FHWA Administrator Victor Mendez keynotes first Green Streets & Highways conference

One of the key questions on transportation planners' minds across America today is "How can we make our transportation more sustainable?"

The engineers, analysts, planners, architects, and policy makers gathered at the first Green Streets & Highways conference in Denver this week set themselves the important task of trying to answer that question with regard to America's roadways.

The conference was hosted in part by our Federal Highway Administration, and Administrator Victor Mendez set the tone with his keynote address.

Administrator Mendez and I are proud of DOT's representation at this week's conference.  FHWA professionals numbered among the presenters and technical staff, and quite a few FHWA Division Administrators were in attendance. We believe it’s the largest showing by FHWA at any event of this kind.

So, can American roads be built to respect their surroundings and help sustain the planet? Administrator Mendez's answer was a confident "Yes."

We have the tools, and are developing even more tools, to make sure that transportation doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. Highway advocates, environmentalists, car owners, truckers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and preservationists can all reach their goals--together.

The first Green Streets and Highways conference met this week in Denver

As Administrator Mendez said:

"This means not only building roads to enhance safety, increase mobility, and enable the economy--but also so they have less environmental impact and use fewer resources to build and maintain. We're encouraging planners and engineers to explore the use of new materials that help us deliver projects so they’re more sensitive to the environment. We need to make greater use of recycled materials, materials that absorb sound and smog, and materials that make roads more durable and require less maintenance."

Some of those materials and technologies are already in development or use.

One material Administrator Mendez discussed is Calera, which allows road builders to make cement products and aggregates from sea water.

Another is warm mix asphalt. With this approach, asphalt can be mixed and put on the road at temperatures 30 to 120 degrees lower than the traditional hot mix, cutting fuel consumption by 20 percent.

Adaptive signal control adjusts traffic lights to real-time traffic conditions, keeping traffic moving and reducing emissions from congestion.

Using prefabricated bridge elements--where parts of a bridge are built off-site, then assembled on-site--reduces the traffic tie-ups and congestion that result when roads have to be closed for conventional bridge construction.

And one way to encourage the transportation community to think bout environmental issues is to have a tool for measuring whether we’re creating sustainable highways. Well, thanks to the leadership of Associate Federal Highway Administrator Gloria Shepherd, we now have such a tool. INVEST is a voluntary, web-based tool for measuring sustainability over the entire life of a project, from planning through design, delivery and operation.

Now, these are just a handful of new approaches to designing, building, and operating America's valuable roadways. But, as Administrator Mendez told this week's Green Streets & Highways Conference, we won't stop there.

Comments

[...]

Would you please add a link to the INVEST tool? Thanks!

[Natasha]

Where can we find more information on INVEST?

[Jasmin]

Where can we find out more information about the INVEST tool?

[Peter Bennett]

All of these materials innovations are nice, but they won't do nearly as much to curb climate change as reducing the amount people drive automobiles. Multi-modal infrastructure and retrofitting existing facilities must come before new construction. It seems like the FHWA self-interestedly promotes roadbuilding for automobiles - they would be out of a job if other modes actually had a chance.

[Andy]

The engineers, analysts, planners, architects......... but how about those of us who actually use those roads and bridges. Open up a forum online where anyone can make a suggestion abut how to make it these things more sustainable. You'll get lots of stuff some of it crazy while others are genius. Then let the engineers and planners hash out the ideas also online with links so everyone can check and see what they are saying. Anyone can comment on what the pros are saying on the general comment line.

If you just leave it to the pros you wont move far enough or fast enough and you'll miss out on the occasional true genius who doesn't work for you but has the lowest cost solution for your problems.

[piese auto online]

I think not only building material matter. Everything must be taken into account: the local population, the species of plants and animals, etc.. That can disrupt the habitat of animals highway and may jeopardize the existence. So these streets must be designed with great care, as an integrated system with nature.

[Stephen Nightingale]

So why should every traffic mixing solution involve a traffic light?

When the power goes off (several times every year, especially winter) nobody knows how to behave properly. Build roundabouts and they are effective and efficient 22 hours a day, and 100% of the time during power outages. And, the roundabout also gives cyclists a chance, since the 'speed timing' of a sequence of lights adapted to auto speed is no longer an issue.

At a roundabout whether in the car or on the bike I never have to sit there fuming for 2 minutes waiting for no traffic to go by, but for a light to change.

[Elizabeth]

Information on the IN-VEST tool is available at http://www.sustainablehighways.org/