FHWA R&T Now

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POLICY & PARTNERSHIPS

FHWA Provides $6.5 Million to the U.S. Virgin Islands 

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently announced the immediate availability of $6.5 

million in “quick release” emergency relief funds for further repairs to roads and bridges

throughout the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“The work continues to rebuild broken transportation links in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the 

aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria,” said Acting Federal Highway Administrator Brandye L. 

Hendrickson. “These additional funds will help ensure residents can travel safely.”

The additional funding supplements $8 million in emergency relief funds previously made available 

to the U.S. Virgin Islands for Hurricanes Maria and Irma damage, bringing the total amount to $14.5 

million for emergency work. The bulk of the additional $6.5 million in funds will be used to restore 

traffic signal service on the islands of St. Thomas and St. Croix and make repairs to damaged 

intersections critical to highway safety. 

FHWA’s Emergency Relief Program provides funding for highways and bridges damaged by natural 

disasters or catastrophic events. The “quick release” payments to U.S. Virgin Islands are considered 

as initial installments of funds used to restore essential traffic and limit further highway damage, 

which can help long-term repair work begin more quickly. Additional information about FHWA’s 

Emergency Relief Program is available at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/programadmin/erelief.cfm. 

For more information, contact Nancy Singer, 202-366-0660, nancy.singer@dot.gov. 

EXPLORATORY ADVANCED RESEARCH

EAR Program Funds Research for Guidance Assistance 

Independent travel and active interactions with the surrounding environment present significant 

daily challenges for visually impaired individuals, which can lead to reduced quality of life and 

compromised safety. To begin to address these challenges, FHWA’s Exploratory Advanced Research 

(EAR) Program funded research projects to examine new technology solutions to provide guidance 

assistance to visually impaired pedestrians navigating in large, unstructured environments.

Researchers demonstrated one of three different wayfinding technologies at the U.S. Department

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

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)

January/February 2018

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of Transportation headquarters in Washington, 

DC. The Intelligent Situation Awareness and 

Navigation Aid (ISANA) provides a wearable 

technology that interprets the visual 

environment in real time and uses global 

position system-like voice guidance to assist the 

user. To see a video of the demonstration, visit 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdeF_o3R

Ds0&feature=youtu.be. 

ISANA and two other wayfinding technologies 

funded through the EAR Program were 

conducted in coordination with the Volpe 

Center, the Federal Transit Administration, and 

the Intelligent Transportation Systems—Joint 

Program Office. Additional information about 

the Assistive Technologies for Visually Impaired 

Persons research projects is available at 

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/advancedresearch/p

ubs/15040/index.cfm. 

For more information, contact David Kuehn, 

202-493-3414, david.kuehn@dot.gov. 

INFRASTRUCTURE 

FHWA Displays Sideway-Force Coefficient 

Routine Investigation Machine 

At the 2018 Transportation Research Board 

(TRB) Annual Meeting in January, FHWA 

displayed the Sideway-Force Coefficient Routine 

Investigation Machine (SCRIM®), which will 

assist States in using the American Association 

of State Highway and Transportation Officials 

(AASHTO) Pavement Friction Management 

Guide. The machine’s instrumentation is housed 

in an orange Volvo truck owned by FHWA. 

The SCRIM can continuously measure friction, 

cross-slope, macro-texture, grade, temperature, 

and curvature while being driven up to 50 miles 

per hour. It is one of the ways FHWA is 

advancing its Pavement Friction Management 

(PFM) Support Program, which aims to reduce 

highway crashes and fatalities through: 

• Assisting States in developing PFM programs 

by considering pavement friction, texture, and 

crash rates.

• Developing and demonstrating methods for 

establishing investigatory levels of friction and 

macro-texture for different demand categories 

in four States. 

• Demonstrating proven continuous friction, 

and macro-texture measurement equipment.

About 4,000 miles of highways have been 

surveyed so far. Key findings in the first State 

include: 

• The confirmation of a strong association 

between crashes and continuously measured 

frictional pavement properties (friction and 

macro-texture).

• A cross-sectional model was used to develop 

Safety Performance Functions. An Empirical 

Bayes analysis method (using continuous 

measurement of the pavement friction, 

macrotexture, and road geometry) proactively 

allowed the identification of sites with the 

highest potential payoff for pavement friction 

improvements.

• The network-level analysis from one State 

suggested potential crash reductions of about 

25 percent on the sample network surveyed, if 

all recommend treatments were made.

FHWA is interested in helping agencies 

investigate the benefits of using continuous 

friction measurement equipment (CFME) such 

as the SCRIM, and the development and 

demonstration of proactive PFM programs. Such 

programs have the potential to significantly 

reduce the number and severity of crashes by 

decreasing pavement friction and texture 

related crashes.

For more information, contact Jim Sherwood, 

202-493-3150, jim.sherwood@dot.gov. 

FHWA Advances Fluorescence-Based 

Technology

FHWA recently published the technical brief, 

“Fly Ash AEA Adsorption Capacity Estimation as 

Measured by Fluorescence or Foam Index” 

(FHWA-HRT-17-118), which discusses a study 

aimed at examining the feasibility of using a 

fluorescence-based technology in place of the 
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traditionally used foam index for measuring 

adsorption capacity of fly ash.

 

Fly ash with high carbon content or powder 

activated carbon (PAC) when used as 

substitution for a portion of cement in concrete 

(typically 20 to 30 percent) has the tendency for 

adsorbing the air-entraining agents (AEAs), 

therefore hindering air bubbles’ stabilization 

and potentially reducing the air content 

necessary to combat the detrimental effects of 

freezing and thawing. It is essential to adjust the 

dosage of AEAs to compensate for the portion 

that is adsorbed by fly ash. Foam index is the 

most prevalent method used by practitioners for 

this purpose. 

In the foam index test, AEAs are applied drop by 

drop to a shaken slurry of cement and fly ash, 

the number of drops of AEAs that is required to 

form a complete layer of foam on the top of the 

sample is called a foam index number. 

Depending on the operator and the device used, 

this method is somewhat subjective and has a 

high degree of variability. AEAs fluoresce when 

excited by ultra-violet light. The fluorescence 

intensity is proportional to concentration of the 

AEAs remaining in solution. Consequently, a 

fluorescence-based technology once fully 

evolved could take the guesswork out of using 

AEAs. 

FHWA’s concrete laboratory in collaboration 

with Headwaters, Inc. has completed a study on 

the use of a fluorescence-based technology 

called Sorbsensor for measuring fly ash 

adsorption capacity. The preliminary 

investigation revealed a good correlation with 

foam index. Under the Small Business 

Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, an effort is 

underway to advance and commercialize the 

next generation of fluorescence-based 

technology. 

This technical brief is available at 

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/researc

h/infrastructure/pavements/17118/17118.pdf. 

For more information, contact Ahmad A. Ardani, 

202-493-3422, ahmad.ardani@dot.gov. 

Concrete Beam Reduction Improves Safety and 

Handling 

In December, FHWA published “Reducing the 

Specimen Size of Concrete Flexural Strength 

Test for Safety and Ease of Handling” (FHWAHRT-17-119), a technical brief that covers a twophased research study. In the first phase, 

researchers in FHWA’s concrete laboratory 

examined the feasibility of miniaturizing 

modulus of rupture (MR) specimen size with the 

main goal of making the test safer and easier to 

conduct, simply through reduction in geometry 

and mass. The second phase of the study was a 

major collaboration with the American Society 

for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Interlaboratory 

Study Program (ILS) and 22 participating 

laboratories from State departments of 

transportation, Federal agencies, and 

commercial labs related to establishing the test 

precision for flexural strength.

Standard size concrete specimens cast in 6 by 6 

by 21 inch molds weigh approximately 65 

pounds (lbs.). When metal molds are used, the 

combined total mass of the beams could easily 

exceed 100 lbs. A specimen of this size and 

weight is hard to handle, cumbersome, and 

becomes a safety hazard, which potentially 

could inflict injuries to the testing personnel. To 

make the flexural strength testing of concrete 

safer and to streamline quality assurance 

testing, this study proposed the use of smaller, 4 

by 4 by 14 inch beams. A 4 by 4 by 14 inch 

concrete beam weighs approximately 19 lbs. 

The combined mass of the concrete specimen 

and the mold is approximately 45 lbs. (i.e., less 

than 5o percent of the total mass of the 

standard size beam). This is a dramatic 

reduction in total mass and makes the smaller 

size specimens much lighter, easier, and safer to 

use.

ASTM and the American Association of State 

Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) 

balloted and approved the results from both 
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phases of the study. The results proved that 

smaller size modulus of rupture beams are 

viable and can produce the same results as the 

much larger and heavier standard beams.

Unmolded smaller size beams weigh only 19 

lbs., compared to unmolded standard beams, 

which weigh 65 lbs. 

This technical brief is available at 

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/researc

h/infrastructure/pavements/17119/17119.pdf. 

For more information, contact Ahmad A. Ardani, 

202-493-3422, ahmad.ardani@dot.gov. 

Student Award Winners Recognized at LTPP 

Program Session

For the past several years, the American Society 

of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and FHWA’s Long-Term 

Pavement Performance (LTPP) program have 

partnered in the ASCE-LTPP International Data 

Analysis Contest. The contest is designed to 

encourage university students, professors, and 

highway agency engineers from around the 

world to use the LTPP database, and thereby 

contribute to a better understanding of 

pavement performance.

At the LTPP Program Session in January, several 

students received awards for exceptional papers 

submitted for the 2016-2017 contest year. 

These students were invited to attend TRB’s 

annual meeting and present their work at the 

Workshop on Pavement Performance Data 

Analysis. 

The first place undergraduate winners were 

Joseph Lucey and Rico Bubello of California 

State University Los Angeles for their study, 

“Predicting Roughness as a Pavement 

Performance Indicator from Historical Data 

Using LTPP Database.” Leila Sadeghi of Purdue 

University placed first in the Graduate Category 

for her analysis of “Using LTPP Monitoring Data 

to Predict Pothole Formation.”

The Aramis López Challenge Category winner 

was Madeh Piryonesi of the University of 

Toronto for his paper entitled, “Using Data 

Analytics for Cost-Effective Prediction of Road 

Conditions: The Case of Pavement Condition 

Index.” The students did an excellent job 

presenting their findings and the results of their 

work well received by practicing engineers and 

researchers. 

The theme for the 2017–2018 contest is: Use 

the LTPP Data to Evaluate a Question or Concern 

for Your Region or State. This contest also 

includes a challenge topic: Use the LTPP Data to 

Evaluate the Impact of Mix and Materials 

Properties on Individual Distress Types for 

Asphalt or Concrete Pavements. Submissions are 

due by July 1, 2018. Winners will be recognized 

in January 2019 at the 98th Transportation 

Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington, 

DC.

Joseph Lucey was recognized as the first place 

winner in the undergraduate category. 

Leila Sadeghi was recognized as the first place 

winner in the graduate category. 
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To view the guidelines, visit 

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/research/tfhrc/progr

ams/infrastructure/pavements/ltpp/2017_2018

_asce_ltpp_contest_guidelines.cfm. 

For more information, contact Deborah Walker 

at 202–493–3068 or deborah.walker@dot.gov.

Researchers Instruct GMU Students at TurnerFairbank

For the fourteenth consecutive year, FHWA’s 

Office of Infrastructure Research and 

Development will be teaching a class titled “Civil 

Engineering Methods” to civil engineering 

students from George Mason University (GMU). 

During the 15-week semester, GMU students 

will receive lectures from researchers at TurnerFairbank Highway Research Center in the areas 

Structures, Hydraulics, Geotechnical 

Engineering, and Asphalt and Concrete 

Pavement Engineering. 

Each weekly 3-hour class will contain a 

laboratory experiment. The course goal is to 

advance students’ professional development in 

areas such as laboratory testing, data collection, 

and technical report writing. The senior-level 

elective is one of several collaborative activities 

detailed in a Memorandum of Understanding 

signed in 2004 between GMU and FHWA. 

For more information, contact Zach Haber, 202-

493-3469, zachary.haber@dot.gov. 

OPERATIONS

Fact Sheet Discusses Signing and Marking 

Strategies at Intersections

Increasing traffic demand is causing more severe 

congestion and bottlenecks in urban 

environments. Constrained budgets are spurring 

innovations that efficiently use existing 

intersection footprints. From a previously 

sponsored research effort by FHWA’s Office of 

Operations Research and Development, 

dynamic reversible left turn lanes (DRLT) and 

contraflow left turn pockets (CLTP) treatments 

were identified as two cost-effective and 

innovative treatments to mitigate congestion 

attributed to heavy left-turn volumes at 

diamond interchanges and signalized 

intersections.

FHWA recently published the fact sheet, 

“Simulator Assessment of Contraflow Lanes at 

Signalized Intersections” (FHWA-HRT-18-016). 

This publication discusses a project aimed at 

conducting a series of human factors 

experiments to evaluate the most effective 

signing and marking strategies for real-world 

implementations of DRLT for diamond 

interchanges and contraflow left turn pockets 

CLTP for signalized intersections.

This fact sheet is available to download at 

www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/opera

tions/18016/index.cfm. 

For more information, contact, Michelle Arnold, 

202-493-3990, michelle.arnold@dot.gov. 

SAFETY

FHWA Works with NHTSA SCI Team

As part of FHWA’s Pilot In-Service Performance 

Evaluation (ISPE) of Guardrail End Terminals, 

FHWA has been working the National Highway 

Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Special 

Crash Investigation (SCI) team, conducting crash 

investigations in several States. 

The objective of this study is to evaluate the inservice crash performance of some of the most 

common W-beam guardrail end terminals 

currently installed throughout the United States.

For each device, the evaluation will address: 

• Crash performance in terms of vehicle 

occupant risk. 

• The sensitivity to varying effects, such as 

environmental conditions, site characteristics, 

and impact conditions. 

• The degree of sensitivity to improper 

installation, maintenance, and repair.
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Active partners in this effort include staff from 

NHTSA, FHWA divisions, and departments of 

transportation (DOTs) in four States where 

FHWA plans to collect data.

Ana Maria Eigen recently represented FHWA’s 

Office of Safety R&D at an American Traffic 

Safety Services Association (ATSSA) gathering, 

where she met with the ATSSA Guardrail 

Committee to provide a high-level overview of 

FHWA’s Pilot ISPE of Guardrail End Terminals. 

She also provided an update on this with Hugh 

McGee (co-founder of BMI-SG, Inc.), who 

presented the National Cooperative Highway 

Research Program ISPE findings.

For more information, contact Ana Maria Eigen, 

202-493-3168, ana.eigen@dot.gov. 

Students Receive 2017 HSIS Excellence in 

Highway Safety Data Award

In January, during the TRB Annual Meeting, 

students were presented with the 2017 

Excellence in Highway Safety Data Award for 

using Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) 

data to investigate a topic that advances 

highway safety. 

Jason Anderson and co-author Shangjia Dong 

from Oregon State University received first place 

for the paper, “Heavy Vehicle Driver Injury 

Severity Analysis by Time of Week: A Mixed 

Logit Approach Using HSIS Crash Data.” Majbah 

Uddin and Fahim Ahmed from the University of 

South Carolina received second place for 

“Analysis of Pedestrian Injury Severity in Motor 

Vehicle Crashes in Ohio.” Jin Wang from Auburn 

University received third place for “Evaluating 

the Effects of Intersection Balance on Wrongway Movements at Partial Cloverleaf 

Interchanges Terminals to Improve Highway 

Safety.”

Part of the Highway Data Analysis Excellence 

Awards Program, the HSIS Excellence in Highway 

Safety Data Award was created to introduce 

future highway safety professionals to HSIS 

safety data, to the application of appropriate 

research methods to derive recommendations, 

and to the practice of using data to make 

decisions. The competition is jointly 

administered by the FHWA and the Institute of 

Transportation Engineers (ITE), an association 

focused on improving mobility and safety in 

transportation and helping to build smart and 

livable communities.

In July, the authors of the winning paper were 

recognized at the Joint ITE/Canadian ITE 2017 

Annual Meeting and Exhibit in Toronto, Canada. 

Their paper was published in the September 

2017 issue of ITE Journal, which is available at 

www.ite.org/itejournal. 

“This year’s winning paper focuses on heavy 

vehicle driver injuries and demonstrates an 

innovative use of HSIS data,” said Michael 

Trentacoste, former FHWA Associate 

Administrator for Research, Development and 

Technology. “It exemplifies the goal of the 

awards program—to inspire university students 

to use HSIS data to investigate a topic that 

advances highway safety—and we hope these 

young researchers will continue exploring 

important transportation safety challenges.”

Details about the 2018 HSIS Excellence in 

Highway Safety Data Award are now available at 

www.hsisinfo.org/contest.cfm. 

Students were recognized for using HSIS data 

to investigate a topic that advances highway 

safety. 
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For more information, contact Carol Tan, 202-

493-3315, carol.tan@dot.gov. 

Report Offers Guidance for Self-Enforcing 

Roadways

Each year, more than 13,000 people are killed in 

speeding-related crashes. Most speedingrelated crashes occur on roads that are not part 

of the interstate system. Local streets and 

collector roads have the highest speedingrelated fatality rate on the basis of miles driven 

per vehicle. 

In January. FHWA published “Self-Enforcing 

Roadways: A Guidance Report” (FHWA-HRT-17-

098), which is focused on providing guidance on 

how to produce self-enforcing roadways. A selfenforcing road (sometimes referred to as a “selfexplaining roadway”) is a roadway that is 

planned and designed to encourage drivers to 

select operating speeds in harmony with the 

posted speed limit. Properly designed selfenforcing roadways can be effective in 

producing speed compliance and may 

contribute to less severe crash outcomes. Six 

self-enforcing road concepts and the processes 

needed to implement the concepts when 

designing or evaluating existing two-lane rural 

highways are identified and described in this 

report.

Th document should be useful to transportation 

professionals, State departments of 

transportation, and researchers interested in 

designing and/or retrofitting roadways to induce 

drivers to drive at more appropriate speeds.

It is available at 

www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safet

y/17098/index.cfm. 

For more information, contact Abdul Zineddin, 

202-493-3288, abdul.zineddin@dot.gov. 

RECENT PERIODICALS

Public Roads—Winter 2018

This issue includes: Building Connections That 

Last; Refueling America; Ready for Takeoff; 

Smart Contracting; and Managing New Peaks at 

National Parks. 

It is available online via 

www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/18

winter/index.cfm. 

For more information, contact Lisa Shuler, 

lisa.a.shuler@dot.gov. 

Innovator: Accelerating Innovation for the 

American Driving Experience—

January/February 2018

This issue includes: Geosynthetic Reinforced 

Soil-Integrated Bridge System Technology Goes 

Mainstream; From Research to Deployment; 

Weather-Savvy Roads; Six Steps to a Traffic 

Incident Management Performance 

Measurement Program; FHWA Seeks 

Innovations for Every Day Counts Round Five; 

and States Innovate!

The issue is available online via 

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/innovation/innovato

r/issue64/3dIssue/. 

. 

LINKS

Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center: 

www.fhwa.dot.gov/research/ 

Resource Center: 

www.fhwa.dot.gov/resourcecenter/ 

National Highway Institute: 

www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/home.aspx 

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