The Road to SAFETEA-LU

In 2002, the Transportation Research Board's (TRB) Research and Technology Coordinating Committee published a report titled The Federal Role in Highway Research and Technology (TRB Special Report 261). The RTCC, recognizing the importance of the Federal role in advanced research, made the following recommendation: "FHWA's R&T program should focus on fundamental, long-term research aimed at achieving breakthroughs in the understanding of transportation-related phenomena."

In the spring of 2003, FHWA published its Corporate Master Plan for Research and Deployment of Technology & Innovation (CMP). The CMP helped create a cohesive, organizational strategy for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the R&T program. In particular, the second guiding principle in the CMP addresses FHWA's commitment to increasing its focus on "long-term, high-cost, and high-risk research with a high-payoff potential." FHWA's corporate advanced research agenda is expected to support research focused on breakthrough innovations beyond the near-term, incremental improvements that support and sustain the current transportation system.

On March 4, 2003, during hearings on reauthorization of the transportation research, development, and education programs, FHWA Acting Administrator J. Richard Capka discussed the importance of advanced research with the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Highways, Transit, and Pipelines.

"Funding and conducting research and development activities of national significance is a basic responsibility of the Federal Government," Acting Administrator Capka said, "both in its leadership role to develop and advance new technologies to serve the public, and in [its] stewardship role to use national resources efficiently. At FHWA, we have emphasized this in defining our role as 'innovators for a better future.'"

He added, "To successfully accomplish our mission, we must conduct fundamental, long-term highway research; research aimed at improving safety; research aimed at significant highway research gaps and emerging issues with national implications; and research related to policy, planning, and [the] environment."

With the passage of SAFETEA-LU in August 2005, FHWA will be able to explore promising research ideas that may offer solutions to tomorrow's transportation challenges.