ARTBA Joins FHWA for Innovation Discussion

What happened: Collaborative efforts to accelerate transportation construction projects are needed now more than ever, ARTBA General Counsel Rich Juliano told a virtual audience of federal, state, and local officials and industry representatives on Dec. 2. Juliano participated in a stakeholder panel organized by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), kicking off the seventh round of its Every Day Counts (EDC) program. FHWA Acting Administrator Stephanie Pollack moderated the session, which also included Jennifer Hall, deputy director and chief of staff at the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials, and Todd Kinney, Clinton County (Iowa) engineer and past president of the National Association of County Engineers.

Why it matters: ARTBA was an original partner in the EDC program starting in 2010, which has focused on deployment of technology and speeding up project delivery. Since launching the program, FHWA has encouraged formation of State Transportation Innovations Councils (STICs), consisting of public and private sector representatives, to review and choose the innovations it wishes to enact from each two-year round of EDC.

With investment from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) supporting more than 29,000 projects in just its first year, Juliano emphasized the continuing priority of EDC’s core purposes and partnerships among all parties to projects. In particular, he pointed out the importance of EDC-7 initiatives relating to workforce development, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program compliance on design-build projects, and safety – especially for highway construction workers. Juliano also noted the barriers to using technological innovations should be minimized, so that smaller contractors have cost-effective access to them.

What’s next: FHWA plans a slate of EDC virtual summits Feb. 14-16; more information to be announced soon. Also, for the first time, FHWA is joining with colleague agencies in the U.S. Department of Transportation, including the Federal Transit Administration, to promote some of its EDC priorities.