aashto annual report -...

2015

AASHTO ANNUAL REPORT

AASHTO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

David BernhardtVice President; Director, Maine Department of Transportation

Carlos BracerasSecretary/Treasurer; Executive Director, Utah Department of Transportation

Paul TrombinoPresident; Director, Iowa Department of Transportation

Brian W. NessDirector, Idaho Department of Transportation

Carlos BracerasExecutive Director, Utah Department of Transportation

Leslie RichardsSecretary, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

Pete RahnSecretary, Maryland Department of Transportation

Charles ZelleCommissioner, Minnesota Department of Transportation

Randall S. BlankenhornSecretary, Illinois Department of Transportation

Charles KilpatrickCommissioner, Virginia Department of Transportation

Paul MattoxSecretary, West Virginia Department of Transportation

The AASHTO Executive Committee is comprised of the association president; vice president; secretary-treasurer; eight regional representatives and the immediate past-president.

MAASTO

WASHTO

SASHTO

NASTO

2 | 2015 AASHTO Annual Report

To the members of our board:

It is my pleasure to share with you the 2015 Annual Report of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

This is the first annual report since the AASHTO Board of Directors approved the

2014–2019 Strategic Plan. We designed it to provide you with an overview of how your association is meeting the expectations that were established in that strategic plan.

While AASHTO’s membership—the state departments of transportation plus those of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico—represents a diverse collection of perspectives on transportation, we share a collective vision for a national transportation system that enhances quality of life and supports a robust economy.

We hope that you see this shared focus reflected in this annual report.

Sincerely,

Bud Wright Executive Director

LETTER FROM AASHTO’S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

VISION STATEMENTThe American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials supports members in the development of transportation solutions that create economic prosperity, enhance quality of life and improve transportation safety in our communities, states and the nation as a whole.

MISSION STATEMENTAASHTO supports its members through policy development, advocacy, technical services and leadership development and through advancing partnerships and promoting innovation.

TABLE OF CONTENTSExecutive Committee Members . . . . . . . . . 2

Letter from the Executive Director . . . . . . 3

AASHTO Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Strategic Goals: A Vision for a Vital National Partnership . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Goal: Lead in National Transportation Policy Development . . . . . 6

Goal: Communicate the Value of Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Goal: Provide Value to Members . . . . . . . 12

Goal: Provide Innovative Technical and Professional Services, Products. . . . . 15

FY2016 Budget Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

The Year Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Cover photo of Woodrow Wilson Bridge reproduced by permission from Eye Construction, Inc. © 2008.

2015 AASHTO Annual Report | 3

AASHTO LEADERSHIP

Jim TymonChief Operating Officer/Director of Policy and Management

Joung LeePolicy Director

Jenet AdemDirector of Finance and Administration

Bud WrightExecutive Director

Erin GradyDirector of Publications Production

Lloyd BrownDirector of Communications

Monica RussellDirector of Meetings and Member Services

King GeeDirector of Engineering and Technical Services

Jim McDonnellProgram Director for Engineering

Jan EdwardsAASHTOWare Project Director

Steve LenkerDirector, Construction Materials Reference Labs


For more than 100 years, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials has served as a meeting place for leaders of state departments of transportation and their federal partners to share their vision, enthusiasm and expertise.

That shared effort has helped produce one of the most dynamic transportation systems in the world, one that has played a major role into building the U.S. economy into the world’s strongest while supporting personal mobility that sharply enhances the quality of life for its residents.

AASHTO leverages the collective technical knowledge and policy insights of its 52 member departments to provide programs, staff and collaborative resources to support and constantly try to improve that transportation system.

Often these efforts have been against the backdrop of financial pressures on state and federal programs to find ways to achieve more with less, and to always show legislators and the public that the member agencies are delivering the highest possible value from the resources they have available. The sharing of states’ expertise in AASHTO has helped members get the most project value for the investment dollars.

As part of the association membership’s effort to regularly “rethink” its vision and improve operations, the AASHTO Board of Directors in 2014 approved a long-term strategic plan that outlined four strategic goals for the organization. They were for AASHTO to:

• Be a Leader in National Transportation Policy Development

• Communicate the Value of Transportation

• Provide Value to Members

• Provide Innovative Technical and Professional Services and Products

AASHTO’s managers and staff embraced those goals in 2015, and this report to the board explains how they did it.

A Vision for a Vital National PartnershipSTRATEGIC GOALS


The CEOs of the 52 member agencies make up the AASHTO board, an elite group that plays a vital role in developing U.S. transportation policy. This has been the case since the organization’s founding, but was never more evident than in 2015 as the board repeatedly met the call to press upon Congress the urgency of passing a long-term surface transportation bill.

AASHTO and state DOTs regularly help educate members of Congress and federal officials about state infrastructure needs to move people or freight around the nation effectively. In 2015, state agency leaders intensified that effort in order to help develop major legislation that became the FAST Act. While many groups and individuals pushed for the five-year surface transportation bill that Congress finally passed in December 2015, no association was more active than AASHTO.

Many lawmakers or their staffs have told us that having the state DOT executives, and sometimes state governors, appear at congressional hearings or in their Capitol Hill offices on behalf of this effort very clearly helped build the political momentum that resulted in the FAST Act becoming law.

But while that signature legislation is a crowning achievement of the past decade, AASHTO staff and member state officials do much more to lead in national policy than work toward any specific law.

They aggressively foster a national message about the crucial need for transportation project investments, a message that often helps state legislatures as well as Congress take action to improve infrastructure funding levels. AASHTO staff and members also work with a range of federal agencies to increase states’ flexibility in how they manage their investment plans and state DOT operations.

AASHTO and state DOTs partner with other national associations to shape standards and guidelines for construction materials, safety hardware and structures from roadbeds to bridges. They develop research and software products that can save states vast sums in project costs, or can sharply reduce traffic disruptions by shortening the time to replace bridges or renovate roads.

And a broad range of AASHTO committees or special task forces tap the expertise of officials inside state DOTs to

Lead in National Transportation Policy DevelopmentGOAL


produce industry-leading technical publications, determine routes of interstate highways or bike paths and update national specifications for the latest innovations in safety products or construction methods.

Board membership in AASHTO indeed makes state agency CEOs part of an elite group, one that their states and the entire nation depend on to light the way on a broad range of transportation issues. It has been that way for over 100 years, and with the continued enthusiastic participation of state officials it will continue to play that vital role.

Here are some examples of policy leadership in the past year:

LEGISLATION

AASHTO in 2015 set the pace early on with its annual Washington Legislative Briefing in February. That meeting brought Senate and House transportation committee leaders to visit the group and pledge they would push for a major bill that same year.

Those lawmakers emphasized that state officials’ visits to Capitol Hill are important to help sway other lawmakers, who may not be as well versed in infrastructure needs but who will listen when their state officials point out how federal programs affect projects back home. U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx also met with the AASHTO board on key issues, and AASHTO teams fanned out across congressional offices to press their issues.

As the year went on and the Highway Trust Fund faced a series of short-term extensions and potential disruptions—in spring, again in summer and in the autumn—many state executives made trips to Congress to testify on their home-state transportation needs and make the case for long-term action on Capitol Hill. Often these appearances were supported by AASHTO staff helping with the testimony, or by arranging meetings with lawmakers and staff that would write pending legislation.

AASHTO staff in 2015 participated in a series of open forums or news conferences to maintain public pressure, and in numerous private meetings with congressional staff to promote state DOT priorities. In the end, the long-term legislation that emerged from Congress reflected many AASHTO-member priorities, including a streamlined project delivery process and continuation of the federally funded, state-administered nature of the federal highway program.

REGULATION

AASHTO staff represents members throughout the year to make sure various federal agencies take adequate account of state DOTs’ project and operational needs.

During 2015, AASHTO submitted a number of public comments to the Environmental Protection Agency, Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Highway Administration, plus additional U.S. DOT offices and those of other agencies. The comments came as the federal agencies proposed new rules or proposed amending current practices that could affect transportation projects and programs—especially regarding federal rulemaking on performance management.


TECHNICAL POLICY

AASHTO and state DOT officials helped oversee scientific testing of controversial guardrail units, participated in fact-gathering surveys and industry task forces on the safety devices and worked with the FHWA toward speeding the adoption of new-era standards for roadside safety systems.

The past year saw AASHTO continue its participation in the Transportation Research Board’s meetings and programs. The new National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE), a partnership of several transportation organizations, was formally unveiled at the 2015 TRB annual meeting. Throughout the year, AASHTO and the FHWA rolled out millions of dollars in incentives to help state DOTs and other agencies adopt cutting-edge planning or construction techniques under the second Strategic Highway Research Program, or SHRP2. And summer saw AASHTO complete a major programming development project that allows it to operate online training courses under the Transportation Curriculum Coordinating Council, or TC3, for the benefit of member departments and others in the industry.

IN FOCUSNOCoE

The National Operations Center of Excellence officially

launched in January 2015 in offices adjacent to AASHTO

headquarters, after months of intensive preparation.

A partnership of AASHTO, the Institute of Transportation

Engineers and the Intelligent Transportation Society

of America with support from the Federal Highway

Administration, the center was designed to offer an array

resource to serve the transportation systems management

and operations (TSM&O) community.

In its first year, the new center offered such technical

services as peer exchange workshops and webinars,

provided on-call assistance and helped state agencies keep

up with best practices elsewhere in the nation as DOTs try

to get the most out of their transportation systems and

funding streams.

The NOCoE has an Operations Technical Services Program,

funded through contributions from state transportation

agencies and FHWA. It also maintains a website rich with

resources documents for information sharing, including a

section on case studies such as on time-travel messaging

to motorists through dynamic signs, or simulation modeling

for traffic analysis.

And as it moved into its second year, the center’s leaders

planned to expand both its offerings and it database of

TSM&O professionals to share information.


There is simply no way to be an effective leader in national infrastructure policy without a multi-pronged, aggressive program to communicate the value of transportation investments for the national economy, human safety and personal lifestyle mobility choices.

AASHTO in 2015 worked for its members with an array of communications efforts.

REPORT: AASHTO, along with the American Public Transportation Association, sponsored a new report on what it would cost government at all levels to maintain current highway and transit systems and keep pace with rising population demand. That Bottom Line Report was more than just another number-filled analysis. It served as the basis for a wide-ranging messaging campaign for months that included a news release on the report that was carried by many media organizations.

EVENTS: Later, AASHTO and APTA executives held a legislative briefing on Capitol Hill about the Bottom Line lessons. It was open to news media, which generated more coverage. AASHTO Executive Director Bud Wright penned an opinion piece on the topic that reached tens of thousands of readers of the AASHTO Journal and the national trucking magazine Transport Topics. Later in the year, as Congress appeared ready to pass significant legislation, Wright appeared in an hour-long news segment of the national CSPAN public access television network, in which he was interviewed on transportation programs and funding issues and fielded numerous calls from viewers.

VIDEO: AASHTO’s board invested for a second year in a major multimedia campaign that included a professionally produced video message urging Congress to “think big” about infrastructure needs and what lawmakers can do. It used some of the information from the earlier Bottom Line Report but moved beyond it to visually show the link between big projects out of America’s history and the impact on the economy and peoples’ lives.

Communicate the Value of TransportationGOAL

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF STATE HIGHWAY AND TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS

2015 AASHTO Bottom Line Report

E X E C U T I V E V E R S I O N

Transportation Bottom Line

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WEB EFFORTS: That “think big” campaign included a website and eye-catching, interactive infographic display. Inside it, 32 state DOTs entered their own information about the value of the federal highway program to their states’ capital spending. Some state agencies periodically updated this tool as the year went on, and linked to it in their own news releases. National and regional news reporters used the database and reported on it for stories that help spread the word about investment needs.

ADS: Our communications group further used this campaign in a series of targeted internet ad efforts, launched and repeated at times when Congress was trying to decide whether to complete a major bill this year or perhaps just punt the whole issue past the 2016 election.

PUBLICATIONS: Our communications team also maximized the advantage of publishing widely read daily and weekly online news products that each have more than 18,000 active subscribers.

We produced our own news reports through the weekly AASHTO Journal electronic magazine, keeping readers up to date on what Congress was doing on potential legislation and on how the lack of federal action was delaying more than $1.6 billion worth of state DOT construction projects.

The weekly magazine reported what state legislatures and governors were doing to increase their own project investments, and on the state leaders who visited Washington or regularly issued statements calling for Congress to shore up the federal program. We regularly saw other transportation publications cite the AJ stories, and often saw mainstream news agencies follow AJ-generated stories with similar reports on their own.

Both the weekly AJ and the Daily Transportation Update highlighted the efforts by U.S. DOT Secretary Foxx and other national transportation groups to press Congress to produce a solid multiyear bill. The DTU, which is a compilation of state and federal news headlines with links to the underlying stories or news releases, also helped amplify the AJ’s story reach.

TTV: The communications group furthered the messaging with Transportation TV news videos that sometimes reported major actions by Congress, and sometimes interviewed AASHTO’s Wright or Chief Operating Officer Jim Tymon about what to expect from Congress and what AASHTO members needed.

AWARDS: The communications team uses two series of national awards to state DOTs to help recognize and publicize the excellence of work done by those agencies. The America’s Transportation Awards salute projects competing on the regional and then national level, while the Faces of Transportation awards highlight photography and video productions the states use to help show the public what they are doing to improve transportation systems and safety.

From the rise of our national highway system to today’s integrated network of rail, ports, air and public transit, our transportation system has helped secure our economic future.

DRIFTING OFF COURSE

New opportunities are now challenged by our ability to maintain our transportation system:

• Every year, the average commuter wastes more than $800 and a work week stuck in traffic.

• Our freight network struggles to keep up with demand.

• 11 billion annual transit passengers face crowded and limited options.

Our economic engine threatens to stall.

TIME FOR A NEW DIRECTIONBut what if our system had the means to foster long-term growth?

Skilled workers could easily reach better jobs. Companies would gain improved access to our abundant natural resources. We’d be more competitive on a global scale.

All of this would be possible by re-investing in our transportation system. Every dollar we spend on highways or transit returns two to three times that amount to the economy. And with the right improvements, the average American household could benefit from more than $5,000 in extra annual income for the next 25 years.

Sources:• American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Transportation Bottom

Line. 2015 AASHTO Bottom Line Report. Executive Version. 2014.• Texas A&M Transportation Institute. 2012 Urban Mobility Report. December 2012.

© Copyright AASHTO 2015. All rights reserved.

IT’S TIME TO GET BACK TO THINKING BIG. START BY SUPPORTING THE HIGHWAY TRUST FUND (HTF).

To learn more about how HTF funding affects your local area, visit invest.transportation.org.


SOCIAL: All of these efforts were further aided by a growth in AASHTO’s social media presence. For instance, on Twitter the official @AASHTOSpeaks account has more than 14,000 followers, while @TransportationTV is followed by more than 1,000. We have seen story readership and video viewership jump when those accounts tweeted the links.

LETTERS TO BOARD: Executive Director Wright introduced a new communications tool in 2015 that focused on direct messages from him to all 52 board members. Wright emailed periodic one-page letters to the board. They served as a regular, targeted communications tool that helped spread the same message to all our agency chiefs at the same time.

Those letters sometimes reported to the board about association business. They often covered national policy issues and reminded board members of call-to-action deadlines. For instance, they sometimes let the many new agency CEOs as well as the legacy DOT chiefs know that an upcoming congressional recess was another chance to catch members of Congress back in their home states and help educate them on project investment needs.

STATE VISITS: Another, less visible, effort in 2015 was a series of targeted visits to state DOTs by several AASHTO communications team members. Those sometimes used AASHTO resources to train state officials in how to respond to media when interviewed on camera or when called for quotes on breaking news. AASHTO provided some of that training as well during part of the annual meeting, as it has in the past.

And the AASHTO team played a role in dealing with major news stories of the past year, such as how states or AASHTO responded to controversy over guardrail devices or how state DOTs in many parts of the nation were coping with crushing levels of snow to remove after historic winter storms.


AASHTO takes the goal of providing value to its members very seriously. After all, the work of AASHTO’s more than 120 committees, subcommittees, task forces and technical service programs depends on active participation by thousands of state DOT employees and industry representatives. Respecting, utilizing and honoring their contributions to the overall success of the organization is critical to ensuring AASHTO remains a trusted leader in transportation technical, engineering and policy issues.

In 2015, AASHTO focused on a number of activities designed to ensure the organization continues to show value to its members.

Among those was the start of a concentrated review of the AASHTO committee structure, an activity the board identified as a priority when developing the 2014 strategic plan. This review allows AASHTO leaders to evaluate how well committee activities, technical services and products align with the strategic plan.

Led by then-AASHTO Vice President Paul Trombino of Iowa and Secretary/Treasurer Carlos Braceras of Utah, a comprehensive committee review working group with members from all four regions met repeatedly in person and by phone to analyze the committee structure. The review’s goal is to help AASHTO improve committee focus and adaptability and to help the committees collaborate on issues that cut across their separate focus areas. The working group is expected to share its recommendations with committee leaders, staff liaisons and the Board of Directors in 2016.

AASHTO is also engaged in a separate review of the organization’s budget process, and launched

Provide Value to MembersGOAL


an AASHTO task force on budget policy. That panel’s goal is to assess the current and long-term financial health of AASHTO and to develop budget principles and policies that contribute to budget stability and minimize financial risks for the organization. The task force will make recommendations to the AASHTO Executive Committee in 2016.

The Executive Committee formally meets during the association’s spring and annual meetings. The 2015 spring event was in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in May, while the annual conference was in Chicago during September. Along with the Washington Legislative Briefing, which takes place each February in Washington, DC, these three main meetings in 2015 were all well attended.

AASHTO also organizes a series of agency CEO workshops through the year that supplement the larger, more formal springtime and annual conferences. The board’s membership of course includes many seasoned executives who have been in place for years, but as happens periodically the past year also saw an influx of new members as leadership changed at more than 20 state DOTs. An April CEO workshop was an opportunity for many new leaders to meet and share ideas with their counterparts, and be briefed on AASHTO operations and services. Another, held in Detroit, focused on economic opportunity through transportation investment.

Each meeting provides significant opportunities for engagement and idea-sharing among state DOT leaders, federal officials and industry leaders. And given the large number of new agency CEOs, the September conference’s session for new attendees was also well attended.

Another strategic plan value focus was for the association to support the transportation industry’s long-term health, such as by helping develop future generations of leaders and training in future core competency subject areas. To that end, AASHTO again this year invested in training programs that touched a broad range of ages and competencies.

The TRAC and RIDES programs help educate elementary, middle and senior high students about careers in engineering and transportation; these grew to include 21 of states and the country of Namibia. (See In Focus report on page 16.)

The National Transportation Management Conference held a series of five weeklong training sessions for middle managers at state DOTs, up from four in 2014. Separately, demand was so strong by senior transportation leaders to enroll in the limited-availability, two-week-long National Transportation Leadership Institute, which is held each year in Indianapolis, that many applicants were on a waiting list in case attendance slots would open up.

As noted earlier, AASHTO also brought in-house what had been the separately administered TC3 technical service program, which provides online learning for


IN FOCUSTRAC & RIDES

One set of AASHTO’s voluntary, value-added programs takes

aim at a long-term need of the transportation industry: To

develop a future workforce of skilled civil engineers. Through

the related TRAC and RIDES programs, AASHTO and

state DOTs help spur interest in transportation projects for

students from kindergarten through high school.

This Transportation TV video report explains more about

those programs.

To help build interest of students long before they must

make career-affecting decisions about which courses to take,

the TRAC program (which stands for Transportation and

Civil Engineering) provides curricula and skills competitions

to middle and high schools that are designed to integrate

into science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)

education. Participating state DOTs provide the program free

of charge to schools in their states.

TRAC sends teams of engineers into those schools with a

mobile lab and all the materials needed to run a variety of

experiments. The program also sponsors a national model

bridge-building competition for student teams.

The RIDES program starts with students even earlier,

bringing math and science textbook concepts to life for

children in grades K–8. Under it, classroom teachers attend

two days of high-energy training by national board-certified

instructors. The curriculum is aligned with math and science

STEM standards to build student achievement through

real-life applications of engineering concepts used in

transportation.

Student activities include experimenting, measuring,

graphing and predicting on a range of unit topics—

transportation and energy, roadway geometry, humans and

nature, railroad and seatbelt safety, design in transportation,

understanding maps and more.

transportation workers. AASHTO launched a new “learning management system” of web-based software to make it easier for state DOTs and their contractors to provide employees with critical training at low cost.

In 2015, AASHTO maintained its commitment to ensuring its membership remained well-briefed on the important issues and developments facing the transportation agency. We have noted that AASHTO maintains a robust communications and outreach program to spread the message about the value of transportation. That team’s role is primarily designed to provide state DOT executives and employees with the latest information about state and national transportation policy developments. AASHTO’s popular Daily Transportation Update, a daily roundup of news headlines and the AASHTO Journal, the leading weekly resource for in-depth news focused on state DOTs, are each emailed to more than 18,000 subscribers.

AASHTO’s robust web portal, Transportation.org, hosts more than 100,000 separate pages of information about committees, programs and services related to all aspects of transportation. And, AASHTO is a national leader in the use of social media tools that include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.


For 100 years, AASHTO has provided enhanced-value technical and professional services that member agencies opt to participate in and support. Some of these are conducted in collaboration with other associations or agencies such as the Federal Highway Administration. Together, these technical and professional services are the largest source of AASHTO revenues while offering state DOTs and other participants a range of programs and products outside their normal membership benefits.

The largest is AASHTOWare, the industry’s leading supplier of software products. Its offerings are developed by and for transportation professionals, to aid their project planning and delivery. Long a part of the association, AASHTOWare made additional strides in 2015 as its Project software suite introduced support for field data collection using mobile devices. (Read more about AASHTOWare in the separate breakout article.)

In addition, the AASHTO Materials Reference Laboratory continued through 2015 to send its assessors across North America to evaluate for accreditation the labs that test construction materials. The AMRL helps state DOTs maintain the largest accreditation program in the world serving the construction materials community. And it provides assurance to the public that the materials going into roads, bridges and other infrastructure are tested and evaluated by established standards to maximize safety.

The Center for Environmental Excellence by AASHTO continued to be a one-stop resource for information for transportation professionals. With severe weather and changing climate conditions, the AASHTO’s Resilient and Sustainable Transportation Systems Technical Assistance Program honed its focus on helping state DOTs under-stand the potential effects of climate change and the range of strategies and options for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Multi-state Transit Technical Assis-tance program helped states implement Federal Transit Administration Programs and provide feedback to FTA on implementation issues and best practices.

Other value-added programs in 2015 included the January launch of the National Operations Center of Excellence. Located adjacent to AASHTO offices, the center was a joint effort of AASHTO, the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the Intelligent

Provide Innovative Technical and Professional Services, Products

GOAL


IN FOCUSAASHTOWARE

This unique and powerful enterprise software suite is

AASHTO’s largest technical service program. And because it

taps pooled resources—designed by transportation profes-

sionals for use by transportation professionals—it provides

users with huge cost savings compared with developing

custom software or buying commercial packages. Users realize

savings not only on software development, but on mainte-

nance and support fees throughout the product’s lifecycle.

No other software matches its effectiveness for transportation

project design and management. That is because no other

software is cooperatively developed and continually updated

by experts from state transportation agencies across the

nation. Its products are built to help users comply with Federal

Highway Administration regulations, AASHTO standards and

industry best practices, while accommodating state-to-state

differences. The AASHTOWare technical services program

began in the 1980s “as a way for our members to pool their

money and their subject matter expertise to develop software

that met common needs,” Program Director Jan Edwards said

in a Transportation TV special report.

“You know, it’s amazing,” she added. “We’ve grown this into

a $34 million a year operation, but the fundamentals that led

to our success really haven’t changed that much. It’s still a

member-driven program that benefits both member agencies

and taxpayers across the country.”

During 2015, AASHTOWare’s Project software suite introduced

support for field data collection using mobile devices. With

that feature, daily work report data, with geo-tagged item

postings, can be collected in the field on a smart phone or

electronic tablet. The data is sent through the AASHTOWare

Project SYNC Service back to the AASHTOWare Project

software. In coming years, AASHTOWare will continue to

develop mobile applications focused on gathering information

in the field with secure and seamless data transfers.

In September 2015, AASHTO also released a project

proposal to develop the next generation of the AASHTOWare

Bridge Design and Rating System, under the AASHTOWare

Cooperative Software Development Program. That multiyear,

phased effort will begin this spring with a 48-month software

development and testing cycle, followed by three phased-in

software releases.

September 2016 will see the release of AASHTOWare’s

“Project 3.01,” the major enhancement of its web-based

Project software that covers four distinct functional

areas—preconstruction, civil rights and labor, construction

and materials and project estimation. That software

development effort, under way since 2014, involves extensive

enhancements to each of the modules to ensure that

transportation agency business requirements are met in both

the short and long term.


Transportation Society of America with support from the FHWA. This NOCoE serves the technical information and knowledge needs of member departments in the critical skill area of transportation system operations.

The year also saw the summer launch of the TC3 training site, new product implementation rounds of the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) that provided millions of dollars in product-use incentive awards. In October, AASHTO announced the official launch of the BATIC Institute: An AASHTO Center for Excellence, an education and training component of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Build America Transportation Investment Center.

In all, AASHTO offers more than 20 highly regarded technical service programs and products that are widely used by members and by the larger domestic and international transportation community.

In 2015, the Board of Directors at its annual meeting in Chicago made a significant change regarding AASHTO’s technical publications. Until then, the association’s by-laws required hard copies to be printed and released to member state DOTs, even as the AASHTO Bookstore and the industry it serves is moving to electronic titles that are easily searchable, and can be accessed through electronic devices in the field or the office.

The board voted to allow member release of AASHTO’s technical manuals and publications to be in the electronic format, an action that can substantially curb costs of printing, storage and shipping while providing the instant access and searchability of digital products. (The Publications In Focus report has more detail.)

AASHTO’s National Transportation Product Evaluation Program, another technical service program serving AASHTO’s state DOT membership, increased its product submittals by nearly 10 percent in 2015. It also added a new product category—warm-mix asphalt technologies—for which it is now providing product evaluations. The program has grown tremendously over the past decade, responding to member departments’ need to have a single verification point of manufacturers’ product performance and quality. During 2015 the AASHTO Product Evaluation Listing, an online database of information from the product testing process, established a new web interface for manufacturers. It reintroduced the posting of state evaluations for use by other states, improving its usefulness to state DOTs and the products industry.

Bridge committee members this year released the first edition of the AASHTO Load Resistance and Factor Design (LRFD) Specification for Structural Supports for Highway Signs, Luminaires, and Traffic Signals. These new specifications incorporate a wealth of research, engineering practice and LRFD methodology to the design, fabrication, construction, inspection and maintenance of structural supports, and are designed to be used in conjunction with other AASHTO LRFD-based specifications.

A hallmark of AASHTO’s strength as an organization has long been the collaborative way in which state DOTs engage with each other. As an example, in 2015 the Subcommittee on Maintenance completed its first maintenance peer network, a comprehensive database-building effort to share information between maintenance and operations officials at state DOTs in order to improve road and bridge maintenance practices across the country.

In developing that network, participants held workshops that included AASHTO partners at the FHWA, Associated General Contractors, American Road & Transportation Builders Association and the American Maintenance and Operations of Transportation Infrastructure Association. Those meetings took place in Arizona, North Carolina, Missouri and Pennsylvania.

Perhaps most significantly in its technical collaborations during 2015, AASHTO staff and members worked closely with the FHWA on a series of activities related to roadside safety hardware. AASHTO and state DOT staffs participated


in two national task forces, one that collected and analyzed component measurements for guardrail end treatments currently in use and another that reviewed crash information from a specific type of guardrail end treatment to deter-mine if the hardware performed as expected. This collaboration addressed concerns raised during a major court case.

In addition, the AASHTO Standing Committee on Highways approved a schedule for implementing the use of road-side safety hardware devices on the National Highway System that meet new crash-testing standards. The use of these newer devices will result in safer roadside hardware—a goal shared by everyone in the transportation community.

More broadly, the theme of moving from research into practice was a top priority in 2015. The AASHTO Standing Committee on Research, with help from a project of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program that is jointly funded by states using federal money designated for planning and research, began looking for ways to speed up the actual implementation of research. It is drafting a report due in 2016, which will recommend strategies that could rapidly transform how state DOTs conduct their business.

The pooling of collective experience and knowledge from across the nation was the genesis of AASHTO when it was formed in 1914. It remains the essence of what makes AASHTO successful today. Over the course of the year, member departments volunteered staff and contributed to the full array of AASHTO services. In return, they received numerous benefits, services, products and publications that support their day-to-day operations, and we highlight some of those efforts in this report.

IN FOCUSPUBLICATIONS

The array of technical publications produced by AASHTO

include the standards used nationwide for building and

maintaining highways and bridges, installing signs, lighting

and safety devices and guiding engineers from state DOTs

and construction companies on such vital issues as materials

requirements.

By longstanding association policy, AASHTO has until now

been required to produce print versions of each publication

and send them to its member DOTs, which means production

and distribution of at least 600 hard copies.

Now, following action by the Board of Directors this past

fall, AASHTO will begin issuing some titles in electronic

format only. Members will of course be able to print and

maintain their own hard copies if they choose, but AASHTO

will pare back its nationwide shipments of print versions and

maintenance of reserve stocks.

Erin Grady, director of publications production, said that

already “every title that we produce now has a PDF

counterpart to the print version.” The 2015 policy change, she

said, reflects “the board’s wish to move away from hard copy

production and do away with the costs of paper, printing,

storage and shipping.” Besides costs savings that can run

into tens of thousands of dollars for larger titles, Grady said

AASHTO and member DOTs “are sharing the environmental

benefits of going electronic, cutting our carbon footprint in

production, shipping and warehousing.”

New-era PDF or web-based publications maintained on

dedicated websites bring benefits to users and to the teams

of experts who build those titles, she said. Users can draw on

enhanced searchability features to find information quickly,

while also customizing data for production of their own state

DOT manuals and have access to them day or night from

various locations through portable devices.

As AASHTO and its expert committees decide which titles will

still generate print versions, Grady said that for 2016 “we

hope the majority of titles we produce will go digital.”


While we prepared this report late in 2015 and in early 2016, we could already see that the year ahead would be a busy time for AASHTO members and staff. The coming year offers a wide range of opportunities and challenges for transportation policy development, while our association has a fast-unfolding schedule of important meetings for members and other industry leaders. Internally, we also plan some significant changes to better organize, and better communicate our varied missions.

POLICYFAA: During 2016, Congress will need to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). That will be a legislative vehicle to both set the agency’s projected funding levels and perhaps make changes in its policies. Many state DOTs actively disburse FAA funds to airports for runway or terminal improvements, for instance, and have interests in various FAA programs.

Some states also house regional air traffic control centers that provide jobs and a significant economic impact, so they may be attuned to congressional discussion of such potential policy changes as privatizing the ATC workforce that is now part of the FAA employment base.

WRRDA: When House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., led House efforts to develop the water projects legislation in 2014, he promised colleagues that he would put the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) on a two-year cycle.

Many state DOTs have an interest in how WRRDA affects funding and policies for port and flood-prevention projects on both the coastal and inland waterways. The 2014 law authorized funds and set new funding rules for

THE YEAR AHEAD


barge navigation projects and for blue-water port dredging, and specifically authorized a set of projects for new federal funding that had received final go-ahead “chief ’s reports” from the Army Corps of Engineers. Since then, other projects around the nation would have advanced in the process, so a 2016 authorization would be expected to include many more new projects that affect waterborne freight shipments and flood control.

FAST Act/Investment Proposals: Many of our members will spend time early this year assessing how the five-year surface transportation reauthorization will affect them. AASHTO will be helping member agencies in this process, and in fact began with a January 7th in-depth explanatory webinar that detailed many significant features of the FAST Act.

Since 2016 is a major election year—for president, all of the House, a third of the Senate and many state legislatures and governors’ seats—AASHTO members and staff will also see ongoing debates about the investment levels needed to develop U.S. infrastructure to meet the demand.

Although Congress with its December passage of the FAST Act set surface transportation funding for the next five years, an AASHTO staff analysis shows that the new law’s modestly higher annual authorized funding of about $57.5 billion is $16 billion short of the Highway Trust Fund’s purchasing power in 1993. It provides stable funding that DOTs greatly needed; it is not a windfall and does not go far in curbing the immense project backlog or keeping up with growth in population and traffic volume.

And because Congress used $70 billion in general fund support on top of the trust fund’s normal excise tax revenue stream to pay for the FAST Act, it set up a huge policy challenge just a few years down the road. By 2021, the expect-ed gap between Highway Trust Fund income and spending will reach $20 billion unless the nation’s policymakers in the meantime find a way to pay for road, transit and rail programs. Finally, the law actually rescinds $7.6 billion in states’ highway program contract authority in July 2020 unless Congress strips that provision before then.

Already, some presidential contenders and candidates for other offices are saying the nation needs to invest more robustly in infrastructure. President Obama and Transportation Secretary Foxx have indicated they plan to propose additional transportation funding beyond FAST Act. Officials in a number of states are looking for ways to boost their state funding levels to address transportation project backlogs. Any of these channels may provide new opportunities to communicate the value of transportation investments.

MEETINGSWhile the Washington Legislative Briefing is AASHTO’s first major conference of 2016, it is actually just part of a robust 2016 meetings schedule that began with our participation in January’s annual con-vention of the Transportation Research Board.

At the TRB meetings, January 10–14, a number of state agency CEOs discussed issues at several sessions. In addition, AASHTO staff and staff of state DOTs participated in other sessions. And the SHRP2 research products were featured in 15 sessions.


Following the TRB in January and Legislative Briefing in February will be our New CEO Orientation in April. That could be especially important for the heads of state DOTs in 2016, since many more agency CEO posts have transitioned in the past year than in most years. The orientation will be held in Minneapolis, and will be a good chance for new CEOs to learn what AASHTO provides, as well as foster relationships with their colleagues in other states.

This year’s AASHTO Spring Meeting is set for May 24–26 in Des Moines, Iowa. It is the first major conference for agency CEOs and staff after the Legislative Briefing, and its location will allow more state officials to attend who may not have been able to attend the earlier meetings in Washington, D.C.

The association’s Annual Meeting is not just one of the premier conferences during the year for state DOT leaders, staff members and other industry officials to connect and drill deeply into issues facing them together. It is also the key board meeting time to conduct association business, vote on proposals from AASHTO committees and issue board statements on national policy. The 2016 Annual Meeting will be November 11–15 in Boston.

ADMINISTRATIONCommittees: During 2016, AASHTO’s committee structure review is expected to conclude its work and recommend changes that have been years in the making. Early indications are that its efforts could lead to a consolidation of some longstanding committees and subcommittees to make for a more efficient use of membership and staff time, and to help our committee lineup keep up with changes in industry technology and in the behavior of transportation system users.

Website: The face of our AASHTO websites will also continue its evolution in 2016, offering changes in look and content. For instance, changes coming from the committee review could lead to some website pages coming out of the public interface, and to a new set of links for our many site visitors who are not AASHTO members. Other changes are being designed to enhance site appeal and clarity.

Budget: AASHTO will continue to subject its budget to the scrutiny of independent auditors, so that officials of member DOTs can know with certainty how effectively the association’s funds are spent. It has been a point of pride for AASHTO leadership that the time and effort spent in a rigorous annual audit process confirms that your association is meeting its mission requirements at a high value level.


AASHTO’s FY2016 budget (July 2015–June 2016) of $89 million is outlined in three categories: Technical Service Programs, AASHTOWare and Operations. In recent years, AASHTO’s budget has increased primarily through increased revenue from AASHTOWare and Technical Service Programs. Currently, more than 80 percent of AASHTO’s budget is dedicated to the delivery and maintenance of the AASHTOWare suite of software products plus other Technical Service Programs, and the execution of federal contracts, which are all fully supported on a fee-for-service basis or through pooled funds.

The cost for a state to participate in each Technical Service Program is set by the AASHTO Board of Directors at a level intended to cover the expenses associated with running that program. Similarly, license fees for AASHTOWare software products are determined by task force member volunteers based on the cost to support and maintain each product, and allowing agencies to pool their resources to produce software at a significant cost savings. AASHTO also partners with the U.S. DOT on several federal contracts that produce deliverables that provide value to state DOTs. The largest of these contracts is the Strategic Highway Research Program 2, better known as SHRP2.

The Operations budget, which makes up 20 percent of the budget, includes the following subcategories: Publications; Communications; Committee Support; Policy and Legislative Support; Meetings; and Administration. The Operations revenue comes from dues, sponsorships, publications and investment income to cover expenses associ-ated with personnel costs, meetings, overhead and the cost to produce publications.

AASHTO currently holds approximately $32 million in reserves. However, it is important to note that $26 million of these reserves designated to be used for Techni-cal Service Programs and AASHTOWare future activities, for which the revenue was originally collected.

AASHTO FY2016 BUDGET SUMMARY


Audited Actual

FY 2014

Approved Budget FY 2015

Approved Budget FY 2016

Core Operations Revenue 13,839,204 14,552,746 14,086,796

Core Operations Expense 13,037,235 13,605,870 13,766,672

801,969 946,876 320,124

Unrealized Gain/(loss) 7,206,357 — —

CHANGE IN NET ASSETS 8,008,326 946,876 320,124

AASHTOWare Revenue 36,361,543 34,945,279 44,408,445

AASHTOWare Expense 35,166,574 34,765,755 44,408,445

REVENUE GAIN/(LOSS) 1,194,974 179,524 —

Technical Services Revenue 23,620,739 27,135,384 30,652,212

Technical Services Expense 21,646,449 26,546,537 29,831,538

REVENUE GAIN/(LOSS) 1,974,290 588,847 820,674

Total Net Revenue Gain/(Loss) 3,971,233 1,715,246 1,140,798

Unrealized Gain/(Loss) 7,206,357 — —

TOTAL NET REVENUE GAIN/(LOSS) 11,177,591 1,715,246 1,140,798

AASHTO RESERVES:

Undesignated—Operations 7,201,747 8,148,623 8,468,747

Designated—AASHTOWare 15,292,527 15,472,051 15,472,051

Designated—Tech. Service Programs 8,520,668 9,109,515 9,930,189

TOTAL NET ASSETS 31,014,943 32,730,189 33,870,987


American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials 444 North Capitol Street, N.W.; Suite 249 Washington, DC 20001

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