The NJ State Transportation Innovation Council recently held its Winter Meeting. The meeting began with FHWA and NJDOT providing a recap of the Every Day Counts Round 5 (EDC-5) Regional Summit. FHWA's Innovation Coordinator & Performance Manager provided a brief overview of the EDC-5 Initiatives. New Jersey along with all other states assessed its current efforts and set goals for implementation of the EDC-5 Initiatives for the next two year period, ending in December 2020 with reference to five stages of innovation.
EDC-5 Innovation Initiatives and NJ’s Baseline and Goals, 2019-2020
| EDC-5 Initiative | Baseline: January 2019 | Goal: December 2020 | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Geotechnical Exploration Methods | Demonstration | Institutionalized | With proposed activities expect to move it forward to institutionalized |
| Collaborative Hydraulics: Advancing to the Next Generation of Engineering (CHANGE) | Demonstration | Demonstration | EDC-4 carryover |
| Reducing Rural Roadway Departures | Development | Demonstration | New initiative under EDC-5 |
| Project Bundling | Institutionalized | Institutionalized | Part of NJDOT toolbox |
| Safe Transportation for Every Pedestrian (STEP) | Assessment | Institutionalized | EDC-4 carryover |
| Use of Crowdsourcing to Advance Operations | Institutionalized | Institutionalized | Part of NJDOT toolbox |
| Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) | Assessment | Institutionalized | NJDOT has been a national leader with many advancements planned |
| Value Capture | Not implementing | Not implementing | Not formally advanced by STIC |
| Virtual Public Involvement | Not implementing | Not implementing | Not formally advanced by STIC. Agencies may be making use of this initiative. |
| Notes: Not Implementing: State is not currently using the innovation anywhere in the state; Development: State is collecting guidance and best practices and building support with stakeholders and partners and developing an implementation process; Demonstration: The State is piloting and testing the innovation; Assessment: The State is assessing the performance of and process for carrying out the innovation and making adjustments to prepare for full deployment; Institutionalized: The State has adopted the innovation as a standard process or practice and uses it regularly on projects. | |||
Presentations from the three Core Innovation Area (CIA) Teams -- Safety, Infrastructure Preservation, and Mobility and Operations -- highlighted what has already been accomplished (in prior rounds of EDC Rounds 1 through 4) and further described how NJDOT plans to accomplish the goals for EDC-5 Initiatives.
Participants were informed about the availability of innovative funding programs through FHWA's Center for Accelerating Innovative Programs to advance EDC-5 Initiatives and what New Jersey projects have already been funded through STIC Incentive Funding and the Accelerated Innovation Deployment Grant Programs. The meeting concluded with a roundtable discussion of the topics covered.
NJDOT will host the national STIC meeting on April 11, 2019.
Forthcoming NJ STIC meetings are scheduled for: May 7, August 8, and November 19, 2019.
Presentation slides:
Introduction and FHWA Update
CIA Team Presentation: Safety
CIA Team Presentation: Mobility and Ops
CIA Team Presentation: Infrastructure Preservation
Basic STIC Overview
