In an ongoing move to create advanced technology procedures in the building and maintenance of the nation’s highway system, the Federal Highway Administration has just announced the awarding of up to $7.6 million for nine individual projects.
The grants, through the Accelerated Innovation Demonstration Program, are designed to fund work in the improvement of bridge design, as well as efforts to develop more sustainable materials in highway building.
Additional programs funded under the program target the creation of safety work zones and innovative debris removal.
In a statement, Kristin White, acting administrator of the FHWA, said the agency is emphasizing working with “innovative partners to harness innovation and use technology to invest in new and proven ideas to bring our construction and project delivery programs into the future.”
White added that such projects are “helping us scale state-of-the-art technology and processes to advance safety and accelerate project delivery and construction to save time and valuable resources.”
Among the most recent round of grant recipients: the Arizona Department of Transportation, which is receiving $1 million for the creation of a data portal designed to analyze transportation systems.
In so doing, the data portal will also put in place new performance measures related to “asset degradation, resiliency, and sustainability, and pedestrian and bicycle volume.”
Another Western state project is seeing the Wyoming Department of Transportation getting $378,000 for the installation of a radar-based avalanche detection system. That system, the first of its kind in the country, will be implemented on U.S. Route 191, which slices north to south through the western half of the state.
In a state where avalanches are anything but uncommon and can often shut down major sections of highways, the new detection system, according to an FHWA press release, will improve Wyoming DOT’s “avalanche warning accuracy, mitigation measures, and decision-making processes to better protect the traveling public.”
The FHWA’s Accelerated Innovation Demonstration Program was launched in early 2014 and has to date awarded more than $103.4 million in 136 individual grants.
November 7, 2024
By Garry Boulard
Photo Courtesy of Pixabay
