The Stream by AASHTO

In this episode Tony Bush, Stormwater Branch Manager at Washington Department of Transportation speaks on its stormwater management innovations and key takeaways.

Joining us today from Ohio DOT is Erica Schneider, Assistant Environmental Administrator and Tom Barrett, ODOT’s Historic Bridge Program Manager and State Byways Coordinator to speak on Ohio’s Historic Bridge Inventory, Evaluation, and Preservation Plan and how other DOTs may implement these findings in their state.

FHWA recently launched its Wildlife Crossing Program, approving $350 million for wildlife crossing projects to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and improve habitat connectivity. The Oregon Department of Transportation has set a successful wildlife corridor, reducing 86% of wildlife-vehicle collisions. In this episode, Cidney Bowman, Wildlife Passage Program Coordinator with the Oregon Department...

Leaders of the transportation sector sit with us as they consider today's transportation climate and how DOTs can best equip tomorrow's leaders in tackling future challenges. Joining us today are Sara Stickler, Thomas Davidenko, and Alicia Walker. Sara is the President and CEO of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) International, Thomas is the Director of Programs at the Young Professionals i...

In 2012, the Georgia Department of Transportation approved a one percent sales tax to fund local transportation projects. Now, it is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Joining us in this podcast is Kenneth Franks, State Transportation Investment Act Administrator to speak on TIA’s success, future projects, and regional and local impact.

The U.S. has experienced severe weather changes including floods, droughts, and hurricanes, damaging infrastructure and habitats. Recently, the U.S. experienced a wave of winter storms one of which took place in the state of New York. Listen to this episode to hear from Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez to learn about how the New York Department of Transportation works to build a resilient tran...

In this episode of the Environmental Technical Assistance Program or ETAP Podcast, Lee Smith Interim Traffic Operations Division Director at Tennessee Dot and Dr. Dan Work Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University join the podcast to discuss the I-24 Motion test bed.

In this episode of the Environmental Technical Assistance Program or ETAP Podcast, Roger Millar – AASHTO’s newest president and Secretary of Transportation at Washington State DOT joins the podcast to discuss AASHTO’s presidential emphasis areas.

Founded in 2014, The Ray is a Georgia-based corporate venture devoted to roadway technology testing and collaborates with a number of state departments of transportation across the country. For example, in 2019, it formed a public-private-philanthropic partnership with the Georgia Department of Transportation to create and install a digital testing environment focused on critical interstate use ca...

PennDOT helped launch the new program – formally entitled “PA Fights Dirty: Every Litter Bit Matters” – in August along with several other state agencies. The program seeks to get state residents to ensure that every piece of their trash, regardless of size, is disposed of properly as research shows only 3 percent of Pennsylvanians approve of littering, yet 40 to 50 percent of them admit to litter...

The Ray and consulting firm NGI released the NextGen Highways Feasibility Study for the Minnesota DOT  in April ; a study that examined strategies for “co-locating” electric and communications infrastructure in highway right-of-ways or ROWs. The study focused on the potential deployment of buried, high-voltage/direct current or HVDC transmission lines within Minnesota interstate and highway ROWs –...

Kuran is the co-founder and CEO of Power Edison as well as co-founder and executive chairman of its sister company EV Edison – companies offering innovative renewable energy, EV charging, and mobile energy storage solutions for the grid. Kuran explains how a “vision” for a peaceful world with universal access to clean and sustainable sources of energy, food, and water drives his efforts in the EV...

The United States is a country with no national language, and with over 150 Indigenous languages still spoken today. With 5.2 million Indigenous people residing in the US today, speaking these 150+ languages—why aren’t more of our road signs printed in these native languages? Teams from the Iowa and Minnesota Departments of Transportation, along with Indigenous partners set out to change that. Joi...

Equity in transportation has become a major topic of interest the past few years, but the need for a more just transportation sector is not new. Groups like the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO) began working to promote equity in transportation decades before the concept became mainstream. COMTO was founded in 1971, just over 50 years ago, and as the association representing...

Empty your pockets at the gas station each week or navigate charging anxiety? Americans are caught in a catch-22; and that’s just for folks with the income to consider purchasing an electric vehicle. As gas prices climb quicker than electric vehicle charging infrastructure expands, organizations like Forth and the Greenlining Institute are working to ensure equitable access to our growing electric...

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) created the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation to facilitate collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Joint Office will align resources and expertise across the two departments toward leveraged outcomes. The office will be a critic...

            With school buses providing 10 billion annual student rides, electrification presents a major opportunity to green the transportation industry; and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act or IIJA, in concert with state DOTs and organizations like World Resources Institute, sets out to do just that. With a coming influx of $5 billion from the IIJA to replace existing buses, and addit...

Since 2020, the AASHTO Committee on Environment and Sustainability has held a weekly webinar series throughout the month of September with each week’s segment hosted by one of its four subcommittees. This year, when the Cultural Resources Subcommittee sat down to plan their webinar, it became clear that there was one topic on everyone’s mind– and that was: Post World War II construction (and what...

Today’s ETAP Podcast will focus on the upcoming 2022 Transportation Research Board’s Annual Meeting as well as provide a preview for the TRB Sustainability and Emerging Transportation Technology Conference taking place in March. This year’s meeting will be of particular interest to environmental practitioners and is titled: Innovating an Equitable, Resilient, Sustainable, and Safe Transportation S...

“One of the significant advantages of serving as AASHTO president is that it gives me a platform to address issues that matter,” says Dr. Shawn Wilson. Dr. Wilson is the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and was elected AASHTO’s first African American president in October. During his tenure as president, Dr. Wilson will be facing ‘issues that matter’ head on....

From loss of sleep to loss of hearing, noise can pose a real threat. Recent studies have even identified a possible link between noise exposure and dementia. Traffic noise is a major contributor to noise pollution that fuels these negative health outcomes. Tires hitting pavement make up the majority of highway noise. Better modeling and barriers can work to mitigate this for folks living near area...

Joining us today to discuss the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (or IIJA) is Joung Lee, AASHTO’s Director of Policy and Government Relations. This episode of AASHTO’s ETAP Podcast was recorded while the House of Representatives was reviewing the IIJA. As the bill works its way to President Biden’s desk, AASHTO has been working to represent the interests of state DOTs, and has done so quite...

Mark Hoffman, an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Auburn University, and his Graduate Research Assistant Karl Bohnenberger have been studying one of the lesser known contributors to poor fuel economy: rolling resistance. Rolling resistance is a measure of the effort required to keep a tire rolling. It might not grab headlines, but rolling resistance has a substantial impact on emis...

Once ubiquitous in North America, the Monarch’s striking orange and black wings are likely the first image that comes to mind when picturing a butterfly. The Monarch is famed not only for its beauty, but also for its role in a healthy ecosystem- the pollinators are a critical support to some uniquely American landmarks: from the Great Smoky Mountains to Zion National Park. Yet, over the past few d...

In this week's episode, host Bernie Wagenblast sits down with Matthew Quirey, a Landscape Design & Research Fellow at The Ray. For his thesis, Matthew partnered with The Ray to produce new classifications of the most beneficial and well rounded roadside vegetation systems which can now be used to guide Georgia’s efforts in sustainability and harmonious roadside ecology.