Financial Summary |
|
Suggested Contribution: | |
Commitment Start Year: | 2025 |
Commitment End Year: | 2027 |
100% SP&R Approval: | Approved |
Commitments Required: | $750,000.00 |
Commitments Received: | $1,350,000.00 |
Estimated Duration Month: | 36 |
Waiver Requested: | Yes |
Contact Information |
|
Lead Study Contact(s): | Katelyn Kasberg |
katelyn.kasberg@txdot.gov | |
FHWA Technical Liaison(s): | Eduardo Arispe |
eduardo.arispe@dot.gov | |
Study Champion(s): | Kenneth Mora |
Kenneth.Mora@txdot.gov |
Organization | Year | Commitments | Technical Contact Name | Funding Contact Name | Contact Number | Email Address |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
California Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Thomas Mar | Sang Le | (916)701-3998 | sang.le@dot.ca.gov |
California Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Thomas Mar | Sang Le | (916)701-3998 | sang.le@dot.ca.gov |
California Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Thomas Mar | Sang Le | (916)701-3998 | sang.le@dot.ca.gov |
Florida Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Richard Stepp | Jennifer Clark | 850-414-4614 | jennifer.clark@dot.state.fl.us |
Florida Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Richard Stepp | Jennifer Clark | 850-414-4614 | jennifer.clark@dot.state.fl.us |
Florida Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Richard Stepp | Jennifer Clark | 850-414-4614 | jennifer.clark@dot.state.fl.us |
Georgia Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Parker Niebauer | Brennan Roney | 404-347-0595 | broney@dot.ga.gov |
Georgia Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Parker Niebauer | Brennan Roney | 404-347-0595 | broney@dot.ga.gov |
Georgia Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Parker Niebauer | Brennan Roney | 404-347-0595 | broney@dot.ga.gov |
Illinois Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Martha Brown | John Senger | 217-782-8582 | John.Senger@Illinois.gov |
Illinois Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Martha Brown | John Senger | 217-782-8582 | John.Senger@Illinois.gov |
Illinois Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Martha Brown | John Senger | 217-782-8582 | John.Senger@Illinois.gov |
Iowa Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Michael Thiel | -- -- | -- | Transfer.Research@iowadot.us |
Iowa Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Michael Thiel | -- -- | -- | Transfer.Research@iowadot.us |
Iowa Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Michael Thiel | -- -- | -- | Transfer.Research@iowadot.us |
New Jersey Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Hung Tang | Giri Venkiteela | 6099632239 | Giri.Venkiteela@dot.NJ.gov |
New Jersey Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Hung Tang | Giri Venkiteela | 6099632239 | Giri.Venkiteela@dot.NJ.gov |
New Jersey Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Hung Tang | Giri Venkiteela | 6099632239 | Giri.Venkiteela@dot.NJ.gov |
Ohio Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Don Fisher | Michelle Lucas | 614-644-8135 | michelle.lucas@dot.ohio.gov |
Ohio Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Don Fisher | Michelle Lucas | 614-644-8135 | michelle.lucas@dot.ohio.gov |
Ohio Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Don Fisher | Michelle Lucas | 614-644-8135 | michelle.lucas@dot.ohio.gov |
Texas Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Kenneth Mora | Ned Mattila | 512-416-4727 | ned.mattila@txdot.gov |
Texas Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Kenneth Mora | Ned Mattila | 512-416-4727 | ned.mattila@txdot.gov |
Texas Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Kenneth Mora | Ned Mattila | 512-416-4727 | ned.mattila@txdot.gov |
Washington State Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Tim Moeckel | Mustafa Mohamedali | 360-704-6307 | Mustafa.Mohamedali@wsdot.wa.gov |
Washington State Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Tim Moeckel | Mustafa Mohamedali | 360-704-6307 | Mustafa.Mohamedali@wsdot.wa.gov |
Washington State Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Tim Moeckel | Mustafa Mohamedali | 360-704-6307 | Mustafa.Mohamedali@wsdot.wa.gov |
Each year, the vehicle fleet
changes and evolves. Recently, emerging vehicle types are rising in sales and comprise
a larger share of the total vehicle fleet each year. The characteristics of these
emerging vehicle types pose many challenges to our transportation system moving
forward. For example, their effect on roadside safety hardware has the
potential to be significant based on their increased weight, lower center of
gravity, and different crush stiffness. For example, the Ford Lightning pickup
truck has a base curb weight ranging from 6,015 lb to 6,893 lb. Depending on
the engine configuration, the Ford F-150 pickup has a base curb weight range of
4,465 lb to 4,696 lb for a 4x2 drivetrain and 4,705 lb to 4,948 lb for a 4x4
drivetrain for the same cab style (SuperCrew®) and pickup box style (5.5-ft
Styleside) as the Ford Lightning. Similar weight differences are found when
other emerging vehicle platforms are compared.
The AASHTO Manual for Assessing
Safety Hardware (MASH) discusses that impact severity is a good indicator of
the magnitude of loading on a longitudinal barrier. Given a set of MASH impact
conditions (i.e., impact speed and impact angle), the impact severity
associated with an emerging vehicle will increase linearly with the weight of
the vehicle. One Ford Lightning configuration has a 32 percent increase in
impact severity compared to MASH Test 3-11 with the 5,000-lb pickup truck. Emerging
vehicles like the Rivian R1T pickup and Chevrolet Silverado SUV’s have even
greater weight and impact severity.
This raises a significant concern
related to heavier vehicle compatibility with some categories of roadside
hardware, such as various types of longitudinal barriers (e.g., guardrail,
median barriers, bridge rails), terminals, crash attenuators, breakaway support
structures, and other devices. Many roadside safety features are optimized for
the currently prescribed MASH design impact conditions and may have little or
no factor of safety for accommodating more severe impacts. The increase in
vehicle weight associated with emerging and heavier than normal passenger
vehicles will place more structural demand on barrier systems and, in some
instances will necessitate their redesign. Recent crash testing has confirmed
this when a Rivian R1T pickup truck penetrated a Midwest Guardrail System (MGS)
under MASH Test 3-11 impact conditions, thus failing the MASH structural
adequacy criterion. Research is needed to address these issues to prevent us
from getting too far behind the design curve and experiencing a potentially
significant increase in roadway departure crash fatalities.
The ever-growing market share of emerging
vehicles will also affect other aspects of our transportation system beyond
roadside safety hardware. The lack of gas tax revenue strains the resources
that DOTs allocate for new construction and renovation projects. The increased
weight of emerging and heavier than normal vehicles can affect loading on our
pavements and bridges. Some multi-level parking garages have already been
suspected of collapsing due to the unexpected weight of emerging vehicles.
Roadway geometric considerations of autonomous semi-trucks on the roadway
infrastructure (e.g., driveway and intersection turning radii and templates)
will also need to be accounted for in the future.
These are only a few of the areas
requiring further research and investigation that can be addressed under this
program. Many of the research needs associated with emerging and heavier vehicles
are common amongst the states, making a pooled fund approach of combined
resources an ideal way to address them. This Pooled Fund is focused on
providing a coordinated program of safety research for emerging and heavy
vehicles that will develop solutions to meet identified needs. This will
benefit the participating members in numerous ways, not the least of which is
enhanced safety.
The objective of this Pooled Fund
is to assist transportation agencies in designing safe, reliable, and cost-efficient
transportation network for the ever-growing emerging and heavy vehicle fleet.
One primary focus of this research program will be to improve roadside safety
hardware to address identified performance limitations. Standard W-beam
guardrail is the most common longitudinal barrier system used across the
country, and crash testing has already demonstrated its inability to contain emerging
vehicles. Other current roadside safety standards will be tested under NCHRP
Project 22-61. This program will support the next important research step of
improving the design of hardware found to be noncompliant with MASH criteria
when tested with emerging vehicles.
The scope of this Pooled Fund will
also include other needed emerging vehicle research areas, such as the effects
of emerging vehicles on roadway geometric design and loading on transportation structures
such as parking garages. Given the increasing percentage of emerging vehicles
across the country, all states will benefit from participation in this Pooled
Fund program.
Representatives of participating
states will be convened as a technical committee to identify common research
needs, select and prioritize research tasks, and provide oversight of these
tasks. Specific activities may include but are not limited to: design,
analysis, testing, and evaluation of roadside safety devices to accommodate emerging
and heavy vehicles, the development of guidelines for the use, selection, and
placement of these devices, investigating the effect of emerging vehicle
loading on transportation roadways, investigating the impact of emerging vehicles
(particularly large semi-trucks) on roadway geometrics, and other topics
identified by the technical representatives of the participating state DOTs.
The identification, description,
selection, and prioritization of research issues will be made by the technical
committee on an annual basis, unless emerging issues require committee
decisions in the interim. Computer modeling and simulation, full-scale crash
testing, crash data analysis, cost effectiveness analysis, and other modeling
and forecasting tools will be employed as needed to investigate the prioritized
emerging and heavy vehicle research tasks.
TxDOT will serve as the lead state
and chair of the technical committee and will enter into an agreement with
Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) to perform the research works
associated with the projects selected by the technical committee. TTI will
report back to the committee on a regular basis, seeking the committee's
guidance when appropriate. At a minimum, participating states must commit
$50,000 per year for three years to participate in the pooled fund
project.
General Information |
|
Solicitation Number: | 1612 |
Status: | Solicitation posted |
Date Posted: | Apr 18, 2024 |
Last Updated: | Feb 14, 2025 |
Solicitation Expires: | Apr 18, 2025 |
Partners: | CA, FL, GADOT, IADOT, IL, NJ, OH, TX, WA |
Lead Organization: | Texas Department of Transportation |
Financial Summary |
|
Suggested Contribution: | |
Commitment Start Year: | 2025 |
Commitment End Year: | 2027 |
100% SP&R Approval: | Approved |
Commitments Required: | $750,000.00 |
Commitments Received: | $1,350,000.00 |
Contact Information |
|
Lead Study Contact(s): | Katelyn Kasberg |
katelyn.kasberg@txdot.gov | |
FHWA Technical Liaison(s): | Eduardo Arispe |
eduardo.arispe@dot.gov |
Agency | Year | Commitments | Technical Contact Name | Funding Contact Name | Contact Number | Email Address |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
California Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Thomas Mar | Sang Le | (916)701-3998 | sang.le@dot.ca.gov |
California Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Thomas Mar | Sang Le | (916)701-3998 | sang.le@dot.ca.gov |
California Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Thomas Mar | Sang Le | (916)701-3998 | sang.le@dot.ca.gov |
Florida Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Richard Stepp | Jennifer Clark | 850-414-4614 | jennifer.clark@dot.state.fl.us |
Florida Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Richard Stepp | Jennifer Clark | 850-414-4614 | jennifer.clark@dot.state.fl.us |
Florida Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Richard Stepp | Jennifer Clark | 850-414-4614 | jennifer.clark@dot.state.fl.us |
Georgia Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Parker Niebauer | Brennan Roney | 404-347-0595 | broney@dot.ga.gov |
Georgia Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Parker Niebauer | Brennan Roney | 404-347-0595 | broney@dot.ga.gov |
Georgia Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Parker Niebauer | Brennan Roney | 404-347-0595 | broney@dot.ga.gov |
Illinois Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Martha Brown | John Senger | 217-782-8582 | John.Senger@Illinois.gov |
Illinois Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Martha Brown | John Senger | 217-782-8582 | John.Senger@Illinois.gov |
Illinois Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Martha Brown | John Senger | 217-782-8582 | John.Senger@Illinois.gov |
Iowa Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Michael Thiel | -- -- | -- | Transfer.Research@iowadot.us |
Iowa Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Michael Thiel | -- -- | -- | Transfer.Research@iowadot.us |
Iowa Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Michael Thiel | -- -- | -- | Transfer.Research@iowadot.us |
New Jersey Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Hung Tang | Giri Venkiteela | 6099632239 | Giri.Venkiteela@dot.NJ.gov |
New Jersey Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Hung Tang | Giri Venkiteela | 6099632239 | Giri.Venkiteela@dot.NJ.gov |
New Jersey Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Hung Tang | Giri Venkiteela | 6099632239 | Giri.Venkiteela@dot.NJ.gov |
Ohio Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Don Fisher | Michelle Lucas | 614-644-8135 | michelle.lucas@dot.ohio.gov |
Ohio Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Don Fisher | Michelle Lucas | 614-644-8135 | michelle.lucas@dot.ohio.gov |
Ohio Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Don Fisher | Michelle Lucas | 614-644-8135 | michelle.lucas@dot.ohio.gov |
Texas Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Kenneth Mora | Ned Mattila | 512-416-4727 | ned.mattila@txdot.gov |
Texas Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Kenneth Mora | Ned Mattila | 512-416-4727 | ned.mattila@txdot.gov |
Texas Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Kenneth Mora | Ned Mattila | 512-416-4727 | ned.mattila@txdot.gov |
Washington State Department of Transportation | 2025 | $50,000.00 | Tim Moeckel | Mustafa Mohamedali | 360-704-6307 | Mustafa.Mohamedali@wsdot.wa.gov |
Washington State Department of Transportation | 2026 | $50,000.00 | Tim Moeckel | Mustafa Mohamedali | 360-704-6307 | Mustafa.Mohamedali@wsdot.wa.gov |
Washington State Department of Transportation | 2027 | $50,000.00 | Tim Moeckel | Mustafa Mohamedali | 360-704-6307 | Mustafa.Mohamedali@wsdot.wa.gov |
Each year, the vehicle fleet
changes and evolves. Recently, emerging vehicle types are rising in sales and comprise
a larger share of the total vehicle fleet each year. The characteristics of these
emerging vehicle types pose many challenges to our transportation system moving
forward. For example, their effect on roadside safety hardware has the
potential to be significant based on their increased weight, lower center of
gravity, and different crush stiffness. For example, the Ford Lightning pickup
truck has a base curb weight ranging from 6,015 lb to 6,893 lb. Depending on
the engine configuration, the Ford F-150 pickup has a base curb weight range of
4,465 lb to 4,696 lb for a 4x2 drivetrain and 4,705 lb to 4,948 lb for a 4x4
drivetrain for the same cab style (SuperCrew®) and pickup box style (5.5-ft
Styleside) as the Ford Lightning. Similar weight differences are found when
other emerging vehicle platforms are compared.
The AASHTO Manual for Assessing
Safety Hardware (MASH) discusses that impact severity is a good indicator of
the magnitude of loading on a longitudinal barrier. Given a set of MASH impact
conditions (i.e., impact speed and impact angle), the impact severity
associated with an emerging vehicle will increase linearly with the weight of
the vehicle. One Ford Lightning configuration has a 32 percent increase in
impact severity compared to MASH Test 3-11 with the 5,000-lb pickup truck. Emerging
vehicles like the Rivian R1T pickup and Chevrolet Silverado SUV’s have even
greater weight and impact severity.
This raises a significant concern
related to heavier vehicle compatibility with some categories of roadside
hardware, such as various types of longitudinal barriers (e.g., guardrail,
median barriers, bridge rails), terminals, crash attenuators, breakaway support
structures, and other devices. Many roadside safety features are optimized for
the currently prescribed MASH design impact conditions and may have little or
no factor of safety for accommodating more severe impacts. The increase in
vehicle weight associated with emerging and heavier than normal passenger
vehicles will place more structural demand on barrier systems and, in some
instances will necessitate their redesign. Recent crash testing has confirmed
this when a Rivian R1T pickup truck penetrated a Midwest Guardrail System (MGS)
under MASH Test 3-11 impact conditions, thus failing the MASH structural
adequacy criterion. Research is needed to address these issues to prevent us
from getting too far behind the design curve and experiencing a potentially
significant increase in roadway departure crash fatalities.
The ever-growing market share of emerging
vehicles will also affect other aspects of our transportation system beyond
roadside safety hardware. The lack of gas tax revenue strains the resources
that DOTs allocate for new construction and renovation projects. The increased
weight of emerging and heavier than normal vehicles can affect loading on our
pavements and bridges. Some multi-level parking garages have already been
suspected of collapsing due to the unexpected weight of emerging vehicles.
Roadway geometric considerations of autonomous semi-trucks on the roadway
infrastructure (e.g., driveway and intersection turning radii and templates)
will also need to be accounted for in the future.
These are only a few of the areas
requiring further research and investigation that can be addressed under this
program. Many of the research needs associated with emerging and heavier vehicles
are common amongst the states, making a pooled fund approach of combined
resources an ideal way to address them. This Pooled Fund is focused on
providing a coordinated program of safety research for emerging and heavy
vehicles that will develop solutions to meet identified needs. This will
benefit the participating members in numerous ways, not the least of which is
enhanced safety.
The objective of this Pooled Fund
is to assist transportation agencies in designing safe, reliable, and cost-efficient
transportation network for the ever-growing emerging and heavy vehicle fleet.
One primary focus of this research program will be to improve roadside safety
hardware to address identified performance limitations. Standard W-beam
guardrail is the most common longitudinal barrier system used across the
country, and crash testing has already demonstrated its inability to contain emerging
vehicles. Other current roadside safety standards will be tested under NCHRP
Project 22-61. This program will support the next important research step of
improving the design of hardware found to be noncompliant with MASH criteria
when tested with emerging vehicles.
The scope of this Pooled Fund will
also include other needed emerging vehicle research areas, such as the effects
of emerging vehicles on roadway geometric design and loading on transportation structures
such as parking garages. Given the increasing percentage of emerging vehicles
across the country, all states will benefit from participation in this Pooled
Fund program.
Representatives of participating
states will be convened as a technical committee to identify common research
needs, select and prioritize research tasks, and provide oversight of these
tasks. Specific activities may include but are not limited to: design,
analysis, testing, and evaluation of roadside safety devices to accommodate emerging
and heavy vehicles, the development of guidelines for the use, selection, and
placement of these devices, investigating the effect of emerging vehicle
loading on transportation roadways, investigating the impact of emerging vehicles
(particularly large semi-trucks) on roadway geometrics, and other topics
identified by the technical representatives of the participating state DOTs.
The identification, description,
selection, and prioritization of research issues will be made by the technical
committee on an annual basis, unless emerging issues require committee
decisions in the interim. Computer modeling and simulation, full-scale crash
testing, crash data analysis, cost effectiveness analysis, and other modeling
and forecasting tools will be employed as needed to investigate the prioritized
emerging and heavy vehicle research tasks.
TxDOT will serve as the lead state
and chair of the technical committee and will enter into an agreement with
Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) to perform the research works
associated with the projects selected by the technical committee. TTI will
report back to the committee on a regular basis, seeking the committee's
guidance when appropriate. At a minimum, participating states must commit
$50,000 per year for three years to participate in the pooled fund
project.
Title | Type | Private |
---|---|---|
Approval of SPR Waiver | Other | N |