Arizona will receive $970,000 to implement new technology to improve safety and reduce delays in work zones. Iowa will receive $1 million to advance its work on digital as-builts and e-Ticketing.
That’s thanks to a new round of federal grants awarded last week by FHWA. In total, $8.8 million was awarded to 10 projects from Maine to Montana. The grants were awarded through FHWA’s competitive Accelerated Innovation Deployment (AID) Demonstration program, which speeds up the use of “innovative practices, tools and technologies.”
The funding, for example, will allow Arizona to implement innovative work zone management techniques like variable speed limits, camera-based traffic monitoring, and dynamic merge control as planned through its Smart Work Zones initiative.
In Iowa, grant funding will help advance the state’s work on digital delivery, 3D modeling, and e-Ticketing. The state has been using a digital as-built model for the construction of the I-80/I-380 interchange in Johnson County, Iowa.
Iowa is one of 28 US states who have advanced into the “demonstrating” or “assessing” phase on the use of e-Ticketing technology, according to a recent federal report [PDF]. In 2020, the agency implemented e-Ticketing on 64 concrete and 12 asphalt projects.
The grants were the latest round in FHWA’s AID Demonstration Program, which has awarded nearly $100 million in funding since 2014. These financial awards have been used to advance the adoption of many technologies and practices that have been featured as part of FHWA’s Every Day Counts (EDC) program.
FHWA Administrator Shailen Bhatt said in a statement that, “Innovation is essential for the future of transportation infrastructure and these grants will help our State, local, and Tribal partners to improve safety, increase the resilience of our transportation infrastructure, and combat the climate crisis.”
