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Volpe Center Highlights - May 1999

Director's Notes

Director's Notes | Focus | Safety | Mobility | Human and Natural Environment |
Economic Growth and Trade | National Security | Published and Presented

Innovations in technologies useful for monitoring, maintenance, and rapid renewal of physical infrastructure could save governments and the private sector millions of dollars annually. But these savings are realized only when the innovations are put to use, and the market penetration rate for innovations in transportation technologies is agonizingly slow. These represent several of the salient findings from the recently released Surface Transportation Research and Technology Assessment, prepared for the National Science and Technology Council by the Volpe Center.

In the U.S., the physical infrastructure for transportation roads, bridges, railroad tracks, transit systems, airport runways and towers, and port facilities - often lasts for fifty years or more, before the structure must be completely rebuilt or replaced. Thus the technologies used in constructing the facility, track, or roadway - materials, sensing, control, or other devices embedded in the structures - are made obsolete by the availability of more capable and robust materials and technologies, long before the structure is modernized.

In addition, because replacement or reconstruction of large physical structures is costly, especially because of the need to provide alternate ways to move traffic during construction, both public and private owners are hesitant to use any new technologies that have not been thoroughly tested and proven. Consequently, thirty to fifty years often pass before an innovation finds its way into widespread use for transportation infrastructure. And innovators and manufacturers do not have the patience, or capital, to wait that long for a return on their investment in technology development.

The emphasis in the NSTC assessment on the potential contributions of new technologies and the difficulties of helping transportation innovations achieve broad market penetration, reinforces the importance and timeliness of the June 24 and 25, 1999, Conference at the Volpe Center, "The Spirit of Innovation in Transportation." Speakers at the Conference are all experts in different aspects of technology innovation and will doubtless shed light on the difficult area of how to foster innovation in the complex transportation marketplace. Please join me in welcoming those attending. Take advantage of the opportunity to learn from them.

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