a real-world setting. 

The closing date is May 3, 2012. Each grant award may range from $250,000 to $1,000,000 for up to 2 

years of performance. Subject to available funding, FHWA anticipates awarding up to $5 million through 

this solicitation. Competition is open to all sources. International companies may apply. 

To download the solicitation, visit www.grants.gov and search by funding opportunity number: DTFH61-

12-RA-00002. For more information, contact Julie Zirlin, 202-366-9105, julie.zirlin@dot.gov.

SAFETY 

FHWA Releases Update for 2011 Version of Interactive Highway Safety Design Model 

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released version 7.0.1 of the Interactive Highway Safety 

Design Model (IHSDM), a suite of software analysis tools for evaluating safety and operational effects of 

geometric design decisions. This is an update for the 2011 release and will support the American 

Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO’s) Highway Safety Manual (HSM) 

Part C: Predictive Method. Additions include the recently published 2011 AASHTO Policy on Geometric 

Design of Highways and Streets (aka the “Green Book”) to accompany the Policy Review Module and 

Intersection Review Module. The new version also includes an updated Crash Modification Factors per 

HSM Errata for the Crash Prediction Module. The 2011 AASHTO Green Book can now be selected and set 

as the default (either U.S. Customary or Metric, depending on the project units) for IHSDM. 

The 2011 IHSDM release covers two-lane rural highways, multilane rural highways, and urban and 

suburban arterials. It includes six evaluation modules: crash prediction, policy review, design consistency, 

intersection review, traffic analysis, and driver/vehicle. 

The software is available for free download at www.ihsdm.org. 

For more information, please contact Clayton Chen, 202-493-3054, clayton.chen@dot.gov. 

Roadway Safety Data Partnership Capability Assessments Almost Complete 
All but four States have either completed or scheduled their roadway safety data capability assessments. 

The project team anticipates completion of all assessments by the end of April. Following this, we will 

complete a national gap analysis based on common themes across the State assessments. Additionally a 

series of 4 peer exchanges will be held to continue to engage States in the development of action plans and 

identification of opportunities to improve roadway safety data. The project midpoint report (available at 

the website) identified initial common themes including the desire on the part of States t improve their data, 

the need for more coordinated efforts by federal agencies addressing data improvement, a need for 

improved resources related to data management, and identification of the importance of local/regional data 

in roadway safety data programs. 

More information, including the midpoint report, can be found at http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/rsdp/. 

OPERATIONS 

Federal Highway Administration Issues a Presolicitation for Support and Research in the Saxton 

Transportation Operations Laboratory 

This is a Federal Highway Administration presolicitation notice (synopsis) for a full and open competition. 

The Office of Operations Research and Development (R&D) at Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center 

(TFHRC), McLean, Virginia, needs technical support to conduct research, development, test, and 

evaluation activities that meet the growing demands for smoother running transportation systems. 

Go to this solicitation at FedBizOps

RECENT PERIODICALS 

Public Roads—March/April 2012

 

This issue includes: Recruiting the Next Generation; Nurturing the Next Big Thing; Best of the Best: 

America’s Transportation Awards!; Proven Countermeasures for Pedestrian Safety; and Spotlight on 

Benefit-Cost Analysis. 

 

It is available online via http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/12marapr/index.cfm

For more information, contact Paula Magoulas, paula.magoulas@dot.gov.

FOCUS Newsletter March 2012 

The March issue includes: The Place to Go for Bridge Preservation; Redesigning the Bridge: Undated 

Course Offers Comprehensive Training on Bridge Safety Inspections; Don’t Barrel Through Work Zones: 

National Work Zone Awareness Week 2012; Infrastructure Innovation Webinars; A Guide to Conducting 

An Independent Assurance Program; and, Highway Technology Calendar.

The issue is available online via http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/focus/12mar/12mar00.cfm

For more information, contact Lisa Pope, lgpope@woodwardcom.com. 

LTTP Newsletter – Fall 2011 

This issue includes: LTPP Products Online 2.0 "Next Generation"; LTPP Webinar Update; and, In Brief: 

LTPP Meetings at the TRB 91st Annual Meeting.
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/ltppnews/12026.cfm

Links: 

Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/research/

Resource Center: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/resourcecenter/ 

National Highway Institute: http://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/home.aspx

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