Criterion Examples
Criterion Examples are user-submitted examples to showcase how an agency or project accomplished points within a particular criterion.
Use the filtering below to look for Criterion Examples pertinent to your project or program. Please also visit the Submit Criterion Example page to share your INVEST experiences with other users!
The ability to share and review Criterion Examples within INVEST Version 1.3 hopes to create an open-forum and sharing of ideas. Criterion Examples can be submitted by anyone. Criterion examples are only reviewed by FHWA in the context of appropriateness. Submittal gives consent for FHWA to publish the example online; publishing online does not imply consent, approval, or endorsement by FHWA.
With the submittal of a criterion example, FHWA reserves the right to share your example on the INVEST website. The agency name will be shared, but name and contact information of the person who submitted the criterion will NOT be shared on the website, but will be visible to FHWA. FHWA may elect to review and provide feedback on your example, but is not obligated to do so. FHWA may elect to share contact information provided with criterion examples to other users who request that information.
While use of the INVEST website is private, and information about projects/programs and scores is not available to FHWA or other users, if a user selects to submit a criterion example, the information provided within that submittal is not considered private. The purpose of this is to ensure that examples are carefully considered by users and to provide a "forum" for ideas and examples to be shared among transportation practitioners. The scoring for any projects/programs registered by a submitter of a criterion example stays private; only the information pertaining to the criterion examples is shared.
Utah Department of Transportation Statewide Highway System
Download the full UDOT Criterion Example.
Using the pilot version of INVEST in winter 2011-2012, UDOT developed specific recommendations for sustainability improvements to its operations and maintenance program. UDOT then performed a new self-evaluation in the summer of 2014 using INVEST 1.0 to measure progress and identify room for improvement. UDOT found that it had made sustainability progress in a number of areas, including OM-07. UDOT scored well on this criterion, as it has a mature pavement management system (PMS) in place, but also found through the INVEST self-evaluation process that UDOT could further improve its PMS by integrating LIDAR data into the system to enhance the quality of the data.
Criterion Information
Scorecard: N/A Criterion: OM-07 Points Earned: 13 Link: www.udot.utah.gov
Sustainability Improvements
A high priority recommendation that came out of the 2012 INVEST self-evaluation was to implement collected LIDAR data into UDOT’s PMS. Even though undertaking this activity would not improve the INVEST score, the LIDAR data will give UDOT a more accurate inventory of the network. This would improve the consistency of the pavement condition data and lead to better results from the PMS. The PMS recommends the treatment, timing, location, and funding levels for pavement projects. Improvements to UDOT’s already sophisticated PMS would then maximize pavement lifetimes, decrease costs, lessen the environmental impacts of construction, and reduce raw material usage.
The recommendation also supplemented an effort at the time to switch from manual pavement condition assessment to automated data collection. Prior to 2012, UDOT collected pavement condition data manually by inspecting each tenth of a mile segment every two years. Staff photographed conditions and assessed ride quality. This information was then used to populate the state’s PMS.
Starting in 2012, UDOT switched from manual inspection to automated collection of state-of-the art 3D pavement distress data. The automated collection provided detailed cracking, rut and faulting distress data that is quantified by exact length, width and depth. The Department is now able to recommend specific projects, allocate funding, and predict future pavement performance more accurately than before. UDOT has estimated an annual cost savings of $3.4 million in improved pavement management practices and projects.
UDOT’s vendor also collected system-wide LIDAR data concurrently with the pavement distress information. Using the LIDAR data presented some early challenges due to the large amounts of information contained in the point cloud. UDOT worked with the vendor and outside consultants to refine and calibrate the data to improve the accuracy to plus or minus one inch. The uses of the calibrated point cloud continue to expand. UDOT has already identified many cost savings and uses for this data, as shown in the box on the next page.
Adding up the total savings and dividing by the costs yields a benefit cost ratio of 3.5, meaning that the monetary benefits to UDOT of implementing the recommendation outweigh the costs by three and a half times.
The implementation of the automated data supports sustainability concepts on many different levels. Much of the cost savings involves reduced time spent by personnel in the field and the associated travel. The reduced travel results in fewer emissions from burning less fossil fuel. The safety of personnel is improved because of the reduction in exposure to traffic. The improved pavement distress data provides better decision making criteria in the PMS. By performing the correct treatments at the right time, paving materials will be utilized to their maximum benefit.
