■ INAUGURATION
“Welcome to the Inaugural Edition of the e-Ticketing Task Force Newsletter.”
– Former Federal Highway Administrator Gregory Nadeau
■ FIELD NOTES
Here’s to business changing innovation in 2021 for heavy construction.
Welcome to the Inaugural Edition of the e-Ticketing Task Force Newsletter. The Task Force was started in Massachusetts in December 2020, as an effort between MassDOT and several of the largest producers and contractors in Massachusetts who have pledged to go 100% digital (no more paper tickets). Led by Joe Spinelli, CEO of HaulHub, and Bob Anderson, VP/GM of Asphalt & Contracting Aggregate Industries, it quickly grew from Massachusetts to all of the New England states in just 3 weeks. From here, we have added colleagues from over a dozen other State DOTs across the country.
The Task Force has quickly become a group of like-minded DOTs and national producers and contractors who realize the effort to go fully digital and remove the paper from the construction materials supply chain has tremendous momentum and support and requires collaboration and idea sharing to make it happen. Given the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) leadership through the their Every Day Counts current initiative all rolled out in December 2020, the timing of the task force is no coincidence. This is an opportunity for the private sector to partner with our state DOT’s to advance paperless e-ticketing.
Hon. Gregory G. Nadeau
Former FHWA Deputy Administrator
It appears the overall interest in the e-Ticketing EDC initiative from states has been record setting. Change does not come easy in our industry and the mission of the Task Force help facilitate and support states and FHWA in this effort. This monthly newsletter will keep you updated on the latest from the world of e-Ticketing and how State DOTs across the nation are rolling out practical solutions to implement this initiative. As one of the most adopted EDC initiatives ever, e-Ticketing has the opportunity to reshape how business is done in the construction industry. With your leadership and dedication, widespread adoption of e-Ticketing will become a reality for key construction materials across the US in 2021.
Greg welcomes your feedback and can be reached at gnadeau@infrastructureventures.com
■ SPEC WRITER’S CORNER
Ideas from DOTs nationwide
We welcome your submissions and draft specifications. As you begin to think about and draft your state’s own contract language, having a venue to share and discuss might make the process easier for you and hence easier for your suppliers and contractors to adhere to. We will include draft language from other states here for you to read and use at your discretion. Many states have started the process of formalizing the language that will make it into contracts. These states are addressing a wide array of issues such as pre-construction requirements of test tickets to system performance in low cell phone / dead zones.
■ CELEBRATING SUCCESS
CalTrans I-5/Sacramento
CalTrans kicked off the 2020 construction season with an e-ticketing project on heavily traveled Interstate 5 near Sacramento. The $370 million rehabilitation and addition of two high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes will repair and repave approximately 15 miles of highway in Sacramento County. More than 150,000 vehicles travel on this highway daily. The e-ticketing project kicked off in May of 2020 and over the course of the summer, approximately 3,500 e-tickets were generated over the span of 30 working days.
With an expected completion date of December 2022, there is still lots of work remaining and we look forward to receiving an update on how the project is fairing as work is slated to re-start soon.
– By Matthew Valle
■ THE TALE OF THE TAPE
Close to fifty DOT’s have officially signed onto EDC-6. This makes EDC-6 one of, if not the highest adopted initiative in program history.
The majority of DOT’s have eliminated truck tracking systems due to liability issues and slow adoption cycles.
According to cell phone carriers, 30% of their wireless networks are 3G or less which is well below the requirement for reliable internet connectivity on a mobile phone.
■ ACKNOWLEDGING SUCCESS
Thanks to the founding fathers.
When you think back to when you first entered the construction industry, did you ever think you would be on the frontlines of one of the largest digital transformations any industry has ever seen? That’s right, you are taking part right now in the largest single disruption to the construction industry in the last 50 years which will lead to better decisions, an increase in productivity, better job site safety, reduction of risk, and now additional focus on sustainability.
The most significant reward related to construction for us all has always been a sense of pride and accomplishment when we work on and finish our collective projects. We have always felt good about the projects we have built together and the people we built them with as the sense of camaraderie is second to none in our industry. Well, now add to that sense of pride, the accomplishment of catapulting the entire industry forward into a full-scale digitalization revolution.
– By Joseph Spinelli
■ GET INVOLVED
Learn More About e-Ticketing
Want to sit in on a future Task Force meeting?
Reach out to matthew.valle@haulhub.com to learn more about how you can help move the construction industry forward.
June 21-25, 2021
Join us when we meet again (via Zoom) to discuss how we can continue to advance digital project delivery methods to all states, cities, towns and counties in practical ways that can be duplicated and just make good sense.
