AASHTO Journal, 09 October 2015
The Federal Highway Administration awarded more than $6.4 million in grants from its Accelerated Innovation Deployment Demonstration program to fund projects in Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota and Rhode Island, as well as the Pueblo of Acoma tribal government in New Mexico.
The grants will be used to improve safety, mobility and project delivery and will encourage similar innovations nationwide. “We are funding innovative ways to build better and safer roads through projects that will save time, money, and lives,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.
Federal Highway Administrator Greg Nadeau said: “These state and tribal governments are delivering innovative projects that will inspire others to follow their lead. Funding innovations like these in the future is doable, if Congress acts this year and delivers long-term transportation investment.”
Since its launch in February 2014, the FHWA said its demonstration program has provided more than $33 million for 45 grants to help federal, state, local and tribal government agencies speed their adoption of innovative traffic, safety and construction practices.
The program intends to invest $45 million that was provided by the 2012 MAP-21 highway bill. The agency also said it builds on the FHWA’s ongoing “Every Day Counts” initiative to reduce project delivery times.
In this latest rounds of awards, five state departments of transportation received or participated in grants of $1 million each. The complete list of seven awards is described here.
They include a grant in Arizona to complete a “geosynthetic reinforced soil-integrated bridge system” project in Mohave County.
Delaware is using $1 million to modify an existing interchange at State Road 1 and SR72 near Bear to its first use of a diverging diamond design, “an example of innovative intersection and interchange geometrics promoted by FHWA.”
The Florida DOT and Manatee County will use their grant to install adaptive signal control technology at 20 intersections on more than nine miles of State Road 70, which is an emerging strategic intermodal system highway corridor and a designated evacuation route from the County’s barrier islands in the event of a hurricane.
Michigan’s grant will help build a diverging diamond interchange for the its Interstate 96/Cascade Road project near Grand Rapids, a project that will also use funding from the FHWA’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program due to reduced congestion and improved capacity associated with that design.
In Rhode Island, a grant will help accelerate a project using construction manager/general contractor method that combines phases for design and replacement of the Park Avenue Bridge on Route 12 in Cranston.
