A Guide for Applying AASHTO Policies to Achieve Flexibility in Highway Design

Timothy R. Neuman, PEChief Highway Engineer

CH2M HILL

Acknowledgements

• AASHTO Joint Task Force for Aesthetic Design

• Task Force for Roadside Safety• Task Force on Geometric Design• Task Force for Environmental Design• AASHTO and TRB Staff• Dick Jones and Robert Seyfried

(NUCPS)

Presentation Overview

• Background on production of the AASHTO ‘Bridging Document’

• Contents of the Bridging Document• Where do we go from here? (CSS

drivers and barriers)

Policies and ‘Best Practices’ Provide DOTs the Roadmap for

CSS Success

A Guide for Applying A Guide for Applying AASHTO PoliciesAASHTO Policies

to Achieve Flexibility to Achieve Flexibility in Highway Designin Highway Design

American Association of American Association of State Highway State Highway

and Transportation Officialsand Transportation Officials

The long and winding journey to produce the ‘AASHTO Bridging Document’

• Project initiated in 1999 (NCHRP 20-7, Task 114)

• Task Force drafts substantially revised, combined, edited

• Multiple reviews by task force membership

• Over 700 comments received; much discussion of (and dispute over) the tort liability chapter

The journey continues………..• NCHRP Project 20-7 Task 169

commissioned to address substantive comments and issues (including complete re-write of tort liability chapter)

• More comments received and addressed

• Document re-issued for balloting in 2003; passed ballots and is now in final publication!

Audience for the Document

• Technically educated (DOT staff, County or municipal road design engineers, consultants)

• Not primarily intended for non-technical stakeholders*

*You can be sure they will read and refer to it

Content of Document

• Foreword• Ch. 1 -- The Project Development

Process• Ch. 2 -- Context Sensitive Solutions

Through Community Involvement • Ch. 3 -- Highway Geometric Elements

-- Design and Safety Considerations• Ch. 4 -- Legal Liability and Highway

Design

Themes of the Document (first three chapters)• Meaningful public involvement is

encouraged (two-way communication relevant to problem identification and solution)

• Public involvement is a task requiring planning, special skills and integration with the project

• Tailor public involvement programs to the project and specific public

Themes of the Document (cont.)

• Greatest opportunities for flexibility are in the early, planning phases

• Highway designers have choices (not mandates)

• Designers should understand the functional basis of design criteria and standards

• AASHTO Green Book is flexible

Themes of the Document (cont.)

• Be creative and innovative• Design exceptions are acceptable where

necessary to accomplish design• Do not compromise safety• Transportation agency retains decision-

making authority; but decisions should be made openly and should be defensible

• Complete documentation is necessary for risk management

Legal Liability and Highway Design (Chapter written by Dick Jones)

• Overview of tort liability (CSS reflects public policy)

• Sovereign immunity– Discretionary Function– Demonstration/documentation of

conscious decision-making

• Design Exceptions• Risk Management Practices

Institutionalizing CSS will be a long ‘journey’

Accomplishments will prove to be a journey, not a destination.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to

think you control it.John Steinbeck

CSS Implementation Challenges

Culture Organization

TechnologySkills

Context SensitivityInstitutionalized

Overview of organizational factors affecting CSS implementation (from CSS Course workshops)

• Perceptions of cost and time• Availability and skills of

professional staff• Rigid design processes• Concerns re: tort liability• Fear of losing control• Lack of senior management

commitment • Lack of a ‘customer focus’ within

the agency

Driving Forces Restraining Forces

• Stakeholder expectations• Senior management

commitment• Proven successes elsewhere

(benchmarks)• Understanding of need to

‘do things differently’• FHWA

Keys to Success

• Senior management buy-in and commitment

• Measuring performance • Culture change• Education and skill development• Internal policy review and revisions

(including examination of rigid design policies)

We need to think of the restraining forces as doors, not walls

Every wall is a door.Ralph Waldo Emerson

I can't understand why people are frightened of

new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

John Cage -- composer, poet, essayist, painter

Restraining

Restraining forcesforces

Timothy R. NeumanChief Highway EngineerCH2M Hill8501 W. Higgins Road, Suite 300Chicago, Illinois 60631(773) 693-3800 (ext. 233)email: tneuman@ch2m.com

This presentation was made to the Joint Meeting of the AASHTO Subcommittee on Design and Standing Committee on the Environment in Snowbird, Utah, June 2004. It is provided for reference only. Use of all or any part of this presentation for commercial purposes is prohibited without the written permission of CH2M HILL. – Copyright 2004, CH2M HILL