Integrated Delivery of SHRP 2 Renewal Research Projects (2014)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

13 In te g ra te d D e liv e ry o f S H R P 2 R e n e w a l R e s e a rc h P ro je c ts — F in a l R e p o rt J u n e 2 0 1 4 CHAPTER 1 Introduction SHRP 2 Renewal Overview and Background The U.S. highway system is an extensive network of roads that facilitates the movement of people and goods and supports the growth of the national economy by providing access to national and international markets (FHWA 2010). The highway system includes over 4 million miles of roads and over 600,000 bridges (longer than 20 ft) that are owned and operated by agencies at the federal, state, and local levels (3.2 percent, 19.3 percent, and 77.4 percent of the total system, respectively). The system infrastructure is subjected to approximately 3 trillion vehicle miles of travel (VMT) annually, consisting of various forms of household-based travel (work commuting, visits and recreation, shopping and errands) and commerce-related travel (FHWA 2013). Although there have been signs in recent years that pavement and bridge conditions in the United States have begun to stabilize or even slightly improve (e.g., the percentage of pavements in good or acceptable condition has increased, the number of structurally deficient bridges has decreased) (FHWA 2010), spending on the infrastructure continues to lag. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2013 Infrastructure Report Card, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has estimated that $170 billion in capital investment is needed on an annual basis to bring the physical conditions of the roads into a state of good repair by 2028. A similar estimate for bridges indicates that $20.5 billion in annual investment is needed to eliminate the nation’s bridge deficient backlog by 2028. Given that even maintaining current funding levels is uncertain, questions arise as to what else can be done by the transportation community to help maintain a highly aged transportation infrastructure. Recent work by Luhr et al. (2011) strongly suggests that even in the face of declining funding, implementation of transportation infrastructure technology can be a major factor in maintaining system performance. One approach is to maximize the resources available through better transportation infrastructure design, construction, and operation. This is an overarching goal of the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2), which was authorized by Congress in 2005 to sponsor high-payoff research in four focus areas:  Capacity  Reliability  Renewal  Safety The SHRP 2 Renewal focus area is an applied research program that addresses the need to develop a consistent, systematic approach to completing highway projects quickly, with minimal disruption to the community, while producing long-lasting facilities. The Renewal program includes over 30 research projects developed around five product areas: nondestructive

14 In te g ra te d D e liv e ry o f S H R P 2 R e n e w a l R e s e a rc h P ro je c ts — F in a l R e p o rt J u n e 2 0 1 4 testing (NDT), bridges, pavements, utilities/railroads, and project management/delivery. Each of the products resulting from the Renewal research program makes a contribution to achieving the above objectives. Renewal is defined as the reconstruction or substantial rehabilitation of deteriorating highway infrastructure to new standards of service. Rapid renewal implies accelerated construction, but it also includes planning, project development, and maintenance and operations features that minimize the total project duration, produce long-lasting facilities, and minimize motorist delay. To date, rapid renewal has typically been achieved only under special, high- profile circumstances, because very real barriers exist to consistent application of these tactics. For instance, to build facilities more quickly it is necessary to perform in situ work faster, do as much as possible away from the site, monitor and inspect construction rapidly, and provide a contracting environment that allows this to happen. Similarly, limits on sensing technology inhibit rapid inspection and construction acceptance. R31 Project Background The Renewal research program was initiated in early 2007 and is expected to be completed by 2015. Most of the Renewal projects have been completed or are nearing completion with draft deliverables currently under review by SHRP 2. Further discussion of the various Renewal projects is provided in Chapter 2. Detailed descriptions of the projects, their current status, and the products developed (or under development) are provided in Appendix A. The Renewal research products are expected to enhance the planning, design, construction, maintenance, and preservation of the nation’s transportation infrastructure. They are targeted for a variety of highway practitioners and stakeholders, including representatives of state highway agencies, local governments, toll road authorities, utility and railroad companies, and their supporting consultants and contractors. The products have applications throughout the highway life cycle (e.g., planning, preliminary design, final design, construction, and maintenance) and may be of interest/use to individuals at different levels within a highway agency (e.g., junior and senior technical staff, low- to mid-level managers, high-level managers and executives). Although implementation of the Renewal products can take place on an individual basis (i.e., a single product/technology put into use on a particular highway project to satisfy a single need), the large number of products available and their diverse applications create the opportunity for combined implementation. In other words, two or more of the products could be used together to address multiple needs identified by users involved in the different phases of the highway life cycle. For example, an improved project scoping process, better project management strategies, more accurate design methodologies, and the use of performance-related specifications during construction could all be instituted on a highway project to reduce costs and time and to improve safety. Such a project might only involve one particular type of asset (e.g., a bridge, a stretch of roadway pavement) or multiple asset types together (e.g., a roadway corridor with bridges, pavement, and utilities). SHRP 2 Project R31 was established to transform the idea of integrated application of Renewal products into a framework and useable tool for leveraging the improvement capabilities of the various Renewal products. The guiding principle of the study is to maximize the potential

15 In te g ra te d D e liv e ry o f S H R P 2 R e n e w a l R e s e a rc h P ro je c ts — F in a l R e p o rt J u n e 2 0 1 4 for product implementation through quick accessibility to the products, an organized and detailed knowledge base for the products, and an intuitive system for identifying and assembling multiple products that can help address a complementary set of user needs. The envisioned tool would effectively equip highway agency professionals and other stakeholders with relevant and actionable information when needed for applying rapid renewal. Project Objectives The objective of this project is to develop a tool or tools to promote and support systematic and integrated application of the products developed in the Renewal research program. These tools are expected to enhance a transportation agency’s ability to consistently apply rapid renewal in the development and execution of the planning, design, construction, maintenance, and preservation of their infrastructure. The tools are intended to provide insight into questions such as the following:  How can the products from the NDT, bridges, pavements, utility/railroads, and project management/delivery product areas be used to enhance an agency’s ability to develop and execute the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of their infrastructure?  How do the products or combinations of products enhance transportation agencies’ ability to rapidly renew their infrastructure? Project Scope and Approach To accomplish the project objectives, the study was divided into two phases of work consisting of the following tasks: Phase 1 1. Conduct an extensive review of the SHRP 2 Renewal products and describe how each product individually improves a transportation agency’s ability to consistently apply rapid renewal. 2. Document and analyze the relationships between the SHRP 2 Renewal products and how they could be integrated and/or applied in complementary ways to enhance a transportation agency’s ability to consistently achieve rapid renewal in the development and execution of the planning, design, construction, maintenance, and preservation of their infrastructure. 3. Describe how the various product combinations considered in Task 2 can enhance a transportation agency’s ability to consistently achieve rapid renewal in the development and execution of the planning, design, construction, maintenance, and preservation of their infrastructure. 4. Identify challenges/barriers (both technical and nontechnical) to the integration and/or complementary use of the Renewal products and recommend ways to overcome them. 5. Develop and submit a Phase 1 interim report detailing the findings of the preceding tasks and provide a work plan for Phase 2.

16 In te g ra te d D e liv e ry o f S H R P 2 R e n e w a l R e s e a rc h P ro je c ts — F in a l R e p o rt J u n e 2 0 1 4 Phase 2 6. Develop a tool or tools that clearly communicate and demonstrate how the SHRP 2 Renewal products can be systematically applied to enhance a transportation agency’s ability to consistently apply rapid renewal in the development and execution of the planning, design, construction, maintenance, and preservation of infrastructure. 7. Work with key stakeholders (transportation professionals from state transportation agencies, AASHTO, FHWA, consultants, and contractors) to demonstrate and validate the usefulness of the tool(s) under real project scenarios. 8. Refine the tool(s) based on feedback from key stakeholders. 9. Submit draft final deliverables, including the final report and final tool(s) and supporting documentation. 10. Revise all draft deliverables in response to review comments and submit final deliverables. Key components of Phase 1 included detailed reviews of each of 29 completed or ongoing Renewal projects, outreach to highway agencies and other stakeholders to obtain insights on the proposed integration tool, and the development of an integration/packaging matrix and a corresponding tool framework/model. The Renewal project reviews were accompanied by the development of expanded summaries that capture the many relevant aspects of the projects, such as the performance time frame, project objectives, major findings, key products, availability and access of the products, targeted audience/users of the products, and the implementation paths for the products. The Phase I outreach consisted of interviews with selected members of several AASHTO subcommittees (e.g., Design, Utilities and Right-of-Way [ROW], Materials) and a half-day workshop with a variety of professionals from throughout the highway industry. The information and inputs gathered in these outreach efforts provided a better understanding of how implementation occurs within different agencies and within different groups of an agency. They also provided ideas for and guidance in grouping Renewal products for inclusion in the new tool. Following the outreach activities, SHRP 2 decided not to support the Phase II work involving the development of the tool(s). A revised work plan for completing Phase I was developed, which focused on the development of an integration/packaging matrix for the Renewal products, development of a highly conceptualized and visualized integration tool, and the preparation of this report.