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AASHTO ANNUAL REPORT

20192019

2 | 2019 AASHTO ANNUAL REPORT

AASHTO Executive Committee

Scott BennettSecretary/Treasurer; Director, Arkansas Department of Transportation

Carlos BracerasImmediate Past-President; Executive Director, Utah Department of Transportation

Patrick McKennaPresident; Director, Missouri Department of Transportation

Victoria SheehanVice President; Commissioner, New Hampshire Department of Transportation

Kyle Schneweis, P.E.Director, Nebraska Department of Transportation

James BassExecutive Director, Texas Department of Transportation

Diane Gutierrez-ScaccettiCommissioner, New Jersey Department of Transportation

TBD

Craig ThompsonSecretary, Wisconsin Department of Transportation

TBD Melinda McGrath, P.E.Executive Director, Mississippi Department of Transportation

Kevin J. ThibaultSecretary, Florida 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

2019 AASHTO ANNUAL REPORT | 3

AASHTO Leadership

Jim TymonExecutive Director

Brandye HendricksonDeputy Director

Jim McDonnellDirector

of Engineering

Monica RussellDirector of Meetings

and Member Services

Steve LenkerDirector

of AASHTO re:source

Joung LeeDirector of Policy and Government Relations

Jan EdwardsDirector

of AASHTOWare

Erin GradyDirector

of Publications

Lloyd BrownDirector

of Communications

King GeeDirector

of Safety and Mobility

Jenet AdemDirector of Finance and Administration

Clarisse CobleHuman Resource

Director

Donna TamburelliExecutive Assistant


To the Members of the AASHTO Board of Directors: It is my pleasure to share with you the 2019 annual report of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The following documents the significant efforts that went into accomplishing the goals outlined in the AASHTO strategic plan—providing value to members; providing innovative technical and professional services and products; leading in development of national transportation policy; and communicating the value of transportation.

Again in 2019, much attention was given to the prospect of a new surface transportation authorization. Under the leadership of the Transportation Policy Forum, AASHTO developed a set of reauthorization principles and priorities that will help guide the association’s focus in the coming year. Additionally, AASHTO continued to advocate for safety priorities, including the preservation of the 5.9 gigahertz (GHz) wireless communication frequency for transportation safety.

AASHTO welcomed Brandye Hendrickson as its new deputy director and, in late 2019, the organization’s managers and staff began to implement a reorganization intended to flatten the management structure, better leverage staff talents and interests, and improve efficiency.

Finally, AASHTO was pleased that Congress repealed the $7.6 billion rescission of Federal-aid highway contract authority mandated by the FAST Act. AASHTO focused on educating Congressional members and staff on the potential impacts of the rescission and ultimately became a leading voice on this issue for the entire transportation industry.

Thank you for taking time to read our annual report. Here’s to another great year in 2020.

Sincerely,

Jim Tymon 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 STATEMENTThe American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials supports its members through policy development, advocacy, technical services and leadership development, and through advancing partnerships and promoting innovation.

Letter from AASHTO’s Executive Director


That five-year plan envisioned AASHTO becoming nimbler in its response to changes in technologies and policies affecting transportation, along with embracing a more multimodal approach to transportation.

That plan was also enhanced by the three emphasis areas established by Carlos Braceras, executive director of the Utah Department of Transportation, during his term as AASHTO’s 2018–2019 presi-dent: workforce development, reauthorization of current surface transportation legislation—an effort focused on both funding and policy reforms—while also communicating transportation’s vital role in American life.

With those emphasis areas in mind, AASHTO continued to focus on meeting the four goals laid out in its strategic plan for 2019: • Provide value to members.• Provide innovative technical and professional services and products.• Lead in the development of national transportation policy.• Communicate the value of transportation.

This annual report explores the ways in which AASHTO’s leadership and staff accomplished those goals as part of the organization’s completion of its five-year strategic plan.

INTRODUCTIONEstablished as a national organization in December of 1914, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials notched a major milestone in its 105-year history in 2019 as the organization finalized plans to move its Washington D.C. headquarters to a new location; the first move for AASHTO’s main offices in nearly 45 years. AASHTO also finished filling out its executive suite in 2019, bringing on Brandye Hendrickson—formerly deputy administrator of the Federal High-way Administration and before that commissioner of the Indiana Department of Transportation—to be its new deputy director.

The focus on providing value to members and ensuring the highest quality technical support for AASHTO’s 52 member departments is representative of how the organization has embraced the four strategic goals of its 2014–2019 Strategic Plan, which concluded this year.

“State DOTs are facing new challenges on several fronts. As technology develops rapidly, we as owners need to adapt proactively to operate safer, more effective transportation systems. Attracting and keeping a highly-skilled workforce is critical. It’s also imperative that we find ways to educate lawmakers and members of the general public about the irrefutable connection between long-term investment and safer, smarter, and more reliable transportation systems.”

~ Carlos Braceras, Executive Director of the Utah Department of Transportation and AASHTO’s 2018–2019 President

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The ongoing multi-year effort to reshape and restructure AASHTO’s committee structure continued in 2019. AASHTO depends on thousands of volunteers, who comprise the membership of its many com-mittees: entities charged with a range of important tasks, from constructing highly technical engineer-ing standards to the development of broad national transportation policies.

A major focus of AASHTO technical and policy staff is the support of the association’s six councils as well as 27 committees. It is largely through the work of these committees that AASHTO members realize their great-est value—sharing information and best practices and growing the knowledge and capabilities of the member transportation departments.

In response to the 2014-2019 Strategic Plan, the AASHTO Board of Directors approved a major overhaul of the organization’s committee structure in 2016. The following year, committee members and AASHTO staff worked to implement the new changes, updating com-mittee rosters and drafting new committee charters. That work continued in 2019 as committees finalized strategic plans and annual work plans to more clearly define their scope and purpose.

AASHTO also offers members the opportunity to participate in more than 20 different technical service programs. In support of those technical service pro-grams, AASHTO is working to increase awareness and improve program performance. To that end, marketing plans were drafted for two-thirds of all of AASHTO’s technical service programs in 2019; the first time many of these programs received marketing direction and

GOAL | PROVIDING VALUE TO MEMBERS

Carlos Braceras (left) and Maggie Walsh, Women in Transportation Seminar chair, signing a new MOU between the two organizations.

Kancheepuram “Guna” Gunalan (left), American Society of Civil Engineers’s 2019 president, and Carlos Braceras. Photo by Missouri DOT.

AASHTO is dedicated to providing the highest possible value to its members. That means

the organization focuses on: identifying and addressing the diverse needs of its members;

promoting awareness of AASHTO resources, including technical service programs; develops

and cultivates future leaders and core competencies within member agencies; and ensures

alignment of AASHTO’s organizational activities with its strategic plan. The following describes

AASHTO’s activities in support of this goal.


VALUE TO MEMBERS

assistance. By year’s end, all but two programs received marketing’s assistance for various projects and deliverables.

As part of its focus on workforce development, AASHTO signed a memorandum of understanding at its 2019 spring meeting in Park City, Utah, with the Women in Transportation Seminar to help foster opportunities and advancement for women in the transportation industry via mentoring and profes-sional development.

AASHTO also signed a partner agreement with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) at the 2019 annual meeting in St. Louis to provide additional workforce development opportunities for state department of transportation employees.

AASHTO continues supporting members through the planning and administration of meetings—plan-ning and executing more than 20 AASHTO committee meetings in 2019, along with the organization’s spring and annual meetings, Washington Briefing, plus a host of summits and training sessions on

National Operations Center of Excellence

The NOCoE is a partnership of the AASHTO, the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) – with support from the FHWA – that aims to foster and sustain Transportation Systems Management and Operations strategies throughout the transportation sector.

In 2019, the NOCoE launched a TSMO Awards program that received 60 entries, with eight winners from six different state DOTs honored across four categories. The group then turned all 60 entries into case studies within six months, using them in peer exchanges, research efforts, and as knowledge resources for use by its TSP members.

NOCoE also launched a workforce resource center on its website that includes a searchable database of more than 500 TSMO training programs avail-able for workforce development efforts along with 19 model TSMO position descriptions for state DOT use.

The group also held the second annual Transportation Technology Tournament in 2019 in partnership with the USDOT. Held during the ITE’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas, the NOCoE’s second annual transportation technology competition featured teams of college and graduate school students working directly with state and local departments of transportation to solve real-world transportation problems using both intelligent transportation system and TSMO solutions.

Left to right: NOCoE’s Patrick Son; Michigan team members Alex Sundt, Yan Zhao, and Xiatong Sun; ITE’s Jeff Paniati.


VALUE TO MEMBERSbehalf of the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) jointly managed with the Federal Highway Administration. AASHTO also provided support for several National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) conferences along with two Build America Transportation Investment Center (BATIC) Institute meetings over the course of 2019.

AASHTO’s leadership development series continued in 2019. The National Transportation Management Conference, a series of weeklong training programs for emerging managers, took place six times throughout the country. The National Transportation Leadership Institute, a two-week-long intensive program for senior transportation leaders, again took place in Indianapolis in June. And the National Transportation Advanced Leadership Institute—a weeklong program focused on Washington, DC policy and programs—welcomed nearly 30 attendees.

In 2019, AASHTO’s weekly online newsmagazine AASHTO Journal and its Daily Transportation Update headline news service continued to serve as go-to resources for member states and the transportation industry. Both publications continue to be updated, with the AASHTO Journal—redesigned and relocated to a new web platform in 2018—freshened with the addition of more photos and videos, which increased engagement with readers. The results were a 6 percent increase in subscribers.

Nearly 80 percent of respondents to AASHTO’s annual communications customer survey said they regularly read the AASHTO Journal and more than 70 percent said they regularly read the Daily Transportation Update. The Daily Transportation Update was cited as the primary source for transportation news by 43 percent of survey respondents. In the survey, 87 percent rated the overall quality of AASHTO’s communications as either good or outstanding.


AASHTO’s work on implementing the “Toward Zero Deaths” or TZD National Strategy on Highway Safety in 2019 continued to focus on supporting state efforts to do more of what works while improving the overall traffic safety culture. To that end, new materials developed under the Safety Technical Service Program and via the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) were added to the www.towardzerodeaths.org website in 2019.

On top of that, AASHTO expanded the TZD toolkit in 2019—with additional guidance materials under development—to help states boost their traffic safety culture improvement efforts, while making the business case to obtain internal and external support for safety culture initiatives.

AASHTO also continued promoting the 7th edition of its Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets man-ual—commonly referred to as the “Green Book”—in 2019; considered by many to be the pre-eminent industry guide to current highway and street design research and practices. AASHTO also released three other key volumes—Very Low Volume Roads, 2nd Edition; the Partnering Handbook; and the Guide to Roadway Lighting Design—along with 14 bridge titles, including the 3rd edition of the Manual on Bridge Evaluation, and a 1st edition of the Guide for Accelerated Bridge Design. AASHTO also published 10 new and 66 revised materials and pavements standards, with more than 125 standards reviewed during the 2019 cycle.

The National Transportation Product Evaluation Program or NTPEP witnessed a 45 percent increase in the number of products evaluated in 2019 versus 2018. In particular, the Sign Sheeting Materials Technical Committee received its

GOAL | PROVIDE INNOVATIVE TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AND PRODUCTS

TM

AASHTO provides well-recognized and highly regarded technical services and products that

are widely used by members and the larger transportation community. The organization

strives to continue providing them by helping the technical service programs by: working to

make them financially self-supporting; improving technical service delivery; and supporting

high priority research. The following describes AASHTO’s activities in support of this goal.


highest number of product submittals in 2019 since 2000; a total of 79 products. Additionally, “Detect-able Warning Systems” and “Portland and Blended Cement” are now technical committees within NTPEP, so manufacturers can have these products evaluated via this technical service program.

The 2019 AASHTO Agency Administration Conference was held in Baltimore, Maryland. That conference provided a unique opportunity for 210 participants representing nearly all state DOTs to collaborate on pressing matters and challenges affecting the transportation industry while also providing dedicated tracks and sessions for each of the disciplines involved—the Agency Administration Managing Committee, Committee on Human Resources, Committee on Civil Rights, the Committee on Knowledge Management, and the Transportation Curriculum Coordination Council (TC3).

AASHTO’s new Knowledge Management Committee is success-fully up and running—with two annual meetings now under its belt—and provides substantial resources to members on knowl-edge management; information now available on its new website: km.transportation.org/resources/.

In 2019, the Council on Active Transportation held is second summer meeting in Reno, Nevada, and met jointly with the Committee on Design to focus on bicyclist and pedestrian safety—including the need for additional data to provide a basis for making targeted investments with limited resources. The Council on Active Transportation is also collaborating with the Committee on Safety to integrate appropriate pedestrian and bicyclist safety measures into the Highway Safety Manual. It is also working with the Committee on Transportation Communications to raise awareness of bicyclist and pedestrian safety issues.

The Council on Active Transportation and the Council on Highways and Streets will be jointly ballot-ing six design publications, including Geometric Design of Highways and Streets (known colloquially as the “Green Book”), the Guide for Development of Bicycle Facilities, and the Guide for the Planning, Design and Operation of Pedestrian Facilities. They formed a new joint subcommittee to provide early, top-down guidance to the Committee on Design and its technical subcommittees on those jointly-bal-loted publications.

Also, the Joint Task Force (JTF) on “Managing the Impact of Digitalization on State DOT Workforces” came into being in 2019 and conducted its first in-person meeting during the 2019 Agency Administra-tion Conference noted above. The JTF’s mission is to support state DOTs in addressing the impacts of digitalization on their workforces by raising awareness and developing cross-cutting solutions, prac-tices, and tools in the areas of culture, talent management, and information/data management.

TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

2019 AASHTO AGENCY ADMINISTRATION CONFERENCE

AGENDA 2 CONFERENCE AGENDA-AT-A-GLANCE

5 COMMITTEE ON CIVIL RIGHTS MEETING

8 COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES MEETING

10 COMMITTEE ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT MEETING

13 TRANSPORTATION CURRICULUM COORDINATION COUNCIL (TC3) MEETING

May 5–8, 2019 | Baltimore, Maryland


AASHTO’s Center for Environmental Excellence, formed in 2001 in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), provides a one-stop source for environmental resources and tools

for state DOTs and other stakeholders. The center offers technical assistance, training opportunities, and peer exchanges that allow state DOTs to share best practices designed to enhance and streamline the transportation delivery process. The center’s website— environment.transportation.org—also provides the latest information and resources on more than 20 important environmental topics.

In 2019, the center conducted two peer exchanges—one focused on flexible design during the AASHTO Council on Active Transportation and Committee on Design Annual Meet-ing, with the other focused on environmental justice for state DOT practitioners and rep-

resentatives from metropolitan planning organizations—and conducted a handful of webinars on topics such as infrastructure resilience, storm water management, and environmental justice. It also published eight state DOT case studies encapsulating “best practices” on a variety of topics, including: National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA state assignments, public engagement, vulnerability assignments, and flexible design.

Over the last year, the AASHTO Resilient and Sustainable Transportation Systems or RSTS distributed a bimonthly newsletter designed to highlight state DOT response to extreme weather related events including hurricanes, fires, and flooding. RSTS also provided strategic planning assistance to the Trans-portation Research Board (TRB) in preparation for the 2nd International Conference on Transportation Resilience to Natural Hazards and Extreme Weather Events.

The AASHTO Environmental Technical Assistance Program (ETAP) continued to provide opportuni-ties for state DOT environmental practitioners to share best practices and lessons learned on a variety on environmental topics. Additionally, it distributed the weekly ETAP newsletter to members, which provided important updates on activities at the federal level as well as state DOT specific articles.

The multi-year implementation of products and processes from the six-year $232 million SHRP2 research program—a national partnership between FHWA, AASHTO, and TRB—wrapped up in 2019. This represented a major undertaking to implement improvements across the four focus areas, thus reaping the benefit of the SHRP2 investments.

The program included $170 million—of which state DOTs contributed some $60 million—to implement the products resulting from SHRP2 research and AASHTO estimated that for every $1 invested by a state DOT in SHRP2 implementation, it generated more than a $2 return. All 52 AASHTO mem-ber departments participated in the SHRP2 implementation phase, with state DOTs, metropolitan planning organizations, and other transportation agencies implementing more than 63 SHRP2 products as part of 430 projects across the country. More than 300,000 individuals were engaged in the SHRP2 program, with more than 12,000 outreach activities—workshops, showcases, training



sessions, etc.—conducted along with more than 16,000 hours of direct technical assistance (primarily through consultants) provided to state DOTs.

Another key technical development in 2019 centered on a resolution revolving around a joint agreement with the FHWA to transition roadside safety devices from compliance with NCHRP Report 350 guide-

lines to new ones contained within AASHTO’s Manual for Assessing Safety Hard-ware or MASH. The final “sunset date” for implementing that agreement occurred on December 31, 2019, yet in some device categories only a few roadside safety devices are MASH-compliant—with some testing facilities reporting a two-year backlog of tests.

Both AASHTO and FHWA are committed to the transition to safer roadside hard-ware that is crash-tested to the newer MASH criteria, with MASH-tested devices still expected to be used when applicable. However, flexibility was provided to the final sunset date to accommodate the current limited number of MASH 2016-compliant devices that are available in several categories of roadside hardware. Thus, in cases where a MASH-2016-compliant device does not exist or does not meet the state’s

needs, an NCHRP 350 device or MASH 2009 device may be used until an appropriate MASH-2016 device becomes available.

AASHTO and FHWA agreed to review the availability of new devices over the coming year and deter-mine final sunset dates for additional device categories as new MASH-2016-compliant devices come on the market. To help encourage this transition, states may also, at their discretion and within appropriate state laws, sole-source MASH-2016 devices for use on their roadways.

In terms of technical training services, 44 states tapped into AASHTO’s TC3 web-based training pro-gram in fiscal year 2019, with a 40 percent increase in TC3 courses delivered on state learning manage-ment systems (LMS) from fiscal year 2018 to 2019, with a 50 percent increase recorded for TC3 courses delivered on the AASHTO training store LMS from fiscal year 2018 to 2019. Nearly 1,600 TC3 courses were delivered to the Local Technical Assistance Program/Tribal Technical Assistance Program com-munity through a pilot training partnership program between AASHTO and FHWA. That partnership program was extended into federal fiscal year 2020.

The AASHTOWare technical service program, which provides a suite of software products through a unique collaborative state DOT-led business-model, received more than $42.5 million in revenue for fiscal 2019—an increase of 18 percent compared to fiscal 2018—and witnessed a 13 percent jump in private sector companies licensing compared to the previous year.

Launched in March 2019, the new AASHTOWare Project Data Analytics soft-ware development initiative—AASHTOWare's first-ever Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering—will provide the ability to fully view, summarize, and analyze an agency’s entire construction program. AASHTO noted that 11 state DOTs are participating in this $12 million software development project, which is



expected to be completed by February 2023. Participating agencies will have access to production-ready features every two weeks, throughout the course of the four-year project.

AASHTO re:source—renamed three years ago and formerly known as the AASHTO Materials Reference Laboratory—now provides support to more than 2,000 laboratories accredited through the AASHTO Accreditation Program (AAP). All the central laboratories of all member DOTs and also many district/regional DOT laboratories are accredited by AAP.

AASHTO re:source’s Laboratory Assessment Program completed more than 1,000 assessments over the course of 2019 and its Proficiency Sample Program (PSP)—accredited for ISO/IEC 17043—had more than 11,000 enrollments last year.

AASHTO re:source is also working closely with more individual state DOTs to find innovative ways to tailor its programs to meet the specific needs of AASHTO’s member departments. Examples include the Pennsylvania DOT’s use of AASHTO re:source assessments and corrective action reviews, while the Oklahoma DOT and Illinois DOT are using the AASHTO re:source PSP to monitor asphalt mix-ture plant laboratories.


Photo by AASHTO re:source.



The 2019 National Bridge Challenge Competition

The National Bridge Challenge is part of the Transportation and Civil Engineering or TRAC program that teaches secondary school students from 7th through 12th grade how to apply a variety of math and science concepts to common engineering problems occurring in the develop-ment of transportation systems. A correspond-ing program—called “RIDES” for “Roadways In Developing Elementary Students”—offers similar outreach to younger students. State DOTs work with schools in their states by providing the curricula and resources for the schools and pro-viding engineers to visit classrooms to serve as speakers, teach hands-on activities, and/or talk to students about the importance of math and science in preparing for their future.

The 2019 National Bridge Challenge collected 370 applications from 23 states participating in the TRAC program. They were then narrowed down to a field of 132 semi-finalist teams—each team comprised of three students and one teacher—before being whittled down to a final round of 18 teams from six states: Michigan, Mississippi, Maryland, Florida, Louisiana, and California.

Over a nearly eight-month period, student teams used Model Smart and Bentley software to design their bridges, built prototypes using balsa wood and glue provided by the TRAC program, then used destructive testing to gauge the upper limits of the strength-to-weight ratio of their designs.

The all-day national contest finals—held in Park City, Utah, on May 21—began with team presenta-tions regarding the design and testing process of their bridges before a panel of judges, followed by destructive testing of their bridge models. Winners were selected based on points awarded for their presentations and for the performance of their models in destructive testing, with all team members receiving medals. Cash prizes were also awarded, with first place teams getting $1,200, second place teams $900, and third place teams $600.

Both programs are currently 100 percent self-funded and sustained with a “profit” margin that allows continued improvements and expansion of the programs. AASHTO continues to promote and improve the TRAC and RIDES educational materials for K-12 students—revising and aligning all modules with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) standards in 2019.

Currently, 24 AASHTO member departments contribute to the TRAC program.

Top photo: Theo Kumpula, Collin Remilong, and Keegan Erva from the EKR Miner Construction Team; Competition Judge Lara Lamparski of Bentley Systems. | Bottom photo: Mia Elgharbawi, Sarah Vo, and Isabella Woel-Popovich of the CSP Bridge Queens Team. Photos by Mississippi DOT.


A major 18-month effort by AASHTO’s Transportation Policy Forum wrapped up in September at the annual meeting in St. Louis with the approval of 10 policy resolutions regarding the reauthorization of surface transportation legislation known as the five-year Fixing America’s Surface Transportation or FAST Act, which expires in September 2020.

In the form of policy resolutions, AASHTO’s reauthorization package is composed of a vision statement, core policy principles, and eight outcome-oriented policy themes. The organization’s vision unequiv-ocally states that its policy recommenda-tions are founded upon transportation serving as the key enabler for a higher purpose: to provide the safest system possible, highest possible quality of life, and most robust economic opportuni-ties for everyone.

In addition, those policies are centered on five core policy principles:• Ensure timely reauthorization of a long-term federal surface transportation bill.• Enact a long-term, sustainable revenue solution for the Highway Trust Fund.• Increase and prioritize formula-based federal funding provided to states.• Increase flexibility, reduce program burdens, and improve project delivery. • Support and ensure the ability of state DOTs to harness innovation and technology.

A key legislative effort in 2019 involved the effort to repeal the $7.6 billion rescission of Federal-aid high-way contract authority mandated by the FAST Act set for July 1, 2020. AASHTO served as the leading voice on this issue for the entire transportation industry by spearheading three multi-organizational appeals to the leadership of both the House of Representatives and the Senate to nix the rescission, with more than 40 groups involved in this broad-based effort. After a two-year-long effort, the rescission was repealed via a continuing resolution funding bill passed by Congress and signed into the law by the President in November 2019.

GOAL | LEAD IN DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION POLICY

AASHTO seeks to advance the interests of its membership by playing a leadership role in

transportation policy development. AASHTO does this by: monitoring and sharing both

national and state policy and legislative initiatives; exploring innovative policy areas and

challenges; enhancing the organization’s effectiveness through collaborative partnerships;

and supporting members in developing multimodal transportation solutions. The following

describes AASHTO’s activities in support of this goal.

“When we speak together, we are more powerful and we need to be willing to step forward.”

~ Carlos Braceras, Executive Director of the Utah Department of Transportation and AASHTO’s 2018–2019 President


TRANSPORTATION POLICY LEADERSHIPOn the technology front, AASHTO organized the signing and sending a letter from the leaders of all 50 state departments of transportation, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to the Federal Commu-nications Commission on August 20 to “continue the nation’s commitment to improving transportation safety” by maintaining the 5.9 GHz wireless spectrum for transportation-only usage.

“Connected Vehicles (CV) utilizing Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication in the 5.9 GHz spec-trum will save lives by creating a seamless, cooperative environment that significantly improves the safety of our transportation system,” the letter said.

That letter was a part of AASHTO’s ongoing campaign to maintain the transportation-only status of the 5.9 GHz wireless communication band. That campaign included filing a comment letter in February with the USDOT stressing that the “cooperative systems” achieved through communication between vehicles, infrastructure, and other users via the 5.9 GHz band will provide an enhanced layer of safety and must be advanced.

“This ability to communicate will be essential for extending the range of vehicle-based sensing and achieving the full potential of safety benefits envisioned by connected and automated vehicles or CAVs,” the organization noted.

Where CAVs and cooperative automated transportation or CAT are specifically concerned, AASHTO spearheaded the submission of letters to Congressional committees in July and September seeking to remove regulatory barriers slowing down the deployment of automated driving systems. The organiza-tion also continues its efforts to establish the need for appropriate funding and balancing the state-local and federal areas of responsibilities when it comes to deploying self-driving vehicles.

In 2019, AASHTO developed the Guiding Principles for Connected Infrastructure Supporting Cooper-ative Automated Transportation, which were approved by all four regional state DOT associations and AASHTO’s Board of Directors. Their purpose: establish criteria for infrastructure owners and operators

to advance connected infrastructure, data, management, and operations supporting CAT solutions.

Developed in collaboration with ITE and ITS America, those principles encourage interop-erability and consistency in CAT deploy-ments. The principles also provide a frame-work that enable infrastructure owners and operators to consolidate and communicate.

AASHTO also published an updated drone/Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) survey and report, hosting a UAS demonstration at Front row left to right: Pete Rahn, Maryland DOT; Patrick McKenna,

Missouri DOT; Carlos Braceras, Utah DOT.


the organization’s spring meeting in Park City, Utah; resulting in significant positive media coverage for AASHTO and its member departments.

AASHTO’s annual Washington Briefing—held in Washington D.C. in February 2019—not only pro-vided a platform for members to hear directly from U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, along with House and Senate transportation committee chairs and ranking members, but also from the exec-utives leading key federal transportation agencies.

Allied organizations—such as the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) plus the American Public Transportation Association (APTA)—also provided their insights on surface transportation reauthorization to AASHTO members, along with perspectives offered by advocacy groups such as the National Resources Defense Council.

AASHTO staff also provided extensive support to several state DOT executives and other key leaders who testified at House and Senate transportation-related committee hearings on Capitol Hill in 2019; support that included preparing statements containing detailed policy recommendations on a variety of issues from infrastructure funding options to the benefits of transportation research and development investment:• March 6, 2019: Senate Committee on Environment and

Public Works hearing featuring Patrick McKenna, director of the Missouri DOT.

• March 13, 2019: House of Representatives Transporta- tion & Infrastructure Committee hearing featuring Roger Millar, director of the Washington State DOT.

• June 25, 2019: Senate Commerce, Science, and Trans-portation Committee hearing featuring Steve Ingracia, deputy director of technology and strategic planning at the Nebraska DOT.

• July 10, 2019: Senate EPW hearing featuring Carlos Braceras, executive director of the Utah DOT.

• July 11, 2019: House of Representatives Science, Space, and Technology subcommittee hearing featuring Brian Ness, director of the Idaho Transportation Department.

• September 12, 2019: House T&I hearing featuring Travis Brouwer, assistant director for public affairs at the Oregon DOT.

• December 5, 2019: House T&I hearing featuring Jim Tymon, AASHTO executive director.

TRANSPORTATION POLICY LEADERSHIP

Top photo—left to right: Tim Henkel, Minnesota DOT; Brain Ness, Idaho Transportation Depart-ment; Dr. Henry Liu, University of Michigan.Bottom photo: Patrick McKenna, Missouri DOT.


AASHTO also participated in efforts to more broadly engage the state DOT community in anti-human- trafficking efforts, supporting the USDOT Advisory Council on Human Trafficking and encouraging participation in an ongoing national survey for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program overseen by the Transportation Research Board on anti-human-trafficking efforts by state DOTs.

AASHTO’s board of directors also approved four joint position statements at its annual meeting in conjunction with the ARTBA and the Associated General Contractors of America. Those joint state-ments ranged from the highly technical—the use of accelerated construction techniques, engendering a national dialog regarding design-build strategies, and the full implementation of project delivery reforms—to a broad policy measure that calls for the construction of a “broader and stronger coalition” in support of infrastructure funding.

Finally, the Strategic Management Committee (SMC) reviewed all of AASHTO’s committee and council fiscal year 2020 action plans and identified gaps, overlaps, and opportunities for committee and council coordination. The SMC also provided direction to councils and committees regarding emerging and priority national topics, including delivering local projects and cooperative automated transporta-tion. The SMC also formalized the role of associate members, the private sector, and other associations in terms of participating within AASHTO committees.

The SMC approved recommendations regarding administrative actions that can be taken to expedite project delivery. It also crafted an implementation plan to develop a series of calls with FHWA and state DOTs on the topics of fiscal constraint, one federal decision, utility relocations, SEP-16, PROWAG and Buy America legislation. The SMC also proposed and is now overseeing a NCHRP research report entitled Communicating the Economic and Quality of Life Benefits of Transportation Infrastructure Investment. The purpose of this research is to identify evidence-based themes that state DOTs can use to raise awareness of these benefits and to develop strategies for communicating the themes.

TRANSPORTATION POLICY LEADERSHIP


In 2019, AASHTO continued to upgrade and revamp its communication channels to improve on its ability to com-municate the value of transportation to the general public, industry professionals, and national policymakers—along with its members and internal staff.

Critical planning occurred throughout 2019 in support of AASHTO’s reauthorization principles, with the organization mapping out ways to “personalize” the important role of transportation plays in the lives of everyday America’s as a way to showcase the value of federal and state investments in transportation infrastructure projects across the country.

Alongside that effort, AASHTO continued to provide ongoing support for the annual Work Zone Awareness Week campaign, which seeks to reduce fatalities in high-way work zones, and the Road to Zero Coalition, which seeks to eliminate traffic-related fatalities in the U.S. within the next three decades.

AASHTO also beefed up its online social presence via a series of think pieces by Jim Tymon posted on LinkedIn, including a joint guest editorial developed in conjunction with APTA.

Overall, AASHTO’s online communication channels witnessed significant growth in 2019 versus 2018. Website visits soared more than 560 percent year-over-year, with

GOAL | �COMMUNICATE�THE�VALUE� OF TRANSPORTATION

AASHTO increased social media presence includes a LinkedIn page for Executive Director Jim Tymon.

AASHTO works with members to develop tools for broadly communicating state and local

transportation needs and priorities to public officials, industry stakeholders, and the general

public. AASHTO helps communicate the value of transportation at the national level by provid-

ing members with mechanisms for telling the transportation story as well as by facilitating a

broad understanding of the link between transportation investment and economic prosperity,

quality of life, and safety. The following describes AASHTO’s activities in support of this goal.

“Too often we talk about the things we live and breathe every day—bridges and roads—and often lose track of the ‘why’ we are doing things. The public cares about things that impact their lives and we need to remind them and our people that transportation represents freedom; the freedom to move around when we want, how we want, and where we want.”

~ Carlos Braceras, Executive Director of the Utah Department of Transportation

and AASHTO’s 2018–2019 President


COMMUNICATE THE VALUE OF TRANSPORTATIONsubscribers to the weekly digital newsletter AASHTO Journal increasing to just more than 15,000. Year-to-date views of AASHTO Transportation TV videos on You-Tube hit 45,200, while followers to AASHTO’s twitter account—@aashtospeaks—reached 23,076.

The importance of outreach efforts to support funding, safety, and transportation operation issues also served as a central focus of the annual meeting of AASHTO’s Committee on Transportation Communications, known as TransComm. Held in Indianapolis in August, the 2019 TransComm meeting featured panel discussions with state and local politicians, state DOT communication directors, plus snow and ice operations specialists.

Each year AASHTO, along with AAA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sponsors the America’s Trans-portation Awards to help highlight the outstanding work of state departments of transportation and the benefits that work provides for local communities throughout the country. Three state DOTs took home top honors at the 2019 America’s Transportation Awards; a program that received 81 project nominations from 39 AASHTO members—up from 34 member DOTs in 2018.

The $801 million Infrastructure Improvements to Down-town St. Louis project—a collaboration between Illinois and Missouri DOT teams that delivered major multi-modal enhancements to both states—received the Grand Prize at the 2019 ATA competition, while the Georgia DOT’s $834 million Northwest Corridor Express Lanes project received the highest number of online votes in the competition, earning it the People’s Choice award. The Grand Prize and the People’s Choice awards each come with $10,000 cash prizes to be used to support a charity or transportation-related scholarship program of the winning state DOTs choosing.

ATA Grand Prize: Infrastruc-ture Improvements to Down-town St. Louis and the Illinois and Missouri DOT collabora-tive team recipients.

ATA People's Choice: Georgia DOT’s Northwest Corridor Express Lanes project.


COMMUNICATE THE VALUE OF TRANSPORTATION

The Rebirth of AASHTO Magazine

AASHTO officially revived and debuted a full-color print publication, AASHTO Magazine, at its annual meeting in October of 2019.

The magazine serves as another outreach tool for the organization to highlight the vital work conducted by state DOTs around the nation; complementing its AASHTO Journal weekly online newsmagazine, the Daily Transportation Update “quick-read” round up of transportation news headlines, the organization’s Transportation TV online video channel, and social media endeavors.

“People spend more time with magazines than they do other media, which is why this format gives us an opportunity to share the story of why transportation matters from a different perspective,” explained Lloyd Brown, AASHTO’s director of communications and marketing. Brown also noted that, according to the Magazine Publishers Associations Factbook 2019, approximately 91 percent of adults and 93 percent of people younger than 35 read magazines in both print and digital formats.

“Magazine readership has been growing in recent years and remains among the most trusted sources of information,” he said. “That’s why AASHTO is reviving a communication tool the association last used in the early 2000s.”

The magazine included a review of the Top 12 finalists competing in the 2019 ATA awards program, a full-length feature story on AASHTO’s 2019 National Youth Bridge Competition and a profile of Patrick McKenna, AASHTO’s 2020 president and director of the Missouri Department of Transportation.


AASHTO strives to conduct its business as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. AASHTO’s inde-pendent, third-party auditor reviewed the association’s financial statements and once again provided an unqualified “clean” audit opinion of its fiscal year 2019 fiscal ledger.

AASHTO’s fiscal year 2020 budget—approved by the executive committee in Park City, Utah—assumes $89,955,028 in revenue and $87,571,462 in expense, adding a net revenue of $2,383,321 to the reserve.

The AASHTO budget is outlined in three categories: Technical Service Programs, AASHTOWare, and Operations. Currently more than 80 percent of AASHTO’s budget is dedicated to the delivery and maintenance of the AASHTOWare suite of software products, technical service programs, and the execution of federal projects. All of these activities are supported on a fee-for-service basis or through pooled funds. The cost for a state DOT to participate in each technical service program is set by the AASHTO board of directors at a level intended to cover expenses associated with running that pro-gram.

AASHTO also partners with the USDOT on several federal contracts that produce deliverables that provide value to state DOTs, with the largest of these contracts being SHRP2.

The Core Operations category—which makes up 20 percent of the budget—includes the following sub-categories: Publications, Communications, Committee Support, Policy and Legislative Support, Meet-ings, Administration and Special Projects.

Revenue from dues, sponsorships, publications and investment income is used to cover Core Operations budget expenses associated with personnel costs, meetings, overhead and the cost to produce publica-tions.

AASHTO currently holds approximately $52 million in reserves. However, it is important to note that nearly $32 million of that total is designated to be used for TSPs and future AASHTOWare activities, for which that revenue was originally collected. Another $7 million is dedicated to a reserve fund that the AASHTO executive committee established in 2016. This reserve fund was established as a budget-ary safeguard and is only to be accessed if the association encounters unanticipated financial liabilities.

AASHTO continued to support its employees in planning and preparing for retirement. In 2019, AASHTO established a 457(b) plan, complementing the existing 403(b) plan already in place. AASHTO does not match any contributions made to the 457(b) plan. Funds in the 457(b) plan remain tax-deferred while in the plan and are not taxable until actually distributed to the participant from the plan.

AASHTO BUDGET/ADMINISTRATION


AASHTO Budget SummaryAudited Actual

FY 2018Audited Actual

FY 2019Approved Budget

FY 2020Core Operations Revenue 15,986,416 17,541,844 15,192,030Core Operations Expense 13,671,212 14,893,659 14,444,923

2,315,204 2,648,185 747,107Unrealized Gain/(Loss) 1,362,194 (269,156) —Change in Net Assets 3,677,398 2,379,029 747,107AASHTOWare Revenue 35,275,523 36,492,298 41,023,712AASHTOWare Expense 35,275,523 36,492,298 41,023,712Revenue Gain/(Loss) — — —Technical Services Revenue 34,091,613 33,074,570 33,739,286Technical Services Expense 30,526,736 30,464,139 32,102,825Revenue Gain/(Loss) 3,564,877 2,610,430 1,636,214Total Net Revenue Gain/(Loss) 5,880,081 5,258,616 2,383,321Unrealized Gain/(Loss) 1,362,194 (269,156) —Total Net Revenue Gain/(Loss) 7,242,275 4,989,460 2,383,321

AASHTO Reserves:Undesignated–Operations 11,270,768 14,444,642 14,864,245Designated–Reserve Fund 7,000,000 7,000,000 7,000,000Designated–AASHTOWare 15,292,527 15,292,527 15,292,527Designated–Tech. Service Programs 14,430,827 16,246,413 15,551,469

Total Net Assets 47,994,122 52,983,582 52,709,241

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials 555 12th Street, N.W. Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20004

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Front cover photo credits: North Carolina DOT, Missouri DOT, and Georgia DOT

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