Poster for the TRB My35 poster session.

It’s common, even required at stages, to engage the public during the planning and development of a transportation project. But to continue that effort throughout the construction phase is rare.

TxDOT’s I-35 Mobility Initiative lets motorists and business owners along the interstate know what improvements are coming, what the impacts will be during construction, and what can be done to mitigate delay and access issues. Keeping the public informed is one way to help lessen the negative impact of the construction project as it occurs.

“Communications and Outreach for the I-35 Mobility Initiative” was the title of a poster developed for the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., Jan. 13-17. In fact, it was the only poster to highlight public outreach covering all phases of a construction project displayed at TRB, the largest gathering of transportation practitioners and researchers in the world. The poster highlights the project’s mobility coordination goals and how TxDOT is using technology and social media to keep travelers informed of lane closures and travel conditions. It also describes future plans of the project.

For the past two years and continuing through 2016, TxDOT’s Waco District has made a comprehensive effort to keep the public and businesses along I-35 in Central Texas informed about the state’s massive, $2.1 billion I-35 Expansion Project. The effort coordinates 17 separate projects spanning McLennan, Belton, Falls and Hill Counties and is evolving into a prototype for TxDOT to use in conducting construction projects. The new model involves greater outreach to the public to answer citizens’ questions, resolving mobility issues in a more timely fashion, and keeping the public informed as construction progresses.

For the I-35 Expansion Project and as reported previously in this newsletter, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) is currently deploying a first-of-its-kind traveler information system to alert commuters about construction activities and delays before and during their trips along I-35. TxDOT and TTI are getting the word out via face-to-face visits, a monthly newsletter, awareness campaigns, community meetings, electronic roadside signs, and real-time social media-based traveler updates.

“The poster we developed was unique,” TTI Assistant Agency Director Christopher Poe explains. Poe coordinates all of TTI’s efforts on the project. “It outlines the extensive campaign throughout the construction of the multiple projects along a single interstate highway. I think the work that TxDOT and TTI have done on this project will become a model for other DOTs.”

Charley Wootan Award winners Erik Sabina and Stacey Bricka pose with TTI’s Katie Turnbull. (Photo courtesy TRB)

Lead authors Stacey Bricka, Nauman Sheikh and Adam Pike were the respective winners of the Charley V. Wootan, K.B. Woods and Young Professional awards.

Established in 2004, the Charley V. Wootan Award is presented to the outstanding paper in the field of policy and organization. Wootan, who served as TTI’s director from 1976 to 1993, was active in TRB and served as its director in 1983. Bricka is the first TTI employee to receive the Wootan Award.

“This is the first paper award I’ve won and the first paper I submitted as a TTI employee,” Bricka, manager of the Mobility Management Program, says. “The fact that we won out of hundreds of submissions is a real honor, and the fact that it’s named after one of the early leaders of TTI is especially rewarding.” Bricka, who joined TTI in 2010, co-wrote Evaluation of Key Design Elements of Long-Distance Survey of Front Range Travel Counts with Erik Sabina of the Denver Regional Council of Governments.

The K. B. Woods Award, which this year was presented to Associate Research Engineer Nauman Sheikh and co-author and Program Manager Roger Bligh—both of TTI’s Roadside Safety Program—was established in 1971 for the outstanding paper published in the field of design and construction of transportation facilities. Woods was the 19th chairman of the Highway Research Board.

K.B. Woods Award winners John Holt, Nauman Sheikh, Roger Bligh pose with Katie Turnbull.

Their paper, Minimum Rail Height and Design Impact Load for Longitudinal Barriers That Meet Test Level 4 of Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware was part of a Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) research project and co-authored by John Holt of TxDOT’s Bridge Division.

“I feel blessed to receive the award,” Sheikh says. “I think it’s an acknowledgement that the research was worthy of being published and recognized. I feel very fortunate.” Sheikh is no stranger to paper awards. Since beginning his professional career at TTI as a student employee, he’s received three other TRB paper awards, including his first K.B. Woods Award in 2007. Bligh has received three other major paper awards. This is his third K.B. Woods Award.

TRB officials say a total of 4,800 papers were submitted for seven awards named for pioneers in transportation research.

Adam Pike, assistant research engineer in TTI’s Signs and Markings Program, received a 2012 Young Professional Best Paper Award after being one of four that were nominated from the Maintenance and Preservation Section. The paper was entitled Evaluation of ASTM Standard Test Method E2177: Retroreflectivity of Pavement Markings in a Condition of Wetness. This award was the first Young Professional Award conferred under the Maintenance and Preservation Section.

TRB’s Annual Meeting attracted 11,700 transportation professionals from around the world and covered all transportation modes. More than 40 sessions and workshops addressed this year’s theme: Deploying Transportation Research — Doing Things Smarter, Better, Faster.

Turnbull

Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) Executive Associate Agency Director Katie Turnbull received recognition from the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Managed Lanes Committee on May 23 for her contribution to high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) and high-occupancy toll (HOT) research, an effort spanning more than 20 years.

The citation states that “[Turnbull’s research findings] and her hands-on involvement in specific projects have provided practitioners with the tools and information needed to plan, develop and operate HOV and HOT lanes in the U.S. and abroad for the past two decades, providing the foundation for new applications of managed lanes today.”

The Managed Lanes Committee’s Excellence in Applied Research Award recognizes an individual’s contribution to advancing the practice of applied research through his or her groundbreaking and innovative ideas. Qualification for the award includes one’s research resulting in “changes and improvements in activities by implementing agencies and a heightened understanding and acceptance between operating agencies and researchers.”

“It is an honor to be acknowledged for helping advance applied research in HOV and HOT lanes,” notes Turnbull. “TTI has a history of research in this area, and it is especially gratifying to be recognized by one’s peers on a TRB committee.”

TTI Executive Associate Agency Director Katie Turnbull, Research Team Members Kay Fitzpatrick, Susan T. Chrysler, Vichika Iragavarapu, and Eun Sug Park

A prestigious “best paper” award was given to a team of Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers during the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 90th Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. The D. Grant Mickle Award for the outstanding paper in operations and maintenance was awarded to Kay Fitzpatrick, Susan T. Chrysler, Vichika Iragavarapu, and Eun Sug Park, for their paper, “Detection Distances to Crosswalk Markings: Transverse, Continental, and Bar Pairs,” published in Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2250.

“This project was a wonderful example of how colleagues with different talents can team together and generate an extremely successful product. The enthusiasm and desire to produce an exceptional project was infectious. We were all willing to improve our portion of the project so that the final product was high quality along with, of course,  being usable by the profession.

After the conclusion of the project, an engineer from another state sent an email complimenting the team regarding the usability of the findings. This email reinforced the value of the research and for us, was particularly gratifying in that our work is being appreciated and used. The results are influencing policy decisions regarding pedestrian crosswalk markings on a national level.

The process to earn the Mickle award includes multiple steps. To have several peer review committees select this paper as the best is humbling and overwhelming. We appreciate having our work recognized by our peers.” Award winning research team

The D. Grant Mickle Award was established in 1976 and may be given annually for the outstanding paper published in the field of operation, safety, and maintenance of transportation facilities. It honors the fifth executive director, who was later appointed a member of the Board’s Executive Committee and became its 33rd chairman.

Dresser Receives McKelvey Award

L-R: Greg Casto, Vice President AvAirPros; George Dresser, Retired TTI Senior Research Scientist; Peter Mandle, Aviation Group Chair from LeighFisher.

Retired Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) Senior Research Scientist George Dresser received the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) 2012 Francis X. McKelvey Award during a reception on January 23, 2012, in Washington, DC.

Dresser retired from TTI in 2004, following a 35-year career, 25 of which he served as manager of the Transportation Planning Program. Early in his career, Dresser worked with the Texas Aeronautics Commission and the Texas Department of Transportation’s Aviation Division, where he developed the methodology for state airport system planning still used today. His work dates back to the early 1970s, when he was instrumental in developing the state’s first Texas Aeronautical Facilities Plan.

As part of his work in aviation systems planning, he helped pioneer the regional planning meeting process, where airport planners visit airports in the system and hold public meetings in the airport communities to discuss the needs of local airports, their role in the community, and how stakeholders can help each other in building and developing the local, regional and state economies.

Prior to his work with airports, Dresser began his aviation career in the U.S. Navy as a naval flight officer. He retired as a captain in the U.S. Naval Reserves with 3,500 hours of flight time in the RA5C Vigilante, the SP2H Neptune, and P3A/B Orion aircraft.

In his nomination, TTI Director Dennis Christiansen noted that Dresser’s “commitment and contributions in both research and the development of professionals make him an ideal candidate to receive this award.”

A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies, created by Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers and published this week by the Transportation Research Board (TRB), offers state departments of transportation and other transportation agencies a series of practical, easy-to-use tools to continuously integrate sustainability into current agency performance measurement programs. The guidebook is now available from the TRB website, http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/166313.aspx.

Performance measurement has evolved over the decades into an effective way to quantify goals and objectives and to communicate progress toward meeting these goals. But developing these measures is often complicated.

“Working with performance measures can be a daunting task due to the large number of possible measures, extensive data required and the complexity involved in making these calculations,” noted study co-author Joe Zietsman, head of the Environment and Air Quality Division at TTI.

“Transportation planners must measure the sustainability of their networks, systems, facilities, projects and activities at the appropriate stages, scales and time frames of each,” Zietsman said.  “The guidebook provides a practical approach to identifying and applying sustainability-related performance measures, including those that may already be integrated into agency business practices.”

“This guidebook should be of immediate use to those who are familiar with their own agency’s performance measurement program but need to provide useful information to agency leadership on how effectively their organization is meeting sustainability goals,” said Lori L. Sundstrom, a senior program officer with TRB.

The guidebook incorporates real-world examples from departments of transportation (DOTs) and private industry in both the United States and Europe.

“The examples included illustrate how sustainability can be successfully added to an agency’s existing performance measurement system,” Ms. Sundstrom noted.  It describes the underlying principles of sustainability as it relates to transportation and includes possible goals that can be used to address these principles.

Sustainability is discussed in the context of many primary DOT goals such as safety, reducing congestion, preserving system assets, enhancing economic opportunity and improving air quality.

“The guidebook provides a wealth of information and resources for DOTs to use to understand the concept of sustainability and apply performance measures for their sustainable transportation goals,” Zietsman said.