AASHTO Task Force on Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) Implementation

Meeting Report
January 29, 2000
Irvine, CA

PARTICIPANTS
Task Force Members:

John Conrad, WA DOT (Chairman)	Linda Thelke, WI DOT
Joe Deneault, WV DOT	Doug Rose, MD DOT
David Ekern, MN DOT	Jim Ross, ID DOT
Don Goins NC DOT	Firooz Zandi, IN DOT
Gary Hoffman PA DOT
(Not present: Gary Carver WY, Don Lucas IN represented by Mr. Zandi)

Lead State Team Leaders:

Wouter Gulden, GA DOT - Pavement Preservation	John Selmer, IA DOT - Innovative
Rick Nelson, NV DOT - RWIS/Anti-Icing	Michael Sprinkel, VTRC -CAR
	Margo Thomson, PA DOT - ASR

Liaison Members/Support Staff/Other participants:

Tommy Beatty, FHWA	Jeff Lindley, FHWA
John Bukowski, FHWA	Byron Lord, FHWA Liaison
Charlie Churilla, FHWA Liaison	Ken Kobetsky, AASHTO
Jason Harrington, FHWA	Linda Mason, TRB
Kathy Harrington-Hughes, HHA & Assoc	Larry Michael, MD DOT
Neil Hawks, TRB Liaison	Haleem Tahir, AASHTO Liaison
	Gary Taylor, MDOT, TRB-LTPP

Action Items
Following is a synopsis of action items resulting from this meeting (see cross-referenced numbers in the report for additional information): Most of the existing items have been completed.

Opening/Introductions
Chairman John Conrad opened the meeting and attendees introduced themselves.

Agenda
The Agenda for this meeting of the Task Force is included as Attachment A to this report for ready reference. Handouts referred to in the report are not included, but can be provided by contacting Jason Harrington,(202-366-1576) k.jason.harrington@fhwa.dot.gov. The following is a synopsis of action items resulting from this meeting.

Review of Previous Meeting Action Items
Chairman Conrad asked to review action items from the previous meeting held on Sept 29, 1999 in Tulsa, OK. Most items have either been completed or follow-up reporting/action is scheduled for separate presentation later at this current meeting.

Item 1 FOCUS - Kathy Harrington Hughes reported that the Task Force has all of the survey data.

Item 2 & 3 - discussed later

Item 4 Award Certifications to Lead State Team members - Has been sent out.

Item 5 - HPC presentation at TRB PCC - Presentation was not done concerning the transition plans to the TRB Concrete Pavement Committee.

Item 6 - Letter to AASHTO - Chairman Conrad wrote a letter to the Subcommittee chairs to get time on agenda for presenting transition plans.

Item 7 - Contact Lead State Team Leaders - Action initiated to have a lead state leaders present transition papers at AASHTO Subcommittee meetings in 2000.

Item 8 - 2001 TRB Presentation by Teams -In need of follow up, or further discussion on benefits of presentation to TRB 2000

Item 9 - 2000 Lead State Workshop - Hotel site selection has been completed, St. Louis, MO is the site of Workshop 2000.

Item 10 - Comments to F-SHRP - Comments were not sent out by TF. Agenda item for next meeting in Utah.

Item 11 - TF Transition plans - E-mailed out items for Task Force members to consider. This meeting was workshop for creating the Task Force transition plans.

Item 12 - Schedule next meeting - Done.

Unfinished Action item - Web Sites Related to SHRP - Discussion within FHWA, Office of Pavement Technology, has resulted in the final determination for what to do with the existing SHRP related web sites, that FHWA has under their control. FHWA will have a new front cover page made to provide current information on SHRP, list of contacts, and where to go to get copies of reports. No further update of the inside contents of the website will be done. The existing web will be maintained as a historical documentation sites.

This completes the action items brought forward from prior meetings.

TRB/Superpave, F-SHRP activities
Superpave - Training actions was provided, course development is underway with funding needs of 2 courses for $200k for design and delivery. Recommended courses to develop are: mechanistic design practices, and update course on material testing. Long range plans/goals were discussed. Full integration with HMA design, know the structural design based on performance. 2002 design contact will help finalize the integration of Superpave.

F-SHRP - Discussed the input received from their earlier request to the highway industry at TRB. The level of response is far below what they need to have an effective customer driven research study. They requested the TF to again solicit, thru SCOH, AASHTO membership on the whole to review the proposals for F-SHRP and offer comments.

TRB Annual Conference Report - Neil Hawks gave a summary of activities to the Task Force. First was the recommendations for FY01 NCHRP work program, with 11 projects at $4.26 million, which is funding for continuation of 5 projects and 6 new starts. They also recommended that FHWA/NHI training be developed for 2 training course projects at $200,000. The Long Range Plan for Superpave Deployment and development has been costed out, and draft plans are expected to be approved by TRB Superpave committee. Approved draft will go to SCOH/SCOR.

TRB - LTPP committee recommendations for FY01 are $5.2 million for NCHRP finding: $3.1M for data collection and management, $1.6M for data analysis, $.5M for product development. Add to this funding the $9.0M from FHWA with about $7M of that for data collection and management. Development of the Strategic Plan for Data Analysis was complete and the plan has been circulated to all involved. The TF was asked to comment on it today, after a full presentation by Gary Taylor.

Committee for Improved Concrete Pavement - Have adopted common goals for both government and industry portions of the program. Unified plan looks focused and on target. The committee is to draft a long range vision for PCC pavement research, it is a plan that is not imposed on others but is a vision of needs and goals. The design method will have full integration with HMA design from known structural designs methods based on performance. The objectives from the 2002 mechanistic design will help to finalize the method.

IDEA programs - NCHRP IDEA program was given a million dollars last year to work with. FHWA ITS program gave $830k last year, budget for this year is zero. FHWA's Joint Program Office funds are not going to cover IDEA program for FY01. NCHRP has a dilemma in how to continue the IDEA program. With FHWA no longer supporting the ITS IDEA program, the TF have no plans on how to handle the short fall in funds. Very little discussion, other then handing off projects like this to other agencies with the funds to manage.

Research Problem Statement A5T60 Task Force - Accelerating Opportunities for Innovation in the Highway Industry is the research problem title that was discussed by Gary Hoffman (Don Lucas is chair of A5T60 Task Force). Funding request to NCHRP of $170K to get a pilot project initiated to determine the if the ultimate objective of the problem statement, to accelerate opportunities to implement innovations in the highway industry is viable. They want a workshop to get stakeholders to review potential items and then all of their findings can be packaged and given to AASHTO subcommittees for further action. A5T60 Task Force requested that this TF send a letter to SCOR for their consideration of this research problem statement, that it be accepted and acted on. (ACTION Item #3)

Transition Plan development by the Task Force -
A facilitated discussion to develop the transition plan was held for about 2 hours. Many items were discussed and captured, those that worked and should be noted as successful ways that this Task Force operated. A final report on the Task Force, its transition plans and most important, its recommendations to the new Steering Group to help jump start their efforts. Final report is being prepared by Kathy Harrington-Hughes, with draft to be reviewed by TF members prior to April meeting. FHWA discussed the funding for the report, as well as the Lead State Workshop for 2000. Within Kathy's contract with FHWA there are funds to cover the report, but not enough to cover the cost to arrange the Workshop. Mr. Templeton, prior chair of the Task Force, offered his observations on the past efforts and the current attitudes of the highway industry and states. He believes that SHRP program could not happen with as big a success SHRP had with today's SHA attitudes. He expressed concerns for his work with the NQI program, where implementation has been diluted, lacking a general pull together attitude. This is why he believes that a SHRP like effort today might not succeed. His remarks were a challenge to F-SHRP and to future implementation actions of hurdles to overcome.

AASHTO Report - Haleem Tahir reported on actions from AASHTO, and the Lead State Team activity reports. Superpave Lead State Team has the national survey out and results will be compiled on levels of usage, similar to prior survey reports. That team has a working group that is to produce AASHTO standards and a user manual for acceptance, no date has been set for completion. Haleem indicated he would send to the chair his written summary.

AASHTOWare has released the software, on a web site for downloading. Once the user pays a fee of $300, they have a working copy of the software. Technical support is available for a fee, but all the details are not worked out and no support exist to date. http://www.aashtoware.org/ is the web site for the software.

Web site support for the Lead States Team site is in need of funds to continue the website. Haleem and the Lead State Team leaders asked the TF to continue their support. FHWA will match the funds that AASHTO provides in support of the web site.

FHWA Report - Byron Lord reported out on recent FHWA activities. FHWA has two long range plans for activities and actions to take, and how to achieve the goals of our plans. For LTPP technology delivery FHWA is having a train the trainer type meeting with our FHWA Resource Centers and Headquarter's Pavement Technology office, March 27-31st, to discuss implementation plans and to form a long range action plan for current and future products derived from the LTPP program (Superpave, Hyperpave, smoothness, rigid pavement drainage design). Superpave is having a special task force outreach to act on communications needs and review past actions and re-focus their efforts toward continued implementation activities

LTPP Traffic Issues - Charlie Churilla and Gary Taylor presented a detailed report on what the TRB-LTPP committee and along with FHWA's LTPP team have decided to put forth as the means and actions needed to solve the crisis and capture the needed traffic data. They defined the problems, provided their solution, cost needs, and potential funding sources. The problem is well known to the TF, not getting accurate or sufficient traffic loading data from the SPS sites to predict long term pavement performance. The solution that TRB-LTPP put forth is to use national pooled funds to build/repair existing sites, nationally handle calibration and maintenance of the WIMs. Specify the type to be installed. Provide standardized design specifications for installation. The TF discussed the plan and felt a letter to the states needing action would be the best first course of action, outlining the proposal being offered, ask those states to review their problems and fix them. The letter from AASHTO by the TF was sent to each state needing action, requesting that they reply to John Conrad before the April 7th meeting with SCOH. A memo from FHWA to each FHWA Division office was sent out explaining the urgent need to review the plan and reply to the AASHTO letter. At the SCOH meeting in Utah, Chairman Conrad will discuss the state's response to the TRB-LTPP plan. (ATTACHMENT B)

Lead State Teams Transition Actions:
Wouter Gulden presented recent actions from the Pavement Preservation team. He handed out a draft plan of their transition plan for review. Survey was sent out to the SHA and results are being compiled, very good rate of return from the survey. Research protocols have been produced and sent out to the SHAs, and another video has been produced and will have its first showing at the AEMA meeting in March.

Michael Sprinkel, CAR team leader informed the TF that there transition plan has been provided and are waiting comments from the TF.

Rick Nelson, RWIS/Anti-Icing team leader, still working on the transition plan, had hoped to present it to the TF today. They have had contact with the AASHTO liaison in several efforts and he believes the transition is moving along. Expected to get transition plan to the TF in a week.

HPC Team leader is now Mary Lou Rawls. Haleem reported out she had e-mailed the transition plan out on Saturday evening, no copies were available for this meeting. Comment was made that actions needed work is standard specs/procedures still needs to be developed and approved.

Margo Thomson, ASR team leader reported that is still in the draft stage and she is hoping to get it to the TF in Feb.John Selmer, Innovative Pavement and Maintenance Materials team leader says their plan is about 2/3rd complete.

Superpave plan has made some minor changes and is in to the TF.

Agenda for the next workshop was discussed. This is not a meeting to just say good job, the representatives from the standing AASHTO committees are expected to attend and work with the teams during the breakouts to go over the transition plans, discuss barriers and how to overcome them in the transition. This will be the time to discuss work needing actions, future plans and to tie up all lose ends. Show AASHTO what we have done, what there remains to do, and help facilitate a rapid transfer of responsibilities and be part of the plans AASHTO has to have to continue with the programs established by SHRP. John Conrad stated that the TF liaisons need to be in contact with the Subcommittees to get on agenda to inform about the transition, and discuss who will be coming to the Sept workshop. Several ideas were discussed on ways to help smooth the transition, couple were to have the Lead State Team Leaders/Champion placed on the AASHTO subcommittee temporary. And have three way phone calls between the two liaison and the lead state leader. Overall the Lead State Teams expressed concerned that when it comes time to transition there will be a complete fallout of actions and all team actions currently underway or planned will stop.

SCOH report topics to be made by John Conrad are the: LTPP traffic data, and the TF/Lead State Team transition plans.

Next meeting is April 6th, St. George Utah, and the summer meeting is at Woods Hole, June 18th-19th.