Thinking Beyond the Pavement - Maryland State Highway ...

Thinking Beyond the PavementTHINKING BEYOND THE PAVEMENTA National Workshop on Integrating Highway Developmentwith Communities and the Environment while MaintainingSafety and Performance. The workshop was developed underthe leadership of Parker F. Williams, Administrator, MarylandState Highway Administration; Tony Kane, Executive Director,Federal Highway Administration; and Francis B. Francois,Executive Director, American Association of State Highway andTransportation Officials (AASHTO). They formed an advisorycommittee of some 40 organizations to help define the directionand content of the conference, including professional associations,local and state government, regulatory agencies, and safety,environmental, scenic, historic preservation, and bicycle groups.“In the beginning of the interstate era, we built the greatest freewaysystem in the world; but aesthetics and preserving the environmentweren't part of that mission. Now we need another transformation.We're here to define a new vision, to change how we do business.”– Tom Warne,Executive Director, Utah Department of TransportationChairman, AASHTO Standing Committee on HighwaysDesign Excellence –Mobility“For the highway professional, the payoff of partnering with thecommunity is huge. Projects get done faster and, since everyoneis working toward a common goal, it's a lot more fun.”– Jim Byrnes, Chief Engineer, Connecticut Department of TransportationSafetyPreservation ofCommunity ValuesEnhancement ofthe NaturalEnvironment“Visionary leadership is the ability to motivate others to movewith a passion toward a common goal. The purpose of thisconference is to refine such a vision for transportation systems.This conference calls on all stakeholders in transportationissues to assume personal leadership–to see conflicting valuesrespectfully and then to seek a shared set of values.”Design Excellence: Simultaneously advancing the objectives of safety, mobility,enhancement of the natural environment, and preservation of community values.– Jim Dalton, Strategic Counsel, Opening Plenary SpeakerWhat is a stakeholder?A "stakeholder" is anyone who has something at stake in a specific policy or particular project; for instance, the neighbors whose yardsback up to a roadway, the senior citizens who like to drive slowly on a given street to reach an activity center, the subcontractors of themunicipal services agency responsible for maintaining the landscape median strips –really all who use or are affected by the facility.