Meeting Notes
RAC Leadership Teleconference
1:30 – 3:30 Eastern time,November 10, 2011
Participants: Jeff Brown, Michael Bonini, Camille Crichton-Sumners,Anne Ellis, Chris Hedges, Chris Jenks,John Moulden, Tommy Nantung, Leni Oman, Steve Pepin, Sue Sillick, Amy Schutzbach, Jerry DiMaggio, Jim McMinimee, Mark Morvant (for Skip Paul).
Decisions and action items are underscored.
1:30 Role call
Jeff Brown called the meeting to order and all participants were identified.
A motion (ELLIS/NANTUNG) to approve the previous meeting notes was approved.
1:35 Old Business
AASHTO – No Report
TRB Report - Chris Jenks
Registration is now open for the 2012 TRB annual meeting and the interactive program is available online. A poster session on high value research sponsored by RAC will take place on Monday, January 23 beginning at 8:30 am. 16 states will be participating in the session.
TRB state representatives can receive funding to attend one TRB meeting per year, either the annual or midyear meetings. About 8 or 9 TRB state reps have chosen the TRB annual meeting as their reimbursed trip.
The governing board for TCRP met two weeks ago and selected their FY2012 program; the announcement of projects and panel member solicitation has been sent to RAC members. The Friday of TRB week is the deadline for panel nominations.
ACRP has started panel meetings for about 24 FY2012 projects.
The Hazardous Materials governing board meets on December 1st to select new projects; an announcement and panel solicitation will follow.
New projects in the FY2012 Freight CRP will be selected in February.
In the NCHRP, most first panel meetings for FY2012 projects have now been completed and RFPs are being posted. FY2013 problem statements are under review by staff and projects will be selected at the March 2012 SCOR meeting.
Publications since the last conference call include:
NCHRP Report 701: Proposed Specifications for LRFD Soil-Nailing Design and Construction (
NCHRP Report 706: Uses of Risk Management and Data Management to Support Target-Setting for Performance-Based Resource Allocation by Transportation Agencies (
NCHRP Synthesis 422: Trade-Off Considerations in Highway Geometric Design (
NCHRP Research Results Digest 362: Review of Mexican Experience with the Regulation of Large Commercial Motor Vehicles (
NCHRP Web-Only Document 181: Evaluation of Bridge-Scour Research: Abutment and Contraction Scour Processes and Prediction (
ACRP Report 54: Resource Manual for Airport In-Terminal Concessions (
ACRP Synthesis 25: Strategies for Reuse of Underutilized or Vacant Airport Facilities (
ACRP Synthesis 28: Investigating Safety Impacts of Energy Technologies on Airports and Aviation (
TCRP Report 148: Practical Resources for Recruiting Minorities for Chief Executive Officers at Public Transportation Agencies (URL Available Shortly)
TCRP Synthesis 92: Transit Asset Condition Reporting (
NCFRP Report 12: Framework and Tools for Estimating Benefits of Specific Freight Network Investments (URL Available Shortly)
RITA - No Report
FHWA Report
John Moulden introduced Leslie Wright, a new FHWA employee who will be taking over the responsibilities of Ivy Harris. Jeff Brown welcomed Leslie on behalf of RAC.
Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez has released a solicitation for the FY 2012 Discretionary Grants Program (see attachment). This solicitation includes Highways for LIFE ($9.5M) and Innovative Bridge Research and Deployment (up to $4.2M). Applications are due by January 6.
There have been a few problems with the RSS feed announced earlier this week by Jack Jernigan. These problems have been corrected and an updated link has been distributed. Anyone still having problems should contact John Moulden or Jack Jernigan.
An FHWA Fact Sheet has been issued from the Advanced Exploratory Research Program dealing with the use of nanotechnology as a steel corrosion repair technology
FHWA has issued an update to the Interactive Highway Design Manual. New features inVersion 7.0 include a redesigned calibration utility for its crash prediction module and a new user interface.
Leni Oman asked if John could provide any clarifying information about MAP-21 - the Senate's proposed surface transportation bill. John could not add to what has been publically distributed; however, the bill has to be approved by several committees and is subject to change.
Chris Jenks noted that in the proposed bill, funding for SHRP 2 implementation is taken from SP&R funds, contrary to AASHTO's recommendation. Jack Basso at AASHTO is confident that this can be resolved by moving SHRP 2 implementation to a Title 1 budget item. The 2% SP&R formula is retained, but the overall value is not clear. Neither the international program norSTEP programs are mentioned in MAP-21. However, this does not mean the programs will be eliminated; they could be funded from the FHWA discretionary budget. Leni asked if the SCOR reauthorization task force would be reconvened; it is not known whether AASHTO would request any input from the Task Force, but Jeff Brown will discuss with Sandra Larson.
SHRP 2 - Jerry Dimaggio and Jim McMinimee
1,200 instrumented vehicles are now on the roadfor the naturalistic driving study and roadway data collection has begun.
Anaccelerated bridge demonstration project took place successfully in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The bridge replacement was completed in 14 days, and no special contractors or equipment was needed or used. A video recording of the project will be released at the TRB annual meeting. Some additional funding from SHRP 2 and FHWA’sHighways for Life program was used to cover additional construction costs.
SHRP 2,FHWA, and AASHTO are beginning to prioritize pre-implementation activities for more than 100+ products. The states will be asked to help with demonstration projects on high priority products. The SHRP 2 implementation steering group is now working on a protocol or process to identify the right products for the demonstrations. 32 IT-related products will be coming out of SHRP 2, comprising databases, application software, and web tools. Implementation staff are trying to develop a consistent process for a smooth transition of these products to third parties upon completion of SHRP 2. A number of early products are coming out of the renewal area, and some of these appear to be very promising.
The AASHTO TIG (the AASHTO Technology Implementation Group) hasagreed to pilot three SHRP 2 products through a lead-state process:
- Innovative Bridge Design for Rapid Renewal (R04)
- Railroad –DOT Institutional Mitigation Strategies (R16)
- Preservation Approaches for High Traffic- Volume Roadways (R26)
These activities will start this spring and be active for 18 months.
Jeff Brown: should RAC regional chairs seek volunteers for the SHRP 2 demonstration projects? Jim: SHRP 2 did a survey to identify potential volunteers some time ago, but is still finalizing the process for soliciting demo project participants and disbursement of funds. He will be in a better position to share information after the next SHRP 2 oversight meeting on December 1-2.
At the request of the SHRP2 oversight committee, an effort began one year ago to organize a marketing and communication group. The U.S. Volpe Center is the prime subcontractor for this effort.
2:00New Business
Summer 2012 RAC/TRB meeting, Burlington, VT- July 22-26, 2012
The organizing group in Region 1 is holding monthly planning conference calls. Tourist information on Vermont has been posted on the RAC-SCOR web page. A draft agenda has been distributed for review and comment (see attached). Jennifer Fitch is changing positions in Vermont; she hopes to attend the meeting but someone else in Vermont will be named to assist with conference planning.
Summer 2013 RAC/TRB meeting
New Orleans and Baton Rouge are the two cities in contention to host the event. Last week Skip Paul distributed a comparison of the two cities. Staff costs for the Louisiana DOT would be lower if the meeting was held in Baton Rouge. Mark Morvant noted that there is just one hotel in the Baton Rouge downtown area (the Hilton) that is capable of hosting the meeting. If the Hilton is not available or will not offer government per diem rates, then there are two other hotels that could host the event; however, these are outside the downtown area. Camille: are there restaurants suitable for group dinnersin Baton Rouge? Mark: there are plenty of restaurants near the Hilton, but it could be problematic at the more remote location to find restaurants within walking distance. If funds are available, the DOT could bus people to another location. Flight connections a little more complicated to Baton Rouge, although the costs are similar. Leni recalled a survey of RAC members some time ago in which RAC members expressed a preference to minimize the number of connections needed.
Jeff Brown: do TRB staff prefer one location over the other? Chris Jenks: he has not spoken to Mark Norman about it, but believes that Baton Rouge makes more sense because of the convenience it provides to local DOT staff. The Officers were not prepared to make a final decision on the location; Mark Morvant will send an RFP to hotels in both cities for review by the RAC Officers.
Task Force Updates:
Administration (Steve Pepin):
A review of task force reporting requirements and formats is ongoing.
Dale Peabody and Skip Paul are working with SCOH to review the role of NCHRP in updating AASHTO manuals; $10,000 from the NCHRP 20-07 program has been obtained for consulting support.
Skip Paul has collected and posted 33 DOT research fact sheets. Jeff Brown asked regional chairs to remind the remaining states would have not yet contributed.
Chris Hedges has developed a one-page chart depicting the relationships between RAC, SCOR, FHWA, and others. The chart is under review by task force members.
Chris Hedges has developed an outline for a SCOR new member guide. He will present the outline at the December SCOR meeting for discussion.
Steve and Skip are reviewing the SCOR strategic plan for any remaining tasks that can be assigned to the RAC task forces.
Barnie Jones has developed a white paper on workforce development issues among research staff; a draft should be available for review before the next conference call.
At the task force’s request, the regions are evaluating whether revisions are needed to their regional RAC guidelines.
Program management and quality – Tommy Nantung.
The task forcemet last on September 28th.
A session at the TRB 2012 annual meeting is being planned by Mike Bonini and Crawford Jencks on the implementation of NCHRP research. The session will take place from 3:45 – 5:30 pm on Tuesday, January 24 in the Hilton.
Tommy Nantung is taking the lead on an activity to assess coordination of RAC website development activities. Tommy asked the RAC Officers to encourage their members to evaluate the new pooled fund website.
The task force is working helping to refine the Research Performance Measures (RPM) system developed in NCHRP 20-63(b). A revised system should be ready for review by the panel in about two weeks; the link for the test site will be distributed to RAC members to participate in its evaluation. As a pilot test, one state from each region will be asked to submit projects for the annual high-value research compilation via RPM. A presentation on the 20-63(b) project will be on the agenda for the RAC national meeting on July 26th.
A webinar to demonstrate the features of RPPM is still in the planning stages.
Amy Schutzbach is working with the TKN task force on issues regarding the distribution of state research reports.
David Jared is working with John Moulden on state DOT reporting requirements under the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act
Transportation Knowledge Networks – Leni Oman.
The task force has decided to withdraw an NCHRP problem statement on e-reader formats for publishing research reports.
A video on TKNs is under development to help promote what TKNs are, their value and benefits, and how to participate.
The task force is reviewing the distribution of research reports from two perspectives: report repositories and report formats. There are no comprehensive repositories of transportation research publications at this time. The task force is working with PQ&M on report format guidelines. In a related activity, TKN is investigating the quality of research reports in conjunction withthe RAC-CUTC Liaison Group. Marty Pietrucha, Shashi Nambisan, Steve Pepin, and Leni have developed a draft paper on the issue.
Finally, TKN is in the early stages of planning for a webinar on data management.
RAC-CUTC Liaison Group:
The next conference call is scheduled for November 14. The agenda for a session at the TRB annual meeting has been distributed (see attached); it will take place January 22, 2012 from 5:00 – 6:00 pm before the RAC meeting. RCLG plans to finalize the brochure on the “Top 10 characteristics of successful RAC-UTC partnerships” in time for the TRB annual meeting.
Next meeting:
The next conference call is scheduled for Thursday, December 8, 2011, 1:30 – 3:00 pm Eastern Time.
The next RAC meeting will take place on January 22 RAC meeting from 6:30 – 9:30 pm during the TRB annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
Adjournment
RAC Officers Meeting Notes November 10, 2011Page 1