PUBLIC ROADS

www.fhwa.dot.gov Winter 2020

FHWA’s cooperative driving automation 

CARMA

program is transforming transportation. 

U.S. Department

of Transportation

Federal Highway

Administration

Also in this issue:

Recovering From Hurricane Maria

Advancing TSMO Strategies

FHWA Puts Focus on Technology
Source: FHWA.

CARMASM: Driving Innovation | PAGE 28

Winter 2020 | Vol. 83, No. 4

FEATURES

5 Reaching New Heights

by Hoda Azari, Dennis O’Shea, and Derek Constable

During a 2-year study, FHWA took a closer look at the state of 

practice for unmanned aircraft systems use in bridge inspections. 

9 Coming Back from Disaster

by Fernando Ortiz

After the most devastating hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in recent 

history, FHWA helped the island recover. 

11 Mainstreaming Transportation Systems Management and 

Operations 

by Tracy Scriba, Aaron Jette, and Pepper Santalucia

The current (and future) traveler demands improved reliability and 

efficiency. Is your TSMO program ready to deliver? 

19 Showcasing Highway Research

by Kelley McKinley

FHWA recently put its work on display at an inaugural event to 

highlight innovative technologies.

23 What Does the Changing Face of Electricity Production Mean 

for Concrete?

by Saif Al-Shmaisani and Maria Juenger

With coal production on the decline, the concrete industry is looking 

for alternatives to the use of coal fly ash in concrete mixtures.

28 CARMASM: Driving Innovation

by Taylor Lochrane, Laura Dailey, and Corrina Tucker

FHWA’s cooperative driving automation program is transforming 

transportation.

32 Saluting 50 Years of Transportation Training

by Stan Woronick and Christine Kemker

FHWA’s National Highway Institute celebrates its golden anniversary 

in 2020.

PAGE 39 

© Ryan DeBerardinis / Shutterstock.com.

DEPARTMENTS

Guest Editorial .................................................1

Innovation Corner ..........................................2

Along the Road ............................................36

Training Update ...........................................40

Communication Product Updates .............42

COVERS—Some of FHWA’s vehicles are equipped with Cooperative 

Automation Research Mobility Applications, or CARMA. Passenger 

vehicles, like the ones shown, are designed to communicate with 

each other, roadways, infrastructure, and other vehicles to enable 

cooperative driving automation. The vehicles pictured are equipped 

with the latest version, CARMA3, which is now called CARMASM. See 

“CARMASM: Driving Innovation” on page 28 of this issue of Public 

Roads.

Source: FHWA.
WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 1

U.S. Department of Transportation

Elaine L. Chao, Secretary

Federal Highway Administration

Nicole R. Nason, Administrator

Office of Research, Development, and Technology

David Winter, Acting Associate Administrator

Shana Baker, Director, Office of Corporate 

Research, Technology, and Innovation Management

Maria Romstedt, Editor-in-Chief

Lisa A. Shuler, Distribution Manager

Editorial Board: 

T. Everett, T. Hess, H. Kalla, M. Knopp, 

A. Lucero, G. Shepherd, C. Walker, D. Winter 

Editorial Contractor:

Arch Street Communications (ASC), 

Publication Management 

N. Madonick, A. Jacobi, A. Martinez, 

K. Vangani , C. Ibarra

Editorial Subcontractor:

ICF, Editorial 

C. Boris, A. Sindlinger, J. Sullivan

Design Contractor:

Schatz Strategy Group, Layout and Design 

R. Nemec, L. Sohl, C. Williams

Public Roads (ISSN 0033-3735; USPS 516-690) 

is published quarterly by the Office of Research, 

Development, and Technology, Federal Highway 

Administration (FHWA), 6300 Georgetown Pike, 

McLean, VA 22101-2296. The business and editorial 

office of Public Roads is located at the McLean address 

above. Phone: 202–493–3375. Fax: 202–493–3475. 

Email: lisa.a.shuler@dot.gov. Periodicals postage 

paid at McLean, VA, and additional mailing offices 

(if applicable).

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The Secretary of Transportation has determined that 

the publication of this periodical is necessary in the 

transaction of the public business required by law of 

this department.

All articles are advisory or informational in nature and 

should not be construed as having regulatory effect.

Articles written by private individuals contain the 

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NOTICE

The United States Government does not 

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because they are considered essential to 

the article.

GUEST EDITORIAL

Collaborating for the 

Future of Transportation

Automated vehicle technology holds the promise of improving safety and has the 

potential to transform the Nation’s roadways. A 

key driver for its success is collaboration. 

Automation provides an opportunity for the U.S. 

Department of Transportation, State and local 

leaders, and industry stakeholders to partner in 

new ways to prepare communities and road users 

for the future of transportation.

While the industry explores and tests the 

benefits of automated vehicle technology, the 

Federal Highway Administration is helping to 

facilitate collaboration and equip the owners and 

operators of roadways with information to make 

decisions that will improve safety and mobility for all road users. FHWA is well 

positioned to serve the highway community in this capacity because it works closely 

with transportation agencies in every State, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. 

FHWA plays a key role in providing technical expertise and funding opportunities. In 

addition, the agency promotes the exchange of noteworthy practices and data to 

enhance knowledge on adopting and implementing automated vehicle technologies.

In 2018, FHWA launched a series of listening sessions with key transportation 

stakeholders and innovators in six cities to gather information and to have a better 

understanding of the technologies’ implications for the transportation system. The 

goals of this National Dialogue on Highway Automation were to encourage collaboration and information-sharing and to receive input to inform FHWA actions. The 

sessions focused on planning and policy, digital infrastructure and data, freight, operations, and infrastructure design and safety. Using input from the National Dialogue, 

FHWA is developing resources to support the safe and efficient integration of automated driving systems. For more information, see “Mainstreaming Transportation 

Systems Management and Operations” on page 11 in this issue of Public Roads.

FHWA is also facilitating collaboration in research among diverse stakeholders 

interested in cooperative driving automation applications. Cooperative Automation 

Research Mobility Applications, or CARMASM, is an open-source software platform that 

is available to help advance and refine the communications technology used with 

automated vehicles. CARMA aims to accelerate an understanding of the safety and 

operational benefits of cooperative driving automation by testing new automation 

features. This initiative is providing the research community opportunities to cultivate 

relationships, share expertise, pilot transportation technologies, implement cooperative 

driving automation, and strengthen the transportation industry for public benefit. For 

more information, see “CARMASM: Driving Innovation” on page 28.

Important to these efforts is the multimodal approach USDOT takes under 

Secretary Elaine L. Chao’s leadership. For example, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration is a close partner in FHWA’s research to advance truck platooning 

applications. These applications explore safe, automated truck freight delivery and its 

implications for traffic patterns. Another example is FHWA’s collaboration with the 

Federal Transit Administration to improve safety, access, and mobility for underserved 

populations, including rural communities and people with disabilities, through research 

coordination and the development of the Complete Trips Deployment Program. This 

program enables communities to plan and showcase deployments that apply technology 

and emerging mobility services to expand access and mobility for all. 

To fulfill the promise that automated vehicle technology holds for the future state of 

transportation, it is incumbent upon transportation leaders and innovators to work 

together at all levels. FHWA stands ready to do our part.

Mala Parker

Deputy Administrator

Federal Highway Administration
2 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020

INNOVATION CORNER

From the Center for Transportation Workforce Development:

A VISION TO MEET WORKFORCE DEMANDS

by MARIA ROMSTEDT

The number of projected job openings in transportation fields continues to outpace the number of people completing 

transportation-related education and training programs, and 

a shortage of skilled workers presents a growing concern for 

the industry.

When Karen Bobo became the director of the Center for 

Transportation Workforce Development (CTWD) within the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Innovative Program Delivery (OIPD) in May 2019, she knew the workforce challenges she 

would be facing. Over her 29-year career with FHWA, Bobo has 

been involved in recruitment and mentoring. “As a participant in 

the Highway Engineer Training Program and then as the program 

coordinator, I was coaching and mentoring from the very beginning of my career,” says Bobo.

Bobo has held positions in several FHWA division offices, 

the Office of Federal Lands Highway, and the Office of Human 

Resources. “Every job I’ve had, I have stayed involved in recruitment, coaching peers and students, and talking to the industry,” 

she says. 

Bobo and her team are defining CTWD’s plans to deliver 

initiatives that build awareness of transportation careers and 

improve the development, capability, and diversity of the Nation’s 

transportation workforce. From primary school to professional 

development, the center provides program support, technical 

assistance, and workforce development activities in partnership 

with Federal, State, and local partners; industry organizations; and 

education providers. 

Karen Bobo, director of the Center for Transportation Workforce Development, 

is inside a historic toll plaza office during a visit to the I–74 Mississippi River 

Bridge project.

TAPPING UNTAPPED POTENTIAL Source: FHWA.

Women, African Americans, and Native Americans have been 

historically underrepresented in the U.S. transportation industry. 

Because of the potential for growth, many CTWD programs 

emphasize reaching these groups.

One example is the Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Trans

portation Education Program. CTWD aims to transform the program, which provides grants to State and local education agencies 

to develop and deliver K–12 transportation-related curricula with 

an emphasis on underrepresented groups. 

-

“We’re doing a lot of planning and looking at how we can integrate the Garrett Morgan program into other workforce develop

ment efforts,” Bobo says. “Our goal is to reinvigorate it and ensure 

it is doing what it is designed to do.”

-

Bobo’s vision is to integrate workforce development into education, especially middle school through adult practitioners. That 

means educating students as well as school professionals on transportation career opportunities. CTWD will also work with the U.S. 

Department of Education to identify collaboration opportunities. 

DRAWING ON PARTNERSHIPS

Partnerships are a cornerstone for reaching CTWD’s goals. 

The center’s approach to partnerships includes improving col

laboration with the other centers in OIPD, State departments of 

-

transportation, national transportation organizations, and other 

Federal agencies.

One of the center’s goals is to expand the Highway Con

struction Workforce Pilot, which included 12 partners. The 

program will now be called the Highway Construction Workforce 

Partnership. The partnership program aims to establish relationships between highway construction contractors in need of key 

skill sets (the demand) and the workforce system that identifies 

qualified applicants (the supply).

-

“We’re working to make sure the partnership program meets 

the needs of all organizations through webinars, educational 

pieces, and peer exchanges,” says Bobo. “We’re aiming to expand 

from the 12 pilot partners to having a partnership in all States.” 

“If we don’t have workers, infrastructure projects won’t get 

completed,” she says. “Infrastructure will fail to meet the demands 

of travelers, and our transportation network will no longer serve 

the public. We’re working hard to make sure that possibility does 

not become a reality.”

MARIA ROMSTEDT is the Publication Manager at FHWA’s Turner-Fairbank 

Highway Research Center and serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Public Roads. 
A special thematic issue of

Coming in Spring 2020

The face of transportation is changing, and the Spring 2020 issue of Public Roads will highlight examples 

of significant contributions by women to the industry. 

• Meet women who are using their talents to further FHWA’s mission.

• Discover the ways women are contributing to FHWA’s initiatives and technologies.

• Be inspired by how FHWA and its partners are encouraging the next generation of young women 

to pursue careers in transportation.

DON’T MISS THIS ISSUE! Sign up for the electronic version of Public Roads at www.fhwa.dot.gov 

/publications/publicroads.
SMALL BUSINESS 

INNOVATION RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

Source: iStock

Seeking Innovative Solutions to the Nation’s Transportation Challenges

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s highly competitive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) 

program awards contracts to domestic small businesses to address research challenges from across 

the Department’s modal agencies. The fiscal year 2020 solicitation provides new opportunities to 

conduct research and capitalize on potential for commercialization while supporting topics in safety, 

infrastructure, materials, automation, and more.

Visit the Department’s SBIR website at www.volpe.dot.gov/sbir to:

• Learn more about the solicitation and research topics.

• Engage with the Department through public meetings and online forums.

• Learn about 2020’s new solicitation format and schedule.

• Sign up to receive notifications about the program.
REACHING NEW HEIGHTS

Unmanned aircraft systems offer 

inspectors another tool for assessing 

the condition of bridges.

© iStock.com/pixone.

by HODA AZARI, DENNIS O’SHEA, and DEREK CONSTABLE

During a 2-year study, FHWA took a closer look at the state of the practice 

for using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for bridge inspections. 

Bridge inspectors may need to use several access methods and tools to adequately 

meet the objectives of a bridge inspection 

in accordance with governing National 

Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS). However, some of these access methods, such 

as an under-bridge inspection truck (UBIT), 

can be costly to operate because the equipment is expensive to maintain and run and 

disruptive to traffic because it requires lane 

closures. Using an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) can be a cost-effective solution 

to obtaining stand-alone, high-quality visual 

inspection data, or to supplement standard 

inspection methods and equipment. Some 

UASs can also improve inspector safety 

and enable examination of areas that are 

difficult to access. 

UASs can produce live streaming video, 

providing opportunity for the inspector 

to inspect while remaining on the ground. 

If inspectors identify deterioration in 

UAS images, they can then decide whether to perform a physical inspection to 

determine the severity and extent of the 

deterioration. Using UAS in this manner 

can provide more efficient use of standard 

access equipment and physical inspection 

techniques for assessing deterioration, in 

addition to increasing safety.

In an ongoing study, the Federal Highway Administration is conducting research 

to identify types of sensors used in UASs; 

quantity and quality level of data needed 

to perform satisfactory inspection using 

UASs; best practice guidelines for efficient 

and reliable use of the sensors; and guidance on how the collected data should be 

assessed, presented, and stored to provide 

reliable and actionable information to 

owners to support data-driven decisions. This research study also identifies 

the mini mum requirements of sensors 

to provide comparable information as 

other visual inspection techniques. 

“We felt it was very important to 

take a closer look at how State departments of transportation are using 

unmanned aircraft systems for bridge 

inspections because of the potential 

benefits of this technology,” says 

FHWA Executive Director Thomas Everett. “UASs are proving to be 

incredibly useful to bridge inspection 

staff to supplement inspection prac

tices.”

-

FHWA expects to conclude the 

research project in March 2020. What 

follows are key findings of the research 

to date.

The major components of an unmanned aircraft 

system are the unmanned aerial vehicle, the pilot and 

observer, the sensor, the ground control station, and 

the communication and navigation links.

© Futron Aviation.

Components of a UAS

A UAS for bridge inspection includes 

the unmanned aircraft, control station, 

sensors, and pilot. A certified pilot is 

the most important piece of the system, 

controlling and flying the aircraft in a safe 

and professional manner. While not always 

a requirement, a visual observer can aid in 

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 5
scanning the sky to ensure safe flight while 

the pilot concentrates on the operation 

of the aircraft. As required by Federal 

law for all bridge inspections, an inspection team leader must be on site during 

the inspection. 

Optical cameras, infrared cameras, 

and LiDAR (light detection and ranging) 

systems are the most common types of 

sensors used. Depending on the tasks, an 

inspector can determine the appropriate 

types of UAS platform and sensor types. 

Optical sensors capture the imagery data 

(video as well as still images), which enable 

inspectors to see deficiencies in an up­close 

or magnified manner without having to 

physically access the specific area on the 

bridge. UAS-captured high-resolution 

images may reveal defects missed using 

distant visual inspection techniques. 

High-resolution imagery can also serve 

other purposes, from providing a record of 

surface defects to measuring and tracking 

some types of defects over time. 

Infrared thermography (IR) sensors can 

detect areas of deterioration in concrete 

by identifying and viewing temperature 

gradients. Demonstrations have shown the 

areas of bridge deck delamination iden

tified using IR sensors correspond well 

to the areas discovered using traditional 

sounding techniques. 

-

LiDAR sensors actively emit pulses 

of light—up to hundreds of thousands 

of returns per second—to accurately 

measure the distance between the sensor 

and a target object. The main advantages 

of LiDAR over photogrammetry are the 

ability to penetrate vegetation with multiple 

returns, faster imagery processing times, 

and improved capabilities to resolve fine 

features. Inspectors can use a LiDAR point 

cloud to create a three-dimensional (3D) 

model of the bridge. 

Employing a UAS sensor is beyond 

simply manipulating the aircraft controls 

and pointing the sensor at a location. 

To adequately capture the quality visual 

information required, personnel must also 

understand the basics as well as some of 

the more advanced principals of photog

raphy. An understanding of the individual 

camera’s available settings helps to maxi

-

-

mize effectiveness. 

What UAS Can Do

Typically, bridges that present challenges to 

gaining access to all parts of the structure 

for a comprehensive inspection are good 

candidates for UAS augmentation. For 

example, on a bridge with an excessively 

wide sidewalk or tall pedestrian barrier, 

a UBIT would be limited to access from 

one side only. A more typical case is a wide 

bridge where the center is not accessible 

from a UBIT even when used from both 

sides. In this case, a UAS could provide 

imagery from both sides of the bridge. 

Some State DOTs have conducted 

research studies or implemented programs 

employing UASs for bridge inspections 

to detect certain types of bridge defects. 

Their efforts have successfully identified 

bridge defects and collected information 

important to the bridge planning process. Bridge engineers also have used the 

imagery captured during bridge inspections 

to create accurate two-dimensional and 

3D models of a bridge for analytical and 

planning purposes. State DOT efforts have 

shown that UASs can enhance traffic safety 

Inspectors can see irregularities on the bridge deck in this optical image taken by a UAS. The photo quality 

is sufficient to enlarge areas of interest, as shown on the right-hand side of the photo. 

© ARE/AirShark.

This infrared thermography image shows possible bridge deck delamination. The yellow and orange areas 

shown above in the IR map (labeled with circles), indicate possible delaminations. 

© Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Example of a LiDAR point cloud of San Francisco 

Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge in California. 

Source: Jason Stoker, USGS.

Possible

Delamination

Possible

Delamination

Possible

Delamination

Possible

Delamination

6 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
for the public and safety for the inspection 

team in many cases. For example, during 

a 2018 study performed by the Minnesota 

Department of Transportation (MnDOT), 

contractors flying a collision­tolerant UAS 

captured imagery inside an enclosed steel 

arch. Using this type of UAS inside the 

bridge structure eliminated the need for 

personnel to enter the potentially dangerous confined space. (Entering a confined 

space requires specific training for members of the inspection team, and requires 

the receipt of entry permits in accordance 

with current safety regulations and practices.) MnDOT reported a potential 66 

percent cost savings using UAS compared to traditional methods in 2017 and 

an average cost savings of 40 percent for 

the case studies reviewed in 2018. 

Identifying which aspects of a bridge 

inspection are best suited for a UAS 

according to the needs of State DOTs 

is useful in determining efficient use. 

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) identifies major bridge 

reporting categories and applies a scale 

of 1 to 4 to rate the usefulness of a UAS 

for providing inspection information. 

ODOT also evaluates how useful a UAS 

is in conducting various types of inspec

tions. They identified a monetary savings 

of around $10,000 per bridge and a 

10 percent savings in personnel time per 

project compared to inspections done 

without UAS. 

-

For more information on UAS application in transportation, see “Ready for 

Takeoff ” in the Winter 2018 issue of 

Public Roads.

Limitations of UASs

UASs can provide many advantages to a 

bridge inspector. However, they currently 

cannot replace a person where tactile or 

other contact inspection methods are 

necessary or required. For example, inspectors cannot employ only UAS for fracture 

critical member inspections because of 

the FHWA requirement for using handson inspection techniques. The reason is 

because today’s cameras and sensors still 

have limited capability to see through 

dirt, debris, and corrosion that may hide 

critical defects.

“In no way should a UAS be considered 

a complete solution that will solve all user 

needs,” says Cheryl Richter, director of 

the Office of Infrastructure Research and 

Development at FHWA. “It is a tool that 

may bring efficiencies in time, cost, and 

safety [of the] bridge inspection process 

when successfully employed.” 

UAS operators in both the public and 

private sectors must adhere to the statutory and regulatory requirements issued 

by the Federal Aviation Administration 

(FAA). Public aircraft operations (including 

UAS operations) are governed under the 

statutory requirements for public aircraft 

established in 49 United States Code 

(U.S.C.) § 40102 and § 40125. In addition, 

both public and civil UAS operators may 

operate under the regulations promulgated 

by the FAA. The provisions of 14 Code 

of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 107 

apply to most operations of UAS weigh

ing less than 55 pounds (24.9 kilograms). 

Operators of UASs weighing greater than 

55 pounds may request exemptions to the 

airworthiness requirements of 14 CFR 

part 91 pursuant to 49 U.S.C. §44807. UAS 

operators should also be aware of the 

requirements of the airspace in which they 

wish to fly. The FAA provides extensive 

resources and information to help guide 

UAS operators in determining which laws, 

rules, and regulations apply to a UAS 

operation. For more information, visit 

-

www.faa.gov/uas. 

Summary of Detectable Bridge Defects Discovered with UAS Imagery

Defects Florida1 Idaho Minnesota2 Michigan Oregon

Concrete cracks X X X X

Missing fasteners X X X

Rust X X X

Peeling paint X

Delamination (using IR sensor) X X3 X X

Spalling X X X X

Stress cracks (wood) X

Vegetation/debris X X X

Efflorescence X X X

Corrosion X X X

Concrete wear X X

Fatigue crack (weld) X

Paint condition X X X

Galvanizing condition X

Previous repairs X X X X

1. This column lists the results of two studies conducted in Florida in 2015 and in 2018.

2. The Minnesota results are from a three-phase study that was conducted from 2015 to 2018.

3. The delamination the Idaho team identified was simulated in lab conditions.

This table summarizes the types of bridge defects that inspectors from several States detected using 

UASs. In these instances, UASs enhanced the inspection process or improved the accuracy of results. 

The table represents a sample of the defects noted by States and should not be interpreted to mean 

that these are the only defects that can be detected using a UAS-mounted sensor. 

Source: FHWA.

Oregon DOT Assessment of UAS Usefulness 

Inventory

Geometric Data 4

Structure Type 

and Inventory 3

Navigation Data 3

Age and Service 2

Proposed 

Improvements 2

Identification 1

Classification 1

Load Rating 

and Posting 1

Inspections 1

Condition rating

Deck 4

Superstructure 4

Substructure 4

Channel and Channel 

Protection 3

Culvert 3

Appraisal Items

Structural Evaluation 4

Deck Geometry 4

Under-Clearances 4

Approach Roadway 

Alignment 4

Waterway Adequacy 3

Traffic Safety 

Features 3

Scour Critical Bridges 2

Inspection Types

Initial 4

Routine 4

Damage 2

In-depth 2

Fracture Critical 2

Underwater 1

Special Inspections 1–4

Ratings scale: 1 = not useful 2 = limited use 3 = useful 4 = very useful

© Oregon Department of Transportation.

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 7
Analyzing and Storing Data

When employing a UAS during bridge 

inspections, inspectors capture large 

amounts of data that require storage, post-processing, analysis, and 

dissemination. For most UASs, the 

imagery and data captured during 

a flight is stored on a removable media 

storage device, such as a secure digital 

(SD) memory card, integrated into the 

aircraft platform. The files stored on the 

SD card are a variety of common file types 

that are accessible by media-viewing and 

post-processing software. 

Inspectors process the captured and 

stored data into different products to 

supplement inspection documentation, 

better inform decisionmakers regarding the 

structures, and improve future inspection 

planning. Common information products 

include images, video, 3D models, and surface models. Bridge engineers can use UAS 

imagery of the entire structure to create 

bridge “plans” for bridges that do not have 

records of the original structural drawings. Also, inspectors can use this visual 

information, and the associated geographic 

position information related to the images, 

to update the structure inspection records, 

identify and assess new deficiencies, track 

the extent of specific defects over several 

inspections, and update bridge repair 

recommendations. 

In general, an inspector will use the 

standard inspection report format that 

complies with the NBIS, supports reporting data to the National Bridge Inventory, 

and satisfies State DOT policies and 

standards. When using a UAS to supple

ment an inspection, the inspector will 

select the imagery captured by the UAS 

sensor to include in the report. Thus, 

using a UAS for inspection purposes 

should not generate additional paperwork 

but the information and defects found in 

the images should be documented in the 

inspection notes and element condition 

data, as applicable.

-

“Data management can be the most 

challenging aspect of using a UAS,” says 

Joey Hartmann, director of the Office 

of Bridges and Structures with FHWA. 

“The substantial amount of data collected 

requires an appropriate data management 

plan to ensure the inspectors capturing 

the data have (1) a standard approach for 

collecting and transferring the data, (2) a 

known and secure location and structure 

for storing and retrieving the data, and (3) 

a well understood process for sharing the 

data and inspection products generated 

by the UAS.” 

Cataloguing is the process of creat

ing a directory of stored imagery files. 

It includes identifying where the data 

are located, identifying the types of data 

stored, establishing a process for version 

control, and instituting file naming conven

-

-

tions to which all users will adhere. A more 

advanced method of cataloging images is 

using a photogrammetric 3D model of the 

bridge, which requires creating a photogrammetric point cloud. This method is an 

alternative that enables all the inspection 

images for the bridge to be stored as a 3D 

model. Inspectors can select the bridge 

section of interest on the model (that is, 

where a defect exists) to view the image 

for analysis. 

MnDOT tested this 3D modeling 

method to catalogue images. It enabled 

MnDOT inspectors to click on a point in 

the model and view images at that point to 

view defects. This can reduce the need for 

a manual photolog because the photogrammetry software will locate the image on 

the structure. 

Future Advancements

As more bridge owners and inspectors 

incorporate UASs into their processes, 

the technologies available to improve 

inspections will continue to advance. For 

example, first­person view (FPV) devices 

or goggles are a relatively recent entry to 

the bridge inspection process. FPV gives 

the user a unique perspective from which 

to wirelessly view imagery and control 

the camera. Some FPV systems provide 

high­definition 1080p video and enable the 

user to control the sensor in real time with 

head movements. The image presented 

equates to looking at an 18-foot (5.5-meter) 

high­definition television from about 9 feet 

(3 meters) away. Some FPV systems also 

provide inspectors with the ability to digitally magnify the image, making it appear 

significantly closer and allowing a bridge 

inspector to see hairline cracks in 

the structure. For more information 

on FPV goggles for bridge inspectors, see “A New View for Bridge 

Inspectors” in the Summer 2018 

issue of Public Roads.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is 

another technological advancement that 

inspectors may choose to incorporate 

into the UAS. AI can enable the system 

to navigate independently without human 

input throughout the structure (other than 

instructing the aircraft when and where it is 

supposed to fly and overriding the system 

in the event of a malfunction or signal 

loss). Flying the UAS in the same flight 

paths using AI can enhance the identification and tracking of defects over time. 

Inspectors could also use AI to collect and 

analyze many infrastructure images. 

The speed of technological advances 

and improvements in the integration of 

new technologies is impacting bridge 

inspection. More and more bridge owners 

are employing UAS and exploring new 

ways to integrate UAS within established 

guidelines. FHWA is moving forward 

in partnership with those in the field to 

find efficiencies in inspection methods, 

reduce the cost of conducting inspections, 

enhance the comprehensiveness and quality 

of collected data, and improve the safety 

of inspection teams by using UAS, all 

while assuring the Nation’s bridges are safe 

for travelers.

HODA AZARI is the manager of the Nondestructive 

Evaluation (NDE) Research Program and NDE 

Laboratory at FHWA’s Turner-Fairbank Highway 

Research Center. She holds a Ph.D. in civil engi

neering from the University of Texas at El Paso.

-

DENNIS O’SHEA is FHWA’s senior bridge safety 

engineer for the North region. He serves as a 

technical resource for the National Bridge Inven

tory and National Tunnel Inventory programs for 

13 FHWA division offices in the Northeast. He has 

a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of 

South Alabama and is a licensed professional 

engineer in Delaware and Pennsylvania.

-

DEREK CONSTABLE is a bridge management 

engineer with the FHWA Office of Bridges and 

Structures. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in 

civil engineering from The Cooper Union for the 

Advancement of Science and Art.

For more information, contact Hoda Azari 

at 202–493–3064 or hoda.azari@dot.gov.

MnDOT created this 3D bridge model with 

selectable image locations using data it 

collected with a UAS. 

© Minnesota Department of Transportation.

8 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 9

COMING BACK FROM

Disaster by FERDINAND ORTIZ

After the most devastating hurricane to hit Puerto Rico 

in recent history, FHWA helped the island recover. 

Atlantic hurricane season begins on June 1 each year and lasts through November 30. In 2017, a historic series of hurricanes 

tore through the Caribbean, including two that made direct hits 

on U.S. territories that are home to approximately 3.3 million U.S. 

citizens. 

On September 6, Hurricane Irma struck the U.S. Virgin Islands 

with recorded winds of 105 miles per hour (170 kilometers per 

hour). And on September 17—although landfall for the slowly 

moving storm would not occur until September 20—Hurricane 

Maria began to pummel Puerto Rico with winds that would reach 

up to an estimated 155 miles per hour (250 kilometers per hour). 

Meteorologists have no land-based records of Maria’s maximum 

winds on Puerto Rico because the storm damaged the island’s 

wind sensors, designed to withstand winds of 135 miles per hour 

(220 kilometers per hour), before making landfall. 

“After surviving two Category 5 hurricanes within 2 weeks, 

Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands were changed forever,” 

says Michael Avery, the associate division administrator of FHWA’s 

Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands Division.

To an area still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, 

Hurricane Maria caused about $90 billion in damages, making it 

the third costliest hurricane in U.S. history behind Harvey and 

Katrina. The total included more than $575 million in damage 

to federally eligible roads and bridges in Puerto Rico. The island 

suffered a total loss of power, and in some places, electricity was 

not restored for a year.

The damage literally hit home for the Federal Highway Admin

istration. With power and communications down across the ter

-

ri

tory, buildings and bridges destroyed, and roads impassable, some 

employees of FHWA’s local division office could not be located 

for more than a week following landfall. Those that could began 

reporting to their workplace the day after the disaster, beginning 

the agency’s immediate emergency response.

-

ASSESSING THE DAMAGE

The day after Hurricane Maria made landfall, Puerto Rico was a 

different island. The storm destroyed the communication system, 

including cellphone towers, making contact among families as well 

as emergency responders nearly impossible. The damage to the 

power grid seriously curtailed the operation of gas stations, and in 

the days following, waiting lines of 8 hours to get gas were normal. 

Officials reported more than 6,000 separate incidents on heavily 

damaged transportation infrastructure, including 388 on bridges 

and 400 related to landslides caused by the extreme rainfall. Nearly 

20 percent of Puerto Rico’s bridges were damaged, including 26 

that collapsed completely.

Despite destruction, damage, injury, and death, residents rallied 

to help one another. Michael Figueroa, a transportation finance 

manager with FHWA’s Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands Division, was one of the first employees to arrive at the Division’s San 

Juan office.

INSET: Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico when it hit the island in September 

2017, destroying many bridges and roads. High winds and heavy rain caused major 

damage to this bridge on PR-111 in Moca, Puerto Rico.

BACKGROUND: Emergency relief work included reconstruction of the PR-111 bridge, 

shown here after completed repairs.

Sources: FHWA.
10 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020

Hurricane Maria destroyed roads such as this one near Naguabo, Puerto Rico. 

Source: FHWA.

A landslide blocks PR-191 near Naguabo, Puerto Rico. The residents in the area wrote 

on the rocks to warn of the road closure. 

Source: FHWA.

“Soon I could make out the sound of heavy equipment and 

chainsaws,” Figueroa says, describing the scene in his neighborhood. “[It was] the rush of volunteers scrambling to move debris 

from the roads to clear a path to the highway. The community was 

taking a stand.” 

Along with Figueroa, several employees managed to get to the 

division office in San Juan the day after the hurricane to assess the 

destruction, which included extensive water damage to files and 

computers. It took more than a week to locate and account for 

every FHWA employee—thankfully, all were safe.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

While dealing with its own recovery efforts, FHWA responded 

quickly to the island’s catastrophe. 

“We provided the Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation 

Authority with immediate guidance on emergency-related topics 

and worked side by side throughout the first critical days,” says 

Avery, the division’s associate administrator. 

One of the immediate needs of the Puerto Rico government 

was funding, and FHWA provided more than $40 million in quick 

release Emergency Relief funds within 10 days of the event. The 

agency released additional Emergency Relief funds in the months 

following the hurricane as recovery efforts continued. 

On September 18, before the hurricane even made landfall 

on Puerto Rico, President Donald J. Trump declared a state of 

emergency in the territory already suffering from the approaching 

storm. The declaration enabled the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security 

to mobilize and coordinate disaster relief efforts. Within days, 

thousands of FEMA and other U.S. Government personnel began 

to arrive. 

FHWA employees served as key partners in emergency support 

duties and coordinated with multiple Federal, Puerto Rico, and 

U.S. Virgin Islands agencies. The active involvement in the initial 

response and then recovery phases of the emergency required 

significant resources and additional help. FHWA provided satellite 

phones and equipped backpacks for engineers. Mainland FHWA 

division staff provided food and other essentials to the Puerto 

Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands Division to ensure it could serve local 

residents and emergency responders. 

More than 40 FHWA volunteers from 15 States came to Puerto 

Rico between October 2017 and December 2018 to help supplement the division office’s emergency response and recovery efforts. The volunteers conducted field assessments and inspections, 

prepared detailed damage inspection reports, and provided essential onsite guidance to all stakeholders. This help from FHWA had 

a direct impact on how effectively Puerto Rico recovered from the 

emergency, reinforcing the capacity of the agency to execute tasks 

necessary for a quick and efficient response.

Government executives, including President Trump and U.S. 

Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao, also visited the island 

to see firsthand the damages caused by the hurricanes. 

LONG-TERM RECOVERY

At of the end of 2017, nearly half of Puerto Rico’s residents were 

still without power, and by the end of January 2018, recovery 

efforts had restored electricity to only about 65 percent of the 

island. Full restoration of power and water took a year after the 

hurricane hit.

FHWA’s involvement continues long after the initial emergency 

response. The Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division (EFL) has 

been a fundamental partner in the recovery of Puerto Rico and the 

U.S. Virgin Islands, as it is performing the majority of the longterm recovery work in Puerto Rico. EFL is designing projects and 

preparing environment; right­of­way; and plan, specification, and 

estimate documents for construction projects. The EFL division 

is also advertising, awarding, and administering contracts for road 

construction, bridges, traffic signage, safety improvements, and 

landslide repairs. In all, EFL provides design, procurement, and 

construction management services valued at close to $1 billion. 

The response to Hurricane Maria was unprecedented. It was 

the largest and longest Federal response to a domestic disaster in 

the history of the United States. Although much work remains 

to be done over the next 3 to 5 years, progress is being made in 

getting Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands back to normal. 

Recovery efforts successfully restored power, communications 

systems, water, fuel, and other essential services to both territories. 

As a result, tourism is on the rise. Many construction projects are 

still underway, providing jobs to local workers and growing the 

economy—the Association of General Contractors estimated 

that hurricane reconstruction would require an additional 50,000 

employees over 3 years.

“Irma and Maria hit us hard,” says Andres Alvarez, the divi

sion’s engineering team leader, “but both territories have bounced 

back and are ready to receive visitors from all over the world.” 

-

FERDINAND ORTIZ is a financial specialist in FHWA’s Puerto Rico and U.S. Vir

gin Islands Division Office. He holds a B.A. in accounting from the University 

of Puerto Rico at Humacao and an MBA in finance and accounting from the 

Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico. 

-

For more information, contact Ferdinand Ortiz at 787–771–2538 or 

ferdinand.ortiz@dot.gov.
MAINSTREAMING

TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS 

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS 

by TRACY SCRIBA, AARON JETTE, and PEPPER SANTALUCIA 

The current (and future) traveler demands improved reliability 

and efficiency. Is your TSMO program ready to deliver? 

Today’s road users expect accurate, real-time information about travel conditions to help them make informed decisions, especially 

when encountering congestion. Variable message signs like the one shown here are one way to provide real-time information. 

© iStock/Willowpix. 

I

n today’s connected world, U.S. travelers 

have come to expect ever-improving 

ways of using real-time information to 

make their lives better. As road users see 

rapid advances in information and transportation technologies, such as naviga

tional apps, shared mobility services, and 

connected and automated vehicles, they 

expect more reliable travel and access to 

accurate, real-time information about travel 

conditions. Travelers are less tolerant of 

unexpected delays and demand greater 

accountability from public officials to 

ensure effective spending of public funds 

to maximize the performance of the trans

-

-

portation system. 

Faced with heightened trav

eler expectations and funding 

constraints, as well as growing opportuni

-

-

ties from advances in technology and data, 

transportation agencies are increasingly 

turning to operations strategies that optimize the use of existing roadway capacity. 

These strategies are known collectively as 

transportation systems management and 

operations (TSMO). TSMO is defined 

as a set of integrated strategies that 

enable transportation agencies to better 

manage and operate existing roadway 

capacity to improve the reliability and 

efficiency of the system and the mobility 

of system users. TSMO looks at performance from a systems perspective so that 

strategies to improve the operation of the 

transportation network are coordinated 

across multiple jurisdictions, agencies, 

and modes. 

One key effort that helped agencies 

advance TSMO was the second Strategic 

Highway Research Program (SHRP2). For 

a decade, SHRP2 provided critical funding and technical resources to agencies 

to assist with developing and deploying 

innovative TSMO solutions. SHRP2 was 

a national partnership of the Federal 

Highway Administration, the American 

Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and the Transportation Research Board. A set 

of SHRP2 tools and training 

resources, the SHRP2 Reliability 

Solutions, focuses on improving 

the capability of transportation 

agencies to analyze and address 

congestion and travel time 

reliability. Every State, as well 

as the District of Columbia and 

Puerto Rico, has implemented 

these solutions. 

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 11
How are State departments of trans

portation building and implementing 

effective TSMO programs? The following 

sections detail elements of success and 

provide examples that give a snapshot of 

21st-century operations programs using 

SHRP2 solutions and beyond.

-

A Toolbox of Strategies

TSMO strategies include a wide range 

of operations strategies from work zone 

management and traffic signal timing 

and coordination, to congestion pricing 

and demand management. Many TSMO 

strategies leverage intelligent transportation 

systems (ITS) and advanced information 

technologies, but the TSMO toolbox also 

includes relatively low-tech operational 

enhancements and design treatments, such 

as snow fences, pullout areas, and part-time 

shoulder use. 

TSMO looks at management and 

operations of the transportation system as 

a whole, and how it can effectively move 

people and goods safely, reliably, and 

efficiently to their destinations. Examples 

include use of traffic management centers 

to actively manage traffic flow between 

freeways and arterials during delays and 

crashes, real-time information that enables 

travelers to choose other routes or modes 

of travel to avoid delays, and coordinated 

incident response to reopen lanes sooner.

TSMO strategies can often mitigate, or 

even solve, many issues and improve traffic 

flow. However, addressing growing demand 

may sometimes necessitate adding lanes 

or other significant capital improvements. 

Integrating the best possible combination of solutions requires planning, 

data, organizational capabilities, and 

coordination among a range of partners.

TSMO helps system operators get the 

most out of their transportation facilities 

by smoothing everyday traffic flow and 

mitigating disruptions caused by weather, 

traffic incidents, planned events, and work 

zones. However, agencies must do more 

than deploy ITS projects to achieve the full 

potential of TSMO. To be most effective, 

TSMO must be recognized as a formal 

core function of State and local DOTs, 

just as project delivery is considered a core 

function today. 

“Moving forward, managing roadways through a TSMO framework must 

become as much a part of the Massa

chusetts Department of Transportation’s 

(MassDOT’s) DNA as fixing potholes and 

plowing snow,” said Stephanie Pollack, 

transportation secretary and CEO at 

MassDOT, in a recently published news 

release. “Adv

-

ancing, expanding, and insti

tutionalizing these kinds of

-

 [TSMO] solu

tions will help limit the effects of crashes, 

work zones, and weather on already 

lengthy commutes.” 

-

EXAMPLES OF TSMO STRATEGIES

• Active transportation and 

demand management 

• Congestion pricing

• Freight management

• Integrated corridor 

management

• Managed lanes

• Parking management

• Road weather 

management

• Special event 

management

• Traffic incident 

management

• Traffic signal 

coordination

• Transit signal priority

• Traveler information

• Work zone management

Each of these categories has a number of individual strategies. More information on 

TSMO is available at https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/tsmo/index.htm.

WHAT ARE SHRP2 RELIABILITY SOLUTIONS?

Authorized by the 2005 highway reauthorization act, SHRP2 undertook more than 

100 research projects designed to address critical State and local challenges, such as 

aging infrastructure, congestion, and safety. Reliability was one of the four focus areas 

of the SHRP2 program. The SHRP2 Reliability research projects developed analytical 

techniques, decision-support tools, strategies, and institutional and workforce 

approaches to improve the effectiveness of transportation operations. Many of the 

solutions developed in SHRP2’s Reliability focus area are intended to help agencies 

implement TSMO more effectively. 

To help State DOTs and metropolitan planning organizations deploy SHRP2 solutions, 

FHWA and AASHTO created the SHRP2 Implementation Assistance Program. This program 

conducted seven rounds of funding awards between 2013 and 2016. This program made 

36 awards to States and MPOs for implementing SHRP2 Reliability solutions.

Championing TSMO 

SHRP2 Reliability Solutions arrived at the 

right time to help early TSMO champions 

with products based on research and input 

from stakeholders. Research identified the 

importance of travel time reliability and the 

gap in how to analyze reliability and use it 

in decisionmaking. This led to the development of analytical tools and resources. 

Research focused on what differentiates 

agencies that are most effective at TSMO. 

The research found that the key differentiating factor between agencies most 

effectively implementing TSMO and other 

agencies was not the amount of technol

ogy deployed or money spent (however, 

both of these factors are necessary). It 

was whether an agency had effective 

processes and organizational capabilities 

for TSMO. These elements help create an 

organizational culture that supports TSMO 

and enables it to become the standard way 

of doing business. 

-

The SHRP2 products and implementation assistance helped bring energy, 

attention, funding, and new tools to 

advance TSMO and create buy-in across 

transportation agencies. Monica Harwood 

Duncan, TSMO development engineer 

for the Washington State Department of 

Transportation (WSDOT), noted the value 

of the SHRP2 tools in helping to advance 

TSMO at WSDOT. “We have been fortu

nate enough to have received support for 

using around eight different SHRP2 prod

-

-

ucts,” Duncan says. “To summarize what 

those products meant to us as an agency—

they created a conversation of innovation 

for us, to look at what’s next for us, which 

may not have happened without SHRP2 

products. It set very clear focus areas for 

us. We have to have TSMO be part of [our 

organization]—not champion driven, but 

fully integrated.”

Reflecting on SHRP2 experiences 

and observations from other recent 

12 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
collaborations with agencies on TSMO, 

some elements that are helping agencies 

advance TSMO are:

• Treating TSMO as a core 

agency program.

• Integrating TSMO into existing 

processes, including planning for 

operations, and enabling it to compete 

effectively for funding.

• Developing an agency culture that 

supports and values TSMO by gaining 

leadership support and building 

support through the organization.

• Communicating the value of TSMO 

and making a business case for 

TSMO investments.

• Including reliability in analysis 

for project investments and 

system performance.

• Developing workforce capabilities for 

TSMO. 

• Developing effective partnerships and 

collaboration between internal agency 

departments and with external partners 

across regions.

A recent National Operations Center 

of Excellence (NOCoE) report confirmed 

these observations by sharing the findings 

from a series of engagements with five 

State DOTs about their TSMO programs. 

This report identified common characteristics to a successful environment for TSMO 

including strong leadership and a champion 

at the senior staff level; prioritization, visi

bility, and availability of resources to do the 

job; the importance of culture in breaking 

down silos; collaboration, communication, 

and coordination; and attention to the 

workforce of the future. 

-

Enhancing Organizational Capacity

SHRP2 Organizing for Reliability Tools 

provide solutions to help agencies integrate and mainstream operations. These 

products focus on orienting and improving 

key aspects within the agency to facilitate 

effective management and operations 

programs and projects. Using a capability 

maturity model (CMM) framework, these 

tools are designed to help agencies assess 

their TSMO programs. By systematically 

assessing distinct aspects of their TSMO 

programs using the CMM framework, 

agencies can identify and prioritize changes 

to their business and technical processes, 

as well as their organizational structure and 

institutional partnerships. These changes 

will enhance their ability to manage 

congestion and more effectively operate 

their transportation system. 

The Organizing for Reliability 

Tools garnered a high level of interest. 

Twenty-seven State and regional agencies 

applied for and received implementation 

assistance through the SHRP2 program to 

deploy these products. Interest in the CMM 

framework has continued to increase, 

and more than 50 States and regions have 

hosted workshops during which they used 

the CMM framework to evaluate their 

strengths and weaknesses and develop 

action plans to improve their TSMO capa

bilities. Agencies have used the results of 

these workshops to guide the development 

of TSMO program plans, build buy-in 

from agency leadership and key stak

-

ehold

ers, restructure organizations or business 

processes to integrate TSMO, increase 

workforce understanding and knowledge 

of TSMO approaches, and strengthen 

interagency partnerships.

-

Companion tools and case studies that 

apply the CMM approach to individual 

program areas like work zone management 

and road weather programs are available at 

https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/tsmoframeworktool 

/index.htm. 

CMM in Action

The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) has used the CMM to 

assess its TSMO capabilities. After MDOT 

conducted an initial CMM assessment, they 

decided to develop and adopt a TSMO 

strategic plan. The agency also restructured the board overseeing the statewide 

traffic management system to include 

senior-level personnel and experts on the 

TSMO elements of planning, operations, 

and maintenance. As a result, MDOT has 

made progress toward integrating TSMO 

into its planning and project development 

processes, developing TSMO performance 

measures, and fostering a TSMO culture 

across the agency. MDOT established a 

leadership position to serve as the program 

manager to oversee implementation of the 

TSMO strategic plan. An assessment after 

3 years showed improvement in five out 

the six CMM dimensions.

The Iowa Department of Trans

portation (Iowa DOT) also assessed its 

TSMO processes and capabilities using 

the CMM framework. Based on the results 

of its assessment, the agency developed 

a TSMO strategic plan, a TSMO program plan, and TSMO service layer plans. 

Through this comprehensive planning 

-

The capability maturity model helps agencies assess 

their TSMO capabilities across six key dimensions.

Source: FHWA. 

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 13
process, Iowa DOT sought to improve 

TSMO business processes and develop 

TSMO tools to enable the effective 

application of integrated TSMO strate

gies across eight different service areas 

such as traveler information, work zones, 

and connected and autonomous vehicles. 

Iowa DOT held an executive briefing and 

a workshop to launch its TSMO plan, 

developed a business case for TSMO to 

communicate the value of TSMO efforts 

to address its transportation challenges, 

and implemented other communication 

and education efforts, including a TSMO 

website and video. A reassessment using 

the same CMM showed that Iowa DOT’s 

scores increased in three of the six 

CMM dimensions.

-

Program Planning 

As in Iowa, many of the action plans 

coming out of the CMM self-assessment 

efforts of other States identified the need 

to develop a TSMO program plan. A 

program plan helps guide the agency in 

advancing its institutional focus on TSMO. 

Many States have plans for specific TSMO 

services, projects, and activities (such as 

ITS or incident response plans), but those 

plans often do not describe the role of 

TSMO in support of the agency’s mission 

and do not address all TSMO functions or 

explain how they integrate. States and agencies have recognized a need to better mainstream TSMO within their agencies and to 

set priorities for activities and investments. 

As a result, more than 20 States and 

regional agencies have developed TSMO 

program plans. 

The process of TSMO program planning, as described in FHWA’s primer on 

TSMO program planning, Developing and 

Sustaining a Transportation Systems Management 

& Operations Mission for Your Organization: 

Primer for Program Planning, identifies the 

strategic, programmatic, and tactical 

elements to advance TSMO as a critical 

part of an agency’s mission. In addition to 

identifying goals, objectives, performance 

measures, and specific projects, TSMO 

program plans define the programmatic 

structure for organizing an agency’s 

activities, functions, and workforce to 

accomplish the goals and objectives of the 

program. Through the plans, agencies can 

establish TSMO as a core agency program. 

Institutionalizing TSMO within agencies 

can help it endure over time as champions 

come and go; raise awareness and support for TSMO in agency policy, business 

processes, and budgets; and integrate it 

throughout the whole project life cycle. 

FHWA’s primer on TSMO program planning is available at https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov 

/publications/fhwahop17017/index.htm. 

Business Processes

Business processes are vital to guiding 

how an agency conducts its day-to-day 

business, establishing consistent steps for 

getting work done. Business processes can 

help integrate TSMO into agency project 

development and procurement processes, 

and increase the effectiveness of TSMO 

strategy deployment. 

SHRP2 created resources to enhance 

business processes for TSMO. These 

resources provide a methodology and 

incorporate best practices to help transportation agencies change their business 

practices to strengthen systems operations, 

address nonrecurring traffic congestion, 

and improve travel time reliability. FHWA 

released a guide and workshop, which 

provide a methodology that managers can 

follow to develop and improve TSMO 

operational and programmatic processes. 

The guide, Improving Business Processes for 

More Effective Transportation Systems Management and Operation (FHWA-HOP-16-018), 

is available at https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov 

/publications/fhwahop16018/index.htm. 

State and regional agencies have 

used the methodology and workshops 

to develop a process for activating and 

deactivating a storm desk (a special 

transportation management center function 

that activates during major weather events) 

at their transportation management centers, 

providing feedback on work zone traffic 

management plans from the field back 

to designers to improve future plans, and 

coordinating traffic management between 

arterials managed by local agencies and the 

State freeway system during major incidents on the freeway. 

Changing the Culture 

In general terms, efforts to advance TSMO 

have been described as moving an agency 

to become operations oriented—going 

from ad hoc activities to a complete TSMO 

program with integrated services that 

improve the performance of the existing 

transportation system. This is a cultural 

shift for many agencies.

Agencies advancing TSMO have built a 

TSMO culture working from both the lead

ership level and from staff-level champions. 

Leadership can provide indication of the 

agency’s support for considering TSMO 

approaches to transportation issues and 

investing in TSMO strategies and workforce skills. Even with leadership support, 

senior staff champions play a key role in 

integrating TSMO into agency processes 

and working relationships, and helping 

identify where resources are needed. In 

some cases, staff-level champions have 

been in place for several years and TSMO 

efforts build slowly until leadership is in 

place that is ready to increase support for 

TSMO. Other times, new leaders come in 

emphasizing TSMO and staff-level support follows.

-

Many agencies have found it helpful to 

build a strong business case for TSMO, 

which can effectively communicate the 

value of operations and gain support and 

resources for TSMO. 

The Nevada Department of Transportation’s (NDOT’s) SHRP2 CMM assessment led the agency to identify the need 

for a stronger internal understanding of 

TSMO. The NDOT Traffic 

Operations Division saw 

a business case as a way to 

enhance culture and collaboration for TSMO across 

NDOT’s divisions. NDOT 

developed a case for TSMO 

that looks at eight current 

challenges and TSMO’s 

contribution to addressing the 

challenges. NDOT drew these 

challenges from those already 

identified in the statewide 

Technology 

and data come 

together in traffic 

management 

centers like this 

Iowa DOT facility 

to help agencies 

quickly identify 

traffic and roadway 

issues and make 

adjustments to 

traveler information 

and provide incident response. 

With the extensive data available today, 

agencies can also track roadway performance. 

Source: FHWA.

14 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
The Nevada Department of Transportation developed a business case for TSMO that considers current transportation 

challenges in Nevada and explains TSMO’s contribution to addressing those challenges.

© Nevada Department of Transportation.

transportation plan. NDOT’s business 

case addressed challenges related to (1) a 

growing population, (2) a tourism-based 

economy, (3) growing congestion, (4) 

increasing vehicle miles of travel, (5) the 

need to repair roads and bridges, (6) safety 

issues, (7) trucks and freight movement, 

and (8) asset and performance management. NDOT formatted its business case 

in an easy-to-read two-page layout. 

Other States, such as Iowa, Michigan, 

Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Utah have also 

created a business case for TSMO to help 

increase understanding and awareness of 

its value. As a result of their efforts to 

make a compelling case and build support 

for TSMO, a few States have established 

a mechanism to provide some dedicated 

funding for TSMO projects. For example, 

DOTs in both Michigan and Ohio have 

established competitive processes to which 

their regions or districts can submit projects for funding. 

Another way some agencies have 

indicated support for TSMO is by 

incorporating TSMO into their agency 

missions, goals, and objectives. This 

is a visible way of establishing the key 

role that TSMO plays in a DOT and its 

transportation programs.

Two key resources for building a 

business case are the SHRP2 Business Case 

Primer Communicating the Value of Transpor

tation Systems Management and Operations, 

available at 

-

https://transportationops.org 

/business-cases/business-case-primer 

-communicating-value-transportation-systems 

-management-and, and FHWA’s Advancing 

TSMO: Making the Business Case for Institutional, Organizational, and Procedural Changes

(FHWA-HOP-19-017), available at 

https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications 

/fhwahop19017/index.htm. 

Incorporating Reliability into Data 

and Analysis 

Traditionally, analytical tools used by 

transportation agencies for highway operations have focused on average conditions. 

They have not taken into account a range 

of travel times or how travel times vary 

in response to changing conditions. To 

improve travel time reliability, transporta

tion agencies need new tools for monitor

-

-

ing and analyzing fluctuations in traffic. 

With such tools, agencies can better analyze 

and diagnose the causes of travel time 

delays and select the appropriate management strategies to address specific issues. 

Many TSMO strategies help manage 

disruptions caused by crashes, storms, or 

roadwork that can lead to unreliable travel 

times. The SHRP2 Reliability Program 

produced a suite of analytical tools to help 

transportation agencies better identify the 

sources of travel time delays, analyze the 

likely impact on travel time reliability from 

implementing various strategies, and incorporate these considerations into the transportation planning and funding process. 

These analytical tools also enable agencies 

to include reliability in their assessment of 

transportation alternatives.

WSDOT piloted SHRP2 tools to 

improve the monitoring and analysis of 

travel time reliability in both urban and 

rural areas of the State. WSDOT used 

the tools to enhance the capabilities of 

its existing data management and analysis 

system called the Digital Roadway Interactive Visualization and Evaluation Network 

(DRIVE Net). This system, developed 

by the University of Washington, uses 

geospatial, traffic, and other types of data 

to calculate a range of performance mea

sures and conduct other types of analyses. 

WSDOT modified DRIVE Net to accept 

additional data sources and to perform new 

analytical functions based on the SHRP2 

tool set. With the additional data sources 

and enhanced capabilities, WSDOT is now 

able to provide comprehensive travel time 

reliability measures for the statewide traffic 

-

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 15
Reliability analytical tools help the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) 

understand the effect of incidents and weather on travel times in particular corridors in the State. 

WSDOT can then select the most relevant TSMO strategies. 

© University of Washington.

network in days rather than months. 

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is actively working toward 

integration of TSMO planning and reliability analysis into its processes with support 

from the SHRP2 tools and Implementation 

Assistance Program. FDOT developed the 

Planning for Travel Time Reliability Guide and 

The Planning for TSM&O Guidebook. FDOT 

then conducted outreach to its staff about 

integrating TSMO planning and reliability 

analysis into its processes. These efforts 

built on FDOT’s earlier efforts, includ

ing a Central Office reorganization that 

changed an ITS office to a TSMO office in 

2015. The reorganization recognized the 

importance of TSMO and the need for 

strong champions for implementation to 

be successful. FDOT also built off a 2016 

TSMO CMM self-assessment that led to 

the development of a TSMO strategic plan. 

In addition, FDOT prepared the Evaluation 

of Project Processes in Relation to Transportation 

Systems Management and Operations (TSM&O)

in 2018, which explored what would be 

required to integrate and mainstream 

TSMO throughout FDOT’s entire project 

development process. 

-

Developing Workforce Capabilities

Implementing TSMO strategies effectively 

may require enhancing the knowledge and 

skills of the current transportation agency 

workforce. This is especially true as transportation rapidly evolves to incorporate 

new data sources (such as crowdsourcing, 

where data comes from travelers themselves rather than from sensors or cameras 

managed by infrastructure operators), 

measures (such as reliability), technologies, 

and modes (such as dockless bikes and 

autonomous shuttles), in addition to more 

proactive approaches to system operations 

and management. 

NOCoE identified TSMO workforce 

as a key challenge and selected it as the 

topic for its first national summit. To 

address TSMO capabilities in the transportation workforce, several entities, 

including FHWA and the SHRP2 program, have developed different types of 

TSMO training. 

Regional Operations Forums. One of the 

key reliability solutions that SHRP2 devel

oped was the Regional Operations Forum 

(ROF), a week-long immersion program 

in TSMO that includes peer exchange, 

learning from experts, and interactive 

group exercises. Over 5 years

-

, a combina

tion of FHWA, AASHTO, and SHRP2 

implementation efforts have supported 26 

ROFs with participants from all 50 States, 

Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, 

and as well as some staff from 

metropolitan planning org

-

ani

zations, municipalities, 

and public safety agencies. Some of these 

efforts were led by State DOTs using their 

SHRP2 implementation assistance funding. 

Based on feedback from the early forums, 

FHWA worked with AASHTO to adapt 

the ROF format to a condensed 2.5-day 

version called the Regional Operations 

Leadership Forum that is being delivered to 

every region of the country. 

-

The forums enable program leaders 

at public agencies to build knowledge in 

TSMO while also developing a strong 

network of TSMO peers. Topics cov

ered include core areas such as business 

processes, culture, organization, and workforce, as well as some technical topics such 

as integrated corridor management and 

emerging technologies. 

-

TSMO Educational Program. Led by the 

Kansas Department of Transportation, 

the ITS Heartland regional chapter of 

the Intelligent Transportation Society of 

America (ITS America) used SHRP2 implementation assistance funding to establish 

a TSMO educational program based 

on the ROF model for its five member 

States: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, 

and Oklahoma. As part of its training 

program, ITS Heartland has delivered a 

series of TSMO webinars and in-person 

training sessions, two TSMO train-thetrainer workshops, and a self-paced TSMO 

course. The program has reached more 

than 600 participants to date and received 

a 2018 NOCoE TSMO Award. Webinar 

recordings and other training resources 

are available on ITS Heartland’s website at 

https://itsheartland.org/tsmo-university/. 

TIM Responder Training. Traffic Incident 

Management (TIM), an important TSMO 

strategy, is the planned and coordinated 

16 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
Trainees attend the Tennessee Traffic 

Incident Management Training Facility, 

which is designed for them to practice 

responding to crashes.

© Tennessee Department of Transportation.

multidisciplinary process to 

detect, respond to, and clear 

traffic incidents and restore traffic flow as safely and quickly as 

possible. A strong TIM program 

equips responders of all disci

plines to work together effectively 

and consistently, which decreases 

incident duration and reduces the 

number of secondary crashes. 

-

The SHRP2 program created a 

TIM training curriculum that offers 

a set of practices to enable safer and 

faster clearance of traffic crashes. The 

training brings police officers; firefighters; 

DOT, towing, and medical personnel; 

and other incident responders together to 

engage in joint learning and interactive, 

hands-on exercises. A train-the-trainer 

program has created a national network 

of instructors, enabling quicker and more 

consistent training of the entire responder 

corps. To reach even more responders, the 

program developed a web-based version 

of the training for individuals who cannot 

access a classroom session. 

More than 445,000 responders have 

completed one form of the training to 

date. In addition, more than 65 public 

safety academies in at least 38 States 

have integrated the training content into 

their curricula.

A formal evaluation of the SHRP2 

TIM training program found that States 

that adopted the TIM 

training saw strengthened responder 

and agency practices, resulting in further 

reductions to overall roadway-clearance 

and incident-clearance times. Participants 

in the TIM trainings in Arizona and Ten

nessee noted that the training enabled them 

to understand incident response from the 

perspective of other agencies, which made 

them become aware of nuances that could 

help expedite incident response. 

-

The Tennessee Department of Trans

portation (TDOT) created an advanced 

TIM course to engage responders more 

deeply about multiagency collaboration. 

Using Federal Highway Safety Improve

-

-

ment Program funds, Tennessee DOT 

also built a TIM training facility next 

to a training center for the Tennessee 

Highway Patrol. 

“The SHRP2 Program has provided 

TDOT with a number of resources that 

have helped mature our—and other 

Tennessee agencies’—TSMO capabilities,” says Brad Freeze, director of the 

Traffic Operations Division at TDOT. 

“Specifically, the program has helped 

TDOT in developing a strategic direction for operations with the creation of a 

Traffic Operations Program Plan and has 

advanced the state of practice of incident 

management in Tennessee through the 

National TIM Responder Training course 

and our subsequent development of an 

advanced TIM training course.” 

Strengthening Collaboration

Implementing TSMO effectively requires 

collaboration not only within a transporta

tion agency but also among transportation 

agencies from neighboring jurisdictions and 

from other modes such as transit. It also 

requires collaboration between transpor

-

-

tation agencies and first responders. Some 

of the workforce development initiatives, 

such as the TIM responder training and the 

ROFs, foster collaboration while improving 

workforce skills. Other initiatives directly 

aim to build the internal and external rela

tionships needed for effective TSMO.

-

Collaboration between planners and 

operators, commonly known in the industry as planning for operations, can improve 

the integration of TSMO into the entire 

project life cycle—from system planning 

and investment decisionmaking to design, 

construction, maintenance, and system 

monitoring and evaluation. Planning for 

operations also supports improved regional 

TSMO by considering operations strategies in regional transportation planning. 

Regional partners may include planning 

and operations staff from MPOs, State 

DOTs, transit agencies, highway agencies, 

toll authorities, and local governments. 

TSMO often supports or benefits 

from other transportation agency functions and offices such as design, maintenance, and safety. Historically, these 

connections are not well understood or 

communicated, and organizational silos 

may exist in some agencies. However, 

acknowledging and strengthening these 

connections may result in more effective 

functions. FHWA has developed a series 

of nine fact sheets that detail how TSMO 

relates to other functions within a DOT 

and provide examples of how connecting 

these functions has worked in practice. For 

example, the Maricopa County Department 

of Transportation and Arizona Depart

ment of Transportation created AZTech, 

a regional traffic management partnership 

in the Phoenix metropolitan area. AZTech 

established a regional data-sharing system 

among its member agencies and jurisdic

-

-

tions to enable local jurisdictions to share 

real­time information on traffic incidents 

FHWA has developed fact sheets to explain how TSMO relates to other DOT functions such as design, 

construction, safety, and environment.

Source: FHWA. 

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 17
and infrastructure conditions. The 

FHWA fact sheets are available at 

https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/plan4ops/focus 

_areas/integrating/tsmo_factsheets.htm. 

National Operations Center of 

Excellence. Created in 2015 with support 

from the SHRP2 Reliability Program, 

NOCoE is an organization dedicated 

to promoting TSMO, educating TSMO 

practitioners, bringing together the 

TSMO community, and accelerating 

deployment of TSMO strategies. 

NOCoE is a partnership of AASHTO, 

ITS America, and the Institute of 

Transportation Engineers, with support 

from FHWA. The center offers an 

array of technical services, such as 

peer exchange workshops, webinars, 

and case studies, and raises awareness 

of TSMO strategies and successes 

through its TSMO awards program and 

technology tournament. 

NOCoE maintains a website at 

https://transportationops.org that serves as a 

centralized source of TSMO information. 

On its site, NOCoE maintains a web page 

of resources on TSMO workforce development and offers a collection of TSMO 

case studies to share TSMO successes from 

agencies across the country. 

Is Your TSMO Program Ready?

The transportation sector is rapidly 

transforming—connected and automated vehicles, ride-hailing services, 

micromobility vehicles such as shared 

bicycles and electric scooters, and the 

growing use of active and even proactive 

corridor management. Also changing 

is the increasing ubiquity of data about 

travelers and the transportation systems 

they are using (for example, crowdsourced 

data from travelers, private-sector data 

providers, and road condition data from 

connected vehicles) as well as the processing power and analytical tools to manage 

and make sense of the data.

Technological changes are increasing 

both the quantity and quality of real-time 

data that transportation agencies can use 

to implement TSMO strategies. In some 

cases, the effectiveness of existing TSMO 

strategies will be enhanced. In other 

cases, it will be possible to try new TSMO 

strategies. However, unless agencies have 

addressed the organizational, workforce, 

and analytical aspects of TSMO, they may 

not be able to take full advantage of new 

technologies and new data sources. 

FHWA is working with a wide range 

of stakeholders to prepare the Nation’s 

roadway systems for the coming age of 

connected and automated vehicles. In 

2018, FHWA held the National Dialogue 

on Highway Automation, a series of six 

national workshops focused on automated vehicles. The series highlighted 

the importance of integrating automated 

vehicle considerations into TSMO strategies to ensure that these vehicles can safely 

navigate traffic incidents, work zones, 

special events, and signal disruptions. Based 

on the outcomes of the National Dialogue, 

FHWA is prioritizing programs, policies, 

and research to support the safe and 

efficient integration of automated 

vehicles. For example, FHWA is 

pursuing an update to the Manual 

on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for 

Streets and Highways (MUTCD) to 

help prepare roads for the future of 

automated vehicles. 

“Addressing congestion issues 

requires transportation profes

sionals to seek out solutions that 

-

involve optimizing performance to get 

more out of our existing facilities,” says 

Martin Knopp, FHWA Associate Administrator for Operations. “We have seen grow

ing recognition of the need for effective 

operations. SHRP2 efforts played a big role 

in that. FHWA will continue to support 

the development of TSMO strategies and 

a national TSMO community of practice 

and to assist its partners in their efforts to 

improve roadway operations.”

-

TRACY SCRIBA is the team leader of the Orga

nizing and Planning for Operations Team in the 

FHWA Office of Oper

-

ations. She holds a bach

elor’s degree in systems engineering from the 

University of Virginia.

-

AARON JETTE is chief of the Program Development 

and Capacity Building Division at USDOT’s Volpe 

National Transportation Systems Center. He holds 

a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard 

University. 

PEPPER SANTALUCIA is a contractor to USDOT’s 

Volpe National Transportation Systems Center. 

He holds a master’s degree in public affairs from 

Princeton University.

For more information, see https://ops 

.fhwa.dot.gov/tsmo/index.htm or contact 

Tracy Scriba at 202–366–0855 or 

tracy.scriba@dot.gov. 

Transportation agencies are leveraging connectivity and emerging transportation data capabilities to 

advance TSMO strategies. This diagram shows various types of real-time data that agencies can use for 

new or enhanced TSMO strategies. 

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation.

WEBSITES FOR MORE INFORMATION

FHWA Planning for Operations: 

https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/plan4ops/index.htm

FHWA SHRP2 Reliability: 

https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/shrp2/index.htm

NOCoE: https://transportationops.org

18 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 19

SHOWCASING HIGHWAY 

RESEARCHby Kelley McKINLEY

Unmanned aerial systems provide high-quality data and imagery where 

traditional data collection practices are inadequate or sites are difficult to access 

for bridge inspection, field surveys, geotechnical investigations, and routine 

construction inspection. 

Source: FHWA.

FHWA recently put its work on display at an inaugural 

event to highlight innovative technologies.

Research and technology are key ingredients for helping the Federal Highway Administration reach its mission to enable 

and empower the strengthening of a world-class highway system. 

On September 18, 2019, FHWA hosted its first­ever Research 

Showcase at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s headquarters 

in Washington, DC. The event featured innovations developed 

through FHWA’s Office of Research, Development, and Technology (RD&T), located at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research 

Center (TFHRC), and other FHWA offices.

The FHWA Research Showcase featured 25 exhibits and 

demonstrations, and 3 presentations that provided representa

tives from USDOT modes and other highway stakeholders with 

a first­hand look at the latest transportation technology. During 

the event, attendees had the opportunity to interact with leading 

researchers and innovative technologies such as:

-

• CARMASM, which enables automated vehicles to share 

information with each other and roadway infrastructure, and 

to manage complex traffic issues that human drivers deal 

with daily. 

• Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC), the most technologically advanced concrete available in today’s market. 

UHPC is 5 times stronger and 10 times more durable than 

conventional concrete. 

• A hand-held spectrometer, which offers the potential to 

improve infrastructure performance by making it possible 

to very quickly determine whether materials brought to the 

project site meet agency requirements. 

• An FHWA Hydraulics Research Program’s mobile robotic 

system that automates the current riverbed material testing 

process, which can be time consuming and labor intensive. 

The event also highlighted the importance of multimodal 

collaborations that support “one DOT.” FHWA Administrator 

Nicole R. Nason noted how the “incredible research work being 

conducted by the FHWA plays an important role in improving our 

current and future highway and bridge infrastructure and its benefits are seen across nearly all modes of the USDOT,” most notably 

in the multimodal efforts related to connected and automated 

vehicle research. 

In addition, TFHRC plays a key role in ensuring that FHWA 

research extends beyond USDOT. At the event, U.S. Secretary 

of Transportation Elaine L. Chao said, “The research being 

conducted at the Federal Highway Administration’s TurnerFairbank Highway Research Center—in partnership with universities, startups, and industry stakeholders—has helped to advance 

transportation innovation. This work includes development of 

innovations in materials, designs, operations, and safety.” She also 

noted that the research and technology developed at TFHRC 

“has enabled the highway system to move people and freight 

more safely and has contributed to the economic success of our 

country.” 

KELLEY McKINLEY is a marketing and communications specialist at TFHRC, 

where she is responsible for developing communications strategy for FHWA’s 

research and technology. She holds a B.S. in communication studies from 

Northwestern University and an M.S. in communication management from 

Temple University.
20 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
LEFT: Stacy Balk, who supports TFHRC’s Human Factors program, shows a showcase 

visitor how to use FHWA’s virtual reality bicycle. This technology provides an 

opportunity to explore and investigate new infrastructure and safety enhancing 

techniques, without the safety risks of real-world evaluation.

TOP RIGHT: Secretary Chao welcomes visitors to the FHWA Research Showcase. 

BOTTOM RIGHT: Administrator Nason inspects a hand-held spectrometer with 

Terry Arnold, a chemist at TFHRC. The technology can quickly assess the 

composition of highway materials to detect the presence or absence of various 

constituent materials.

Sources: FHWA.

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 21
22 

| PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020

TOP LEFT: The RABITTM bridge deck assessment 

tool collects comprehensive data on surface and 

subsurface conditions.

TOP RIGHT: David Kuehn, program manager of the 

Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) Program, 

engages visitors at the EAR table. The EAR Program 

addresses the need to conduct longer term 

and higher risk breakthrough research with the 

potential for transformational improvements to 

plan, build, renew, and operate safe, congestion 

free, and environmentally sound transportation 

systems.

MIDDLE: Secretary Chao discusses the value of 

research in front of a large audience at the event. 

BOTTOM: Visitors to the Research Showcase could 

view the CARMA vehicles parked on the Third Street 

Plaza between the West and East buildings of 

USDOT headquarters.

Sources: FHWA.
What Does the Changing Face 

of Electricity Production 

Mean for Concrete? 

by SAIF AL-SHMAISANI and MARIA JUENGER

Fly ash 

from coal 

burning is an almost 

essential component of 

concrete mixtures. But with coal 

on the decline for power production, the 

concrete industry is looking for alternatives.

Burning coal is one of the primary means of generating electricity in the United 

States. The coal-burning process produces 

residual, incombustible materials. Fly 

ash—fine, glassy, rounded particles rich 

in silicon, aluminum, calcium, and iron 

oxides—is one of these residual materials, 

captured from the flue gas by precipitators 

and bag filters. Because of its chemical 

and physical characteristics, fly ash can 

substitute for a portion of portland cement 

in concrete mixtures as a supplementary 

cementitious material (SCM). Fly ash also 

improves many concrete properties such as 

workability. The spherical shape of fly ash 

particles compared to the shape of other 

SCMs can be seen in microscopic images. 

The concrete industry has used fly ash 

as an SCM for decades, thereby diverting it 

from landfills and impoundments, providing a benefit to both the power and concrete industries. According to the American 

Coal Ash Association’s (ACAA) 2017 Pro

duction and Use Survey, 111.3 million tons of 

coal combustion products were produced 

that year, with 71.8 million tons beneficially 

used. In 2017, concrete manufacturers used 

14.1 million tons of fly ash in concrete. 

-

Fly ash is the primary SCM used in 

concrete in the United States. Because fly 

ash is a byproduct material and cement is 

a manufactured material, the cost of fly ash 

is generally lower than the cost of cement. 

Therefore, substituting fly ash for cement 

reduces the cost of concrete. 

Recent environmental regulations that 

require emissions-control systems and the 

abundance of natural gas as an alternative 

fuel to coal have led to a decline in coalfired power plants—a trend that is likely 

to continue. The U.S. Energy Information 

Administration (EIA) forecasts that 42 

percent of existing coal­fired generation 

capacity will retire by 2050. As fly ash 

becomes less and less available, State 

departments of transportation and their 

contractors will need to seek alternatives. 

Many are already considering other options, 

such as natural pozzolans.

Concrete pavement durability and service life depend on the selection of quality materials and proper 

construction practices. SCMs are important ingredients in concrete for pavements—both to improve durability in 

freezing and thawing exposures and for the mitigation of alkali-silica reaction with some aggregate sources. 

Source: FHWA.

This is a composite of images taken 

through a microscope of five different 

SCM powders used in paving and 

structural concretes in transportation 

applications. Shown here, in order from 

top to bottom, are Class F and Class C fly 

ash, slag cement, densified silica fume 

pellets, and metakaolin.

Source: FHWA.

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 23
The Benefits of SCMs

Fly ash and other SCMs enhance concrete 

properties. The spherical particles of fly 

ash reduce friction during mixing when 

concrete is in its early, fluid state, enabling 

the reduction of mixing water or chemi

cal additives used to improve flow. SCMs 

chemically react over time in a pozzolanic 

reaction with calcium and hydroxyl ions in 

the concrete pore solution to form calcium 

silicate hydrates. The calcium silicate 

hydrates increase concrete’s long-term 

strength and reduce porosity and per

-

mea

bility. The slow reaction is especially benefi

-

-

cial in thick concrete pavement and mass 

concrete applications to prevent cracking 

and develop long-term strength. 

SCMs can reduce the risk of thermal 

cracking and subsequently provide good 

long-term mechanical properties. SCMs 

also help protect concrete from long-term 

chemical degradation. For example, SCMs 

reduce porosity through the pozzolanic 

reaction, slowing the intrusion of chlorides 

that can cause corrosion of steel reinforcement and sulfates that can cause expansive reactions and cracking. Lastly, SCMs 

can reduce expansion and cracking from 

alkali-silica reaction in aggregates containing reactive siliceous materials. 

An Uncertain Future

In 2011, the Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) issued a rule regulating the 

amount of mercury and other air toxins 

emitted by power plants in response to the 

1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act. 

To meet these regulations, coal­fired power 

plants have had to install emission control 

systems to reduce emissions primarily 

from sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and 

mercury. These systems often contaminate 

the fly ash produced by treating the flue gas 

with various substances, such as limestone 

powder, to react with the sulfur producing 

gypsum and activated carbon to absorb the 

mercury. Often the products of emission 

control systems become mixed with the fly 

ash, reducing its quality and performance 

in concrete. 

In addition to the contamination of 

fly ash, installation and maintenance of 

emission control systems can be costly for 

smaller or older plants, forcing many to be 

retired. The EIA reports approximately 475 

coal­fired power generator closures since 

the EPA finalized the 2011 regulation. 

Coal­fired power plants that can make the 

necessary modifications incur higher costs 

to produce electricity, which increases the 

cost of electricity generated by the plants. 

This has created a more competitive market 

for other energy sources, such as natural 

gas, solar, and wind energy.

According to the ACAA’s Production and 

Use Surveys, the amount of fly ash used in 

concrete products has increased 5 percent 

between 2011 and 2017; however, the 

amount of fly ash produced has dropped 

36 percent. The American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) 

estimates that concrete production will 

increase more than 50 percent by 2033. 

Dwindling fly ash production necessitates the search for alternative sources of 

this material. 

“The Texas Department of Transportation [TxDOT], [like] many other DOTs, 

has relied heavily on fly ash to improve 

long-term durability of concrete,” says 

Andy Naranjo, rigid pavements and concrete materials branch manager of TxDOT. 

“Seasonal power plant outages, changes 

in coal sources, and power plant closures 

have significantly impacted the supply of 

fly ash making it challenging for the fly 

ash industry to meet the fly ash demand. 

TxDOT has worked closely with fly ash 

marketers as they bring in new sources of 

fly ash from other States and countries, and 

some unconventional options to ensure the 

immediate demand is met.”

Fly Ash Beneficiation and Harvesting

According to the ACAA, only 64 percent 

of the fly ash produced in the United 

States in 2017 was beneficially reused. The 

large unused quantities of fly ash produced 

per year are often landfilled or ponded 

onsite at power plants. Therefore, opportunities exist for excavating or dredging 

and recovering these materials, a process 

referred to as harvesting. In addition, coal 

combustion produces other residuals, such 

as bottom ash and economizer ash, which 

may be untapped resources for SCMs.

A dump truck collects a fresh concrete batch from a 

central-mix concrete production plant for hauling to 

a slip-form concrete paving project. This production 

plant has both an active, overhead silo storage and 

on-ground pneumatic “pigs” (bulk tanks) for cement 

and fly ash storage. 

Source: FHWA.

24 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
The primary obstacle to using underutilized coal combustion residuals in concrete 

is material quality. ASTM International 

(ASTM) C618 and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation 

Officials (AASHTO) M295 specify the 

chemical and physical properties that fly 

ash must meet for use in concrete mixtures. 

However, beneficiating or remediating 

fly ashes that do not meet these specifications can make them acceptable for 

use. For example, coarse material can be 

post-processed by classifying or grinding 

to increase fineness and fly ash with high 

unburned carbon content can be thermally, 

electrostatically, or chemically treated to 

remove carbon or reduce its absorptivity. 

A construction crew pours fresh concrete on an 

asphalt base during construction of a jointed plain 

concrete slip-formed pavement. 

Source: FHWA.

ReseaRch at FhWa

FHWA’s Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) continues concrete research on 

SCMs and SCMs used with limestone powder in cooperation with FHWA Exploratory Advanced 

Research Program researchers and with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. To 

date, the research has resulted in the following documents:

• Benefits of High Volume Fly Ash Fact Sheet

(FHWA-HRT-10-022)

www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research 

/ear/10051/10051.pdf

• Increased Use of Fly Ash in Hydraulic Cement Concrete (HCC) for Pavement Layers 

and Transportation Structures

https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316554

• Evaluation of High-Volume Fly Ash Mixtures (Paste and Mortar Components) 

Using A Dynamic Shear Rheometer and 

an Isothermal Calorimeter TechBrief 

(FHWA-HRT-12-062) 

www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research 

/infrastructure/pavements/12062/12062.pdf

• “Isothermal Calorimetry as a Tool to 

Evaluate Early-Age Performance of Fly 

Ash Mixtures,” Transportation Research 

Record: Journal of the Transportation 

Research Board

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi 

/abs/10.3141/2342-06

• “Ternary Blends for Controlling Cost and 

Carbon Content,” Concrete International

https://concrete.nist.gov/~bentz 

/TernaryblendsforCI.pdf

• “Multi-Scale Investigation of the Per

formance of Limestone in Concrete,” 

Construction and Building Materials

-

https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf 

.cfm?pub_id=916188

Assessment of New Rapid Alkali-Silica 

Reaction (ASR) Tests. Ongoing research in the 

TFHRC Concrete Laboratory and the TFHRC 

Aggregate and Petrographic Laboratory (APL) 

tests the reliability of two new test methods—

the concrete cylinder test and miniature con

crete prism test—in assessing ASR mitigation 

measures. This research is in collaboration 

with the University of Texas and Oregon State 

University. Researchers plan to present the 

results of this project, comparing the perf

-

or

mance of reactive aggregates in the lab with 

field exposure blocks containing SCMs (Class 

F and Class C fly ash, slag cement, or silica 

fume), at the Transportation Research Board’s 

2020 Annual Meeting. 

-

Assessment and Refinement of Concrete 

Durability Testing Procedures. TFHRC is one 

of the research organizations looking at 

durability testing procedures for concrete 

with and without SCMs in support of the new 

AASHTO PP84-19 for Performance Engineered 

Mixtures (PEM) for concrete. The PEM project 

is assessing a suite of new test procedures 

for practicality in the lab and relation to 

performance. One test is electrical resistivity 

of a concrete cylinder as an indicator of the 

quality of the pore system. Concrete resistivi

ty depends both on the pore structure and on 

the pore solution in the concrete. Aspects of 

this research, including data on concrete with 

fly ash and slag cement SCMs, are explained 

in Formation Factor Demystified and It

-

s Rela

tionship to Durability (FHWA-HRT-19-030) at

-

www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research 

/infrastructure/pavements/19030/index.cfm. 

Conducting laboratory 

research on trial 

concrete mixtures 

containing various 

cementitious blends 

is an important step 

in selecting materials 

and blends that 

will yield long-term 

concrete performance 

and durability in 

transportation 

infrastructure. 

Laboratory technicians 

will run workability 

tests on this fresh 

batch of concrete.

Source: FHWA.

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 25
As fly ash decreases in availability, the concrete industry must find alternative 

materials. Pumice, shown here, is a natural pozzolan with a similar oxide 

composition to some fly ashes. 

© May 2019 Natural Pozzolan Association 1st Annual 

Symposium hosted by Kirkland Mining Company, LLC.

Beneficiation is not limited to 

as­produced fly ash. According to the 

EPA, more than 310 active landfills onsite 

at power plants have an average size of 

more than 120 acres (48.5 hectares) and 

an average depth of more than 40 feet (12 

meters). In addition, more than 735 active 

surface impoundments have an average 

area and depth of 50 acres (20 hectares) 

and 20 feet (6 meters). Presumably, these 

landfills and impoundments hold vast 

reserves of materials that operators or fly 

ash distributors could harvest and beneficiate for use in construction. 

As reported in the July–August 2019 

issue of the American Concrete Institute Materials Journal, research indicates that applying 

thermal, mechanical, and/or chemical 

treatment to fly ashes harvested from landfills can result in fly ashes with very similar 

performance to the as-produced material. 

Similarly, bottom ash and economizer 

ashes benefit from treatments to improve 

their performance in concrete. After the 

performance of these materials is proven, 

the limiting obstacle is modification of 

the relevant standards and specifications 

to enable their use. To this end, several 

research projects recently begun through 

the Federal Highway Administration’s 

Exploratory Advanced Research Program, 

the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, and by industry associations and SCM producers and suppliers to 

better define performance requirements 

of harvested and beneficiated fly ash and 

other coal combustion products.

Natural Pozzolans

Another solution to extend the resources 

for SCMs is to increase production of 

natural pozzolans. Natural pozzolans are 

quarried minerals with similar composi

tions to fly ash, making them also pozzolanically reactive. Minerals in this category 

include unaltered volcanic minerals such as 

pumice, perlite, and volcanic ash; altered 

volcanic minerals such as zeolites; and 

calcined sedimentary minerals such as clays 

and shales. 

-

Natural pozzolans have a strong history 

of use in the United States in the early 

20th century for the construction of many 

landmark bridges and dams. Their use 

decreased as fly ash came into favor during 

the late 20th century, but they are experiencing a renaissance as fly ash production 

decreases and demand for high-quality 

SCMs increases. In the United States, 

natural pozzolan producers formed the 

Natural Pozzolan Association (NPA) in 

2017 to represent their growing industry. 

The NPA reports adding 500,000 tons of 

new production capacity in North America 

in 2018 and estimates producing 500,000 

tons more in 2019.

Use and research on both raw and 

calcined natural pozzolans demonstrate 

excellent performance as SCMs in concrete 

in terms of fresh and hardened state prop

erties and long-term durability.

-

Blended Ashes

Another opportunity for extending SCM 

resources comes from blending materials 

from different sources. Blending facilitates 

the use of underutilized materials and 

conserves the use of high-quality materials, 

26 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
enabling the production of a larger 

quantity of good quality material for 

use in concrete. For example, blending 

an SCM that does not meet the ASTM 

C618/AASHTO M295 specification 

for fineness with a finer material can 

produce an acceptable alternative. Sim

ilarly, blending an SCM with a high car

-

-

bon content with one having a lower 

carbon content can yield an acceptable 

level of carbon content.

Blending of SCMs is permitted 

under ASTM C1697. However, the 

specification currently only allows 

the blending of materials that meet 

specifications for fly ashes, natural pozzolans, silica fume, and slag 

cement. Off­specification materials 

are not allowed despite research that 

shows off­specification fly ashes 

blended with natural pozzolans or 

other fly ashes perform quite well 

in concrete mixtures, as long as the 

blended material meets the chemical 

and physical requirements for a fly ash. 

Furthermore, blending materials such 

as milled bottom ash with fly ashes and 

other SCMs presents the opportunity 

to include more underutilized coal 

combustion residuals. 

“Changes in electricity genera

tion will continue to impact concrete 

mixture designs into the future,” says 

Michael Praul, P.E., senior concrete 

engineer with the FHWA Mobile Con

-

-

crete Technology Center. “However, 

there are many promising approaches 

to solving this problem—from ben

eficiating underutilized or landfilled 

materials to searching for new sources 

of SCM materials and optimizing 

blends for targeted performance. Now 

is the time to develop viable means 

to assure the long-term availability of 

SCMs so we can continue to produce 

high-quality concrete for the Nation’s 

infrastructure in the future.” 

-

Ahmad Ardani, PE, and Richard 

Meininger, PE, are the FHWA points 

of contact for this research. Ardani is 

the concrete research program manager 

with FHWA at the Turner-Fairbank 

Highway Research Center (TFHRC). 

Meininger is a research civil engineer 

on the Pavement Materials Team at 

TFHRC. For more information, contact Ardani at Ahmad.Ardani@dot.gov or 

202–493–3422, or Meininger at Richard.

Meininger@dot.gov or 202–493–3191. 

SAIF AL-SHMAISANI is a Ph.D. student in 

civil engineering at the University of Texas 

at Austin. Al-Shmaisani has B.S. and M.S. 

degrees in civil engineering from the 

University of Texas at Austin.

MARIA JUENGER, Ph.D., is a professor of civil, 

architectural, and environmental engineering 

at the University of Texas at Austin. Juenger 

received a B.S. in chemistry from Duke Uni

versity and a Ph.D. in materials science and 

engineering from Northwestern University. 

-

This photo shows a typical sawed joint in plain concrete slip-formed pavement 

with the desired crack extending from the bottom of the partial-depth saw cut 

to the bottom of the slab. Using SCMs in concrete paving mixtures will help 

improve the durability of the concrete in deicing chemical exposures, which is 

important in long-term joint performance.

Source: FHWA.

ReseaRch at the UniveRsity oF texas at aUstin

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is 

supporting research on fly ash and fly ash alternatives in concrete, including the role of fly ash in 

preventing thermal cracking in mass concrete and 

controlling expansion from ASR. With respect to the 

latter, the University of Texas at Austin maintains 

outdoor exposure sites to monitor long-term durability of concrete mixtures both in Austin, TX, and in 

the Gulf of Mexico. The long-term outdoor exposure 

testing enables the correlation of degradation under 

accelerated testing to that which occurs under 

more realistic conditions. 

Outdoor exposure sites for durability testing at the 

University of Texas at Austin. 

© Racheal Lute.

TxDOT-funded work on fly ash alternatives began 

in 2011 as changes in air pollution regulations for 

power plants threatened to reduce the availability 

of fly ash in Texas. TxDOT-sponsored research at 

the University of Texas at Austin targeted natural 

pozzolans as fly ash replacements, with excellent 

performance identified from pumice, perlite, and 

calcined clay and shale. At the time of the research, 

these materials were more expensive than fly ash. 

TxDOT continued to sponsor work on lower cost 

materials, such as reclaimed and remediated fly 

ashes and byproduct sources of natural pozzolans, 

such as overburden pumice. All materials with 

pozzolanic reactivity performed well in concrete 

mixtures, improving mechanical properties and 

durability. 

TxDOT’s support for research is continuing 

with emphasis on blended fly ashes and tools for 

screening good materials from marginal or poor 

ones, which is critically important as the industry 

sees an increasing variety of materials and blends 

introduced to the market. 

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 27
CARMA

SM: DRIVING INNOVATION

by TAYLOR LOCHRANE, LAURA DAILEY, and CORRINA TUCKER

FHWA’s cooperative driving automation program is transforming transportation. 

Cooperative driving automation (CDA) has the potential to improve transportation safety and efficiency, facilitate freight 

movement, increase productivity, and save 

money by reducing the need to widen roadway lanes. The Federal Highway Adminis

tration developed the unique CARMA PlatformSM and CARMA CloudSM (collectively, 

CARMASM) to support the research and 

development of CDA features in support 

of transportation systems management and 

operations (TSMO). 

-

“Automated vehicles, consistent with 

their name, operate autonomously or on 

their own,” says Chris Stanley, the program 

manager for FHWA’s Saxton Transporta

tions Operation Laboratory and the senior 

director of surface transportation research 

at Leidos. “FHWA is enabling these 

vehicles to work together for the public 

good, improving transportation safety 

and mobility.”

-

CARMA is a cooperative effort among 

FHWA, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration, the Maritime Administra

tion, the Intelligent Transportation Systems 

Joint Program Office, and the Volpe 

National Transportation Systems Center. 

Together, the agencies work to facilitate 

collaboration, research, and testing in CDA 

as well as the future of the Nation’

-

s trans

portation system. 

-

What Is CARMA?

The overarching purpose of CARMA is 

to transform transportation, improving 

efficiency and safety through automated 

vehicles working together with roadway 

infrastructure. 

To fully understand what CARMA is 

and how it can improve transportation 

efficiency and safety, it is important to 

understand how the current iteration of 

CARMA developed. CARMA1 started 

out as a proof of concept. A software 

package developed to enable vehicles to 

communicate their longitudinal movements 

with each other, CARMA1 marked the 

start of FHWA’s cooperative automated 

vehicle fleet.

Next, the team developed CARMA2, 

a platform built on open-source software. 

The goal of this phase was to engage with 

the industry on CDA in order to expand 

existing automation capabilities and to 

reduce research and development time. 

CARMA2 runs on a computer inside a 

vehicle. The computer interacts with the 

vehicle’s devices and microcontrollers, 

including onboard units and after-market 

sensors such as radars. The platform 

manages the controller area network (CAN 

bus) messages for the vehicle to speed up 

or slow down, gathers data from con

nected sensors to understand the vehicle’s 

environment, transmits the onboard unit 

messages to other vehicles, and processes 

incoming messages from other vehicles and 

infrastructure in order to cooperate with 

other vehicles. The platform also provides 

many plug-ins that support cooperative 

driving tactics, such as cruising, yielding, 

lane changing and merging, platooning, and 

speed harmonizing. 

-

The research team then developed 

CARMA3, the latest version of CARMA 

released in July 2019 and now simply called 

CARMASM, to collaborate with the research 

and development community. It consists of 

CARMA Cloud and the CARMA Platform. 

CARMA is an open-source software 

that enables researchers and engineers to 

develop and test their CDA features on 

properly equipped vehicles. It is available 

on the GitHub development platform at 

https://github.com/usdot-fhwa-stol 

/CARMAPlatform for any researcher to 

download and use. By making CARMA 

publicly available, FHWA and its partners 

hope to set the foundation for interoperability across vehicle makes and models 

and encourage the safe introduction of the 

technology onto the Nation’s roads. 

CARMA Cloud is a downloadable, cloud-based, open-source service 

that enables communication between 

cloud services, vehicles, road users, and 

28 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
FHWA recently expanded its CDA fleet by four new passenger 

vehicles. Three different makes and models are shown here. 

All use the third phase of CARMA (CARMA3). 

Source: FHWA. 

infrastructure devices. CARMA Cloud 

enables the roadway to provide informa

tion to support safe operation for new 

TSMO strategies. This technology facili

-

-

tates cooperation among vehicles and roadway infrastructure through communication. 

The CARMA Platform provides 

cooperative research functionality to 

an automated driving system. By using 

CARMA Cloud to provide information 

about what’s ahead (such as traffic incidents, road weather conditions, and work 

zones), the CARMA Platform enables 

automated vehicles to interact and cooperate with infrastructure and other vehicles, 

improving the performance of the existing 

transportation system.

Features of the CARMA Platform

The developers designed the CARMA Platform with flexibility in mind. It is built on 

Robot Operating System (ROS) to encourage modular design so that components 

can be easily swapped out to experiment 

with different combinations. It includes 

vehicle­to­everything (V2X) communications capabilities to compose, transmit, 

receive, and parse V2X messaging and can 

work with any radio device. 

The platform also includes three 

application planning interfaces (APIs). 

The planning plug-in API enables users to 

install plug-ins for either strategic planning 

or tactical planning of vehicle behaviors 

and trajectories to exercise particular 

algorithms and cooperative interaction. 

The controller plug-in API provides 

for the implementation of low-level 

motion-planning algorithms. Finally, 

the hardware driver API enables users 

to install the platform on any properly 

equipped vehicle, as long as drivers are 

installed that connect to the various 

vehicle sensors and controller equipment.

Additionally, the third phase of 

CARMA software also features:

• Localization, motion planning, and 

obstacle detection and avoidance.

• AutowareTM components that 

are adaptable to work with 

other platforms.

• Environment sensing with 

light detection and ranging 

(LiDAR), radar, video, 

and MobilEye®-integrated 

roadway-sensing devices.

• Society of Automotive Engineers 

(SAE) level 2 steering and speed 

control while staying in lane.

• Basic safety message broadcasting 

using data from the CARMA system.

FHWA and its partners are develop

ing further CARMA features, and more 

information will be available online as 

these features are identified and created.

-

Developing Strategies 

for Key Scenarios

The CARMA Program aims to develop 

a concept of operations for TSMO 

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: FMCSA

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration (FMCSA) is the 

leading Federal government agency 

that is responsible for regulating 

safety of commercial motor vehicles. 

FMCSA’s priority is to reduce crashes, 

injuries, and fatalities that involve 

large trucks and buses. FMCSA has 

joined the CARMA Collaborative in 

order to push the limits of CARMA 

by improving transportation safety. 

The four tractors provided by FMCSA 

are the next generation for test 

vehicles that will support Society of 

Automotive Engineers (SAE) Level 

2 and Level 3 commercial motor 

vehicle automation research. The 

areas of research for the tractors 

include roadside inspections, 

advanced driver-assistance systems, 

performance, platooning, driver 

readiness, and cybersecurity. 

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 29
strategies, including basic travel, traffic 

incident management (TIM), work zone, 

and weather scenarios. 

“The results of this research will accelerate stakeholder collaboration expediting 

identification of readiness needs that will 

stimulate deployment of cooperative driv

ing automation technology while advancing 

safety, security, data, and application of 

artificial intelligence,” says John Harding, 

the leader of FHWA’s Connected/Automated Vehicles and Emerging Technolo

-

-

gies Team.

Basic travel. The first basic travel scenario 

CARMA will explore is merging onto a 

highway. The second research priority is 

navigating a signalized intersection.

Traffic incident management. The CARMA 

team will research three TIM-related 

scenarios. The first is when vehicles must 

move out of the way of first responder 

vehicles driving toward an incident. The 

second priority for investigation 

is the move-over law, in which 

approaching vehicles should move out of 

the lane adjacent to stationary emergency 

vehicles with flashing lights. The third 

scenario being explored during this 

phase is changing lanes on a freeway 

in response to an incident blocking 

a travel lane ahead.

Work zone management. The 

first scenario CARMA will 

CARMA will explore two 

basic travel scenarios, 

including merging onto 

a highway. Here, the 

text bubbles indicate 

in-vehicle warning 

messages for cars that 

are merging as well as 

cars in the travel lane. 

Source: FHWA. 

This phase of the 

CARMA project 

investigates three 

scenarios related 

to traffic incident 

management, including 

changing lanes on a 

freeway in response to 

an incident ahead with a 

responding emergency 

vehicle.

Source: FHWA. 

The CARMA team will 

examine two work zone 

management scenarios, 

including one-lane, 

two-way traffic taper 

in which a single lane 

is used for alternating 

traffic in each direction, 

as shown here. 

Source: FHWA. 

CARMA will explore 

a road weather 

management scenario 

in which vehicles 

must change speed 

and prepare for other 

adjustments at the 

beginning of a weather 

event zone.

Source: FHWA. 

30 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
FHWA and its partners recently released the third iteration of the CARMA 

software platform. CARMA promotes collaboration and participation 

from communities of engineers and researchers to advance the 

understanding of cooperative automated driving.

Source: FHWA. 

explore is a one­lane, two­way traffic taper. 

The second-priority scenario for investiga

tion is a road closure with diversion. 

-

Road weather management. CARMA 

will investigate the scenario of a vehicle 

adjusting speed and preparing for other 

adjustments at the beginning of a weather 

event zone.

CARMA Collaborative

FHWA established the CARMA Collaborative to bring together diverse stakeholders 

supporting the future of the transportation 

industry. The effort bridges gaps among 

several stakeholder groups and forms a 

community of existing and prospective 

CARMA users invested in developing 

intelligent transportation solutions and 

cooperative automated driving systems 

to improve transportation efficiency and 

safety. The CARMA Collaborative provides 

opportunities to cultivate relationships, 

share expertise, pilot transportation tech

nologies, implement cooperative automated 

driving systems, and strengthen the trans

-

-

portation industry for public benefit.

The CARMA Collaborative advances 

the understanding of CDA and the impacts 

it can have on mobility, cultivates technology that enables cooperative automated 

driving systems, and accelerates use of 

CARMA by stakeholders to support the 

collaborative development and adoption of 

cooperative and automated technologies. 

The collaborative facilitates active engage

ment, interaction, and discussion on the 

use of CARMA through its open-source 

platform, stakeholder engagement, and 

webinars to share information.

-

Get Involved!

The latest version of CARMA is now live 

on GitHub and open for collaboration. 

The unique CARMA Platform enables 

users to download and add this software to 

a properly equipped vehicle with automated 

driving technology. Download the software 

to begin collaborating with FHWA and its 

partners in improving the roadways today. 

TAYLOR LOCHRANE is the technical program 

manager for CARMA, leading the open source 

development and collaboration efforts of CARMA 

with partners and stakeholders. He earned 

B.S, M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering 

focused in transportation from the University of 

Central Florida. 

LAURA DAILEY is the communications manager of 

the Saxton Transportation Operations Laboratory, 

overseeing marketing and engagement activities. 

She earned an M.S. degree from Drexel University 

and B.S. degree with a marketing concentration 

from Elon.

CORRINA TUCKER is a junior communications 

specialist in the Saxton Transportation Operations 

Laboratory leading outreach activities. She holds 

a B.A. degree in digital media from Penn State and 

specializes in technical writing and multimedia. 

For more information, contact Taylor 

Lochrane at taylor.lochrane@dot.gov or visit 

https://highways.dot.gov/research 

/research-programs/operations/CARMA.

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 31
Saluting 50 Years of Transportation Training

FHWA’s National Highway Institute Celebrates Its Golden Anniversary in 2020

by STAN WORONICK and CHRISTINE KEMKER

I

n 1970, the Nation was at the height of 

Eisenhower’s Interstate Era. Federal and 

State highway agencies worked to plan and 

build the interstate highway system, the 

largest civil works project ever constructed 

in the United States. At the same time, 

people across all industries looked for new 

ways to protect natural, social, and cultural 

environments. As the Nation’s interstate 

routes expanded, the Federal Highway 

Administration recognized that maintaining 

and updating this system would require a 

contemporary, trained workforce, one able 

to implement new methods and technologies. More and larger projects, developing 

and adapting new innovations, and a grow

ing workforce meant a need for training to 

meet the demands. 

-

To rise to the challenge of providing 

new skills and staffing for the transportation industry, Congress authorized the 

creation of the National Highway Institute 

(NHI) as part of the Federal-Aid Highway 

Act of 1970. As FHWA’s training arm, 

NHI was tasked with the development 

and delivery of training for State and 

local highway organizations across the 

United States.

In the beginning, NHI was a lean 

organization with just a few employees 

who completed all course registrations, 

scheduling arrangements, and certificates 

by hand. With this limitation, the agency 

understandably offered only a small 

selection of courses. Today, NHI regu

larly collaborates with partners across the 

transportation industry, both nationally and 

internationally, to offer a catalog that has 

grown to include more than 400 courses in 

18 broad categories, including more than 

200 distance-learning courses that capitalize 

on the latest web technologies. With 205 

web-based trainings, 20 web-conference 

trainings, and an ever-increasing n

-

um

ber of blended courses (part online, part 

instructor led) on the books, NHI aims to 

train more transportation professionals, 

accessibly and affordably, in the fields they 

need most.

-

Even though the technology and 

teaching formats are relatively new, NHI’s 

commitment to excellence in training is 

not. As FHWA’s training and educational 

business unit, NHI has provided quality 

technical training to the Nation’s broad 

network of transportation professionals 

for the past 50 years. And this year, as NHI 

celebrates its golden anniversary, it proudly 

continues to serve as the country’s princi

pal source of transportation-related course 

materials and training.

-

COLLABORATION AND INNOVATION

NHI ensures the Nation’s transportation 

professionals remain at the forefront 

of their chosen disciplines and helps to 

safeguard the country’s infrastructure as 

a national asset. NHI develops its technical training in collaboration with FHWA 

program offices, FHWA’s Resource Center, 

State departments of transportation, local 

agencies, and industry partners, which 

encourages nationwide application of stateof-the-practice techniques.

NHI’s portfolio of training products 

covers a wide variety of transportationrelated program areas ranging from asset 

management and structures to intelligent 

transportation systems and highway safety. 

The instructor-led and web-conference 

sessions provide a direct line of commu

nication with experienced practitioners 

considered by their peers to be experts in 

their respective fields.

-

NHI strives to be the authoritative 

source for transportation training by 

offering relevant and organized curricula, 

providing outstanding customer service, 

and delivering training formats that support various learning needs and workforce 

trends. The organization is dedicated to 

improving the performance of the trans

portation industry by providing effective 

and innovative instruction, both in the 

classroom and online. 

-

To ensure that current training needs 

are being met, NHI is conducting a 3-year 

initiative to update the entire 418-course 

catalog. The goal of this undertaking, as 

well as that of the new web-based courses, 

is to make NHI more affordable and acces

sible to professionals across the industry.

-

NHI’s new director, Michael Davies, is 

the push behind this effort. “We recognize the ever-changing landscape of the 

transportation industry and its workforce 

development needs,” says Davies. “That’s 

why we are laser-focused and committed 

32 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
For 50 years, the National Highway Institute has delivered innovative and expert transportation training. As the primary training and education branch of the Federal Highway 

Administration, NHI aims to provide transportation professionals with the knowledge they need to perform and advance their careers. 

Image compilation by Schatz Strategy Group. Photos, left to right: © Shutterstock.com/ Matej Kastelic, © Shutterstock.com/ Matej Kastelic, © Shutterstock.com/Sean Pavone.

to providing a high-quality learning experi

ence through the most innovative training 

solutions available.” 

-

OFFERING EXCELLENCE

NHI uses the latest adult learning princi

ples to keep learners engag

-

ed and enthu

siastic about applying what they learn as 

soon as they return to work. NHI uses 

an iterative course development process, 

through which accredited instructional 

designers and subject matter experts work 

closely to determine training needs, design 

and develop a solution, and deliver a 

high-quality product based on the custom

-

-

ers’ unique objectives, timelines, and budget. That means that each course is not a 

cookie-cutter lecture, but instead uses local 

examples and tailored content to meet the 

specific challenges faced by attendees.

The organization pursues strategic 

partnerships that enhance and attest to the 

quality of its training. These partnerships 

include university transportation centers, 

State DOTs, and FHWA’s Resource Center. 

Collaboration with these partners has 

helped NHI to provide better training to 

more customers. 

Beyond offering state-of-the-art and 

state-of-the-practice training, NHI is 

accredited by the International Association 

for Continuing Education and Training 

(IACET) as an authorized provider of 

continuing education units (CEUs). As an 

authorized provider, NHI can offer CEUs 

for its courses that qualify under the American National Standards Institute/IACET 

1-2007 Standard. Accredited training may 

be used by highway industry professionals 

to maintain State-issued professional engineer licenses or other designations. For its 

planning and freight series courses, NHI is 

also an approved provider of the American 

Institute of Certified Planners certification 

maintenance credits. 

“Accreditation gives our courses 

validity as high-quality trainings,” says 

Carolyn Eberhard, an NHI instructor 

liaison and historian. 

In addition to the IACET accreditation, several of NHI’s courses meet 

Federal and State requirements as 

approved training for industry certifications. Maintaining Federal and State 

approval for many of NHI’s courses 

means enforcing rigorous standards 

and providing up-to-date trainings on 

transportation policies, technologies, 

and best practices. These efforts ensure 

added value, above and beyond CEUs, 

for individuals who take these courses. 

NHI uses innovative training delivery 

methods that increase accessibility to 

learning without sacrificing the quality 

or comprehensiveness of the content. 

This includes staying up-to-date on 

adult learning theory and convert

ing many introductory courses into 

accessible, user-oriented formats. NHI 

implements blended learning strategies 

to encourage the most efficient expenditures of participant and instructor time. 

-

“Blended courses address participants’ 

needs to learn at their own pace and 

when it’s convenient to them,” says 

Melonie Barrington, an NHI training 

program manager.

This dedication to excellence has results. 

In the last decade, NHI has significantly 

increased its reach in the transportation 

industry, training 173 percent more 

NHI Training Categories

ASSET 

MANAGEMENT

GEOTECHNICAL

BUSINESS, PUBLIC 

ADMINISTRATION 

AND QUALITY

HIGHWAY SAFETY

CIVIL RIGHTS HYDRAULICS

COMMUNICATIONS

INTELLIGENT 

TRANSPORTATION 

SYSTEMS (ITS)

CONSTRUCTION 

AND MAINTENANCE

PAVEMENT AND 

MATERIALS

DESIGN AND TRAFFIC 

OPERATIONS REAL ESTATE

FINANCIAL 

MANAGEMENT

TRANSPORTATION 

PERFORMANCE 

MANAGEMENT

FREIGHT AND 

TRANSPORTATION 

LOGISTICS

TRANSPORTATION 

PLANNING

ENVIRONMENT STRUCTURES

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 33
LEFT: FHWA’s Administrator Francis C. Turner (left) 

with Emmett H. Karrer, the first director of NHI, in 

September 1971. 

Source: FHWA

RIGHT: FHWA’s Executive Director, Thomas Everett 

(left), poses with NHI’s newest director, Michael 

Davies, who took the position in January 2019. While 

proud of the last 50 years, Davies is looking ahead 

to NHI’s future through innovative training and 

collaborative efforts.

Source: FHWA

participants in 2018 than in 2008 thanks to 

the incorporation of new training delivery 

formats, such as web­based training (first 

offered in 2003) and blended courses (first 

course offered in 2006). In the last 5 years 

alone, NHI has trained more than 200,000 

personnel from Federal agencies, State 

DOTs, local public agencies, international 

industry organizations, and institutes of 

higher learning.

Developers continually update courses 

as needed to reflect the latest guidance, 

methods, and knowledge, and to incorpo

rate feedback received from participants. 

As an organization dedicated to learners, 

NHI provides access to highly skilled sub

-

-

ject matter experts from government and 

industry, incorporates hands-on learning 

opportunities and practical exercises that 

make real-world application a priority, 

and offers opportunities to collaborate, 

solve problems, and share successful 

practices with industry peers across the 

United States.

The vision for the future of NHI 

continues a longstanding history of 

forward-thinking ideas. In observation of 

NHI’s 50th anniversary, the focus this year 

revolves around one central theme: Moving 

forward, giving back. 

MOVING FORWARD

To celebrate its momentous anniversary, 

NHI plans to rebrand, increase visibility, 

and focus on innovation.

Rebranding. NHI has developed a new style 

guide and introduced a redesigned logo, an 

all-new color scheme, and a revamped look 

and feel with modernized fonts and icons. 

Visibility. NHI plans to participate in more 

key industry events and develop a stron

ger digital and social media presence. The 

kickoff for NHI’s 50th year takes place at 

the Transportation Research Board’s 99th 

Annual Meeting, held January 12–16, 2020, 

at the Walter E. Washington Convention 

Center, in Washington, D.C

-

Innovation. NHI is exploring new tech

nologies and finding innovative ways to 

communicate to broader audiences by 

modernizing its video library and training 

curriculum and implementing more oppor

-

-

tunities to use state-of-the-art virtual reality 

technology. NHI currently offers three 

computer-based trainings that use virtual 

inspections, including the popular Safety 

Inspection of In-Service Bridges (course 

130055), which was hosted 35 times in 

2018. 

GIVING BACK

2020 offers a golden opportunity to give 

back to the transportation community and 

further support industry professionals.

Financial Support. To strengthen its partnerships with State and Federal agencies, 

NHI will provide resources to the transportation workforce throughout 2020. This 

will include discounted courses across the 

board and curated sessions for industry 

professionals hosted at NHI’s training 

facilities just outside of Washington, DC. 

NHI is also promoting its 50th anniversary 

by offering select NHI-sponsored “Golden 

Anniversary Courses” to State DOTs, local 

agencies, Tribal governments, and other 

FHWA partners. 

Website Chat Box. To make it easier for online users to get access to the answers they 

are looking for, NHI is developing a chat 

box interface for its website. The feature 

will assist customers in finding information, offer help with hosting a session, and 

34 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
answer questions about NHI courses in 

real time.

Collaboration. NHI has been working to 

build new and better partnerships internally 

and externally to create better opportunities for our customers. These collabora

tions include the Resource Center’s “Call 

For Service” (an initiative designed to 

identify and meet the technical and training 

needs of FHWA’s division partners), a joint 

training facility with the Federal Motor 

Carrier Safety Administration, and a new 

agreement with the Office of Innovative 

Program Delivery to offer all NHI webbased training at no cost to local agencies 

and Tribal governments. 

-

 “We want to advance the industry and 

better support the many transportation 

professionals we serve,” says NHI Director 

Davies. “Throughout our 50th anniversary 

and beyond, NHI is committed to reinvesting in their technical training needs, shoring 

up and strengthening the lines of commu

nication, and uncovering new ways to bet

-

-

ter serve the transportation community.” 

Fiscal Year 2018 Course Highlights

Course with the Most Sessions Bridge Inspection Refresher Training 

(FHWA-NHI-130053)

Most Popular 

Web-Based Training

FHWA Planning and Research Grants: 

The Uniform Guidance (2 CFR Part 200) – Part 2 

(FHWA-NHI-151059)

Web-Conference Training 

with the 

Most Sessions

Transportation Performance Management for Con

gestion including Freight (FHWA-NHI-138010) (this 

course has been replaced by a web-based version without the live conference session: FHWA-NHI-138019)

-

Highest Rated Course Basic Relocation under the Uniform Act

RIGHT: NHI uses virtual inspections in three courses, 

such as this one of a steel truss bridge from the 

updated Safety Inspection of In-Service Bridges 

course. NHI hopes to incorporate more virtual reality 

technology into its courses in the coming years. 

Source: NHI.

Source: FHWA.

“For the last 50 years, FHWA’s National Highway 

Institute has been training and building the 

transportation workforce of the future. While 

our teaching methods may look different today 

and certainly will be different in the future, our 

goal for the next 50 years remains: to continue to 

deliver high-quality, leading-edge training for the 

transportation industry.” 

—AMY LUCERO, FHWA Chief Technical Services Officer

STAN WORONICK is the training delivery and customer service manager at NHI. Previously, he worked at 

the FHWA Missouri Division as an administrative officer and finance specialist. He holds a bachelor of 

science in workforce development from Southern Illinois University–Carbondale and a master’s degree 

in human resource development from Webster University.

CHRISTINE KEMKER is a contracted marketing specialist for NHI.

For more information, visit www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/home.aspx.

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 35
ALONG THE ROAD

Along the Road is the place to look for information about current and upcoming activities, developments, trends, and items of general interest to 

the highway community. This information comes from U.S. Department of Transportation sources unless otherwise indicated. Your suggestions 

and input are welcome. Let’s meet along the road.

Public Information and Information Exchange

Secretary Chao Celebrates Groundbreaking 

of New Volpe Center

In a ceremony on October 30, 2019, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao celebrated the official groundbreaking of 

the new U.S. Department of Transportation John A. Volpe 

Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, MA. Secretary 

Chao was joined by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, 

Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern, U.S. General Services 

Administration (GSA) Chief of Staff Robert Borden, U.S. 

Senator Edward Markey’s State Director James Cantwell, and 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Vice President for 

Research Maria Zuber for the groundbreaking ceremony. 

The Volpe Center currently occupies approximately 14 acres 

(5.7 hectares) of land in the Kendall Square section of the city. 

Following the conclusion of a two-phase solicitation process, GSA 

entered into an exchange agreement with MIT, which will pay 

$750 million to design and construct a state-of-the-art-facility for 

Volpe on approximately four acres (1.6 hectares). In exchange, the 

portion of the property no longer needed by the Federal Government will be conveyed to MIT for mixed-use development.

The new facility will replace Volpe’s six existing buildings and 

surface parking lots with an energy­efficient structure accompanied by underground parking and approximately 100 bicycle 

parking spaces. As part of the Federal Government’s Art in 

Architecture program, which commissions artworks for new 

buildings nationwide, the new building will feature an art piece 

designed by Maya Lin integrated into the landscape on the east 

side of the site.

USDOT Holds Inaugural Meeting of Rural 

Transportation Infrastructure Council

In November 2019, USDOT hosted the first meeting of the 

ROUTES Council, which will improve the use of the Department’s discretionary grant funds in support of the Nation’s rural 

transportation system. The initiative, known as the Rural Opportunities to Use Transportation for Economic Success (ROUTES) 

Initiative, will analyze the Department’s discretionary funding and 

financing opportunities to ensure rural communities’ transportation infrastructure helps the national transportation network meet 

desired outcomes for safety and economic competitiveness.

Rural transportation infrastructure has significant challenges. 

While one­fifth of Americans live in rural areas, 70 percent of 

the Nation’s road miles are in rural areas, carrying nearly 50 

percent of truck traffic. The highway fatality rate is more than 

twice that of urban areas, and 90 percent of the Nation’s bridges 

that are posted for weight limits are in rural locations.

The new ROUTES Initiative will address these national 

transportation challenges by assisting rural stakeholders in 

36 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
OPPOSITE PAGE: ROUTES is an initiative to address disparities in rural 

transportation infrastructure.

© Drotyk Roman / Shutterstock.com.

understanding how to access USDOT grants and financing 

products, and developing data-driven approaches to better assess 

needs and benefits of rural transportation projects.

For more information, visit www.transportation.gov/rural.

USDOT Awards Automated Driving 

System Demonstration Grants

Eight projects in seven States will receive a total of nearly $60 

million in Federal grant funding to test the safe integration of 

automated driving systems (ADS) on the Nation’s roadways. The 

grants aim to gather significant safety data to inform rulemaking 

and foster collaboration among State and local governments and 

private partners.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao made the 

announcement at the Federal Highway Administration Research 

Showcase, an event promoting the importance of research and 

innovation in transportation. The event featured exhibits and 

demonstrations of the ongoing research, emerging technologies, 

and capabilities of the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research

Center.

USDOT’s top priority is safety. Automation offers the 

potential to improve safety for vehicle operators, occupants, and 

other travelers sharing the road. To address this potential, 

USDOT solicited applications for the ADS grants, highlighting 

key goals for safety, data for safety analysis and rulemaking, and 

collaboration. The Department received 73 proposals. 

For more information, visit www.dot.gov/av/grants.

Helping States Plan for ITS Cybersecurity

USDOT’s Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint 

Program Office (JPO) recently released Cybersecurity and 

Intelligent Transportation Systems: A Best Practice Guide 

(FHWA-JPO-19-763). This report presents the best practices 

in ITS cybersecurity, particularly in planning and conducting 

a penetration test. 

The report details the methodology of scoping a test, 

including the objectives, requirements, success criteria, test type, 

management, and test readiness. It includes a template test plan 

to help local and State departments of transportation get started 

on their own cybersecurity plan and penetration testing. The 

National Institute for Standards in Technology Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Framework and the Department of 

Homeland Security Implementation Guidance for Transportation 

provide context for using penetration testing as a mechanism to 

identify vulnerabilities.

The report is available at https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/42461.

Improving Access and Mobility for All Americans

At the Access and Mobility for All Summit held in October 

2019, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao announced 

nearly $50 million in new initiatives to expand access to transportation for people with disabilities, older adults, and individuals of 

low income. The initiatives include new programs to develop and 

deploy innovations in technology and further interagency 

partnerships to improve mobility.

The summit assembled leaders from industry, academia, 

nonprofits, and government to participate in panel discussions 

and breakout sessions focused on interagency coordination, 

advanced vehicle technologies, and innovations in mobility 

services. 

As part of her keynote address, Secretary Chao announced a 

planned Complete Trip Deployment solicitation, which will make 

up to $40 million available to enable communities to showcase 

innovative business partnerships, technologies, and practices that 

BELOW: One goal of USDOT’s new mobility initiatives is to increase availability and 

decrease cost of aftermarket modifiers that improve accessibility of vehicles for 

all users.

© Supannee_Hickman / Shutterstock.com.

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 37
ALONG THE ROAD

New USDOT initiatives aim to expand mobility and access to transportation for 

people with disabilities, older adults, and individuals of low income. 

© Supannee_Hickman / Shutterstock.com.

promote independent mobility for all. “Complete trip” means that 

a user can get from point A to point B seamlessly, regardless of 

the number of modes, transfers, and connections.

A planned inclusive design challenge will make up to $5 million 

in cash prizes available to innovators who design solutions to 

enable accessible automated vehicles. USDOT aims to increase 

availability and decrease cost of aftermarket modifiers that 

improve accessibility of vehicles today and spark development 

for future automated vehicles.

For more information, visit www.transportation.gov/accessibility.

Understanding the Business Case 

for Automated Bus Technologies

Automation technology for personal vehicles is 

widely researched and discussed, but much less 

information is available about automation 

technologies in public transportation, specifically 

bus systems. This information gap can make it 

difficult for transit agencies to decide which, if 

any, technologies to invest in.

Economists at USDOT’s Volpe Center 

analyzed the cost-effectiveness of a selection of 

bus automation technologies to help transit 

agencies evaluate which technologies may yield 

returns in the form of reduced labor or operations costs. Different from a traditional public 

policy analysis or benefit­cost analysis, a business 

case analysis offers a decisionmaking framework 

for fiscally constrained transit agencies.

In a report published in the Transportation 

Research Record, Volpe Center economists 

studied the costs of installing and maintaining 

busses with five different categories of 

automation technology. The technologies 

include a range of automation concepts, 

from near-term, readily available technologies to longer term or early-stage ideas. The 

technologies also spanned different levels 

of automation.

For more information, visit www.volpe

.dot.gov/news/understanding-business-case

-automated-bus-technologies. 

Source: Volpe Center

BTS Interactive Map Shows Growth 

of Urban Mobility Systems

USDOT’s Bureau of Transportation 

Statistics (BTS) released an interactive map 

that documents the rapid growth of 

bikeshare (docked and dockless) and 

e-scooter systems across the country from 

2015 to 2019. The total number of these 

systems reached more than 350 systems 

serving more than 200 cities as of 

July 2019.

BTS’ interactive bikeshare and e-scooter map shows, by city, 

the name of the bikeshare system (docked or dockless) and 

e-scooter system serving it for every year from 2015 to 2019. For 

cities with a docked bikeshare system, the map can be zoomed in 

to the locations of the docking stations at the street level. 

Of 111 docked bikeshare systems in operation, 85 launched 

across the U.S. from 2015 through July 2019. More than 30 of the 

systems operate across multiple cities. Only docked bikeshare 

systems open to the general public are included in the count. 

College, employer, and resident docked bikeshare systems are not 

counted. The top five largest docked bikeshare systems in metro 

areas are Boston’s Blue Bikes; San Francisco’s BayWheels; Capital 

Bikeshare in Washington, DC; Chicago’s Divvy; and Citi Bike in 

New York City.

Growth in Docked Bikeshare Systems, 2015-2019

New Systems

Existing Systems

Note: Number is total at end of year, except 2019. For 2019, number is as of July 2019. Only docked bikeshare 

systems open to the general public included in the count. College, employer, and resident docked bikeshare 

systems not counted. Last updated November 2019. 

Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Bikeshare and Scooter Systems, 

available at https://data-usdot.opendata.arcgis.com/ as of November 2019.

38 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
Dockless bikeshare systems and e­scooters first appeared in 

the United States in 2017 and have expanded coverage since then. 

As of July 2019, dockless bikeshare systems serve 38 cities and 

e-scooters serve 100 cities.

For more information, visit www.bts.gov/topics/passenger

-travel/bikeshare-and-e-scooters. 

Source: BTS

Georgia DOT Launches Middle School Educational Program

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) joined 

with Scholastic, a global children’s publishing, education, and 

media company, on a multiyear educational initiative designed to 

help educate the next generation of drivers. Developed for 

middle school students across the State, the Recognizing the Risk 

campaign provides students, teachers, and parents with resources 

addressing the dangers of distracted driving and walking. The 

program builds upon GDOT’s existing Drive Alert Arrive Alive 

and See & Be Seen campaigns.

In 2018, 70 percent of the 1,514 fatalities on Georgia roads 

occurred as a result of distracted behavior, including 265 fatalities 

involving pedestrians. As a result of the new collaboration, 

Georgia teachers will provide their students with a number of 

classroom activities focused on promoting pedestrian and driver 

safety by discussing the hazards of texting, headphones, and 

more. The program enables teachers, students, and parents to 

engage in a wide range of collaborative discussions on real-world 

scenarios to foster responsible and safe alternatives to risky

behaviors.

For more information, visit www.dot.ga.gov/DriveSmart

/SafetyOperation/Pages/Scholastic.aspx.

Source: Georgia DOT

GDOT recently launched a new campaign to educate middle schoolers, teachers, 

and parents on the dangers of distracted driving and walking. 

TOP: © Ryan DeBerardinis / Shutterstock.com. 

BOTTOM: © tab62 / Shutterstock.com.

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 39
40 

TRAINING UpDATE

TRAINING FOR LOAD AND RESISTANCE FACTOR RATING OF HIGHWAY BRIDGES

BY DR. MELONIE BARRINGTON AND ALANA WELCH 

Load and resistance factor rating (LRFR) is a methodology 

closely aligned with load and resistance factor design (LRFD) for 

new highway bridges. While LRFD specifications focus on the 

design of bridges, LRFR takes a parallel track aimed at determin

ing the load ratings for existing in-service bridges. 

-

To help States successfully implement LRFR, in 2009 the 

Federal Highway Administration developed Fundamentals of 

LRFR and Applications of LRFR for Bridge Superstructures 

(FHWA-NHI-130092), offered by the National Highway Institute 

(NHI). NHI designed the course to provide State agencies and 

consulting engineers with the training they needed to implement 

this new method effectively based on a core curriculum in the 

fundamentals and applications of the American Association of 

State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) 

LRFR specifications.

With an increasing number of States implementing LRFR, 

NHI recently overhauled the course to reflect modifications and 

revisions made over the last decade to AASHTO LRFD Bridge 

Design Specifications (AASHTO LRFD) and the AASHTO 

Manual for Bridge Evaluation (MBE). Now titled Load and Resistance Factor Rating of Highway Bridges, this course is designed 

in accordance with the AASHTO MBE, 3rd Edition (2018 with 

2019 Interim Revisions), and the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design 

Specifications, 8th Edition. 

Designed for the Modern Workforce

The newly updated course includes brief lessons in an additional 

six topics at the end of each instructional day and a revision to 

the end-of-course assessment that ensures participants are 

receiving the latest possible information about LRFR bridge 

ratings. The six new topics are load rating of timber bridges, State 

load rating policies and procedures, State load posting and 

permitting policies and procedures, load rating of reinforced 

concrete box culverts, load rating of superstructures, and load 

rating of gusset plates.

The content covered in this 4-day course is designed to 

provide both the foundational knowledge needed by less experienced engineers and the technical rigor and expertise needed by 

seasoned professionals.

NHI suggests this course for State agency bridge and struc-

| PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
tures engineers or practitioners responsible for load rating of 

highway bridges, including designers, consultants, reviewers, 

maintenance and management engineers, and load raters.

While there are no prerequisites for this course, it is best 

suited for professionals who have taken NHI LRFD for Highway 

Bridge Superstructures (course 130081). Individuals attending 

this course should have at least a bachelor of science in civil 

engineering, a working knowledge of the current MBE and 

AASHTO LRFD specifications, and relevant experience using 

these specifications on at least one load rating project.

For more information, visit www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov. To register 

for a course or to sign up for alerts when a course session is 

scheduled, visit the individual course description page and select 

the “Sign Up for Session Alerts” link.

MELONIE BARRINGTON is a training program manager and ALANA WELCH is a 

contractor for NHI. 

HOW TO HOST OR ATTEND 

A TRAINING COURSE

NHI invites professionals interested in earning 

continuing education units or professional 

development hours to visit www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov

to browse the complete digital course catalog, 

which lists more than 400 courses spanning 18 

program areas. Interested hosts can submit a 

Host Request Form or find more information 

about hosting NHI 130092.

NHI is approved as an Accredited Provider 

by the International Associa

tion for Continuing Education 

and Training (IACET). As an 

IACET Accredited Provider, 

NHI offers continuing 

education units for its 

programs that qualify under 

the ANSI/IACET Standard. 

-

States are increasingly implementing load and resistance factor rating on 

highway bridges. The National Highway Institute offers a course to help engineers 

at all levels understand this methodology.

© Vitpho / Shutterstock.com.

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 41
COMMUNICATION pRODUCT UpDATES

Below are brief descriptions of communications products recently developed by the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Research, 

Development, and Technology. All of the reports are or will soon be available from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). In some cases, 

limited copies of the communications products are available from FHWA’s Research and Technology (R&T) Product Distribution Center (PDC).

compiled by LISA A. SHULER of FHWA’S OFFICE OF CORPORATE RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT

When ordering from NTIS, include the NTIS publication 

number (PB number) and the publication title. You also may visit 

the NTIS website at www.ntis.gov to order publications online. 

Call NTIS for current prices. For customers outside the United 

States, Canada, and Mexico, the cost is usually double the listed 

price. Address requests to:

National Technical Information Service

5301 Shawnee Road

Alexandria, VA 22312

Telephone: 703–605–6050

Toll-free number: 1–888–584–8332 

Website: www.ntis.gov

Email: customerservice@ntis.gov

Requests for items available from the R&T Product Distribution 

Center should be addressed to:

R&T Product Distribution Center

Szanca Solutions/FHWA PDC

700 North 3rd Avenue

Altoona, PA 16601

Telephone: 814–239–1160

Fax: 814–239–2156

Email: report.center@dot.gov

For more information on R&T communications products 

available from FHWA, visit FHWA’s website at www.fhwa.dot.gov, 

the FHWA Research Library at https://highways.dot.gov

/resources/research-library/federal-highway-administration-research

-library (or email fhwalibrary@dot.gov), or the National Transporta

tion Library at ntl.bts.gov (or email 

-

library@dot.gov).

Automation in Highway Construction Part I: 

Implementation Challenges at State Transportation 

Departments and Success Stories

Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-16-030

The Federal Highway Administration conducted research to 

document gaps for implementing automation in highway 

construction and to develop guidance for State departments of 

transportation to assist agencies in implementing and using 

automation to improve project delivery. There are two volumes 

of the final report. Part I presents a description of the key 

automation technology areas and the associated benefits, 

challenges, and solutions.

This volume provides State DOTs a focus on five key 

technology areas: remote sensing, 

technologies for locating underground utilities, three-dimensional 

(3D) design, machine control and 

automation, and field technology and 

inspection. This volume documents 

success stories and best practices for 

automation in highway construction; 

best uses for individual technologies, 

including the types of costs and 

resources required by the industry 

and agencies for implementing these 

technologies; and the associated 

returns on investment. This volume also documents the challen

ges of automation technology in the areas of surveying, utilities, 

real­time verification, and data management.

-

The document is available to download at www.fhwa.dot.gov

/publications/research/infrastructure/pavements/16030.

Automation in Highway Construction Part II: Design 

Guidance and Guide Specification Manual

Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-16-031

The second volume of FHWA’s 

report on research on imple

menting automation in highway 

construction and guidance for 

State DOTs presents an overview of enabling technologies 

and policies as well as implemen

-

-

tation strategies, design procedures, and practical guidelines to 

properly generate 3D models for 

use in construction and other 

phases of highway project 

delivery. 

3D design practices are common in State DOTs, but automation technology requires added detail in 3D design models to 

output data in a reusable and robust format, and it requires 

additional organization and description of the data. This report 

provides the accuracies needed for both survey control and 

topographic survey. The report describes how construction 

specifications can incorporate practices to manage the use of 

automation technology in a manner that adapts to project 

characteristics and evolving technologies. State DOTs interested 

in developing 3D digital design for use in automation in highway 

42 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
construction would benefit from reading this volume.

The document is available to download at www.fhwa.dot.gov

/publications/research/infrastructure/pavements/16031.

Mechanisms of Hydration and Setting of Ordinary Portland 

Cement in Simple and Complex Systems 

Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-17-102 

This summary report provides a 

description of research conducted 

to improve the understanding of 

the mechanisms of hydration of 

portland cement in complex and 

simple mixtures. The summary 

report also describes research that 

develops analytical methods to 

directly observe hydration processes in real time, and develops and 

validates improved computer 

models to design optimal concrete 

composition, curing methods, 

performance, and durability.

The goal of FHWA’s project, “Mechanisms of Hydration and 

Setting of Ordinary Portland Cement in Simple and Complex 

Systems,” was to develop more efficient and effective ways to use 

concrete. Project scientists developed innovative analytical 

technologies to observe the mechanisms of hydration in three 

dimensions at the nano-, micro-, and macroscopic scales. These 

unprecedented observations have provided a depth of understanding of hydration mechanisms that was not previously

possible.

This perspective enabled researchers to develop a new and 

clearer hypothesis to understand the mechanisms of cement 

hydration. Computer models based on the new hypothesis will 

provide engineers and practitioners with tools to produce more 

efficient, durable, and cost­effective concrete products 

and structures.

The document is available to download at www.fhwa.dot.gov

/publications/research/ear/17102/index.cfm.

LTPP InfoPaveTM: Knowledge Into Action...Performance Data 

For Pavement Innovation

Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-18-011

The FHWA Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) 

program’s web portal—LTPP InfoPaveTM at https://infopave

.fhwa.dot.gov—facilitates access and analysis of LTPP and 

other pavement-performance data through a variety of online 

data selection applications and data viewing tools, organized 

into hubs.

This brochure highlights each LTPP InfoPave hub, including 

Home, Data, Visualization, Analysis, Tools, Operations, Reference Library, and Non-LTPP data. The data retrieved from LTPP 

InfoPave can be used for research, pavement design, and product 

development for decades to come.

The LTPP program was initiated in 1987 to satisfy a wide 

range of pavement information needs. Over the years, the 

program has accumulated a vast repository of research-quality 

data, extensive documentation, and related tools, which compose 

LTPP’s comprehensive information management system.

The document is available to download at www.fhwa.dot.gov

/publications/research/infrastructure/pavements/ltpp/18011/index.cfm.

LTBP InfoBridge: Gateway to Bridge 

Performance Information

Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-19-009

The FHWA Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Program’s 

web portal—LTPP InfoBridge at https://infobridge.fhwa

.dot.gov—provides for storage, retrieval, dissemination, analysis, 

and visualization of data collected through State, national, and 

LTBP Program efforts to enable users with the ability to holistically assess bridge performance on a network or individual 

bridge basis.

This brochure highlights key LTBP InfoBridge modules, 

including Find Bridges (also Advanced Find and Map Find), 

Performance Dashboard, Bridge Information, Visualize Bridge 

Data, Bridge Analytics, Library, and Help. LTBP InfoBridge is a 

comprehensive bridge performance portal enabling researchers to 

develop tools and products that will enhance understanding of 

the performance of highway bridge assets, leading to more 

efficient design, construction, rehabilitation, maintenance, 

preservation, and management of those assets.

The LTBP Program is designed to collect critical performance 

data that are not available elsewhere and merge them with data 

gathered from available sources. 

The document is available to download at www.fhwa.dot

.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/structures/ltbp/19009

/index.cfm.

WWW.FHWA.DOT.GOV | 43
Reporting Changes of Address

Public Roads has several categories of subscribers. Find your category below to learn how you can update your contact information.

Paid Subscribers: These individuals and companies pay to receive printed copies of the magazine. The mailing list for this group is maintained by the 

Superintendent of Documents for the U.S. Government Printing Office. Paid subscribers who have an address change should notify the U.S. Government 

Printing Office, Claims Office, Washington, DC, 20402; or call 202–512–1800; or fax 202–512–2168. Please do not send an address change for a paid 

subscription to the editorial office of Public Roads. We do not manage the paid subscription program or mailing list, and we are not able to make the 

requested change.

Complementary Subscribers: Complementary copies of Public Roads are distributed to select Federal Highway Administration offices and congressional 

leaders who have responsibility for highway-related issues. Most of these copies are mailed to offices for their internal distribution or to people by title 

rather than by name. Offices or individuals who receive complementary copies and have an address change should send the complete previous mailing 

address and the complete new address to our distribution manager, Lisa Shuler, via email (lisa.shuler@dot.gov), telephone (202–493–3375), or mail [Lisa 

Shuler, Public Roads Distribution Manager (HRTM), Federal Highway Administration, 6300 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA, 22101-2296].

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cost to our readers. The Public Roads editorial office maintains the mailing list for this group. Subscribers in this category can update their contact 

information by sending the complete previous email address and the complete new email address to our distribution manager, Lisa Shuler, via email (lisa.

shuler@dot.gov), telephone (202–493–3375), or mail [Lisa Shuler, Public Roads Distribution Manager (HRTM), Federal Highway Administration, 6300 

Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA, 22101-2296].

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44 | PUBLIC ROADS | WINTER 2020
© Zephyr18 / Shutterstock.com.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Do you have research results or a program success story to share? *

Are you using state-of-the-art technology or innovative methods that have had a positive effect on your 

program? Do you know of a good story that would be of interest to fellow highway professionals? If so, share your 

idea for a possible article in Public Roads. Promote your work while providing readers with valuable data, insights, 

and lessons learned.

Guidelines:

• Write a brief summary of your article idea (up to 1 page)

• Do not endorse specific products, companies, or manufacturers

• Include the primary author’s name, title, and affiliation, as well as the email address, 

phone number, and mailing address for all authors

• Submit your abstract to PublicRoads@dot.gov with “Public Roads Article Abstract” in 

the subject line 

For more information on requirements, submissions, and the approval and editorial processes, 

visit www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/author.cfm.

* Ideas submitted by FHWA and State DOT authors preferred. Other Federal agencies, local and Tribal DOTs, field researchers and 

practitioners, and academia are also welcome to submit ideas but are encouraged to collaborate with FHWA or State DOTs.
U.S. Department 

of Transportation

Federal Highway 

Administration

Attn: HRTM

 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE 

Washington, DC 20590

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use $300

PERIODICALS

POSTAGE & FEES PAID

FEDERAL HIGHWAY

ADMINISTRATION

ISSN NO. 0033-3735

USPS NO. 516-690

FHWA-HRT-20-002

HRTM-20/1-20(2M)E