On January 23, 2013, TRB’s Committee on Implementing the Research Results of the Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) sent its third letter report to Victor Mendez, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).
The committee is charged with providing policy and technical advice to the U.S. Department of Transportation and AASHTO on recommended strategies for introducing the results of SHRP 2 into the knowledge base and the active practice of transportation engineers, planners, traffic managers, and other potential users.
The report includes recommendations on shifting FHWA and AASHTO effort from planning for implementation to actual implementation of the products by state departments of transportation and other implementing agencies. The report calls on FHWA and AASHTO to begin this shift as soon as possible and to quickly identify the decisions that need to be made to carry out the implementation program and who is responsible for making them.
The committee that developed the letter report emphasized the need to make timely decisions regarding responsibility for hosting, maintenance, operation, and upgrading of IT products; suggested that implementation communications focus on accurate and complete information about SHRP 2 products; and recommended that FHWA and AASHTO look more comprehensively at how to implement all promising products, how to address a broader array of potential users and stakeholders, how to support implementation of business practice innovations, and how to tailor implementation approaches to meet the user demand for particular products.