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Ditches that run alongside a roadway are important for keeping excess stormwater away from the road’s surface. To ensure proper slope and drainage, routine maintenance often includes removing sediment build-up and replanting vegetation to help reduce pollution to lakes and rivers downstream.

To better understand how different types of vegetation and maintenance practices can affect how much excess water and pollutants reach these vulnerable water bodies, the Ohio Department of Transportation initiated a research study focused on cost-effective strategies for improving runoff quality.

Read the report: Treatment of Nitrogen and Phosphorus in Runoff by Vegetated and Unvegetated Ditches, December 2024.

Image source: Ohio Department of Transportation

Effectively managing excess stormwater is critical to prevent flooding and minimize safety hazards, property damage and environmental contamination.

To provide cities and counties across Minnesota with maintenance recommendations and best practices for managing stormwater runoff, the Minnesota Department of Transportation and Local Road Research Board produced the comprehensive Stormwater BMP Inspection and Maintenance Resource Guide, which updates the previous 2009 version with the new research, tools and innovative practices that have since become available.

Read the two-page research summary: Revised Stormwater Maintenance Guide Updates Common Practices and Offers Innovative Options, July 2024.

Image source: Minnesota Local Road Research Board

The January/February 2025 issue of Innovator, the bimonthly newsletter of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), kicks off the new year by recognizing the efforts of several No Boundaries member states.

The Colorado Department of Transportation was commended for its commitment to using and requiring environmental product declarations, which describe the environmental impacts of construction materials like a nutrition label does for food.  

Virginia DOT was lauded for its use of a multi-faceted variable speed limit system that monitors road conditions and automatically adjusts a road’s posted speed limits, reducing crashes in foggy conditions by more than 75 percent.

Indiana and Michigan DOTs were each awarded federal Accelerated Innovation Deployment (AID) Demonstration grants during the program’s 2023 cycle. Indiana will use the funds to pilot a work zone safety initiative that automatically detects and photographs speeding vehicles in active construction work zones. Michigan, which received grants for two projects, will incorporate innovative materials and cost-effective and structurally efficient methods to replace two aging bridges in the state.

Finally, New York State and North Dakota DOTs were both noted for their innovative projects. New York is working to reconnect communities that were severed by a viaduct in the 1950s, and to provide jobs to local workers interested in the project. North Dakota recently published a study showing the safety benefits of roundabouts and other lower-conflict intersection designs.

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

Image source: FHWA

To support the establishment and health of pollinator populations across the state, the Tennessee Department of Transportation launched a research project to increase pollinator habitats along the state’s highways.

After conducting a spatial analysis of the soils and topography along the state’s 14,000 miles of roadway, researchers identified suitable plants and developed a list of strategies for maintaining these sensitive areas.

Read the report: Beautifying Tennessee’s Roadways and Enhancing its Ecology by Strategizing Pollinator Habitat Potential, November 2024

Image source: Tennessee Department of Transportation

Mowing roadside areas can be hazardous when tall grasses obscure items such as propane cylinders, intravenous needles, chemicals, or even people.

To make the task safer for its maintenance crews, the Oregon Department of Transportation initiated a research project to develop a hazard mitigation system prototype that can warn operators when objects or people are in the mower’s path.

Read the report: Hazard Mitigation System for Tractor Mowers, 2024.

Image source: Virginia Department of Transportation

When it comes to maintaining a state’s transportation system, having data about how and when each infrastructure assets were built is critical. Key details, such as installation date and location, materials used, structure dimensions, and condition, are much more cost-effective to collect while the asset is being constructed than to go back and find after it’s already built.

To maximize efficiency and ensure that the necessary information is collected at the right time, the South Carolina DOT developed a best practices guide that notes the necessary data and the tools, technologies and strategies for collecting them.

Read the report: Best Practices on Collecting Asset Information from the Construction Stage, March 2024.  

Image source: Nebraska Department of Transportation