The US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT’s) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has announced the latest round of transportation innovations through the Every Day Counts (EDC) Program (EDC-7).
EDC is a successful state-based program that helps identify and rapidly deploy proven, yet underutilized, innovations that facilitate greater efficiency in project delivery at the state, local and Tribal levels. These innovations save time, money, and other resources to ensure that infrastructure is built better, faster, smarter, and more equitably. As part of the White House’s Action Plan for Accelerating Infrastructure, the Department of Transportation recently committed to expanding the EDC model to more modes of transportation. This year’s innovations are being promoted by the FHWA and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and will improve project delivery across highway, rail, and transit agencies at the state and local level.
“Americans get the best value out of innovations in transportation when they are broadly shared among communities so that good ideas spread across the country,” says US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg. “With today’s announcement, these innovations will be more rapidly deployed to save lives, protect taxpayer dollars, reduce carbon emissions, and ensure more families, workers, and businesses benefit from the Biden-Harris Administration’s generational investments in our nation’s infrastructure.”
“For over 10 years the Federal Highway Administration’s Every Day Counts program has rapidly deployed proven technologies and processes that can be implemented at the national scale,” says acting Federal Highway administrator Stephanie Pollack. “We are pleased to announce this latest round of EDC innovations to build on the program’s success with a focus toward advancing key priorities under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”
EDC-7 innovations will improve safety for all road users, build a sustainable infrastructure for the future and grow an inclusive workforce. Notably, some of the EDC-7 innovations were chosen with multimodal state transportation agencies in mind and are of interest to transit and rail agencies.
“Many of the innovations announced as part of this forward-thinking program will help make the nation’s transit systems safer, greener, and more equitable,” says Federal Transit administrator Nuria Fernandez. “We look forward to promoting the findings from these initiatives — from reducing greenhouse gas emissions to leveling the playing field for small businesses to compete for design-build contracts — throughout the transit industry.”
The EDC Round 7 innovations can be found here.
