Long-Term Infrastructure Program Letter Report: January 27, 2023 (2023)
Chapter: LTIP BACKGROUND
gain an appreciation of how much the LTIP team is responding to its suggestions as well as the challenges within the agency of publishing a strategic plan, moving procurements forward to define data collection opportunities with state DOTs during fiscal year 2023 without an annual appropriation, and dealing with a declining allocation from FHWA’s discretionary research, development, and technology (RD&T) budget.
Notwithstanding institutional constraints, the committee believes it is possible for the LTIP to state its strategic objectives or at least state the specific RD&T objectives that the program’s activities are intended to serve. The LTIP has general goals and has laid out a strategic approach. However, the committee believes that the general goals expressed during the meeting—to collect pavement and bridge performance data and make them available to researchers—should be more tightly focused on outcomes, such as developing the tools and products that states and other asset owners need to manage their infrastructure assets. Broader and deeper consultation with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) bridge community as recommended in the section Assessment of Pavement and Bridge Activities During 2022, as well as with organizations such as the National Association of County Engineers, would help define bridge asset owner interests in this regard.
The committee also recognizes the valid reasons for the slow pace in moving toward the collection of data that states may already have and for ending field data collection of bridge performance data due to constrained funding. The committee continues to believe, however, that collecting field bridge performance data in collaboration with state DOTs should be a central element of the LTIP. The committee identifies specific steps the program could take to foster such collaborations in the section Assessment of Pavement and Bridge Activities During 2022.
For the committee’s virtual meeting next spring, the committee requests a program plan that identifies all of the specific projects under way through the LTIP and the associated activities within FHWA that are serving the LTIP strategic objectives, how they are doing so, and the expected project completion. Plans at the spring meeting would be compared with progress made at the year-end in-person meeting. The committee believes it would be helpful for it to understand and monitor progress on these activities on an annual basis. It has received briefings on many of these activities at various times, but an ongoing list and reports on progress will help the committee understand and track the whole scope of the effort. Less formally defined activities, such as outreach to asset owners and data users, should also be included on this list.
LTIP BACKGROUND
The foundation of the LTIP is field performance data on pavements and bridges from the LTPP and LTBP programs. LTPP data collection began more than 30 years ago as the world’s largest pavement performance field experiment. The proposed LTPP program gathered momentum as a state-led initiative that was conceived during the first Strategic Highways Research Program (SHRP) and authorized by Congress in 1987. Following the development and design of data collection through projects funded by the states and FHWA, the program was successfully designed and launched. By the early 1990s, the management of data collection was assumed by FHWA. At its peak, the LTPP program was collecting data on 2,500 test sections throughout the United States and Canada. Sections remain in the overall experiment until they fail or receive an overlay or other improvement. As of November 29, 2022, the LTPP was still collecting data from 332 remaining test sections. The LTPP data have been put to multiple uses, perhaps the
