FHWA Awards Grants in 3 States to Boost Efficiency of Road, Bridge Projects

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said road and bridge projects in Maine, Pennsylvania and Washington are receiving $2.47 million in grants under the Federal Highway Administration’s Accelerated Innovation Deployment Demonstration program.

  Visualization of adaptive signal technology                     Photo/FHWA

That program is designed to help states offset costs of implementing construction processes that can provide speedier delivery of highway projects, the Department of Transportation said.

Maine will receive $1 million for its use of a “construction manager/general contractor model on its Sarah Mildred Long Bridge replacement project. By combining those roles, the USDOT said, Maine’s Department of Transportation “will be able to take advantage of private sector input and talent earlier in the design process, leading to faster and more cost-effective project delivery for the replacement bridge” to connect Kittery, Maine and Portsmouth, N.W.

The Washington state DOT is receiving to improve information management on projects throughout the state. That is expected to enhance community engagement, mode choice consideration and strategic investments.

Pennsylvania’s DOT will invest a $720,000 into adaptive traffic signal technology linked to a traffic management center for the McKnight Road corridor near Pittsburgh, which is expected to “provide significant improvement by modernizing traffic operations,” the announcement said.

“These investments harness innovation to improve the quality of our road and bridges and the efficiency of how they are built, to get motorists the benefits they deserve as quickly as possible,” said Foxx.

Acting FHWA Administrator Greg Nadeau said, “The states receiving AID demo grants are using cutting-edge technology and creative project delivery methods from which others can learn. We’re proud of our partnership with state DOTs and are excited to provide funds for projects that can put better techniques for road- and bridge-building in place in Maine, Pennsylvania, Washington and elsewhere.”

The demonstration grant program will ultimately put $30 million in incentive funding for federal, state, local and tribal government agencies to speed their use of innovative methods project delivery methods, the USDOT said.