Building Connections That Last
FHWA is encouraging the use of ultra-high performance concrete to join prefabricated bridge elements and improve their performance.
Public Roads
Ready for Takeoff
Unmanned aerial systems are taking flight in highway transportation. Here's a bird's-eye view at how and where the industry is using them.
Smart Contracting
Today, project delivery requires better and faster ways of doing business. One way is to use the construction manager/general contractor method of procurement. Here's how it works.
Managing New Peaks At National Parks
Visitors are flocking to the Nation's natural and cultural wonders in record numbers. How are agency leaders responding to the related traffic and impacts? Here is the story of new approaches to managing congestion in a recreational setting.
Public Roads - Winter 2018
Detroit's QLINE electric streetcar, launched in 2017, is the outcome of an unprecedented public-private partnership providing a model for regional collaboration. The project is an example of the innovative technologies, methods, and processes encouraged by FHWA to improve the Nation's transportation system. FHWA is also exploring innovations like drones and alternative contracting methods.
Driving Innovation Through State Councils
Collaborative engagement, better results: This is the concept behind the State Transportation Innovation Councils (STICs) that now work across the country. Bringing together stakeholders from public agencies, industry, and academia fuels a collaborative environment that drives the generation of ideas, promotes buy-in for those ideas, and increases opportunities for successfully identifying and deploying innovations.
Leveraging Transportation Funding with Value Capture
Transportation improvements enhance accessibility and often generate significant increases in the value of surrounding land, benefiting landowners and developers. Value capture techniques harness part of these increased property values to pay for the transportation improvements themselves or to invest in future projects.
“Given the opportunity, value capture can fill in the gap when available funding falls short of transportation improvement needs,” says Thay Bishop, senior program advisor for the Federal Highway Administration’s Center for Innovative Finance Support (CIFS).
Technical News
Along the Road is the place to look for information about current and upcoming activities, developments, trends, and items of general interest to the highway community. This information comes from U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) sources unless otherwise indicated. Your suggestions and input are welcome. Let’s meet along the road.
Improving IHSDM to Increase Roadway Safety
Safety is at the forefront of all stages of project development, from planning, analysis of alternatives, and design to construction and operations. To help practitioners improve safety in their projects, the Federal Highway Administration has developed a variety of advanced analysis methods and tools. One of these is the Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM), a suite of software analysis tools for evaluating the safety and operational effects of decisions related to geometric design.