No Boundaries

Transportation Maintenance Innovation

News

Ideas and Insights Exchanged at September No Boundaries Meeting

No Boundaries held its second peer exchange of 2021 from September 14-15 with an in-person meeting in Denver that included a simultaneous virtual option for remote participants.

Over two days, No Boundaries pooled fund members, their agency colleagues and guests discussed the timely issues in the field of transportation maintenance. Highlights include informative discussions about issues involved with charging electric vehicles, the use of drones in maintenance activities and federal activities related No Boundaries’ efforts.

Our Innovation Show-and-Tell, which is always one of our most popular sessions, showcased a variety of new tools and practices to make work easier and safer in the field. We capped it all off with a technical tour of the Central 70 Project to view the progress made on the reconstruction and expansion of Interstate-70 and understand the challenges of this major effort.

Additional information and the full agenda are available on our event page. No Boundaries members have full access to all of the meeting materials and presentations on this page.

Stay tuned for our next peer exchange event, coming in 2022. We’ll provide details as soon as they become available.

Image source: No Boundaries

Utah Explores the Feasibility of Alternative Fuel Maintenance Vehicles

Vehicles powered with alternative fuels offer an attractive option for a transportation agency looking to address the carbon emissions of its maintenance fleet. However, deciding which vehicles and technologies to choose can be complicated from both financial and technical perspectives.

To make the process of replacing its maintenance vehicles easier, the Utah Department of Transportation developed a mathematical model that considers the lifetime costs of the vehicles. The result show which types of vehicles should be purchased and salvaged and in what year, maximizing the total fleet costs.

Read the report: Investigating the Feasibility of Introducing Alternative Fuel Vehicles Into a Maintenance Fleet, June 2021.

Image source: Rhode Island Department of Administration

Webinar to Highlight Pavement Preservation Specifications

The Transportation Research Board will host the webinar, “Chip Seals, Microsurfacing, and Fog Seals Specifications” on Tuesday, September 14 from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Eastern.

The program will present the findings from a recent study and guide, and discussions will include how the guide can provide complete construction specifications or supplement existing pavement preservation practices.

Learn more and register.

Image source: Indiana Department of Transportation

Arizona Evaluates Options to Extend Service Life of Pavement Markings

Weather, temperature fluctuations and other climate factors can have a significant impact on the service life of a roadway’s markings, sometimes reducing the paint’s performance by years and increasing maintenance needs beyond what a transportation agency had originally budgeted.

To find ways to improve the markings’ performance, Arizona DOT investigated the successful practices of other agencies facing similar challenges in comparably diverse conditions. The research led to a variety of recommendations to help pavement markings last longer.

Read the report: Evaluation of Hardened Paint Pavement Markings, May 2020.

Image source: Arizona DOT

Road Maintenance Workers Give Positive Reviews for Driverless Attenuators

While automated truck-mounted attenuators, or ATMAs, can help keep human drivers out of high-risk road maintenance situations, little was known about how maintenance crews feel about the technology or whether workers trust this driverless vehicle to keep them safe in the field.

Surveying more than a dozen workers with varying levels of experience working alongside ATMAs, researchers for Colorado DOT found that as workers’ training and experience with the vehicles increase, so do their confidence and trust in the technology’s capabilities.

Read the report: Evaluating the Human-Automated Maintenance Vehicle Interaction for Improved Safety and Facilitating Long-Term Trust, May 2021.

Image source: Colorado DOT

Webinar Showcases Methods for Evaluating Unpaved Roads

The Transportation Research Board will host the webinar, “Evaluating and Rating Unsurfaced Roads” on Wednesday, August 25 from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Eastern.

The session aims to help agencies establish realistic budgets and cost-effective systems for maintaining unsurfaced roads, which comprise approximately a third of all roads in the U.S.

Learn more and register.

Image source: FHWA