Welcome to our Virtual Exhibit Hall

Check out additional innovations below and click the photo or titles to see the innovation details. This section includes whitepapers, posters, presentations and more.

Caltrans 5 Priorities StoryMap
Caltrans Division of Research, Innovation, and System Information (DRISI)

View a GIS StoryMap on Moving Forward for Transportation highlighting Caltrans 5 Priorities: Safety, Modality, Innovation, Efficiency and Partnerships  ​​

360 Project Tours
Joaquin Pedrin, Wesley Bexton, Adrienne St. John, Caltrans District 4

In a time of social distancing, this virtual experience allows us to make our outreach, communication, and engagement more effective than ever. Stakeholders can zoom into specific areas of interest, click links to see various project alternatives, and view video simulations from a driver’s perspective or from the air.

Combining Innovative Materials and Construction Methods to Improve Bridge Project Delivery in California
Dorie Mellon, Senior Bridge Engineer, Caltrans Division of Engineering Services

A new cementitious material called Ultra-High Performance Concrete is being used in combination with the Accelerated Bridge Construction to build bridges faster while increasing work zone safety, improving environmental outcomes, lowering negative economic impacts to the public and reducing traffic congestion.

Traffic Signal Coordination with TranSync-D & TranSync-M
Vanessa Chuang, Caltrans Operations, District 4

The software coordinates traffic signals at a shorter time period instead of using traditional timing consuming methods. Software base tool that would output/create traffic signal coordination patterns with ease and efficiency. Also, the software utilizes a user-friendly database and record keeping of coordination patterns that employs fast field response time to fine-tune signals. The utmost tool of the software is that it would recognize/identify the success of level of improvement of newly implemented coordination pattern(s) with GPS applications of real-time data such as travel time, number of stops, wait time per signal, queue length, and speed through the corridor. For further analysis, the software is efficient to output graphs of recorded GPS parameters to observe the critical areas of the coordinated corridor. Overall, the software is a must-have, and a great tool for an everyday traffic signal operator that utilizes data record keeping and a fast response time to adjust existing or new coordinated signals.

Transit Blues in the Golden State: Analyzing Recent California Ridership Trends
Jacob Wasserman, UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies

From 2014 to 2018, California lost over 165 million annual public transit boardings, a drop of over 11 percent. This report for Caltrans examines transit in California in the 2010s and the factors behind its falling ridership.

Piloting Experimental Marking
Caltrans HQ Safety Program

Did you know new traffic control devices and applications of existing traffic control devices not adopted in the CA MUTCD can be implemented on public and private roads open to the public in California? Read more in this fact sheet on Piloting Experimental Marking.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Drones)
Caltrans 

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS or drones) are a game changing innovation for Transportation agency field operations. Incorporating UAS technology into Caltrans business activities is promoting safety, boosting efficiency, and decreasing costs.

IT Hardware & Software Standards: Website, Catalog and Exception Process
Marc Christensen, IT Standards Coordinator, Caltrans Infrastructure Management Division

Gatekeeper for all new and unevaluated hardware and software for all of Caltrans.

Bee Hive Relocation, Not Extermination
Newton Wong, Caltrans Environmental Planning, District 7

A swarm of bees moved into a retaining wall on ven33 pm22. But workers were still building the wall and are bothered by the bees. The RE did not want to exterminate the bees and wanted to save them. Caltrans beekeeper Richard Hung (with help from Newton Wong and Mohammad Azimie ) relocated the bees by carefully shifting the wood beam in the retaining wall to remove the honey combs. Unfortunately, the queen bee was not captured. The swarm of bees then moved on to start a new hive somewhere else in the wild away from the active construction site.

Intelligent Transportation Systems, Data Transport, Aggregation, and Management
Hussein Kalakech, Transportation Engineer Electrical, D12 Traffic Operation, Electrical Systems Branch

Design and deployment of ITS solutions using methods and techniques in Ethernet networking (switching, routing, protection), as well as Intelligent Transportation Systems sensors, controllers, data transport, aggregation, and management using virtual server platforms and applications. 

Easy BEES (Basic Engineering Estimating System)
Vuong Hong, Traffic Engineer, Caltrans Traffic Design

Another way to do the BEES estimates which is easier and more user friendly.

Large-scale Evaluation of Pavement Performance Models Utilizing the Concept of Deterioration Rate and Automated Pavement Condition Survey Data
Xiang Shu, Ph.D., P.E., Transportation Engineer
Zhongren Wang, Ph.D., P.E., T.E., Supervising Transportation Engineer
Imad A. Basheer, Senior Transportation Enginee,
Office of Pavement Management Division of Maintenance Headquarter 

A new method was proposed for calculating pavement deterioration rate and used to evaluate the network-level pavement performance models in Caltrans’ pavement management system (called PaveM). The actual deterioration rates were calculated using the latest two cycles of automated pavement condition survey (APCS) data and then compared to the predicted deterioration rates obtained from pavement performance models.

Caught in the Middle: ATMS Procurement Options for Mid-Sized Agencies
John Kerenyi, City of Moreno Valley

Arterial Traffic Management Systems (ATMS) traditionally are either provided for free for use with their products by traffic signal controller manufacturers, who recoup the software cost through traffic signal equipment sales; or at high cost (both up-front and ongoing) from third parties, but (by virtue of supporting multiple manufacturers) enable controllers to be purchased at competitive prices. The paper and presentation discuss a third approach whereby an agency can reap both cost-effective, competitive traffic signal equipment procurement and low central software costs through the use of open-source software.

BMap2 Tool
Andrew Ao, Caltrans Structure Maintenance and Investigations

BMap2 is a tool that helps our field inspectors, engineers to develop projects and perform engineering analysis. It does so by aggregating our internal data from SMART, BIRIS documents, our internal pictures, Google Map and Google Street View.  BMap2 is a newer version of BMap, which i developed several years ago. BMap has more features, and those features will be incorporated into BMap2 when I continue to develop BMap2. 

Better Searching Strategies for Discovering Caltrans' Geospatial and Non-Geospatial Data
Geospatial Enterprise Operations Branch (GEO) Office of Data Services and Technology (ODST) Division of Research, Innovation, and System Information

Discovery of data at Caltrans is not without challenges.  Wasting time looking for data, reports, maps, and other information is very common and it gets in the way of doing actual productive work. Further, Caltrans frequently struggles to respond to data or information requests when the information is buried in any number of file shares, databases, district/division websites, in GIS or tabular format. Utilizing a modern enterprise search technology available at Caltrans, Voyager VOSE can radically reduce the amount of time needed to search for and discover data and information products. 

Large-scale Evaluation of Pavement-attributed GHG Emissions from State Highway System Using PaveM and GIS Mapping
Somayeh Mafi, Xiang Shu, Imad Basheer Office of Pavement Management, Pavement Program, Division of Maintenance

This study utilizes and enhances the Caltrans’ pavement management system (PaveM) to evaluate and quantify GHG emissions attributed to pavements of the State Highway System (SHS) over the next 30 years in the two major stages of materials and Construction activities (M&C Stage) and vehicles operation (Use Stage) influenced by rolling resistance. This study also utilizes GIS technology in mapping transportation-related GHG emissions quantities in both stages.

LAPM-Friendly Options for Procuring Materials and Equipment at the Best Cost
John Kerenyi, City of Moreno Valley

The author will share his experience with procuring traffic signal related equipment separate from the construction contract on multiple Local Assistance projects. Specifically, equipment was competitively procured and then supplied to the contractor for installation. The rationale, benefits, and drawbacks of this approach will be discussed. Applicability to disciplines other than traffic engineering will be discussed.

NEPA and Permitting Integration Project (part of the State Transportation Innovation Council)
Jennifer Gillies, Caltrans Division of Environmental Analysis

Transportation projects may experience delays in the permitting phase due to lack of early coordination with permitting agencies, especially for smaller, shorter timeline projects, such as those cleared with Categorical Exclusions. The working group for this project proposed to create an online tool to assist Environmental staff engage with permitting agencies earlier in project development. The online tool includes checklists, sample meeting agendas, and a layout for tracking the progress of early engagement efforts. This project is part of FHWA’s Every Day Counts program.

Resource Check Pivot Table
Cameron Muir, Caltrans Traffic Operations, District 1

Our Advance Planning Senior is tasked with keeping track of resources for projects during the K phase. Each month the Advance Planning Designers and/or Project Engineers are required to check the amount of resources each functional unit used for each of their projects and compare the amount used to the allocated amount to be sure their projects are staying on budget. We also cross check PRSM to be sure values are correct and consistent with any resource reallocation. I simplified and standardized the previous methodology to make it more simple for Designer and Project Engineers to complete their resource checks. I created a pivot table in Excel that automatically aggregates and cross checks resource usage. The user simply has to copy and paste the data into the spreadsheet with some quick and minor modifications, and the model conducts the calculations. The model could be vastly improved if a database connection could be established; however, PRSM data seems to be locked up within the program. Either way this simple and easy to use solution made a chore for Designers and Project Engineers into a quick task. 

 Off-Grid Solar Powered Highway Safety Lighting System
Andy Liao, District 7 Project Management and Yi Tsau, District 7 Traffic Design (Electrical), Caltrans

Design and evaluate the feasibility of standalone, off-grid, freeway lighting system that uses green energy and mimic the service reliability of direct utility connection.