FHWA Awards $8.4 Million to Nine States for Innovative Highway Projects |
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Federal Highway Administration
7 September 2018
FHWA 19-18
Contact: Neil Gaffney
Tel.: (202) 366-0660
WASHINGTON – The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) today announced $8.4 million in Accelerated Innovation Deployment (AID) Demonstration awards to the state Departments of Transportation in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Utah. Projects will soon be under way in each state to improve safety and operational efficiency of roads and bridges using cutting-edge pavement materials, engineering techniques, and connected-vehicle technology.
“These states are leading the way in implementing innovative solutions to improve safety and mobility on America’s roadways,” said Deputy Federal Highway Administrator Brandye L. Hendrickson. “Their creative approaches to delivering better quality and more cost-effective solutions in roadbuilding and operations are sure to inspire other states in using such methods.”
With today’s award, since the launch of the AID Demonstration program in 2014, FHWA officials have awarded more than $60 million to help federal, state, local, and tribal government agencies use innovative traffic, safety, and construction practices.
The program works closely with FHWA’s On-Ramp to Innovation Every Day Counts (EDC) program to encourage the delivery of innovation in transportation projects. The techniques and methods used on all AID Demonstration projects follow all applicable federal regulations and policies to ensure that roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure are built safely for use by the traveling public.
The latest AID grant recipients are:
| Agency | Amount | Project Description |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) | $1,000,000 | ADOT will advance the use of data collection for transportation operations of several communities along the state’s “Sun Corridor” – a region as large as Indiana stretching from Phoenix to the state’s borders with Mexico and New Mexico – to improve transportation investments and streamline the federally required environmental reviews they require. |
| Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) | $1,000,000 | Using state-of-the-art connected vehicle technology, FDOT will improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians near the University of Florida and throughout the City of Gainesville by improving access to real-time traffic information to them and enhancing the city’s existing “SmartTraffic” system. |
| Iowa Department of Transportation | $1,000,000 | Iowa will use its AID grant to implement “bridge bundling,” an innovative contracting method, to quickly and cost-effectively replace several deficient bridges throughout the state. |
| Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) | $1,000,000 | MnDOT will use its AID funding to improve roadway safety by creating a signalized “restricted crossing U-turn” (RCUT) intersection on Trunk Highway 65. |
| Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) | $1,000,000 | ODOT will use its AID funds in Elk City (Beckham County) to build the state’s first “diverging diamond interchange,” which have been shown in many other states to be safer than traditional four-leaf clover or other standard interchanges. |
| Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) | $1,000,000 | UDOT will use its AID grant to expand the state’s use of 3D modeling, e-construction, and other state-of-the-art techniques that improve accuracy and cost-effectiveness of project planning and preliminary engineering. |
| Illinois Department of Transportation/Williamson County | $771,690 | Williamson County will use warm mix asphalt – an early EDC innovation that has many benefits including reduction in paving costs and improve working conditions by reducing exposure to fuel emissions, fumes, and odors – for the Saraville Road resurfacing project. |
| New Hampshire Department of Transportation/Town of East Kingston | $631,925 | The Town of East Kingston will use its AID grant to use long-lasting Ultra High Performance Concrete and prefabricated bridge elements in the rehabilitation of a bridge. |
| New Hampshire Department of Transportation/City of Dover | $649,500 | The City of Dover will improve roadway safety, and reduce traffic interruptions caused by poor or outdated traffic signal timing, with automated traffic signal performance systems. |
| New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) | $322,462 | NJDOT will use its AID grant to start a “weather-savvy roads” pilot program to improve roadway safety and operational efficiency by delivering real-time information about changing weather conditions from road maintenance vehicles to existing data sensors throughout the state. |
| TOTAL | $8,375,577 |
For more information about these grants, and FHWA’s AID demonstration program, visit www.fhwa.dot.gov/accelerating/grants.