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AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY

AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS

COMMITTEE CORRESPONDENCE

June 18, 2003

Address Reply to

Dwight A. Horne, Secretary

AASHTO Subcommittee on Design

Federal Highway Administration, HIPA-1

400 7th Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20590

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Subject:Subcommittee on Design National Meeting

Boston, Massachusetts – June 11-13, 2003

Meeting Minutes

Members

AASHTO Subcommittee on Design

Region I and the Massachusetts Highway Department (MassHighway) hosted the 2003 annual meeting of the AASHTO Subcommittee on Design (SCOD) in Boston, Massachusetts on June 11-13. The Executive Council met separately on Tuesday evening, June 10. During this first face-to-face meeting, the Executive Council discussed general business and the agenda and format of the annual meeting.

Opening General Session – Wednesday morning

Susan Martinovich (Nevada), SCOD Vice-Chair, opened the meeting and welcomed the attendees (approximately 110 registered). Members were present from thirty-eight states. Also represented were Puerto Rico, the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Province of Ontario, and several consultants and industry representatives.

John Cogliano, Commissioner MassHighway, welcomed the attendees to Massachusetts and served as moderator of the opening general session.

Stanley Gee, Massachusetts Division Administrator – FHWA, welcomed the attendees to Massachusetts and provided a few remarks about the Central Artery Tunnel Project milestones and the cost recovery effort.

John Blundo, Deputy Chief Engineer – MassHighway, made a presentation on design initiatives underway by MassHighway. These design initiatives included bridge project streamlining, landscape restoration, non-motorized transportation and trails, recycling, and roadway design flexibility.

Susan Martinovich performed the Roll Call and provided an overview of the meeting format.

Dwight Horne (FHWA), SCOD Secretary, provided a few comments from FHWA. The comments included brief remarks about the Administration’s reauthorization proposal that was made public by USDOT Secretary Norman Mineta on May 14 and submitted to the Congress.

James Codell (Kentucky), AASHTO President, provided an AASHTO perspective on emphasis areas (reauthorization, safety, and environment). He encouraged quick completion of the Context Sensitive Design/Context Sensitive Solution “bridging document.”

Business Meeting

Susan Martinovich presided over the business meeting that included:

Susan Martinovich

Updated SCOD Operating Guidelines

  • Presented for consideration by the Members
  • Discussion and comments during Closing Business portion of this meeting

Scott Battles (FHWA)

Status of the Work Zone Safety and Mobility Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

  • Issued May 7, 2003
  • Comments due September 4, 2003, to the docket

Susan Martinovich

Highlights from recent meetings

  • Addressed the agenda items
  • Need lead states for NCHRP 17-18 Guidelines
  • Need one SCOD volunteer for a five member joint task force on work zones
  • Need four SCOD volunteers for an eight member joint task force on the pedestrian guide

Susan Martinovich

Direction for Regional Business Meetings

  • Addressed the agenda items
  • Requested a discussion of the relationship of SCOD and its task forces

Presentations

John McDonnell (MassHighway)

Route 3 Widening Design-Build Project

  • 21 mile project
  • 42 month completion as design build project versus scheduled 12 year delivery for conventional pay-as-you-go segmental projects
  • lessons learned

Steve Burrington (MassHighway)

Implementation of Massachusetts’ CSD mandate

  • Communities First initiative
  • Highway Design Manual to be revised by late 2003

David Phaneuf (MassHighway)

Incorporating Accessibility into Design

  • Design and construction must talk to each other
  • Build it correct or remove it

Dennis Cannon (US Access Board)

Incorporating Accessibility into Design

  • Discussed the draft ADA guidelines

Regional Meetings – Wednesday Afternoon

  • Conducted by the Regional Chairs

Concurrent Roundtables

  • Two sessions
  • Eight total topics
  • Summaries of each roundtable will be provided to Members by either e-mail or a web site

Morning Presentations – Thursday Morning

Mike Griffith (FHWA)

Safety Analysis Software and the Highway Safety Manual

  • Highway Safety Manual due 2007
  • Interactive Highway Safety Design Module released January 2003
  • Training course available
  • Safety Analyst due 2006
  • Will be Part IV of the Highway Safety Manual
  • Helps select cost effective projects
  • Training will be available

Art Eisdorfer (New Jersey)

The States’ Use of Design Exceptions

  • NCHRP Synthesis Topic 33-01 due July 2003
  • Includes criteria, identification of problems, improvements, conclusions, and supplemental state guidance (37 items beyond the 13 criteria items in FHWA guidance)

Kris Hoellen (AASHTO)

AASHTO’s Center for Environmental Excellence

  • Capacity building of state DOTs
  • Information sharing, training, and technical assistance

Task Force Reports

Susan Martinovich moderator

  • Aesthetic Design – Jim McDonnell (AASHTO)
  • Bridging document draft due for balloting August 2003
  • Task force to be sunset or made inactive
  • Cost Estimating – Jim McDonnell
  • Forming membership
  • First meeting scheduled for Septmeber 2003
  • Design Build – Brian Blanchard (Florida)
  • Web site
  • Practices guide
  • Environmental Design – Jim McDonnell
  • Visualization document
  • Noise abatement guide review
  • Better Than Before video by New York State DOT
  • Geometric Design – Bill Prosser (FHWA)
  • Green Book superelevation
  • Transportation glossary
  • Transit guide review
  • Interstate standards
  • Utility policies and guides
  • Highway Lighting – Jim McDonnell
  • Working on lighting guide
  • Current guide published in 1984
  • Hydrology and Hydraulics – Kirk McClelland (Maryland)
  • Ballot of guidelines and manual due 2003
  • Nonmotorized Transportation – Susan Martinovich
  • Held one meeting
  • Need a new Chair
  • Pavements – David Jones (Kentucky)
  • Preconstruction Engineering Management – Robert Pratt (South Carolina)
  • Need some vacancies filled
  • Public Transportation Facilities Design – Jim McDonnell
  • HOV facilities needs updating
  • Park and ride lots guide needs updating
  • Roadside Safety – Kent Israel (Louisiana)
  • Value Engineering – Ken Smith (Washington)

Relationship between SCOD and its Task Forces

Susan Martinovich

  • Led the discussion
  • Assignment of work tasks – role of SCOD
  • Meeting times and frequency – role of SCOD
  • Task force membership – does SCOD need representation on task forces
  • Sense of disconnect between SCOD and its task forces
  • 34 of the 103 SCOD Members are on SCOD task forces
  • 104 SCOD task force members are not members of SCOD
  • some task forces have no SCOD members on them
  • task force - accountability to SCOD
  • SCOD - oversight of task forces
  • Region Chairs gave feedback on topic from discussion during Region Meetings
  • Susan Martinovich and Jim McDonnell to distill discussion and draft discussion points for Friday’s Closing Business session

Technical Tour – Thursday Afternoon

The “Big Dig” project with Massachusetts Turnpike Authority

Awards Banquet – Thursday Evening

Awards Recipients

  • Region 1, Art Eisdorfer (New Jersey)
  • Region 2, Don Arkle (Alabama)
  • Region 3, Larry Sutherland (Ohio)
  • Region 4, Paul Bercich (Wyoming)
  • National, Jim Byrnes (Connecticut)

Presentations

Jim Byrnes moderator

Phil Bell (New York)

Using Visualization in Project Development

  • Trends and challenges
  • Visual communication
  • Static
  • Dynamic

Susan Martinovich

Nevada’s Landscape Master Plan

  • Nevada state highway system
  • Involvement with locals

Brian Blanchard

CSD in Florida

  • Projects completed and underway
  • Its more than just a road philosophy

Dean Schreiber (Pennsylvania)

AASHTO Technology Implementation Group (TIG)

  • Rapid implementation technologies
  • High pay-off technologies

Closing Business

Susan Martinovich moderator

  • SCOD Operating Guidelines discussion
  • Balloting to be accomplished within the next few weeks via mail or e-mail
  • The relationship of SCOD and its task forces was the major topic
  • Byrnes, Martinovich, McDonnell, and Horne to distill and offer a position in the operating guidelines
  • The selection of Region Chairs was the second major topic
  • Preference seems to be for one year rotation as Chair
  • Chair and Vice-Chair on SCOD Executive Council
  • Other topics were:
  • Change from task Forces to Technical Committees
  • Number and length of Technical Committee meetings per year
  • Task Force work plans to Executive Council before annual meeting
  • Research proposals – part of Work Plans or some separate process
  • Technical Committee Chairs – do they need to be SCOD member?
  • Technical Committee Chairs – TC recommends; SCOD Chair validates
  • Subcommittee membership on TC’s or a liaison member
  • Additional time for Regional meetings at the Annual meeting
  • No proposed resolutions from the Regions
  • As noted in the Opening Business Meeting, four SCOD volunteers are needed for an eight member joint task force on the pedestrian guide
  • The CSD/CSS “Bridging Document” is to be balloted within SCOD in August 2003 with balloting within SCOH to follow
  • Direction from SCOD to its task forces on future years’ work plans will be provided in the SCOD Operating Guidelines
  • The meeting format was discussed and a strawman format will be developed to reflect the comments
  • Old business
  • AASHTO will produce CDs of historic documents; Member DOTs will get one complimentary copy
  • Funding of travel to SCOD or TC meetings – discussion to continue.

Jim Byrnes adjourned the 2003 SCOD annual meeting at 11:22 a.m. Jim reminded the Members that reducing the fatality rate is important to AASHTO, SCOH, and SCOD. Jim requested that Member DOTs review policies and procedures for changes that can be made to assist with the reduction of the fatality rate.

The 2004 SCOD annual meeting will be held during the second week of June in Utah. This meeting will be held with the Standing Committee on Environment. The 2005 SCOD annual meeting will be held in June in Chicago, Illinois in conjunction with the TRB Third Symposium. Region II will host the 2006 SCOD annual meeting.

cc:Jim Byrnes, Chairman

Susan Martinovich, Vice-Chairman

Regional Steering Committee Members

Ken Kobetsky, AASHTO Headquarters

Jim McDonnell, AASHTO Headquarters