Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) 

Research and Technology Updates Newsletter

May 2023 | Spring Issue

1

Senior Leadership Tours 

Turner-Fairbank

In March, Turner-Fairbank Highway 

Research Center (TFHRC) staff 

provided a tour for U. S. Department 

of Transportation (USDOT) Deputy 

Secretary Polly E. Trottenberg, 

FHWA Administrator Shailen P. Bhatt, 

and FHWA Executive Director 

Gloria M. Shepherd. During the tour, 

the senior leaders also witnessed a 

full-scale crash test of a small sign 

support (figure 1).

TFHRC contains 15 laboratories, 

which encompass more than 

100 transportation-related disciplines. 

For more information and to request 

a tour, visit the TFHRC Laboratories 

Overview web page at https://

highways.dot.gov/research/turnerfairbank-highway-research-center/

laboratories/laboratories-overview.

(1)

Small Business Innovation 

Research (SBIR)

Congress established the 

SBIR Program to stimulate 

technological innovation, utilize small 

businesses to meet Federal research 

and development (R&D) needs, 

encourage participation by minority 

and disadvantaged businesses in 

technological innovation, and increase 

private sector commercialization 

of innovations derived from 

Federal R&D.(2–4)

The first solicitation included 

the following highway topics: 

Addressing Stormwater Runoff 

with a Self-Contained Portable 

Treatment System (23-FH1) and 

Traffic Monitoring and In Situ 

Information Processing Using Edge 

Computing (23-FH2), which are part 

of the SBIR solicitation process that 

closed in March 2023.(5–7)

Source: FHWA. Figure 1. Staff photo.
Research and Technology Update Newsletter May 2023 | Spring Issue

2

For more information, visit: 

https://highways.dot.gov/research/

opportunities-partnerships/

opportunities/small-businessinnovation-research. For more 

information on the Report to Congress, 

please visit: https://crsreports.congress.

gov/product/pdf/R/R43695.

(3,4)

Repository and Open Science 

Access Portal (Rosa P)

The Office of Research, Development, 

and Technology (HRT) cataloged 

and uploaded more than 12,000 

FHWA technical, research, policy, 

and innovation transfer documents

in USDOT’s publication repository 

called ROSA P.(10,11)

This repository ensures public access 

to the agency’s technical knowledge 

and efforts to support USDOT’s 

plan to increase public access to 

federally funded research.(12)

The National Transportation 

Library manages ROSA P which 

uses data visualization tools to 

access documents from across the 

Department of Transportation. All 

resources are available to the public, 

and materials can be accessed over 

the Web.(13)

For more information, visit: 

https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/

gsearch?collection=&terms=rosa+p.

(11)

Every Day Counts (EDC): 

Enhancing Performance 

with Internally Cured 

Concrete (Epic2)

The latest round of the EDC 

administrator initiatives rolled out 

in January 2023. TFHRC employees 

are active in getting the word out 

on EPIC2, an innovation increasing 

concrete’s resistance to cracking and 

adding up to 75 years to the life of the 

concrete.(14,15)

Internal curing can be used anywhere 

traditional concrete is used. It 

mitigates shrinkage cracking that 

is particularly problematic in low 

water-to-cementitious materials ratio 

concretes, allowing construction 

with lower permeability concretes to 

improve durability. It also lasts several 

times longer than traditional concretes, 

reducing the need to rehabilitate or 

replace critical elements, such as 

bridge decks during the design life 

of the bridge, resulting in lifecycle 

cost savings. 

EDC is a group of innovations 

that the FHWA administrator 

prioritizes.(14)

 This initiative began in 

2011 to provide additional funding 

to encourage States to identify and 

advance proven, yet underutilized, 

innovations in transportation. 

For more information, visit: https://

www.fhwa.dot.gov/innovation/

everydaycounts/edc_7/enhancing_

epic.cfm.

(15)

Competitions Are Heating Up

TPF Excellence Award 

Debuts August 8—The Transportation 

Pooled Fund (TPF) Excellence Award 

will recognize outstanding TPF 

projects that go above and beyond 

to achieve research excellence.(16)

Nominations will be accepted from 

August 8 through September 12, 2023, 

and awardee recipients will be 

recognized at the 2024 American 

Association of State Highway and 

Transportation Officials Research 

Advisory Committee meeting.

LTIP Annual Student Data 

Competition Closes August 1—

The Long-Term Infrastructure 

Performance (LTIP) program invites 

undergraduate and graduate students 

to submit a technical paper that studies 

the various factors affecting pavement 

and bridge lifecycles using the Federal 

Highway Administration (FHWA) 

data from InfoPaveTM or 

InfoBridgeTM.(17–19)

 Submit papers 

by Friday, August 1, 2023. Winning 

papers will be published by FHWA 

and presented in a webinar. First-place 

and second-place lead authors will 

receive an all-expenses-paid trip to 

the Transportation Research Board 

Annual Meeting.(20)

HSIS 2024 Excellence in 

Highway Safety Data Award Opens 

this Fall—The Highway Safety 

Information Systems (HSIS) 

team encourages graduate and 

undergraduate students to leverage 

the HSIS database to create a 

technical paper that addresses key 

safety issues.(21)

 Papers are due in 

spring 2024. Winning papers will 

receive a cash award and recognition 

at the Institute of Transportation 

Engineers Annual Meeting.(22)

Public Roads Student Writing 

Competition Launches—For its 

inaugural year, the Public Roads

Student Writing Competition received 

54 applications from students hoping 

to see their article published in the 

Public Roads magazine’s Winter 2024 

issue.(23)

 Of the 54 applications, 10 

were from high school students; 19 

were from undergraduate students; 

and 25 were from graduate students.
Research and Technology Update Newsletter May 2023 | Spring Issue

3

Laboratory (LAB) 

Renovations

In February 2023, the long-planned 

renovations and additions to five 

laboratories at TFHRC officially 

commenced.(1)

 These updates include 

transforming the Aerodynamics 

Laboratory into the Structural 

Materials Testing Laboratory. 

Throughout 2023, renovations and 

enhancements will also be made to the 

Coatings and Corrosion Laboratory, 

the Saxton Transportation Operations 

Laboratory, and the Federal Outdoor 

Impact Laboratory.

For more information, visit: https://

highways.dot.gov/research/turnerfairbank-highway-research-center/

laboratories/laboratories-overview.

(1)

Alkali Threshold Test 

Repairing alkali-silica reactivity (ASR) 

damage to concrete infrastructure costs 

billions of dollars in the United States 

annually. The reason for the damage is 

too much alkali in the concrete, causing 

cracking and a shorter pavement life. 

TFHRC’s Chemistry Laboratory 

developed a new test method that 

accurately determines ASR reactivity 

in aggregates and relies purely on 

chemical measurements.(24)

 The test is 

called T-FAST (Turner-Fairbank ASR 

Susceptibility Test). The test takes 

only 21 days.

For more information, visit https://

highways.dot.gov/research/

laboratories/chemistry-laboratory/

alkali-silica-tests.

(24)

Applications of 

Enterprise Geographical 

Information Systems in 

Transportation (AEGIST) 

FHWA has a new primer on AEGIST, 

which enables State and local 

transportation agencies to create 

and integrate spatial transportation 

data in a consistent and systematic 

manner for use in transportation 

systems and business processes 

(figure 2).(25) Agencies can utilize 

AEGIST to ensure that their data 

are governed by and reflect quality, 

accuracy, reliability, completeness, 

standards-incorporation, temporality, 

and topological connectedness. 

© 2019 National Academies of Sciences Transportation Research Board. Modified by FHWA.

PFS = Pooled Fund Study.

Figure 2. Transportation PFS State activities: Outreach for AEGIST.(25)
Research and Technology Update Newsletter May 2023 | Spring Issue

4

The AEGIST website offers guidance 

through workshops, webinars, peer 

exchanges, and agency-specific, 

dedicated technical services targeted 

at data modeling, integration, 

engineering, and analytics.

For more information, visit https://

www.gis.fhwa.dot.gov/AEGIST.aspx.

(26)

FEHRL Infrastructure 

Research Meeting (FIRM) 

and Executive 

Board Meetings

Kelly Regal, associate administrator 

of research, development, and 

technology, and David Kuehn, 

exploratory advanced research team 

director, attended the FEHRL 

FIRM and executive board 

meetings, April 25–26, 2023, in 

Brussels, Belgium.(26)

FEHRL was formed to promote 

and facilitate collaboration of road 

research and provide high-quality 

information and advice on 

technologies and policies related to 

roads.(9) FEHRL meets at least twice 

a year to conduct business and update 

collaborative efforts. Kelly Regal is 

vice chair and attends these meetings.

This year’s theme is climate, 

energy, and digitalization. 

Presentations included updates on 

biodiversity in infrastructure, big 

data for pavements (BD Pave), and 

a stakeholder engagement workshop 

with the Coordinating Council for 

Access and Mobility (CCAM) team. 

For access to these presentations, 

see: https://www.fehrl.org/firm/

firmmeetings/firm2023.

(26)

Cooperative Driving 

Automation (CDA) Adaptive 

Signal Use Case 

TFHRC concluded more than 

2 months of integration, verification, 

and final validation testing. Volpe 

provide the Independent Evaluation 

Team for validation testing.(27)

 In the 

Volpe test example, the infrastructure 

uses basic safety messages from 

vehicles to adapt signal timing to 

minimize delays.

The vehicles can use the signal phase 

and timing messages from the smart 

infrastructure to modify approach 

speeds to match arrival times with the 

green phase to further reduce delay, 

fuel consumption, and emissions.

The next step is to evaluate this use 

case through simulation on road 

networks with multiple intersections 

to assess when the case may provide 

significant benefits.

Federal Lands Highway 

(FLH)-FHWA Coordination 

FLH has ramped up its efforts 

to coordinate with the Office of 

Research, Innovative Finance, and 

Planning and Programming offices.(28)

FHWA has developed a Federal lands 

management planning summary that 

provides insights, identifies effective 

practices, and provides resources 

that can assist State departments of 

transportation (DOTs), metropolitan 

planning organizations (MPOs) and 

Federal land management agencies 

(FLMAs) to work together to address 

transportation needs that benefit 

all partners and support continued 

coordination among agencies.(28)

FHWA provides a wide range of 

resources and expertise to help 

improve agency coordination in 

the transportation planning and 

programming processes, such as an 

interactive map that enables users to 

select FLMAs, MPOs, and States to 

help clarify where agency boundaries 

may overlap.

FLH is interested in sharing 

TFHRC lab capabilities and projects 

that TFHRC is coordinating with 

the FLMAs. FLH holds an annual 

meeting with the FLMAs and the next 

meeting will be held at TFHRC on 

May 21–22, 2024.

For more information, visit https://

highways.dot.gov/research/rtportfolio/

federal-lands-research.

(28)

Truck Platooning 

and Locomation 

TFHRC staff visited Locomation, 

Inc., in March 2023.(29)

 Locomation 

was founded in 2018 on autonomous 

vehicles, robotics, and artificial 

intelligence from Carnegie Mellon’s 

National Robotics Engineering Center 

and trucking industry leaders.(29,30) The 

reason for the visit was to learn more 

about automation that might benefit 

truck platooning.

Trucks transport more than 

70 percent of the Nation’s freight. 

Electronic commerce has sharply 

increased the need for freight 

trucking services. Demand of 

freight trucking service is expected 

to grow by 36 percent between 

2020 and 2031.The vision of 

Locomation was to develop and 

champion automation for anything 
Research and Technology Update Newsletter May 2023 | Spring Issue

5

that moves. This vision began with 

middle-mile freight automation in 

the supply chain and the one best 

suited to integrate human-guided 

autonomous technology. 

Locomation is using TFHRC’s 

research, in particular, the 

vehicle-to-vehicle and 

vehicle-to-infrastructure research, 

and the recent human factors studies 

regarding how to assist drivers 

operating around a platoon.(29,31)

For more information, visit: 

https://locomation.ai.

(31)

Transportation Pooled 

Fund (TPF) Updates 

Program Updates—Since the 

TPF Program website was first 

launched in 2003, the financial 

commitments of the program have 

grown from receiving $9.5 million a 

year to now more than $70 million 

each year.(32)

 In total since 2003, the 

program has processed more than 

$656 million in research funding. 

National TPF Training—This training 

occurred March 28 and 30, 2023. 

Training was open to both FHWA 

division research coordinators and 

State DOT research managers.

TPF International Participation—

If you have a research project or 

an interest, and you would like to 

include other partners, the TPF 

Program could be a good vehicle 

to stretch your funding and expand 

your research portfolio. The TPF 

Program also includes partners 

from other Federal agencies, the 

private sector, and the international 

community. FHWA currently has 

18 global partnerships.

TPF Video Learning Series—One of 

the big initiatives will be for the group 

to develop a short series of training 

videos on the TPF program.

New TPF Resource Development 

Working Group—In the fall of 2022, 

TFHRC kicked off a working group to 

help evaluate the current resources of 

the TPF Program and determine what 

participants would like to see in the 

future. Current members include staff 

from different areas of FHWA and 

State DOTs. 

For more information on these and 

other TPF Program resources, visit 

https://www.pooledfund.org/.

(32)

REFERENCES

1. FHWA. 2022. “Laboratories Overview” (web page). 

https://highways.dot.gov/research/turner-fairbank-highway-research-center/laboratories/laboratories-overview, 

last accessed July 10, 2023.

2. U.S. Department of Interior. n.d. “Small Business Innovation Research Programs (SBIR)” (website). 

https://www.doi.gov/pmb/osdbu/small-business-innovation-research-programs-sbir, last accessed July 10, 2023.

3. Congressional Research Service. 2022. Small Business Research Programs: SBIR and STTR. Report No. R43695. 

Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R43695, 

last accessed July 10, 2023.

4. FHWA. 2022. “Small Business Innovation Research” (web page). 

https://highways.dot.gov/research/opportunities-partnerships/opportunities/small-business-innovation-research, 

last accessed July 10, 2023.
Research and Technology Update Newsletter May 2023 | Spring Issue

6

5. SBIR. n.d. “Addressing Stormwater Runoff with a Self-Contained Portable Treatment System” (web page). 

https://www.sbir.gov/node/2284973, last accessed July 11, 2023.

6. SBIR. n.d. “Traffic Monitoring and In Situ Information Processing Using Edge Computing” (web page). 

https://www.sbir.gov/node/2284975, last accessed July 11, 2023.

7. SBIR. n.d. “FY23 DOT SBIR Solicitation” (web page). https://www.sbir.gov/node/2279703, 

last accessed July 11, 2023.

8. European Commission. n.d. “Horizon Europe: Research and Innovation” (web page). 

https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/ 

horizon-europe_en, last accessed July 11, 2023.

9. FEHRL. n.d. “Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories” (website). 

https://www.fehrl.org/, last accessed July 10, 2023.

10. USDOT. n.d. “ROSA P: Repository and Open Science Access Portal” (website). 

https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/gsearch?collection=&terms=rosa+p, last accessed July 10, 2023.

11. USDOT. n.d. “Federal Highway Administration Collection” (web page). 

https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/cbrowse?pid=dot%3A232&parentId=dot%3A232, last accessed July 10, 2023.

12. USDOT. 2015. Plan to Increase Public Access to the Results of Federally-Funded Scientific Research Results. Version 1.1. 

Washington, DC: USDOT. https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/29637, last accessed July 10, 2023.

13. USDOT. n.d. “National Transportation Library” (website). https://ntl.bts.gov/ntl, last accessed July 10, 2023.

14. FHWA. 2023. “Every Day Counts” (website). https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/innovation/everydaycounts/, 

last accessed July 10, 2023.

15. FHWA. 2022. “Every Day Counts: Enhancing Performance with Internally Cured Concrete (EPIC2

)” 

(web page). https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/innovation/everydaycounts/edc_7/enhancing_epic.cfm, 

last accessed July 10, 2023.

16. TPF. 2023. “Transportation Pooled Fund—Excellence Awards Program” (web page). 

https://www.pooledfund.org/Home/ExcellenceAwardsProgram, last accessed July 11, 2023.
Research and Technology Update Newsletter May 2023 | Spring Issue

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17. FHWA. 2022. “Long-Term Infrastructure Performance (LTIP) Student Data Analysis Contest Instructions” 

(web page). https://cms8.fhwa.dot.gov/research/long-term-infrastructure-performance/ltpp/long-term-infrastructure-performanceltip-student-data-analysis-contest-instructions, last accessed July 11, 2023.

18. FHWA. n.d. “InfoPaveTM” (website). https://infopave.fhwa.dot.gov/, 

last accessed July 11, 2023.

19. FHWA. n.d. “InfoBridgeTM” (website). https://infobridge.fhwa.dot.gov/, 

last accessed July 11, 2023.

20. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. 

“Welcome to the 2024 TRB Annual Meeting!” (web page). 

https://www.trb.org/AnnualMeeting/AnnualMeeting.aspx, last accessed July 11, 2023.

21. FHWA. n.d. “2023 Excellence in Highway Safety Data Award” (web page). 

https://hsisinfo.org/award.cfm, last accessed July 11, 2023.

22. Institute of Transportation Engineers. n.d. “Events/Meetings” (web page). 

https://www.ite.org/events-meetings/past-and-future-meetings/, last accessed July 11, 2023.

23. FHWA. n.d. “Public Roads Student Writing Competition—Editorial Guidelines” (web page). 

https://highways.dot.gov/research/publications/publicroads/student-contest-guidelines, 

last accessed July 11, 2023.

24. FHWA. 2022. “Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center Alkali-Silica Reactivity Tests” (web page). 

https://highways.dot.gov/research/laboratories/chemistry-laboratory/alkali-silica-tests, 

last accessed July 10, 2023.

25. FHWA. n.d. “Applications of Enterprise GIS for Transportation (AEGIST) Guidebook” (web page). 

https://www.gis.fhwa.dot.gov/AEGIST.aspx, last accessed July 10, 2023.

26. FEHRL. 2023. “FEHRL Infrastructure Research Meeting 2023” (web page). 

https://www.fehrl.org/firm/firmmeetings/firm2023, last accessed July 10, 2023.

27. USDOT. n.d. “Volpe Center” (website). https://www.volpe.dot.gov/, last accessed July 10, 2023.

28. FHWA. 2023. “R&T Portfolio: Federal Lands Highway Research” (web page). 

https://highways.dot.gov/research/rtportfolio/federal-lands-research, last accessed July 10, 2023.
Research and Technology Update Newsletter May 2023 | Spring Issue

8

Recommended citation: 

Federal Highway Administration,

FHWA R&T Update - Quarterly 

Newsletter (Spring 2023 Edition)

(Washington, DC: 2023) 

https://doi.org/10.21949/1521426.

HRTM-10/07-23(WEB)E 

FHWA-HRT-23-095

CONTACT:

jill.stark@dot.gov 

29. Locomation. n.d. “Human-Guided Autonomy” (website). https://locomation.ai/, last accessed July 10, 2023.

30. Carnegie Mellon University. 2023. “Robotics Institute” (website). https://www.ri.cmu.edu/, last accessed July 10, 2023.

31. Hoekstra-Atwood, C. M. Richard, and V. Venkatraman. 2022. Multiple Sources of Safety Information from V2V 

and V2I: Phase II Final Safety Message Report. Report No. FHWA-HRT-22-013. Washington, DC: FHWA. 

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safety/22013/22013.pdf, last accessed July 10, 2023.

32. TPF. 2023. Transportation Pooled Fund (website). https://www.pooledfund.org/, last accessed July 10, 2023.