April 21, 2025
Innovation of the Month - Crowdsourcing and NextGen TIM
As EDC innovations continue to be adopted by State and local transportation agencies, instances arise where the synergy between two or more innovations can be quite impactful. For example, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) integrated Next-Generation Traffic Incident Management (NextGen TIM) and Crowdsourcing for Operations (EDC-6) to help Florida motorists stay safe during and after traffic incidents. While other State Departments of Transportation are integrating these two technologies, Florida is one of the few DOTs to collect quantifiable data on the benefits.
Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) computer aided dispatch (CAD) data has been integrated with the FDOT’s advanced traffic management software, SunGuide®, for more than two decades. Nearly half of SunGuide incidents and events originate from FHP, showing the value of CAD integration. In 2014, FDOT became the first State DOT to exchange CAD system data with Waze®. Waze is a third-party crowdsourcing application that transforms users of smart devices into a source of data that can create a “collective wisdom” about roadway incidents. Like public safety CAD, crowdsourcing data helps the FDOT detect roadway incidents, including crashes and roadway obstructions. Integrating Waze into SunGuide soon followed that same year, and the dynamic combination of CAD and Waze alerts now helps FDOT’s twelve regional traffic management centers get timely alerts about incidents. This leads to quicker response time to incidents, which improves safety and reduces the likelihood of secondary incidents.
FDOT Orlando Regional Traffic Management Center (Credit: Enforcement Engineering, Inc.)
Comparing crowdsourced Waze data with CAD data in Florida helped FDOT identify situations where better Waze integration could improve response. One year of statewide SunGuide data, containing over 330,000 FHP CAD alerts and 170,000 Waze alerts, were filtered and matched to identify events containing both Waze and CAD alerts on limited access roadways. Temporal and spatial buffers were applied to render over 6,000 matched events. Among these events, the time of day, FDOT district, and roadway were examined to understand when and where Waze or CAD reported the event first. The analysis found that public safety CAD is the most effective way for detecting crashes on roadways in terms of quantity and timeliness, but Waze data can provide earlier incident notification to SunGuide during late night and early morning hours; in districts with smaller urban areas; and on urban toll roads. In rural areas, Waze alerts can provide earlier notification compared to CAD data when they occur.
FHP CAD integration continues to be the most effective surveillance for Florida traffic management centers (TMCs). Crowdsourcing data is not a substitute for CAD integration, but it can enhance CAD data, especially under certain conditions and locations. Identifying these conditions can help agencies best use crowdsourced data.
To learn more about crowdsourcing for advancing operations, contact James Colyar, FHWA Office of Operations, or visit the innovation's EDC website.
To learn more about CAD integration and other Next Generation TIM technologies, please contact James Austrich, FHWA Office of Operations.
Participate in National Work Zone Awareness Week Events April 21 - 25
This week, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and its safety stakeholders are raising work zone safety awareness. Several events are occurring during National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW). On April 23rd, we would like organizations, companies, institutions and individuals to wear orange and share work zone safety messages by using hashtags #NWZAW and #Orange4Safety throughout social media. The North Carolina DOT developed social media images that could be used on your social media channels to promote NWZAW.
Source: National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2018-2022, U.S. Department of Labor’s, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Chart showing comparison between fatal worker injuries at road construction sites vs percent of all fatal worker injuries nationally that occur at road construction sites.
Annually, from 2018 to 2022, the number of injuries went from 124 to 135 then to 117, 108, and 94.
Annually, from 2018 to 2022, the percent went from 2.4 to 2.5, 2.5, then down to 2.1 and 1.7.
The number of fatal highway worker injuries have decreased from 124 in 2018 to 94 in 2022. FHWA will continue to promote safety in work zones to sustain this trend.
Smart Work Zones Technologies can improve safety by dynamically warning approaching drivers about the presence of slow-moving construction vehicles entering or exiting work spaces among high-speed traffic, thereby improving safety for workers and the public. For more information, contact Martha Kapitanov, Transportation Specialist, Work Zone Management Team.
New Resources Available to Help with UHPC Implementation
Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) has mechanical and durability properties that far exceed conventional concrete materials. This has made it popular for bridge construction, preservation, and repair, and the applications continue to expand for this material. The use of UHPC for primary structural components is the next potential phase of adoption as this use can decrease superstructure weight (decreasing the demand on a substructure or allowing for reuse of an existing substructure), decrease superstructure depths (increasing overhead or hydraulic clearance), increase span lengths (allowing for the elimination of interior piers), and enhance durability. FHWA has recently published several different resources to assist agencies implement UHPC primary structural components:
- Structural Design with UHPC Workshop Manual
- Section Shapes for Short-Span UHPC Bridges
- Possible Framework for Using the Strut-and-Tie Method (STM) with UHPC
FHWA also recently published two additional resources to help agencies deploy UHPC for other applications. FHWA interviewed three State DOTs and Federal Lands Highway Divisions on their experiences from early implementations of UHPC Overlays. FHWA also published a UHPC link slab design example showing the necessary design steps and considerations for this application.
FHWA is enabling the surface transportation community to reorient toward a future that embraces rapid construction of robust facilities using proven technologies. To learn more about UHPC, contact David Garber or Justin Ocel at FHWA’s Resource Center or Ben Graybeal or Rafic Helou at FHWA’s Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center.
Navigating the P3 Process: Key Considerations for Decisionmakers
Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) are long-term contractual agreements between a public agency and a private entity to design, build, finance, operate and maintain an infrastructure project. The FHWA Office of Performance and Innovative Finance (OPIF) developed several fact sheets to assist transportation decisionmakers on the P3 process. Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) provides a general overview of the opportunities and risks of public-private partnerships. Key Considerations in Implementing a Public-Private Partnerships (P3) Program focuses on the process, starting from establishing a policy framework through the operations and maintenance of the completed project. Federal-aid Funding and Availability Payments compares the P3 project process to the traditional Federal-aid project process and the use of Federal-aid funds in innovative long-term contracts with private developers. In such agreements, subject to the terms and conditions of the contract, the State grants exclusive rights to a developer who assumes responsibility for the highway's construction, operations, and maintenance.
For more information, visit the OPIF website or contact Jill Stark, FHWA Program Manager.
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NextGen TIM 3/20/2025
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About EDC
Every Day Counts, a State-based initiative of the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Innovation and Workforce Solutions, works with State, local, and privatesector partners to encourage the adoption of proven and underutilized technologies to deliver transportation projects more efficiently, enhance safety forall users, support a sustainable and resilient infrastructure, and incorporate equity inproject planning and delivery.
EDC News is a weekly publication highlighting successful EDC innovation deployments across the country.
EDC News is published weekly by the FHWA Center for Accelerating Innovation.
Disclaimer: The U.S. Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trademarks or manufacturers’ names appear in this document only because they are considered essential to the objective of the document. They are included for informational purposes only and are not intended to reflect a preference, approval, or endorsement of any one product or entity.
Except for the statutes and regulations cited, the contents of this document do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind the States or the public in any way. This document is intended only to provide information regarding existing requirements under the law or agency policies.
Recommended Citation:
U.S Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration
EDC News; April 21, 2025
Washington, DC
