2001-2002 Call for Proposals

Past calls:

General Call for Proposals

Capital Maintenance Proposal

Best Practices for linking strategic planning to resource allocation (due July 16, 2001)

Midwest Regional University Transportation Center

announces a

General Call for Proposals

2001 - 2002

The Midwest Regional University Transportation Center  is soliciting the research community within USDOT Region 5 for proposals that reflect the focus and vision of the MRUTC. 

Proposals must combine the concepts of asset management and optimization analyses that may be directly applied toward transportation decision-making processes.

Research Topic #2

Proposals due Friday, June 15, 2001 5:00pm

Estimated Budget: $60,000-$100,000

Capital Maintenance

Subject: Defining administrative, analytic and educational methods to ensure that routinely performed capital preventive maintenance activities that extend the life of a transportation facility are performed in a timely manner.

Background: Transportation professionals would generally agree that carrying out capital preventive maintenance measures do extend the life of a transportation facility. Pavements will generally last longer if cracks are filled through crack sealing, seal coating or minor resurfacing. Bridges will last longer if decks are washed and sealed, bearings are adjusted and joints are replaced. 

Despite this understanding needed maintenance activities are often left undone for any of several administrative and management reasons. The cause may be a budgeting process that lumps these capital maintenance activities with highway operations, so that in a year of heavy snowfalls, snowplowing consumes the budget that might have been used for capital maintenance. They may be deferred because of a reluctance to reduce the capacity of a facility at a time when the problem is not readily apparent to the traveling public. The pressures for miles of added lanes or other high cost projects sometimes squeeze the capital maintenance budget. These pressures are often linked to political issues related to the need for “credit” and “ribbon-cutting” opportunities within the term of a particular party or political leader. Finally, maintenance activities that extend the life of a facility are often not done because the responsible manager simply cannot see clearly into the future. Is an expenditure that adds eight years to the life of a pavement a good investment in light of growing congestion or clear safety problems? Will the taxpayers receive the full life from this investment?

As industry knowledge of pavements and structures grows, the problem of ensuring that capital maintenance is done in a timely manner also grows. Corrosion resistant steels make bridges and pavements last longer, increasing the need for capital preventive maintenance, so that the total structure or pavement attains the maximum life provided by the new materials. Techniques like partial depth asphalt recycling and concrete pavement repair strategies allow specific problems to be treated without dealing with total pavement structures. These techniques must be used in a timely manner and other actions must be taken to protect the total pavement structure if they are to be successful.

The industries’ problem is the lack of management, administrative and educational tools that will enable and encourage capital maintenance activities to be done in a timely manner.

Research Tasks: The researcher(s) will be asked to deliver the following items: 

• A summary of best practices to be derived from a literature review and a detailed review of not less than three states in the cold weather region of the country. (Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado and Montana might be candidates for this review.) This review should document budgeting and programming processes, relevant contractual processes, appropriate use and structure of life cycle analysis and relevant educational and outreach activities.
  
• A clear definition of capital (versus routine) maintenance. What types of activities are included within it?
  
• A determination, based on the literature, of when commonly used preventive capital maintenance activities should be done.

• Documentation of the benefits to be derived, or costs to be avoided, when timely capital maintenance is done. This information should be presented in terms that would be understandable and compelling to the non-technical reader. Documentation should also include analytic methodology, so that practitioners can apply the methods to their agency’s data.
  
• A review of the potential benefits of private sector contractual relationships in this arena. For example, the researchers might evaluate whether those agencies that have employed design-build-maintain strategies have better experience in carrying out capital maintenance.
  
• A review of capital budgeting strategies, that may include those found in the best practices review, that may better support capital maintenance practices.
  
• A review of barriers, either legal or institutional, that may exist in federal laws, regulations, guidance and practices that might inhibit or foster the use capital maintenance strategies.

All of the information gathered in the listed tasks should be presented in the final report in the form of a guidebook or handbook that would be useful for practitioners as they confront this issue. 

Partnering Arrangements: Given the breadth of the subject, proposals that include partnering arrangements between disciplines, for example, engineering and public policy, will be considered favorably. Joint proposals between institutions are also encouraged. 

Mailing Address:  10 copies of all research proposals must be submitted to Jason Bittner at:

Midwest Regional University Transportation Center

1415 Engineering Drive, 1210 Engineering Hall

Madison, WI  53706

Format: Researchers should use the following format for submitting proposals:

Proposal Organization 

Proposals may not exceed 10 pages in length, and should include a detailed description of the following:

Cover Page

with project title; name and address of the performing organization; the name, title and mailing address of the principal investigator; and date of proposal submission.

Problem Statement

Research Objectives

Qualifications, Accomplishments and Other Commitments of the Research Team 

Equipment and/or Facilities

Time Requirements to Complete the Research

Proposed Budget with Description of Matching Funds

            Budget Description

Provide a summary tabulation indicating staffing plans, and estimated person-hours specific to each operational phase.  Budget estimates should include salaries, overhead, and indirect costs, travel, computer time, equipment (purchase and/or rental), expendable materials and supplies, report printing, and special services (as applicable). 

            Matching Funding

Budget estimates must also include identification of all matching fund sources, if any.   

Descriptions of Cooperative Features and/or Partnerships (if applicable)

Letters of support must be included from each team member, if multiple institutions and researchers are involved. 

Reports and other Deliverables (if applicable)

Appendices (as appropriate)

Additional Requirements   

Proposals should reflect strong consideration for educational missions of academic institutions.  Private research institutes will not be permitted to submit proposals except in partnerships with academic institutions. 

Proposals will be submitted for review to peers at other University Transportation Centers and other State Departments of Transportation.  At least two peer reviews on each project proposal will be conducted.

Researchers will be required to meet twice with the Advisory Committee sponsoring this research or MRUTC Staff.  In addition, attendance at the National Transportation Asset Management Conference in Madison, Wisconsin, September 23-25, 2001 is strongly encouraged.  A preliminary report on the status of the project will be due three months after the start of the project or December 1, 2001, whichever is earlier.  Brief quarterly reports will also be required, electronic submittal is acceptable.

Ten (10) paper copies (one unbound for duplication) of the final report should be submitted, in addition to an electronic version provided in Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect format.  

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Research Topic #3

Proposals due Monday, July 16, 2001 5:00pm

Estimated Budget: $150,000-$200,000

Best Practices for linking strategic planning to resource allocation and implementation decisions using elements of a transportation asset management program

Background: Several state Departments of Transportation have initiated strategic planning initiatives.  However, there has often been difficulty in linking these strategic plans to actual resource allocation and implementation decisions.  Additional challenges include building in the flexibility for plans to change as needs evolve, and incorporating customer feedback into strategic planning decisions.  One approach that agencies may have adopted to reconcile resource allocation and agency goals is to implement components of a transportation asset management philosophy.  Agencies and their governing bodies need to understand the benefits of transportation asset management and progress being made toward improved practices.   

The effectiveness of asset management implementation may be gauged by a series of metrics and benchmarks established for this purpose.  These benchmarks and metrics need to be established and updated over time. 

Research Tasks: The researcher(s) will be asked to deliver the following items: 

• A summary of best practices demonstrating how specific agencies have linked strategic plans to resource allocation processes. Researchers should review the literature and review at least four transportation agencies. The subject of the review should include how the goals and objectives outlined in the strategic plan are communicated within the agency, how system planning and programming processes are guided by strategic plans and how system progresses are evaluated using strategic planning metrics.
• A synthesis of metrics being used in the transportation agencies to determine how well the strategic plans, are being implemented.  Recommendations on metrics that might be considered but are not found in use among the surveyed agencies should also be included.
• A summary of factors, either in the agency culture or in the method of doing strategic planning, that might explain the greater success of one agency versus others in linking strategic planning processes to resource allocation processes.
• A model and set of guidelines to help DOTs link strategic planning to managerial resource and implementation decisions.

All of the information gathered in the listed tasks should be presented in the final report in the form of a guidebook or handbook that would be useful for practitioners as they confront this issue. 

Partnering Arrangements: Given the breadth of the subject, proposals that include partnering arrangements between disciplines, for example, engineering and public policy will be considered favorably. Joint proposals between institutions are also encouraged. 

Budget: The MRUTC has reserved $200,000 for this project.

Mailing Address: 10 copies of all research proposals must be submitted to Jason Bittner by 5:00pm July 16th at:

Midwest Regional University Transportation Center

1415 Engineering Drive, 1210 Engineering Hall

Madison, WI  53706

  Format: Researchers should use the following format for submitting proposals: 

Proposal Organization 

Proposals may not exceed 10 pages in length, and should include a detailed description of the following:

Cover Page

with project title; name and address of the performing organization; the name, title and mailing address of the principal investigator; and date of proposal submission.

Problem Statement

Research Objectives

Qualifications, Accomplishments and Other Commitments of the Research Team 

Equipment and/or Facilities

Time Requirements to Complete the Research

Proposed Budget with Description of Matching Funds

            Budget Description

Provide a summary tabulation indicating staffing plans, and estimated person-hours specific to each operational phase.  Budget estimates should include salaries, overhead, and indirect costs, travel, computer time, equipment (purchase and/or rental), expendable materials and supplies, report printing, and special services (as applicable). 

            Matching Funding

Budget estimates must also include identification of all matching fund sources, if any.   

Descriptions of Cooperative Features and/or Partnerships (if applicable)

Letters of support must be included from each team member, if multiple institutions and researchers are involved. 

Reports and other Deliverables (if applicable)

Appendices (as appropriate)

Additional Requirements   

Proposals should reflect strong consideration for educational missions of academic institutions.  Private research institutes will not be permitted to submit proposals except in partnerships with academic institutions.  Academic institutions within the boundaries of USDOT Region 5 are the only eligible lead institutions in accordance with the Strategic Plan of the MRUTC.

Proposals will be submitted for review to peers at other University Transportation Centers and other State Departments of Transportation.  At least two peer reviews on each project proposal will be conducted.

Researchers will be required to meet twice with the Advisory Committee sponsoring this research or MRUTC Staff.  In addition, attendance at the National Transportation Asset Management Conference in Madison, Wisconsin, September 23-25, 2001 is strongly encouraged.  A preliminary report on the status of the project will be due three months after the start of the project or December 1, 2001, whichever is earlier.  Brief quarterly reports will also be required, electronic submittal is acceptable.

Eighty (80) paper copies (one unbound for duplication) of the final report should be submitted, in addition to an electronic version provided in Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect format.  

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