Accelerating U.S. Innovation: Bringing Global Innovations to U.S. Highways
The Global Benchmarking Program (GBP), formerly known as the International Technology Scanning Program, was authorized in 1991 in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, known as ISTEA. While the program was modified and received a new name in 2015, its mission and purpose remain the same—identify, evaluate, document, and implement proven foreign innovations that have the potential to significantly improve highway system performance, mobility, and safety in the United States. The program was established after a very successful European pavement study tour that opened the eyes of many in the United States that domestic pavement performance was far behind that of many European countries. The study enumerated a set of improvements that practically became the roadmap for enhancing asphalt pavements in the United States. Although the study brought home and promoted many pavement advances, perhaps its most significant contribution was showing the U.S. highway transportation community the many benefits of learning from innovations abroad.
The benefits come from adopting other countries’ advancements and avoiding unnecessary U.S. duplication of research and development. These studies also create synergy for promoting tested solutions to common challenges.
Other countries face similar challenges and, in many cases, have developed creative and highly effective solutions. Gaining from the advances of other nations, including lessons learned, the United States benefits by learning from other’s mistakes and not “re-inventing the wheel.” These benefits are ultimately realized in the road network and by roadway users.
Since its establishment, FHWA has organized and conducted more than 95 GBP studies on a broad range of topics. Many essential technologies and practices, including those seen and experienced by roadway users every day, were either first identified by a GBP study or received substantial endorsement and widespread promotion from one. The following are some examples: heavy-duty asphalt that resists rutting; separated bicycle lanes; crash-reducing highway roundabouts; rumble strips; the pretreatment of roads with brine before snowstorms; variable speed limits to manage traffic; quiet pavements; wildlife passages under highways; warm mix asphalt that requires less energy; and pedestrian-protecting traffic calming approaches. As demonstrated in States, regions, and cities throughout the Nation, the identification and application of best practices from overseas through the GBP has helped save costs, time, and lives.
Study Topic Identification
Through its Office of International Programs (HPIP), FHWA funds and administers the GBP, with approximately two studies taking place each year. Subject matter experts and others submit study proposals through FHWA’s core program offices. The proposals are evaluated based on their alignment with U.S. Department of Transportation and FHWA strategic goals and objectives, potential to advance the U.S. transportation’s state of the practice, transportation agency demand, and other related factors. The proposals also undergo risk analysis to ensure selected studies produce the highest benefit and value. The FHWA Administrator makes the final topic selections.
Once the FHWA Administrator has selected a topic, a team of five to seven experts is formed. This team includes two FHWA representatives (with one serving as team lead), two State department of transportation representatives (selected by the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO)—a longtime partner and stakeholder in advancing the program—and funded through the Transportation Research Board), and a report lead responsible for documenting study findings. Study teams may also include additional stakeholders (e.g., local government, association, and academia representatives) that have an important role with respect to the subject area of the study and the implementation of study findings.
Each study team travels abroad to observe innovations firsthand and to engage in in-depth discussions with foreign counterparts. Study team members collectively determine the locations visited through a “desk study” where preliminary research of international innovators is performed. Study teams typically visit two to three countries over a one-week period. In advance of the visits, targeted questions are formulated by the study team and submitted to hosting agencies by the GBP management team. These questions guide each of the hosting agencies in developing a program for the team’s visit. Following study travel, team members evaluate findings and develop a comprehensive report that is shared publicly on the HPIP website, as well as through other FHWA offices and their respective webpages. Through presentations, webinars, technical sessions or meetings and more, the study team further disseminate their findings to the U.S. highway transportation community.
The most important element of the GBP is its focus on implementation. From its inception, each study is premised upon the study team leading an effort to implement key findings in the United States. Toward this end, study teams design and carry out an implementation plan outlining strategies for communicating, promoting, and encouraging the adaptation of key findings and promising international best practices to the U.S. context. GBP studies, in effect, become the stimulus for implementing new ideas and emerging technologies.
How GBP Benefits the United States
With its emphasis on observing and applying innovative technologies and practices from abroad, GBP provides both programmatic and technology-specific benefits. The programmatic benefits include:
- Providing U.S. transportation professionals with the unique ability to observe foreign innovations firsthand, interact with international peers, ask specific questions, and evaluate for themselves how an innovation could be adapted and applied in the United States.
- Saving research dollars by capturing mature and emerging technologies, policies, and practices that do not have to be recreated from scratch in the United States.
- Accelerating improvements to U.S. transportation by:
- Increasing the array of solutions available that can be pursued.
- Acquiring innovations that already have been proven (i.e., have standards, specifications, and manuals) and often have evolved through more than one generation of development.
- Providing a window on the future by examining issues that are new in the United States but are mature or longstanding abroad (This future view allows U.S. observers to understand the stages of development and avoid the missteps that the early adopters already experienced).
- Creating U.S. advocates who have seen the successes abroad and who will promote the innovations to their peers in the United States.
- Promoting international cooperation by exposing U.S. officials to innovations abroad and exposing international officials to U.S. practices. For example, in several studies, international counterparts have said that U.S. questions caused them to examine their approaches from a new perspective. In several cases, GBP studies have also been invaluable in forging strong working relationships with international partners, including formal collaboration. These relationships continue to foster exchanges of ideas for years afterwards, contributing to progress in transportation in the United States and abroad.
These broad programmatic benefits are matched by a long list of technology, policy, and practice innovations. The following are just a few examples of benefits resulting from the momentum provided by the GBP. While it would be an overstatement to say that these benefits came about solely because of the GBP, there is widespread recognition that GBP studies played a vital role in identifying and stimulating efforts to implement these ideas and technologies.
Road Safety Audits (RSA)
An RSA is a formal safety performance examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent and multidisciplinary team. First observed on a GBP study to Australia and New Zealand in 1996, RSAs are now employed by nearly all States, many local governments, and promoted by regional planning organizations. The audits are credited with reducing crashes, often with modest expenditures to improve sight distance or signage. In 2012, a Florida study found that crash rates decreased by 10 to 60 percent because of improvements recommended by RSAs.
The National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) synthesis DOT Practices on Road Safety Audits just concluded: “The use of RSAs in the United States has grown significantly since the publication of NCHRP Synthesis 336 in 2004. RSAs are conducted by 43 of the 49 State departments of transportation (DOTs) that responded to the survey. Regarding the extent of DOT experience with RSAs, 36 DOTs have been conducting RSAs for at least five years. Regarding RSA frequency, 29 DOTs conduct 1–10 RSAs per year and 7 DOTs conduct more than 25 RSAs annually.”
“I’ve had the privilege of participating on numerous RSAs across the Nation and the most beneficial step of the process is the field review where you can see how traffic is moving, the speeds and understand the struggles of the vulnerable road users,” says Rebecca Crowe, FHWA transportation specialist and team co-leader. “That field review is critical to developing suggestions to minimize the risks.”
Roundabouts
Roundabouts are one of the original FHWA Proven Safety Countermeasures because they significantly reduce fatal and serious injury crashes at intersections through the reduction in speeds and conflicts for all users. Participants in early GBP studies focusing on highway safety found that European and Australian engineers had modernized the old traffic circle into a modern roundabout that substantially reduces the number and severity of intersection crashes. In mid-1997, there were fewer than 50 modern roundabouts in the United States. The number is now estimated at more than 10,000 and growing 25 years later. Following these studies, FHWA developed the first U.S. roundabouts informational guide (2000), promoted roundabouts extensively as a market-ready technology, and included them as one of the first Proven Safety Countermeasures (2008).
In 2018, FHWA Research and Technology Evaluation: Roundabout Research (FHWA-HRT-17-040) reported that roundabouts averted between 38,000 and 53,000 crashes, with an estimated societal cost savings of more than $9 billion between 1990 and 2014. Well designed, roundabouts continue to reduce fatal and severe injury crashes significantly in the United States. According to Jeff Shaw and Hillary Isebrands from the FHWA Intersection Safety Team, “Roundabouts are a shining example of taking a successful idea from international practice, learning more about it from experts abroad through the deliberate and structured GBP process, and bringing back to the U.S. the confidence and knowledge to introduce a new and transformational life-saving intersection”.
Warm-Mix Asphalt (WMA)
Observed during a European study in 2002, WMA technologies allow the producers of hot-mix asphalt pavement material to lower the temperatures at which the material is mixed and placed on the road. This technology, in turn, enables extended paving seasons and significantly reduces energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions. In 2010, WMA became an FHWA Every Day Counts initiative, which speeds the deployment of technologies that can improve transportation projects’ quality, sustainability, and safety. Today, 44 States use WMA in their mixes and more than 40 percent of DOT sector asphalt in the United States is now warm mix. The estimated reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is approximately 0.10 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent annually, equaling the annual emissions of 22,000 passenger vehicles.
WMA usage in the United States has expanded across a broader range of projects and climates and extensive research and field trials to optimize and validate the performance and environmental benefits of WMA have been conducted. Additionally, U.S. development of specific methodologies and guidelines for WMA implementation have helped standardize practices and encourage wider use, positioning the United States as a leader in the practical application and innovation of WMA technologies. According to Chris Wagner, FHWA technical director, Pavement and Materials Technical Service Team, WMA has been “transformative” and “the United States has made notable advances in both the adoption and further development of these technologies.”
Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems (PBES)
GBP has been instrumental in bringing this technology to the United States. PBES are manufactured offsite or near a job site under controlled conditions and then transported to the work zone ready to install. PBES save time, reduce traffic congestion, and result in more durable bridges.
With PBES, fabrication occurs out of the right-of-way at a nearby site, minimizing the need for lane closures, detours, and the use of narrow lanes. Since more of the work is done out of traffic, fewer workers are required over or near traffic, further enhancing safety. Fewer and shorter lane closures also improve safety for motorists since any deviation from normal traffic patterns can result in crashes. As a result, PBES lead to reduced traffic impacts, improved work zone safety, less disruption to the environment, better quality, and lower life cycle costs.
The study team reviewed international use of PBES and identified decision processes, design methodologies, construction techniques, costs, and maintenance issues associated with use of the technology. This work became part of FHWA’s Highways for LIFE and Accelerated Construction Technology Transfer initiatives, an AASHTO Technology Information Group focus technology, and a research topic in the second Strategic Highway Research Program.
Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs)
Among the most impressive innovations identified by GBP are SMPTs. SPMTs are computer-controlled platform vehicles that can move massive objects with precision to within a fraction of an inch. On projects around the country, SPMTs are being used to lift and drive prefabricated bridge components to their final location in minutes, minimizing traffic disruption, improving work zone safety, and enhancing the quality of the completed bridges. Already, millions of dollars have been saved by reducing disruption of service costs with SPMTs.
“This technology offers the most speed and flexibility for bridge replacements. Since its initial use in 2006 following the scan, it has become more competitive, with dozens of highway and rail bridge projects completed in States across the Nation.” says Mary Lou Ralls Newman, a former bridge engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation and study team member. “The study was the catalyst that started the use of SPMTs for accelerated bridge construction in the U.S.”
The team for this study also developed a manual on the use of SPMTs. The team conducted open houses on SPMT construction projects in Florida and Rhode Island. This led other States to adopt the technology.
Policy Innovations
Some of the largest contributions from the GBP have come from policy-focused studies that promoted performance management, asset management, risk management, and financial management. All four of these practices, first examined by the GBP, were included in the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, reflecting how studies help address both current and future issues that eventually mature into standard U.S. practice. Tim Henkel, formerly of Minnesota DOT, and John Milton of Washington State DOT participated in the 2012 study that resulted in the report Transportation Risk Management: International Practices for Program Development and Project Delivery.
“We would not have been where we’re at without the GBP study. It began the journey for every State,” says Henkel.
GBP saves every State from “not having to research the problem or find the solution themselves…rather they can rapidly apply proven practices to their needs,” says Milton.
Recent Benefits
Now in its fourth decade, GBP continues to access and adapt innovations from abroad. With new research ideas selected each year, the program supports evolving USDOT objectives with the best of domestic and global best practices. These studies are resulting in further improvements and savings for our Nation’s transportation system. Recent examples include the following studies.
Pedestrian Safety
In response to a decade of rapidly increasing pedestrian fatalities on U.S. roads, FHWA undertook a GBP study to examine noteworthy approaches and innovations used by other countries to achieve reductions in serious pedestrian injuries and fatalities on arterial roadways—the corridors on which most U.S. pedestrian fatalities occur. The study team determined that the countries with the best combination of innovative practices, demonstrated success in improving pedestrian safety over time, and contextual similarity were New Zealand and Australia. The study included technical site visits and meetings in both countries over a one-week period.
The study team identified three high-level takeaways:
- Pedestrian safety is foundational for wellbeing and livability.
- Movement and place are an interconnected system.
- Pedestrian safety challenges benefit from proactive and interdisciplinary solutions.
Following the study, the team produced the report Improving Pedestrian Safety on Urban Arterials: Learning from Australasia, which identifies key strategies from the Safe System Approach to eliminate fatal and serious injuries for all road users, with an emphasis on people walking, cycling, and rolling. In addition, the team conducted more than a dozen presentations, webinars, and workshops with thousands of participants to share study results.
“Uniformly, practitioners expressed appreciation for the compiled information and are motivated to expand and accelerate our U.S. efforts to prioritize pedestrian movement, reduce speeding, and integrate road safety audits throughout the life cycle of a project” says Shari Schaftlein, equity program director with FHWA and study team lead.
FHWA team members are currently preparing phase 2 of their implementation campaign, during which they will:
- Engage State, regional, and local practitioners, including recipients of discretionary grant funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, in developing a national community of practice.
- Provide dedicated technical assistance to help selected agencies adapt key strategies from the report into U.S. practice.
- Develop supplemental guidance and resources for practitioners that align with the U.S. context, process, and requirements.
Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Infrastructure
FHWA conducted a GBP study that resulted in the report Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to Enhance the Design, Construction, Inspection, and Maintenance of Transportation Infrastructure. Based on findings from a desk review, the study team conducted technical site visits and meetings with Federal, State, and local infrastructure owner-operators, practitioners, and policymakers in the United Kingdom and Germany. In addition to reviewing UAS best practices in a variety of use cases, the study team examined UAS digital models and data management, including asset life cycle management.
The study provided an opportunity to learn about remote and repeatable UAS operations and how they have led to a nearly 70 percent increase in efficiency in inspections at the Port of Hamburg. Domestically, multiple States are now looking to use similar UAS dock-based technology to enhance their own inspection programs. After successful trials in Alaska and California, FHWA will be hosting States for onsite demonstrations to make this innovation mainstream in the United States.
The study also examined the challenge of dealing with large amounts of data created by UAS, a problem shared by many countries.
FHWA UAS Program Manager and Study Team Lead James Gray says, “Leveraging common data standards to automate routine processes in the U.K. was eye opening and is something that many States are now working to build a strong data foundation through data management and common data definitions.”
To address this challenge, FHWA has funded about $34 million in efforts to develop this foundation data framework to date and published a tech brief on the U.K. methodology.
“The value of standards cannot be understated,” says Aaron Chamberlin, senior transportation engineer at the California Department of Transportation and a study team member. “This was an area where Europe is far ahead of the U.S., and it has highlighted efforts needed to be worked on at a national level to make UAS systems repeatable.”
As a result of the study, the United States has an increased understanding of best practices for UAS and UAS collected data management which can be applied domestically to advance the adoption and use of UAS technology for transportation applications.
“The ability to review the domestic state of the practice for UAS operations and then measure ourselves against other advanced economies has been of incredible value,” says Gray. “We never want to assume that because we have found a method that works that we have found the best method.”
Bridge Evaluation Technology
A GBP study focused on electrically isolated tendons (EIT) examined how Italy and Switzerland have successfully used EITs as a nondestructive evaluation technology for posttensioned (PT) bridge structures, which represent a major component of the U.S. bridge inventory. The study provided valuable lessons for implementing and maintaining these systems in the United States.
the U.S. bridge community in developing a new standard to qualify EITs in the U.S.”
In addition, the information collected from the GBP study has assisted bridge owners and practitioners to successfully deploy two U.S. EIT demonstration projects with a third project starting in fall 2024.
There were numerous complementary benefits to this study as well. The study informed the research team of other technologies that can advance the state of practice for the design, construction, and management of PT bridges in the United States. Two of these technologies have yielded implementable results. The first is a void/corrosion sensor for PT tendons that one of the EIT demonstration projects included. The second technology is a national posttensioning training and testing center, under development at the University of Texas at Austin, under a Transportation Pooled Fund study with 12 State DOT participants and the FHWA Office of Bridges and Structures. Other technologies that FHWA is investigating include automated grout plants, in-line grout density meters, and EIT perforation meters.
The study also developed relationships with international experts who share common interests. As a result of the study, formal collaboration on advancing technologies and practices that improve the resiliency of concrete bridges began between the United States and Switzerland, and FHWA became a participating member of the International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib), facilitating continued international collaboration.
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
BIM for infrastructure is a collaborative work method for structuring, managing, and using digital data and information about transportation assets throughout their life cycle. BIM, also referred to as Better Information Management, offers benefits for all stakeholders involved in highway transportation. These include cost and resource savings, greater efficiency and shorter project life cycles, improved communications and coordination, and higher quality results. While the movement toward BIM for infrastructure has been growing In the United States, the international state of the practice is further ahead.
FHWA undertook a GBP study to learn from international experience and document evolving trends in BIM—all with a view to advance U.S. practice. The study team visited BIM-mature agencies in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Norway to discuss and examine core aspects of BIM implementation in greater depth. The BIM development efforts of the studied agencies demonstrated clear motivation, purpose, goals, and top-line support, which recognize both the costs—more importantly—the benefits of adopting BIM for infrastructure.
“The officials visited offered the study team invaluable advice related to priority activities to focus on and key international efforts to follow in this fast-developing field,” says Katherine Petros, study participant and Infrastructure Analysis and Construction team leader at FHWA.
In recognition of the need to have a national strategic approach to BIM for infrastructure implementation, FHWA engaged with stakeholders to develop the Advancing BIM for Infrastructure National Strategic Roadmap, which was published in June 2021. This report, coupled with the GBP study, created momentum for the establishment of a BIM for Infrastructure pooled fund study which provides a mechanism for stakeholders to work collaboratively to advance BIM for Infrastructure.
In addition, FHWA held a series of webinars that featured the participation of European officials from the study who shared noteworthy practices and translatable lessons learned. The interest generated from the webinars prompted FHWA to bring some of these European officials to the United States to present and interact directly with State DOTs as a part of a “BIM Week,” which brought together key AASHTO joint committees and BIM pooled fund participants.
“The ability for U.S. practitioners to directly engage with experts who have overcome similar challenges in their countries was priceless,” says Petros.
As part of the GBP outreach, FHWA also developed a video to help convey BIM concepts to State DOT senior leadership.
“It was clear from the discussions with the BIM-mature countries that understanding of BIM benefits and support from senior leaders was a big factor in the achievements they have made,” says Petros.
In addition to developing a deeper understanding of how BIM for infrastructure can be used to better deliver transportation projects, manage assets, and provide related services, the GBP study reinforced how important it is for the United States to participate in the global community as open data exchange standards are developed. Recently, FHWA became a corporate member in building SMART International, which is the international body that develops and maintains openBIM® standards. By representing U.S. interests along with AASHTO, FHWA can ensure that United States-based vendors and industry are able to compete in the global marketplace.
Looking Forward Toward New Ideas and Technologies
Over the years, GBP’s impact on the U.S. transportation community has been significant. The program has helped a broad spectrum of innovations used around the world become more widespread in the United States. Even some ideas that appeared to have no chance of adoption have evolved into practice. Ideas that never make it at least encourage the United States to reexamine and reinforce its practices.
There are still many things to be learned from other countries. This situation is true for prior topics that have momentum here but have continued to advance overseas, or entirely new topics currently being studied, such as turbo roundabouts; green public procurement; preventing bridge and tunnel strikes from oversized vehicles; and resilience for roadway design; construction; and maintenance. By accessing and adapting innovations from abroad through GBP, FHWA, U.S. States, regions, and cities are developing and implementing new ideas and technologies that will result in further improvements and savings for our Nation’s transportation system.
Hana Maier is with the FHWA HPIP and serves as the Global Benchmarking program manager. She has a master’s degree in international studies from American University.
For more information, contact Hana Maier at Hana.Maier@dot.gov.
In 2022, the current edition of the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS) regulation, 23 CFR 650 Subpart C, was enacted by FHWA. With the inclusion of risk-based inspection frequencies and more stringent program training requirements, among other key additions, this was “the first significant comprehensive update to the Bridge Standards since its inception” in 1971, states Tom Drda from FHWA’s Office of Bridges and Structures. This will help agencies improve safety and better focus resources, says Tod Kimball, with the FHWA Resource Center. “States should start seeing the benefit of efficiently using limited available resources,” he adds. However, the journey to this significant development in our Nation’s bridge safety began 17 years ago with a Global Benchmarking study on Bridge Evaluation Quality Assurance in Europe. Following the study, the team—including Drda and Kimball—began the process of working with stakeholders to implement recommendations. The study played a leading role in the formation of the (2012) MAP-21 requirement for FHWA to develop a risk-based approach for determining bridge inspection intervals. This, in turn, led to the 2014 NCHRP Report 782 and its proposed guideline for reliability-based bridge inspection practices—and ultimately—the incorporation of risk-based inspection intervals in the 2022 revision to the NBIS. Studies like this are “critical to the U.S. so we can make improvements to our standards,” Kimball notes. Sometimes it takes the study to “open everyone’s eyes” in the first place, he adds. |