DOTD wins “Sweet Sixteen” award from AASHTO
Monday, August 03, 2020 at 1:02:18 PM
Baton Rouge- The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development announces that it is the recipient of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO) annual Sweet Sixteen Award. This award is presented to state transportation departments who showcase the efficiency of a high value research project that has been implemented in their state within the last fiscal year.

The Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC), a division within DOTD, was recognized for its research project investigating e-construction inspection technology called HeadLight. This program significantly improves the efficiency of field inspectors and their project teams by allowing vast amounts of data to be collected electronically as opposed to traditional methods of manual transcription. Information, pictures and videos can be taken in real-time through a cloud-based, mobile application.

“I am proud of the work this agency continues to show time and time again,” said DOTD Secretary Shawn D. Wilson, Ph.D. “This award is a testament to the dedication and commitment our employees show on a daily basis. LTRC spent the last two years researching ways to increase productivity throughout the Department without increasing work hours. This system not only improves the quality of field data collection for our inspectors but allows for an increase in time savings and data volume. We estimate that when this program is adopted statewide, roughly 117,000 hours of man power will be saved each year allowing for that time to be reallocated to other priorities. From the pilot research through statewide deployment, none of the 187 projects using this technology had any approved claims, which is tremendous.”

Pilot testing on this program began last year. Currently, HeadLight is 74 percent complete in the process of being implemented statewide. Once completed, DOTD will be the first transportation department in the country to adopt a statewide e-construction program.

More information on this technology can be found here.