Highways of Tomorrow

By Jennifer Hawks

In the spring of 2006, Congress authorized $150 million for a research program to find solutions for current highway woes. Known as the Strategic Highway Research Program II (SHRP II), for seven years the program will allocate funds to a number of research projects. Those projects will determine how to design and build tomorrow's highways better than those we use today.

This is the second phase of SHRP. The first SHRP research program ran from 1987 to 1993, the goal being to find improved methods of maintaining highways in winter and to determine why some asphalt roadways last longer than others. Ultimately, SHRP I led to the development of a formula for building pavement that could withstand heavy traffic and extreme temperatures. In 1992, SHRP unveiled Superpave, a system for building customized long-life asphalt roadways that can withstand local conditions. The Federal Highway Administration then instituted a nationwide program to encourage highway agencies and contractors to implement Superpave. To date, most states have adopted the system.

SHRP II research will focus on four main objectives: safety, renewal, reliability, and capacity. Translated-- by using cutting-edge materials and technology, the goal is to develop a safer highway system that will require less funds to maintain and repair while reducing congestion even with increased usage by motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians.

Reducing congestion and decreasing repairs while traffic is steadily increasing is a pretty ambitious statement of purpose, but it needs to be successful. Consider that the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that trucks haul 63.7 percent of all commercial freight in the nation. Wasted time on the road is a lot of wasted economic dollars. Simply fixing and replacing sections of our current highway system creates an endless and expensive cycle. And as time goes on, more and more sections will require replacement and expansion. That cycle will only move faster as traffic and transportation increase.

Authorization of funds for SHRP II is made possible by the SAFETEA-LU Act (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users), which George Bush signed in August 2005. Originally, Congress had earmarked $450 million over nine years for SHRP II, however, budget slashes reduced the amount to $150 million over seven years.

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) oversees SHRP II. Linda Mason, the Communications Officer for TRB, understands the importance of including truckers' needs in any new highway system. "One of the exciting things about SHRPII is that we're making a real effort to recognize the fact that transportation involves all the aspects of daily life and what happens in our communities. We're not just trying to build the roads, we're trying to include the communities' goals in how we're rebuilding the roads. And the trucking industry is certainly part of that community. Their voices have more impact now than they have before."

SHRP II is organized into committees who determine programs for distributing funds that match up with the overall goals. They are the SHRP II Oversight Committee and four Technical Coordinating Committees (TCCs). Many of those serving on SHRP II committees are representatives from highway services, trucking companies and organizations.

Rebecca Brewster, a member of the SHRP II TCC for Reliability Research, is one of about 15 people who recommend research projects that will help minimize traffic flow interruption. Brewster is the President and Chief Operating Officer of the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), a not-for-profit research trust. ATRI's focus is on transportation-related research, with the resulting information shared among trucking industry personnel and transportation agencies.

She believes ATRI serves SHRP II well. "We've been dealing with a lot of research involved with traffic incident management, with technology used to improve highway operations...and a whole host of related issues."

When asked to name the trucking industry's main concerns about the current highway system, Brewster doesn't hesitate. "Congestion obviously is a big deal. Fuel is often the second-highest operating cost for a trucking company. When you have trucks that are stuck in traffic due to congestion, you're burning fuel and not getting much return for your investment. That has implications for the environment as well. It also has implications for drivers who face federal regulations on how many hours they can drive. So, congestion impacts the trucking industry in a whole host of ways that affect the bottom line and that affect this country's economy."

Traditionally, state highway departments have merely dealt with road construction and maintenance. Only in the last five to ten years has there been an increased focused on the operation of those roads. "It's understood, and becoming more widely understood and accepted, that it's not enough to just build and maintain the system, you have to operate the system. And how it's operated has a huge impact on reducing congestion."

She expects that technology will aid in the development of a more robust future highway system. "Technology plays a big role in the reliability of the system. For instance, when you give travelers, not just truck drivers, but all highway travelers, current and reliable traffic information, then they're better prepared to make decisions about taking alternate routes or delaying their trip. And even just knowing that there's an incident ahead and you're going to have a certain amount of wait rather than just sitting stuck in traffic with no information empowers motorists-- both four wheelers and truck drivers-- to understand what's going on ahead if they're not aware through the radio or some other means. Those types of systems that DOTs are implementing to provide traveler information are important, as are systems that do things to help with congestion, anything from ramp metering to transportation management centers that keep an eye on when incidents happen. You've got cameras and loop detectors-- there are a whole host of technologies that DOTs are investing in that are aimed at improving highway operations, detecting, responding to and clearing incidents, and ultimately, improving the reliability of the system."

Will the highways of tomorrow look dramatically different from those of today? Brewster wants to think so. "I certainly hope they'll be less congested than what we've become accustomed to. I would hope that this research will ultimately lead to advances in how we operate our systems, how we inform travelers of what they should know, the wait times they can expect and those types of things. We understand that incidents are going to happen. Incidents have an impact on traffic. But, if I'm a traveler or a truck driver, and I'm armed with that information, then I'm empowered to say, 'You know what, I'm going to pull off in this rest area and take a break, or I'm going to take an alternate route because that's obviously a more efficient use of my time than sitting in traffic idling my engine."

While truckers generally have fewer options for alternate routes than passenger vehicles, drivers can minimize the effect of traffic delays by using that downtime for rest periods or meal times. A traffic delay "extracts a human factor toll as well because it adds to your frustration level and your stress level and your fatigue when you're sitting there idling in traffic when you had known that the incident was a major incident and clearance time was expected to be over 90 minutes, and you could have spent that time walking around in a rest area, on a computer somewhere in a kiosk, taking a break, getting a meal, or whatever the case may be, which would obviously be less stressful." Detailed and accurate information about the road ahead, such as extremely icy conditions, can offer drivers the option to wait until conditions change or improve. "It's knowing what you're going to face down the road that empowers you to make the decision you need to do to get your job done safely."

Brewster encourages drivers to contact her with suggestions and comments about improving highway reliability. "We get some of our best ideas from drivers because obviously they're the ultimate consumers for the work that ATRI does." There are several ways drivers can make suggestions to ATRI. One way is to visit their Web site at http://atri-online.org and click the "Suggest a Research Topic" link or e-mail Rebecca at Rbrewster@trucking.org. Researchers and experts also discuss ATRI research initiatives every other Thursday at 8 a.m. CST on the Dave Nemo Show (XM Satellite Open Road Channel 171). Listeners can call in with questions and comments during the program.

SHRP II has already dedicated $18 million in funds to research in the area of reliability, with the same amount portioned to researching highway capacity. Safety research is expected to receive $43.2 million and $28.8 million will be used for highway renewal research.

To address safety issues, SHRP II will look at understanding driver behavior and using that information to prevent or minimize the impact of traffic accidents. "Human Factors," or the study of why people do what they do, is a big part of this kind of research. Depending on what the research finds, resulting suggestions could include things like safer on-ramps and off ramps, routing decisions and other design changes.

Renewal research will look at ways to speed up the road-building process. Also, by researching construction materials to find those that last longer, SHRP will attempt to find a way to lessen the need for highway repairs. Ideally, drivers would experience fewer construction delays.

The fourth area of SHRP II's focus is capacity. New highways should be built with the needs of local communities in mind. A highway should accommodate the expected growth in traffic but not at the expense of the environment or by overwhelming the taxpayers' budget.

At the conclusion of the research, the TRB hopes that SHRP II will find solutions and that those suggestions will then be implemented by highway agencies. The last of the funds will be designated in 2009. As a trucker who is directly affected by the suggestions that SHRP II research will eventually make to road planners, it's important for those Technical Coordinating Committee members like Rebecca Brewster to hear from the folks on the road as much as possible regarding necessary improvements. Because the road of tomorrow has not been built yet, so truckers today can make
a difference.

©2007 by Jennifer Hawks