HighLight Heading
June 2009
Forum aids flexible design goals at Mn/DOT
Increasingly, state departments of transportation are turning to “flexible design” as a solution to a number of transportation challenges. To help plan its next steps in this direction, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) held the Flexible Design for 21st Century Challenges forum February 23–24 in Minneapolis. CTS conducted the event for Mn/DOT.
Mike Barnes
The forum began with opening remarks by Robert Johns, director of CTS. He noted how CTS has had a long history of research and leadership in the area of flexible design.
Tom Sorel, commissioner of Mn/DOT, said flexible design is an important issue, and partners are needed to make it work. “Together, we can move our commitment to flexible design forward and take it to the next level,” he said.
Mike Barnes, director of Mn/DOT’s Engineering Services Division, said the department would develop an action plan for flexible design after the forum. “What we learn and discuss here will be an important part of the change effort and get us all moving in the same direction.”
Dwight Horne, director of program administration with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), served as the moderator for the two-day forum. Flexible design is confined not only to projects, Horne said. “The principles of flexibility can be used in the entire arena of what we do—it has a role in all functions.”
During the forum, representatives from the FHWA and six other states that have undertaken initiatives to apply greater design flexibility shared their approaches and experiences. State approaches to flexible design vary widely and are sometimes referred to as context sensitive solutions (CSS), smart transportation, practical design, or practical solutions. While most state DOTs and FHWA state division offices have not embraced applying greater flexibility in design, some states report initial success or a promising outlook for their implementation of flexible design, but these efforts were not without challenges.
These barriers include institutional resistance, liability concerns, design speed misperceptions, concerns that flexibly designed projects compromise safety, and concerns about revising design guidance and standards to allow for flexibility. States that have implemented flexible design report that many of these barriers are only perceived and can be overcome using strong top-down leadership, education, consensus building, and a well-documented flexible design process.
There are many benefits to flexible design, speakers said. The benefits include an increased ability to accommodate multimodal transportation when needed, a greater sensitivity to the design needs of the local community and surrounding environment, the ability to increase safety system-wide, and the opportunity to touch more miles of highway with limited transportation funding.
A summary of the forum will be available from the CSS Web site. CTS maintains the site for Mn/DOT. CTS has also assisted the department with periodic CSS training, including the 2005 Midwest Region CSD&S Workshop, which attracted more than 200 participants from over 30 states.