Dear Colleague:

Our efforts to convey the necessity of transportation funding and our plan to be effective stewards of the budget have been successful. As you know, Governor Corbett signed into law House Bill 1060, the transportation funding bill, on November 25. In the years ahead, I look forward to efficient and effective implementation of many projects that will improve our transportation infrastructure and provide better transportation experiences for our residents and visitors alike.

This issue of PennDOT Innovations focuses on some of the things we are doing to harness innovation, find and use best practices and implement research results to improve our operations. We continue to pursue innovative techniques to enhance our operations, to be a better business partner and to be a better steward of taxpayer dollars.

Another theme in this issue is PennDOT participation in peer exchanges. These allow us to share progress in our ongoing innovation and implementation efforts while giving us a chance to learn from colleagues in other parts of the country. We also introduced an element of peer exchange to this year's Maintenance Executive Development Program through integrating it in PennDOT’s Innovations Day. By inviting vendor partners to demonstrate new technology, we gave PennDOT and municipal attendees an unparalleled opportunity to see equipment in action, discuss benefits, and ask questions (learn more about the event on Page 2).

Please join me in continuing our efforts to modernize PennDOT operations through your dedication and great ideas.

Sincerely, Barry J. Schoch Secretary of Transportation

In this issue…

Letter from Secretary Schoch

STIC Accomplishments in 2013

(Page 1)

MEDP Innovation Day

(Page 2)

Local Road Safety Peer Exchange

(Page 3)

Peer Exchange: Lane Heltebridle Visits Memphis

(Page 4)

PennDOT Participation in 2014 TRB Annual Meeting

PennDOT Singled Out for Federal Implementation Grants

(Page 5)

Spreading the word about GRS-IBS Bridges

It Starts with an Idea

(Page 6)

Barry J. Schoch

Winter 2013/2014

Issue #13

Issue #12 of PennDOT Innovations explained the purpose of the State Transportation Innovation Council (STIC) and how it works. STIC has an impressive list of accomplishments in 2013. A collaboration among transportation stakeholders co-chaired by Secretary Barry Schoch and FHWA Division Administrator Renee Sigel, 25 STIC members review and vet promising initiatives submitted by a Technical Advisory Group (50 initiatives to date: for more, see ftp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/public/pdf/STCTAC/STIC/STIC_2013_Accomplishments_Summary.pdf). Of the 20+ initiatives in the deployment phase, three initiatives focus on safety:

Rumble strip installations on thin pavement overlays — thin overlays extend the life of pavements but pose a challenge for maintaining the safety benefits of rumble strips. A synthesis of best practices for installing/reinstalling rumble strips will be developed.

High-friction Surface Treatments — crash-prone sections of roads are made safer by application of high-quality aggregate to help motorists maintain better vehicle control; 50 locations throughout PA have been selected.

Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Integrated Bridge System — especially critical as PennDOT addresses structurally deficient bridges through cost-efficient and effective solutions, GRS-IBS has been piloted with success in Pennsylvania and elsewhere (learn more on Page 6).

STIC Accomplishments in 2013

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Each year, PennDOT holds the Maintenance Executive Development Program (MEDP) during which participants share policies and best practices in use around the state. The department’s Maintenance Managers Training Committee (MMTC), chaired this year by District 9’s Maintenance Manager Jeff Mitchell, develops the agenda. This group is comprised of representatives from each district along with Bureau of Maintenance and Operations (BOMO) and central office staff. “Our committee’s purpose is training,” noted Mitchell. “We develop all the training and academies for maintenance personnel. Our goal is to share knowledge.”

More than 200 PennDOT employees throughout the department met with federal and state partners, along with local government partners in June to learn and share best practices.

Mitchell explained how this year was different, “This event was modeled after a national conference. It started with a focus on surface treatments, especially micro-surfacing. Some districts are using this technique. We wanted to share it with folks, so that others could see it, get a feel for it and see the end product as part of an overall surface treatment strategy.” Mitchell said the planning committee expanded MEDP by getting “more equipment vendors and material providers involved, including several vendors of micro-surfacing technologies.” In all, sixty vendors attended MEDP.

In order to cast a wide net, the MMTC committee went to key process owners and central office staff and asked about new processes they have observed and vendors that offer innovative new approaches.

Each year, the MEDP conference is a way for PennDOT districts to share best practices. Mitchell stated, “There’s not one way to do a job. There are different, cost-effective, more efficient ways. Fiber reinforced sealcoats versus sealcoats. There are all sorts of tools in the toolbox.” This year, the planning team grouped attendees in alphabetical order, fostering cross-district communication. During evening sessions, vendors had the opportunity to give five-minute presentations.

A highlight of MEDP was the “Demonstrations of the Surface Treatment Process.” On the first day of the meeting, vendors brought in equipment and laid down materials. Mitchell noted, “We broke into groups of 12-15 attendees and saw at least eight different vendors, each with a half-hour presentation.”

Mitchell added, “The Pennsylvania Asphalt Manufacturers’ Association (PAMA) helped to coordinate the vendors, so that the demonstrations weren’t head-to-head on the same process, but showed differences in techniques. The vendors’ approach was more educational than sales oriented; they showed us good products and explained the process.” The “one-stop shopping” approach was a convenient way for attendees to evaluate various technologies. “Normally people don’t have a place to see these treatments unless they go to conferences,” Mitchell stated.

Reaction from the maintenance people in a t t e nd an c e w a s positive. Post-event surveys gave the MEDP session high marks.

So, what about next year? Mitchel l ’ s committee is reluctant to have such a demonstration day annually, because changes in technology are not that rapid. “We’d like to do this every four to five years. Give time for technology to change – for new processes and technology to emerge.” Other plans are to increase the number of MEDP participants, including more outreach to local municipalities. “We’d like to get the Bureau of Municipal Services folks more involved,” said Mitchell.

After hours, they talk about work, what they’re doing; they network and share knowledge. Sometimes things that work

well in one district may not work as well in a different district.

– Jeff Mitchell Maintenance Manager, District 9

Innovations for safer work zone traffic control

Demo of a line painter for small jobs

MEDP Innovation Day

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Local Road Safety Peer Exchange

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) along with the Ohio Department of Transportation hosted a local road safety workshop and peer exchange in Columbus, Ohio on June 12-13, 2013. PennDOT Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Program Director Lou Ferretti and District 11 Safety Engineer Kathryn Power participated in the event.

FHWA staff presented guidelines for federally funded local road improvements. Participants from 11 states in LTAP Regions 3 and 5 shared local road safety data, plans for implementation of the strategic highway safety plan and a perspective on overall highway safety improvement.

Power joined Ferretti in reviewing data on Pennsylvania’s local roads. Highlights included:

64 percent of PA’s roadways (78,000 miles) are owned by local municipalities;

PennDOT conducts road usage surveys in all 2,581 PA municipalities, with 7,200 traffic count locations; and

99 percent of PA crashes can be pinpointed with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) geometry, allowing for further study of crash dynamics.

Power and Ferretti reviewed PennDOT’s strategies to increase accessibility and use of local road safety data. “We also presented our plans to implement the strategic highway safety plan, including our collaboration with local police departments and our community traffic safety projects,” reported Ferretti. “We focus on local issues including speeding, aggressive driving, occupant protection, motorcycle safety and mature driver safety,” he continued. “We have also found it really important to engage local safety stakeholders and the local media to ensure success.”

Power reported on an example of how local officials have participated in the development of a highway safety plan. She explained, “District 11 hosted a Regional Safety Summit as an open forum to communicate issues and to share ideas. The attendees included Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence County residents and municipal leaders.” Presentations included information on aggressive driving, seat belts and child restraints, DUI education and enforcement, pedestrian/bicycle safety, local roads and infrastructure improvements.

Ferretti shared the Highway Safety Improvement Program priorities for Pennsylvania. “We talked about identifying and prioritizing high crash locations in Pennsylvania, and then talking about countermeasures that we recommend to local municipalities,” said Ferretti. “With our local safe roads program and walkable community projects, we review accident and fatality data and create individual reports with recommendations. These include both low cost tactics like rumble strips and intersection/curve related improvements to higher cost measures like guiderails or new traffic lights.”

Meetings like this one offer participants significant benefits. Ferretti stated, “We share what we do. We also take away best practices. One example: Ohio can pinpoint crashes in local areas with their Geographic Crash Analysis Tool. This software enables them to click on a road and learn what is involved with a crash.” Ferretti noted that breakout sessions which focused on work plans to improve safety challenged the group. “Each of us enhanced our work plan by listening to the best practices of others. Everybody got to the same place, but through slightly different routes.”

Power agreed, “It’s beneficial to find out what other states are doing, to gain a new perspective and improve what we do.” The workshop encouraged participants to share ideas, challenges and successes.

Each attendee received a binder including the FHWA presentations and one from each of the eleven participating states. For more information, contact LTAP Program Director Lou Ferretti at lferretti@pa.gov.

LTAP/TTAP Background

The PennDOT LTAP is one of 58 LTAP centers across the nation (one in each state, Puerto Rico and seven regional centers serving American Indian tribal gov-ernments). These centers are dedicated to transfer-ring transportation technology through training, technical assistance, and other customer services to municipal elected officials and their staff. Some quick facts:

PennDOT’s LTAP program helps Pennsylvania’s municipalities, which maintain over 68,000 miles of roadways, make the best use of their roadway maintenance dollars.

PennDOT LTAP has provided technology trans-fer services to Pennsylvania’s 2,600 municipal governments since 1983.

On average, the PennDOT LTAP training and technology transfer programs train and assist nearly 6,000 municipal employees per year.

Historically, PennDOT LTAP has augmented this training with nearly 200 one-on-one technical assistance sessions and the dissemination of approximately 50,000 pieces of information highlighting practical technological advances.

PennDOT LTAP services include: training, techni-cal assistance, newsletters, technical informa-tion sheets and a lending library.

Source: https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/ltap/public/AboutLTAP_GenInfo.aspx

4

In June, Bureau of Planning and Research Director Laine Heltebridle

participated in a peer exchange in Memphis, TN. The session was held in

conjunction with the 2013 Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) at the University of Memphis. While the peer exchange itself was small, including counterparts from Tennessee, Iowa and Florida, Heltebridle found the format to be conducive to information sharing. “We talked about what we do that may be different from practices in other states,” he said. “It was a great way to learn and to bring back some ideas.”

Two innovations that intrigued Heltebridle came from Iowa and Florida, respectively. “Iowa DOT contracted a librarian from Iowa State University. This person is embedded in the DOT, working with staff,” reported Heltebridle. “We may want to look at this approach.”

Florida DOT intrigued Heltebridle with an innovative way to get the message out about completed projects and other DOT initiatives. In addition to their DOT website, FDOT has a YouTube page where they post two-minute videos on projects http://www.youtube.com/user/MyFDOT.

“These videos include what the DOT did, and why it was important to the state,” noted Heltebridle. He sees this as a potential way to improve the “marketing” of PennDOT Research Division products. “Maybe we can look at the top five research projects from last year and take a similar approach,” he stated. “We complete a wide variety of interesting projects annually – and sometimes we need to take a little time to tell the story.”

A highlight of the peer exchange was a session with the university representatives at the CUTC meeting. “Each of us spoke informally about a few of our initiatives, and then the university transportation researchers could ask questions,” noted Heltebridle.

Other questions from the university participants for Heltebridle centered on the State Transportation Innovation Council (STIC). Professor Martin Pietrucha of Penn State University (PSU), an active participant of the STIC, assisted by commenting on the benefits of this approach that brings transportation professionals from the

public and private sectors together to fast track technological innovations.

Heltebridle also learned more about how other state DOTs are working collaboratively with their partner UTCs in a pooled fund approach for regional research projects that are of benefit to more than one state. This is similar to what PennDOT has been doing with Penn State and other DOTs and universities in the mid-Atlantic area for a number of years. The peer exchange reaffirmed this method as a best practice. “Proposed projects must provide benefits to multiple states,” noted Heltebridle. “Members of the DOTs are on the review board and ‘score’ the proposals in a way similar to the Transportation Research Board approach.” Look for a future article in PennDOT Innovations to learn more about the selected projects.

Reflecting on the Memphis meeting, Heltebridle summed up the benefits of peer exchanges. “First, it’s visibility for PennDOT. To get invited means that your research program is recognized, that we have things to offer other participants. Further, I always come back with new ideas. Finally, a huge portion of the experience is networking.” He said he would be very comfortable reaching out to his peers if a question or issue arises that needs the perspective of a counterpart. “It’s a great opportunity to put names with faces, and develop relationships that will help PennDOT in the long run.”

One takeaway from the conference for Laine Heltebridle was to share more of how PennDOT is working jointly with academic institutions. “I’d like to start with a poster session during which we can display what PennDOT is doing with PSU, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and our other university partners. ” He added, “Often, engineers may know about one project, with one institution. This would be an opportunity to have a broader view of these collaborations.” Iowa DOT holds such a symposium every other year, with statewide participation. He concluded, “We need to share more of the research we are doing with our own staff.”

Peer Exchange: Laine Heltebridle Visits Memphis

I got the most questions on the Implementation System – how and why we did it. I told them we didn’t want completed research projects to stay on the shelf.

– Laine Heltebridle Director, Bureau of Planning & Research

5

More than a dozen PennDOT staff members played key roles as speakers, workshop leaders and poster session presenters at the Annual TRB meeting in Washington, DC in January. Among them were:

PennDOT Singled Out for Federal Implementation Grants

PennDOT Participation in 2014 TRB Annual Meeting

Barry Schoch, Secretary’s Office — providing leadership in transportation innovation

Toby Fauver, Multi-Modal Transportation Deputate — implementation of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA)

Glenn Rowe, Traffic Engineering Permits Section, Bureau of Maintenance and Operations — freight safety and transportation planning

Frank DeSendi and Drew Ames, Planning Division, Bureau of Planning and Research – environmental screening and workflow in transportation planning

Brian Wall, Brian Hare, Hugh McGowan, Kristin Mulkerin and Tyler Stoner, Center for Program Development and Management — using truck probe data to analyze and improve transportation performance

W. James Smith, Fleet Management Division, Bureau of Maintenance and Operations — controlling and preventing equipment corrosion

Anthony McCloskey, Bridge Asset Management Section, Bureau of Maintenance and Operations — efficiencies with bundling bridge projects

Nolan Ritchie, Administration Deputate — managing innovation and organizational structure changes

Charles H. Davies, District 6 Office — managing projects in urban areas with a focus on the reconstruction of I-95 in Philadelphia

Daniel Stepaniants, District 4 Office — PennDOT’s experience with LTPP InfoPave

Laine Heltebridle, Bureau of Planning and Research — Traffic Monitoring Conference (NATMEC) Task Force

Robert J. Shea, Office of Chief Counsel — tort liability; insurance basics for transportation professionals

Four PennDOT initiatives have been singled out for inclusion in the recently announced grants from the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2). Through the SHRP program, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) offer implementation and technical assistance. “We’re proud to be among the 18 states receiving recognition and assistance this time,” said Michael Bonini. “We have one project in each of the four focus areas for SHRP2.” The four PennDOT projects include:

PennDOT contributes $1.5 million per year to SHRP2; success in winning these competitive grants is a welcome return on that investment. “In the Research Division, we are happy to see such support for implementation of these key projects. Being awarded these grants supports PennDOT’s implementation efforts, and helps us to share knowledge and best practices with other states,” concluded Bonini.

There will be at least two rounds of competition for SHRP2 implementation grants in 2014 — PennDOT looks forward to continuing its winning streak. Of course, the real value to the commonwealth comes from successful implementation of important initiatives that enhance safety, mobility, efficiency, and infrastructure preservation.

Another highlight for PennDOT early in the new year was a SHRP2 implementation workshop held at the Keystone Building in Harrisburg on Jan. 30, 2014. Neil Pedersen of the Transportation Research Board and Pam Hutton of AASHTO were co-presenters for this event, which featured 90-minute sessions devoted to the SHRP2 focus areas: safety, renewal, reliability and capacity. Participation in this workshop was available via webinar for those unable to attend in person. PennDOT employees can access more information about this event at the SharePoint site:

https://spportal.dot.pa.gov/Planning/Pages/BOP-Home.aspx.

Winning Projects PennDOT Champions

Preservation Options for High Volume Roads John Hocker

Organizing for Reliability Tools Doug Tomlinson

Railroad-DOT Mitigation Strategies Gregory Vaughn

Managing Risk in Rapid Renewal Projects Selena Griffett

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Spreading the Word about GRS-IBS Bridges

PennDOT is getting the word out about Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil—Integrated Bridge Systems (GRS-IBS). This technology offers an economical solution for structurally deficient bridges in need of replacement. Promoted nationally by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) through its Every Day Counts initiative, the State Transportation Innovation Council (STIC) is encouraging deployment throughout Pennsylvania.

Especially suitable for bridges on low-volume roadways spanning low-velocity streams, GRS-IBS saves time and money by using standard construction materials (concrete blocks, compacted stone for fill, and geotextile material sandwiched between layers of blocks and fill) and a local workforce. GRS-IBS projects can often be completed within 30 to 60 days, much sooner than bridges built using conventional methods, with cost savings of as much as 60 percent.

Through its Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP), PennDOT and FHWA jointly sponsored a Local Bridge Showcase in Sandy Township, Clearfield County on July 18, 2013. Attendees included PennDOT staff, representatives of municipalities from throughout the state, and employees of engineering and construction firms. After convening at a meeting facility for a one-hour presentation during which a tabletop GRS-IBS model was used to explain construction methods (see photo), the group enjoyed an on-site tour of the Sandy Township bridge project, then in the midst of construction.

In November 2013, PennDOT released a GRS-IBS educational video on the YouTube website (http://www.youtube.com/user/PennsylvaniaDOT). Using simple graphics, this video illustrates the steps for constructing a GRS-IBS bridge, highlights the savings and environmental friendliness of the technology, and offers guidance for municipalities that wish to deploy it.

Issue #3 of Smart Solutions, published together with this issue of PennDOT Innovations, takes a closer look at four GRS-IBS projects completed so far in Pennsylvania: Huston and Sandy Townships in Clearfield County, North Hopewell Township in York County, and PennDOT’s Route 1016 bridge replacement project in Crawford County. Testimonials from key stakeholders attest to the benefits of this smart solution to an urgent need.

It Starts with an Idea If you have an innovation that may have potential for statewide implementation, contact Kenita Honesty (khonesty@pa.gov) or Sean Oldfield (soldfield@pa.gov) of BPR, who will ask some questions and complete a Checklist for Winning Innovations. This starts the process, giving BPR information to evaluate the innovation, and secure resources for implementation.

Likewise, if you see a need that can be addressed by a research project, BPR annually solicits research requests with its IDEA form. Contact Lisa Tarson (ltarson@pa.gov) of BPR for more information. Who knows? Your project may be a future Implementation success story!

Tabletop GRS-IBS model

GRS-IBS finished product

During construction...

Structurally deficient Sandy Township bridge before replacement