2010 Annual Report - Maryland State Highway Administration

Customer Communications, Service and Satisfaction
VIII
ACEC – SHA meets with this group every three months. Sub-teams are formed
as needed to review issues such as program funding levels, MBE/DBE participation,
potential legislation, design-build and salary caps for consultants.
Maryland Transportation Builders and Materials Association - This group continues
to meet quarterly and has work groups working together on revised policies
and specifications relating to pavement markings.
Asphalt Industry partners – SHA and our partners in the asphalt industry
worked jointly on about a dozen process improvements throughout the year.
Some key accomplishments include:
Improved turnaround time for Density and Mix lab results by approximately
50 percent;
Modified “thin lift” specification section to comply with federal requirements
for ARRA projects;
Reached agreement on “rounding” methodology for hot mix asphalt calculations
that follows AASHTO standards;
Developed a new recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) specification that allows
for a higher percentage of RAP in our mixes;
Organized statewide roundtable discussions to keep all stakeholders informed
on important issues, including specification changes, key contacts,
and ways they can facilitate more expedient test results;
Jointly reviewed quarterly performance measure reports on ride quality
with our partners, as well as innovative ideas on new technology related to
asphalt materials, construction techniques, and equipment.
Concrete Industry partners - The Concrete Partnering group has continued conducting
its quarterly meetings. A list of action items from partnering meetings
and their corresponding status were updated and sent to all committee members
on a monthly basis. This has served as a reminder and helped to improve
the timely completion of action items, which help sustain our good working relationship.
Aggregate Task Force - Meetings of this groups were scheduled on a quarterly
basis. Participants from the aggregate industry, designers and contractors attended
these meetings. To improve our partnership, we formed a subtask force
to resolve and address the action plan related to aggregate, and to share the
research and lessons learned with the aggregate producers. The group has also
been communicating with neighboring states to form a regional aggregate bulletin.
STATE HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION | FY 2010 Annual Report 77