News

Highway maintenance workers – and all road users – can be seriously injured or killed when drivers fail to follow instructions around work zones.

Having detailed information about when and where incidents occur can be valuable for making changes that keep everyone safe. To make it easier for workers to report when a vehicle enters a work zone, the Minnesota Department of Transportation developed a new mobile phone app that can be used for onsite reporting and improving safety for all of the state’s work zones in the future.

Read the Research Summary: A Mobile App to Report Driver Intrusions into Work Zones, January 2024.

Image source: Minnesota Department of Transportation

Extremely cold temperatures, freeze-thaw cycles and other conditions can make repairing and maintaining pavements during the winter season a challenge.

A new synthesis report from the National Cooperative Highway Research (NCHRP) documents the practices states use during the winter months to keep their roads operational.

Forty states contributed to the report, including most No Boundaries member states. The practices of both the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Idaho Transportation Department were even included as case studies.

Read the report: Wintertime Pavement Maintenance Practices, April 2024.

Image source: Idaho Transportation Department

In honor of National Work Zone Awareness Week, which will take place next week from April 15-19, we’ve rounded up a few of the innovative solutions that transportation agencies around the country have used to make working in and around traffic less hazardous for their highway maintenance workers.

• iCone. This technology sendswork zone data directly to Waze navigation systems to help keep drivers and maintenance workers in North Dakota’s work zones safer. Learn more.
• Hi-Viz Gaiters. The California Department of Transportation has added high visibility gaiters for highway workers to wear to improve safety at night or when visibility is low. Learn more.
• Barrel Truck Protection. Wisconsin’s Marathon County Highway Department turned an old sign truck into a new tool that can lift and load barrels automatically. Learn more.
• Automated Flagger Assistance Device. Missouri DOT field tested this device on a two-lane work zone and found that drivers behaved better than with a traditional flagger. Learn more.

Share your agency’s innovative products and ideas and explore others’ solutions on No Boundaries’ searchable Innovations Database.  

State transportation agencies use transportation asset management plans to help manage and invest in the state’s infrastructure. The costs associated with future maintenance work, however, can be hard to predict.

To help maintenance teams identify and overcome these challenges, the Transportation Research Board will sponsor a webinar on April 23 from 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Eastern.

View details about this webinar, and sign into MyTRB.org to register.

Image source: Indiana Department of Transportation

To encourage innovations that can help get a job done faster, better and more cost-effectively, many state transportation agencies have developed innovation programs that highlight the best and brightest ideas brought forward by agency staff.

These programs can take many forms, often incorporating formal and informal elements such as in-person events to showcase innovative tools and technologies, competitions to increase participation, and a variety of incentives to encourage submissions from staff.

No Boundaries has updated its list of states’ innovation programs. To add your state’s program to this list, please contact No Boundaries.

Image source: South Carolina DOT

The March/April 2024 issue of Innovator, the bimonthly newsletter of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), recognized the efforts of a number of No Boundaries member states.

Innovative solutions in Louisiana, California and Virginia were honored in 2023 by the Roadway Safety Foundation. The Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development used crash data to identify crash-prone locations and installed targeted mitigation strategies that reduced risks by 50 percent or more. The California Department of Transportation piloted a program to install proven safety countermeasures more quickly than through traditional funding mechanisms. Finally, the Virginia Department of Transportation (DOT) used a systemic analysis to proactively identify factors that contribute to crashes and implement countermeasures at high-risk sites.

Other notable state innovations in this issue include Michigan DOT’s system of adaptive signal control technologies that allows the agency to monitor traffic and make adjustments as needed, Mississippi DOT’s new highway roundabout that will be the first of its kind in the state, and Ohio DOT’s use of variable speed limits that will enable traffic management staff to make quick decisions in response to adverse weather conditions.

Sign up to get the next issue of Innovator delivered to your inbox.