In Ohio, there was a lack of consistency with the type and amount of equipment in each county and district. Justifications for equipment through hour meters or fueling records were…
Maintenance operations; Roadway/roadside
Temporary Base Plate for Fallen “Schedule 40/Schedule 80” Road Signs
Colorado DOT
Fallen Schedule 40/80 posts are often too heavy and dangerous for one person to put back up alone. This innovation is a base plate, which can be installed by one…
Stainless tanks and truck beds are subject to rusting. Using a muriatic acid wash to clean them saves time and money, and makes them like new.
Forklift tines pose a safety hazard to people as they can easily be tripped over if they go unnoticed. CDOT painted the tips of forklift tines with brightly colored yellow…
Workers had to enter travel lanes to retrieve heavy rumble strips and manually load them onto the truck. This innovation created a device that pulls the rumble strip onto the…
A Rumble Strip Basket Installer makes the installation, removal, and storage of 300 lb baskets a one person operation. The innovation is to build rolling legs with crank height adjustability.…
The California Department of Transportation has added high visibility gaiters for highway workers to wear to improve safety at night or when there is low visibility. The gaiters, available from…
The California Department of Transportation had pilot tested the HALO Light by Illumagear. Information can be found here: https://illumagear.com/ We distributed several devices out to the field to try while…
Maintenance operations
Maintenance Zone Enhanced Enforcement Program (MAZEEP)
California Department of Transportation
By using an Inter Agency Agreement, Caltrans coordinates with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to utilize officers on site at highway maintenance projects. MAZEEP is used to reduce the potential…
Tack is an asphalt mixture that promotes bonding between old, weathered roadway surfaces and new pavement; it also can be useful in filling potholes. However, mixing, transporting, and applying tack…
In Wisconsin, county highway departments maintain county and State road systems, including interstates. Highway staff often must set up and remove temporary traffic controls on high-speed, multi-lane roads where the…
Raising and lowering heavy truck tailgates are essential daily duties for many employees in the Town of Ghent Highway Department. Crews there created a lift system to help workers regardless…
The Town of Hamburg has a population of approximately 60,000 people, as well as 320 lane-miles of roadways. The Hamburg Highway Department regularly receives a high volume of calls and…
To correctly position temporary road markings for chip seals, Otter Tail Minnesota County highway crew members had to bend over repeatedly and get on and off of a pickup truck’s…
In past winters, Freeborn County Highway Department drivers struggled with scraping and clearing ice from their truck’s windows. Often, drivers need to climb on their tires to clean the windows,…
For years, Kenton County relied on an old, overused fire truck from its Emergency Management department to clean surfaces and structures in a local park located on a flood plain.…
The Hopper is used to apply stone along roadway shoulders. It is designed with sloped sides, a Teflon liner, and a vibrator to ensure material flows down the chute and…
The remote-controlled Knuckle Boom Crane was developed by the Ohio Department of Transportation DOT to help maintenance crews safely and efficiently remove the debris that accumulates around bridge piers in…
This tool allows a single maintenance crew member to quickly and easily level a tilted sign within seconds. With one end of the tool on the ground and the other…
Clearing roadway debris can be dangerous for maintenance workers. This innovative truck attachment was designed to keep workers safe while saving time and money by quickly clearing roadway hazards without…
This rack is designed to fit into the bed of a single-axel dump truck. It can quickly be installed or removed as needed, giving road maintenance workers the flexibility to…
Truck-Weight Education Program. Established in 2001, institutionalized in 2007, program enhancements continue in 2021. Includes educational opportunities toward truck manufacturers, haulers, road authorities & enforcement.
ODOT's safety program reviewed corridors to find locations with higher rates of wrong-way crashes and is piloting the TraffiCalm system on IR-71 to determine the effectiveness of the system in…
The Solar Gore Point Warning Flasher provides a strong visual indication to motorists of an approaching gore point. By utilizing the flashing beacons motorists are alerted of an upcoming hazard…
Removing or raising T-posts can be a time consuming and sometimes labor intensive project. Generally a chain and a loader can be used to do this but can also be…
The purpose of the magnet is to remove nails and other metal objects from the roadway and shoulders. Magneto is designed to remain on the vehicle for easy use. Simply…
Development of the Service form using ODOT's Service Now application. The District 08 Garage has been working with our Columbus IT folks to create a new electronic service request form…
In order to simplify scheduling and maximize use, a system was put in place for reserving both pool cars and heavy equipment, utilizing a calendar system. Built on our existing…
Equipment; Roadway/roadside
Automated Flagger Assistance Devices
California Department of Transportation
Automated flagger assistance devices (AFADs) are mechanically operated temporary traffic control devices that function under the same operational principles as traditional flagging. Maintenance staff follow Caltrans Standard Plan T13 for…
Modified mowing ahead sign on follow vehicle to make it more visible. The idea came from a monthly talk with the employees called Value my Ideas. The need was to…
We sent two auto-mechanics to Highland County to go over their trucks and loaders before they had their snow & ice inspection. It was a process that lasted about 5…
We have been getting more under tailgate spreaders for our dump trucks. After getting several of these in, we realized that we did not have an adequate or proper place…
This is an attachment for a mini excavator that removes the berm along guardrail sections. This attachment has been utilized for approximately one year. To reduce traffic congestion and increase…
ODOT District 8 developed an inner communication program called the Roadshow. At the Roadshow we take a representatives from the Planning and Engineering Departments to visit the workforces in our…
The Diagnostic Cart provides a safe, convenient place to store our laptops, diagnostic tools and manuals for the various vehicles and equipment we work on. There is room to grow…
ODOT uses a Quality of Work Life Survey every year to gage how we are doing with our employees. It is an extensive survey that gets analyzed to show management…
Flagger safety is an important issue in work zones due to the proximity of the flagger to traffic. Some strategies for improving flagger safety include slowing down approaching vehicles or…
Recent strides in technology have opened the doors for using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, sometimes called drones) at Michigan DOT. An extensive study on the viability of UAVs instrumented with…
Sign refurbishing allows us to reuse aluminium signs again and again, as long as the substrate is not damaged. This process saves is money and reduces the amount of scrap…
Safely and cost effectively trimming tree limbs over the roadway and shoulders. It was confirmed that they are not available commercially, looked into possible Safety issues, and developed clear scope…
MoDOT wanted to increase safety for workers and motorists, by reducing collision incidents, when employees are working on the roadway in moving traffic. MoDOT mounted six white LED Panic Lights…
Maintenance Leadership Academy (MLA) is a training class that is designed to develop leadership skills among supervisory classifications of the Division of Maintenance in Caltrans. MLA was developed through a…
The Advanced Control System (ACS) installed on the MoDOT trucks gives us the flexibility of using this system for herbicide applications. The ACS can be set up to run in…
MoDOT wanted a way to remove debris from the roadway that was safer for both motorists and highway workers, while also avoiding lane closures. The device collects all debris from…
MoDOT staff was looking for a way to apply contrast markings in less time, while increasing safety and saving money. An existing striper paint gun carriage was modified to place…
PennDOT modified a tandem axle dump truck to provide a safer more useable design. Improvements include a fixed cab shield which protects against material spillage and gives an improved mounting…
In 2011, the Ohio Department of Transportation began a grass roots effort to try new equipment funded by central funding without impacting the district budget. The goal was to ensure…
The Concrete Deck Repair Trailer is used to perform onsite bridge deck repairs. Crew identified a way to improve efficiency by designing and building a self-contained trailer for bridge deck…
CalTrans strives to provide roadside design solutions to reduce the need for recurring maintenance activities such as herbicide application, pruning and mowing. To assist with this effort, a new standard…
A innovative maintenance technician devised a truck-mounted lifting device to assist crews when they remove traffic barrels from the roadway. Before the truck-mounted lifting device, workers would have to set…
Iowa DOT measured reflectivity on Interstate and higher volume 4-lane routes, recording average reflectivity on each tenth-mile section. They used the spring readings to prioritize their paint program and the…
Georgia's highways are littered with discarded scraps from blown-out tires and tires dumped illegally due to people trying to avoid paying the tire disposal fee. As part of a department-wide…
The Iowa DOT has been using concrete overlays on its bridge decks since the 1970s. Bridge deck overlays typically last 15-20 years before delamination at the bond interface requires repairs…