AASHTO Journal - New Members Named to Two AASHTO Committees

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recently named five new members to its Special Committee on Research and Innovation, along with the appointment of a new chair to its AASHTO Census Transportation Solutions technical service program; overseen by the AASHTO Committee on Planning.

[Above image by AASHTO]

Samantha Biddle – deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation – will serve a two-year term as chair of the ACTS technical service program.

The ACTS program is home to the Census Transportation Planning Package Data; Research on Census and Planning data; and outreach, training and technical assistance on all manner of census, transportation planning, and other data.

ACTS – which has operated under various names since 1970 and is considered the “gold standard” for transportation planning data – formally became an AASHTO technical service program in 2012.

Meanwhile, the new members named by AASHTO to its research committee, all for four-year terms, are:

Garrett Eucalitto, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, as a Region 1 Member;
Hua Xiang, deputy director of policy and research for the Maryland Department of Transportation, as a Region 1 Member;
Stephen Woelfel, deputy executive director of planning for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, as a Region 1 Member;
Jason Gutting, director of the Bureau of Field Services for the Michigan Department of Transportation, as a Region 3 Member;
Amy Beise, materials and research division engineer for the North Dakota Department of Transportation, as a Region 4 Member.

The Special Committee on Research and Innovation promotes high-value transportation research, technology, and innovation to enhance the safe and efficient movement of people and goods.

It also oversees the National Cooperative Highway Research Program or NCHRP to ensure that it produces practical, applied research to address the needs of AASHTO members and the nation, and provides a high return on investment.