President Steudle Unveils His Emphasis Areas

AASHTO Journal, 21 October 2011

DETROIT — Newly elected AASHTO President Kirk Steudle, Michigan Department of Transportation director, unveiled an ambitious agenda to the AASHTO Board of Directors this week at the AASHTO annual meeting in Detroit.Steudle said that as president he would focus his attention on three areas: pushing for a new authorization of the federal surface transportation program; accelerating the deployment of transportation research and technology to help states innovate and streamline transportation programs; and moving forward national discussions on transportation performance measurements.

Steudle specifically noted that the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) has hundreds of research products that will soon be ready for implementation in the areas of reliability, capacity, renewal (preservation), and safety.

“The SHRP2 products are coming forward and have potential to affect how we operate,” said Steudle, who also discussed the critical need to support implementing research during the annual meeting’s plenary session Sunday morning.

Steudle said that he has asked outgoing AASHTO President Susan Martinovich “to lead a committee to look at all the research and figure out what makes sense and from a policy level say this is what we can move forward.”

The special committee, which will be made up of two people from each AASHTO standing committee, will look at programs like SHRP2 and AASHTO’s Technology Implementation Group and report back to the Board of Directors “on what should be done to continue implementation on behalf of the states.”

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