Summary Report: Interim Planning for a Future Strategic Highway Research Program (F-SHRP) (2003)

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Interim Planning for a Future Strategic Highway Research Program D-1 APPENDIX D BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF CAPACITY PROJECTS Topic 4–1: Fundamental Knowledge This topic focuses on understanding transportation user characteristics, system performance, and fundamental relationships among transportation systems, human behavior, the natural environment, the economy, land use, and our communities in order to develop tools and decision-making approaches consistent with the conceptual framework for transportation decision making. Given the broad gaps in fundamental knowledge, research under this topic has been selected and prioritized to inform new modeling and forecasting tools and develop improved decision making and project delivery approaches. Project 4–1.1: Improving Our Understanding of Highway Users and the Factors Affecting Travel Demand This project will fill information gaps on critical relationships defining the demand for travel so that travel demand models can be further improved to reflect the systemwide effects of highway capacity expansion decisions. The purpose of this project is to build on work being conducted in other programs to increase our fundamental understanding of highway users and the factors affecting the demand for highway travel. The goal is to improve our ability to develop accurate forecasts based on improved data and analysis methods. In this manner, this project should be forward looking and reviews, analysis, and assessments should be placed in the context of expected changes in the level and nature of future economic and social structures. Project 4–1.2: Improving Our Understanding of Transportation System Performance This project will develop a methodology for creating performance measurement frameworks that reflect economic, mobility, accessibility, safety, environmental, community, and social considerations for use in integrated systems planning and project development. The focus of this project is on creating the frameworks to support system performance measurement, recognizing that individual agencies must tailor individual measures to best meet their needs, and acknowledging that a one-size-fits-all approach is not appropriate. Project 4–1.3: Understanding the Contribution of Operations, Technology, and Design to Meeting Highway Capacity Needs This project will develop approaches for redefining highway capacity given improvements in operations, vehicle technology, context-sensitive design, and other developments, so that highway capacity projects reflect transportation- as-a-system considerations. This project focuses on a retrospective and prospective review of supply-oriented capacity enhancement measures to ensure that as new highway projects are planned and designed, the full range of capacity enhancement measures available to practitioners is considered and incorporated. Project 4–1.4: Improving Our Understanding of Approaches to Integrate Watershed and Habitat Fragmentation Considerations into Transportation Planning and Development, with an Emphasis on Highways This project will develop approaches for integrating watershed and habitat fragmentation considerations into transportation planning and development with a focus on highways, so that environmental stewardship, enhancement, and impact mitigation can be improved at the systems level. This project will build on research grounded in environmental science to identify and evaluate approaches for improving water quality and watershed performance and to reduce habitat fragmentation and its effects on wildlife health and population. It will also explore the tradeoffs associated with these approaches and applicability in different environmental contexts. A necessary component of this research will be exploration of measures to reduce the secondary and cumulative impacts of transportation on wetlands, wildlife, and ecosystems. Project 4–1.5: Improving Our Understanding of Interactions between Transportation Capacity and Economic Systems This project will enable better understanding of the contribution of transportation, with an emphasis on highway capacity improvements, to the economic performance of regions and develop methodologies for capturing the regional economic effects of highway capacity projects. In particular, this project will focus on methods and tools for: (1). isolating distributive versus generative economic effects arising from improvements to a region’s highway system, and (2). better representing the contribution of highway improvements—vis à vis other determinants (such as labor costs)—to a

region’s economic performance, both of which are crucial to a systems-oriented approach to transportation planning and project development. Project 4–1.6: Improving Our Understanding of the Relationship between Highway Capacity Projects and Land Use Patterns This project will enable better understanding of the secondary effects of highway capacity expansion on development patterns and develop approaches for shaping and controlling these effects so that transportation and land use decisions can be coordinated. Although there has been substantial research on transportation–land use relationships and a great increase in the understanding of how land use patterns and urban form affect the demand for transportation, there remains a more limited understanding of the other side of the land use–transportation relationship: how transportation capacity influences development patterns. This research project seeks to develop a greater understanding of the extent to which transportation capacity influences development decisions, and to identify practical approaches for coordinating land use and transportation to meet community goals. Topic 4–2: Data and Tools Highway capacity decision making and project delivery should be informed by data and tools that effectively characterize user behavior and system performance and predict systemwide impacts of proposed plans and projects. Despite the number of tools and the volume of data available to practitioners, many tools are poorly integrated or have flaws that prevent their application to common forecasting circumstances. New approaches to data collection, such as remote sensing, can greatly enhance the quality and fidelity of data for regional transportation planning, project planning, and impact assessment. Moreover, improved modeling tools and visualization technologies can support decision making and public involvement. Research in this topic will focus on ensuring access to appropriate data to support analysis; integrating analysis tools, including new forecasting tools that are able to predict systemwide impacts and better deal with uncertainty; and providing tools and methods to better communicate the results of analyses to the public and to decision makers. Project 4–2.1: Applying Location- and Tracking-Based Technologies to Collect Data for Systems Planning and Project Development This project will enhance assessments of highway capacity needs by collecting data from ITS technologies that can monitor traffic at both the facility and highway system levels. Agencies such as the Federal Highway Administration are performing research on archiving processes and systems for data collected via point detection devices, approaches for probe detection to collect data on the performance of highway systems, and assessments of highway capacity needs. This project focuses on those approaches. Project 4–2.2: Applying Remote Sensing Technologies to Collect Data for Transportation Systems Planning and Project Development This project will improve the quality of decision making for integrated systems planning and project development by enabling the use of remote sensing technologies and data by transportation (and other) agencies. This research project focuses on closing the knowledge gap between the remote sensing and transportation communities to enable greater use of remote sensing technologies and new applications to meet the needs of transportation planning and project development. It involves demonstrating the application of remote sensing to transportation systems planning and highway capacity project development, and development of a guidance manual, a commercialization approach, and training to improve application of remote sensing technologies within transportation systems planning and project development. Project 4–2.3: Facilitating Systems Planning and Project Development via an Integrated Environmental Resource Information System This project will develop a spatially organized information management system that provides easy access to a comprehensive array of data on environmental considerations used during planning and project development, and investigate the feasibility of expanding the information system to include data on other factors (such as travel, land use, and economics). Ultimately, the environmental information management system should be expanded to be capable of handling a complete array of information needs that must be considered during system and project-level planning. In addition to environmental information needs, these include information about demographics, economics, safety, utilities and right-of-way, freight and personal travel demand. Project 4–2.4: Improving Public Participation by Enhancing Project Visualization Tools This project will improve visualization tools for public involvement during the development and delivery of transportation plans and projects. In some cases, existing visualization techniques are available but have not been D-2 Interim Planning for a Future Strategic Highway Research Program

widely applied due to cost concerns. In other cases, low-cost and less high-tech visualization methods (such as improved graphical displays) could be utilized but have not been used effectively to involve the public. As a result, part of this project involves development of a pilot program to test and evaluate new visualization tools that are developed through this project to ensure their usefulness and development of guidance and training on the appropriate use of visualization tools and techniques at different stages of project planning and development. Project 4–2.5: Developing and Applying a Decision-Support Tool for Integrated Systems Planning and Project Development This project will develop, apply, test, and commercialize a decision-support tool that leverages state-of-the-art computer technology for analyzing and selecting among packages of integrated transportation solutions that balance desired economic, environmental, and community considerations, thereby improving the timeliness and quality of highway development projects. Building on existing efforts and taking advantage of the latest information technology, the goal is to develop an integrated, probabilistic decision-support system that practitioners can use from their computer workstations to (1). develop solutions packages that address transportation needs and (2). visualize the dynamic interactions between a solutions package and associated changes in the region’s land development patterns, natural and human environments, and economic performance. Topic 4–3: Integrated Decision Making in Planning and Project Development This research topic focuses on improving the transportation decision-making process with the result being selection and development of projects that meet social, economic, environmental, and accessibility needs in a timely and equitable manner. This topic addresses research related to the broad identification of transportation needs in the planning process (as currently conducted through preparation of STIPs and long-range transportation plans) and decision making throughout project development (as currently conducted under NEPA and other federal and state laws). An important focus is on translating community visions and long-range plans (regarding land use, economic development, aesthetics, sustainability, etc.) into appropriate projects and assessing the direct and indirect impacts of projects on systems such as the economy, natural environment, and human environment. This research also focuses on processes to ensure that decisions are made in a timely manner by avoiding duplication and re-examination of earlier decisions. It addresses issues associated with institutional relationships and support of public and political leaders. Project 4–3.1: Integrating Environmental Stewardship and Enhancement into System Planning and Project Development This project will mainstream environmental stewardship and enhancement into the transportation systems planning and project development process. Many of the barriers to greater adoption of environmental stewardship by transportation agencies involve misconceptions that can be addressed through education and training. Development of stewardship models and information, as well as a program that mainstreams them into transportation agencies, will help to address these misconceptions. Project 4–3.2: Integrating Economic Considerations into Project Development This project will develop and apply the necessary institutional mechanisms and analytic frameworks for ensuring that project decisions reflect economic development considerations in the affected region. To better integrate economic development considerations into transportation decision making, significant advances in institutional and technical approaches are required and will be the focus of this project. Project 4–3.3: Reducing Duplication and Process Delays in Planning and Project Development This project will identify the sources of project delay and ways to compress planning and project development in order to deliver needed projects in a more timely manner while fully addressing environmental, community, economic, and accessibility considerations. This project will focus on identifying process improvements throughout planning and project development to improve coordination between transportation and resource agencies, involve the public and elected officials adequately to resolve project priorities and controversies, reduce internal process delays, get concurrence on project issues, and avoid duplication in processes. Project 4–3.4: Ensuring Support for Highway Capacity Projects by Improving Collaborative Decision Making This project will identify mechanisms for enabling and enhancing collaborative decision making within transportation agencies and between transportation and other agencies, elected officials, and the public. This project involves three components: (1). development of information to better understand barriers to collaborative decision making and approaches to overcoming them, (2). development and implementation of approaches to collaborative decision making, Interim Planning for a Future Strategic Highway Research Program D-3

and (3). evaluation of these approaches as well as training on collaborative decision-making approaches and institutional structures. Project 4–3.5:[not used] Project 4–3.6: Screening Transportation Solutions in an Integrated Systems Planning and Project Development Process Using the decision-support system developed under Project 4–2.5, this project will establish a new decision-making framework that supports screening of solutions as they move through the system planning and project development process, which draws on the use of system-based performance measures. This project involves the development and implementation of the conceptual framework for transportation decision making discussed earlier. The objective is to enable transportation agencies and their partners in the transportation planning process to work together efficiently to screen transportation solutions based on a comprehensive understanding of system performance needs, costs, and environmental and other effects of alternatives. In this manner, this project culminates in a solutions screening process that balances environmental, economic, social, and community livability considerations for project evaluation, selection, and programming. The product will allow transportation agencies to address the analytic, institutional, and process-related elements of decision making that hinder thorough and timely development of integrated long-range plans, capital programs, and projects that meet the needs of their stakeholders. Topic 4–4: Project Delivery The project delivery topic addresses research needs for ensuring well-managed implementation of projects that meet expectations of stakeholders and the public. This topic focuses on research related to the use of effective project management techniques throughout the project development process. This includes approaches for ensuring that projects are developed in a cost-effective and timely manner. It also includes approaches for ensuring that once project decisions are made, final design of projects is consistent with prior commitments and meets the aesthetic standards of the community and other stakeholders, and that construction occurs with minimal disruption to communities and environmental resources. It may address processes such as development of plans, specifications, and estimates (PS&E), and letting of contracts. Project 4–4.1: Improving Project Management during the Development and Delivery of Highway Projects This project will develop state-of-the-art project management implementation frameworks, guidance, and training that promote efficient, cost effective, and timely project delivery under an integrated systems approach to planning and project development. Some of the areas where current project management approaches could be improved include communication, accountability, coordination, and consistency. Given these many challenges, this project focuses on developing state-of-the-art project management implementation frameworks, guidance, and training to ensure that transportation agencies manage and deliver projects effectively under an integrated systems approach to planning and project development. Project 4–4.2: Improving Project Cost Estimates This project will develop a cost estimating methodology that promotes accurate prediction of project costs at every phase of integrated system planning and project development, as well as project delivery. Improvement of cost estimating practices and the tracking of estimates as they evolve should address five critical considerations: consistency, quality, coordination, accountability, and documentation. Moreover, a key issue is developing an effective process for developing and refining cost estimates given a process that involves the public and other agencies in decision making. A framework for accurate cost estimation must recognize that changes in the scope of a project are a natural part of a collaborative decision-making process and must anticipate these changes. Project 4–4.3: Satisfying Commitments and Meeting Customer Expectations in Final Project Design and Construction This project will ensure that state DOTs and other transportation agencies carry through commitments made during planning and project development to facility design and construction. The products of this research project will include guidance materials on flexible highway design approaches (including the integration of context-sensitive design principles into design-build projects) that best meet customer expectations; guidance on public involvement techniques for sustaining communications with stakeholders during the design and construction phases of project delivery; and training programs on context-sensitive design, innovative methods for project delivery, and customer satisfaction. D-4 Interim Planning for a Future Strategic Highway Research Program