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41 The case examples in this chapter present findings derived from discussions with five state DOTs participating in the state-of-the-practice survey and informed by supplementary research. These five agencies were selected to represent a range of DOT sizes, regions, and experiences with innovation.Agency experiences fall at different points along the innovation continuum, with one agency preparing to launch a new agencywide program and another with a new program launch just getting underway; two agencies recently formed innovation branches. The case examples also describe an established, engineering-focused innovation program that continues to seek improve-ments to its processes and practices, and a small agency’s innovation successes achieved without a formal innovation infrastructure.Case examples are provided for the following agencies:• California Department of Transportation (Caltrans);• Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT);• New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT);• Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT); and• Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT).California Department of TransportationBackgroundWith a staff of nearly 22,000, Caltrans is the largest state DOT in the country. The agency, divided into 12 districts, manages a transportation network that serves a geographically diverse state. The size and complexity of Caltrans and its mission present challenges when implementing an innovation program that serves the needs and interests of a diverse, decentralized workforce and a sprawling transportation network that includes intensely urban locations and sparsely populated rural areas.The Caltrans 2020–2024 Strategic Plan (112), published in 2021, includes innovation as one of its core values:Caltrans’ core values are engagement, equity, innovation, integrity, and pride. Core values represent the traits and behaviors that Caltrans expects of its almost 22,000 employees.While innovation is not new to Caltrans, a recent structural change institutionalizes and centralizes the agency’s innovation focus. The innovation program was transferred to the Divi-sion of Research, Innovation, and System Information (DRISI) in 2019. When the function was transferred, two positions were established—one that oversaw the innovation idea–capturing C H A P T E R  4Case Examples

42 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of Transportationprogram, and one that oversaw the Lean 6 Sigma program. The agency quickly realized that the two positions and the focus of those two positions were not reflective of what an innovation pro-gram needed to look like. DRISI has since repurposed vacant positions to add more dedicated resources that focus exclusively on innovation activities.Program AdministrationThe new Innovation Branch will be home to a seven-person staff when fully staffed:• Branch chief. Program manager and supervisor for Innovation Branch staff. Responsible for program strategy and direction, including budgets, contracts, technical work, planning, recruit-ment, and maintaining stakeholder relationships.• Statewide innovation coordinator. Previous position that had assumed many of the responsi-bilities of the new branch chief. Position currently vacant and being rescoped and readvertised with an expected focus on implementation as innovation implementation manager.• Innovation Station program manager. Responsible for managing Innovation Station cam-paigns and activities. (Innovation Station is the agency’s online innovation portal.) Includes managerial responsibility related to contracting and training for Innovation Station.• STIC/EDC/Innovation Program (IP) program coordinator. Coordinates FHWA innovation programs within Caltrans. Facilitates the annual application process for STIC and EDC and provides ongoing support after award.• Innovation coordinators. Provides planning, analysis, and technical assistance to the innova-tion program. Three current positions are focused on performance measurement, program support functions, and expanding engagement with federal and state peers.Funding InnovationCaltrans does not maintain a budget specifically for innovation. Instead, an innovative project is funded and managed at the program level when it is deemed ready to pilot or more widely implement.Caltrans’s Research Implementation Program designates a minimum of $250,000 each year for implementation. While there is not a similarly designated fund for the Innovation Branch to advance innovations, a memorandum of understanding has been executed with the Advanced Highway Maintenance and Construction Technology Research Center at University of California, Davis, to identify implementable research.Program StructureThe Caltrans innovation program is supported at a variety of levels, from leadership to front-line staff. The Innovation Branch continuously evaluates the following groups for possible changes in focus and participation:• Innovation Leadership Council (ILC). This chartered committee is a subcommittee of Caltrans’s Executive Board that provides leadership support for innovation at Caltrans. Typically meet-ing several times annually, the ILC’s primary interest is to provide strategic direction and ensure the innovations pursued by Caltrans align with agency goals.• Innovation Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC). This committee’s membership of senior and higher-level staff supports the ILC. This committee’s role is under review with the new Inno-vation Branch now tasked with managing Caltrans’s innovation efforts.• Innovation liaisons. These representatives are established in each district, division, and head-quarters program to serve as a point of contact for the Innovation Branch. Appointed by district directors and deputy directors in their functional areas, the agency’s 45 innovation liaisons play a crucial role in helping the agency capture, share, and implement innovations.

Case Examples 43 For Caltrans, innovation comes from the top down—with leadership willing to take informed and calculated risks—and from the bottom up—with employees willing to engage and feeling supported to try unproven technologies and practices. Innovative practices can also come from the side—from peers in other state DOTs and the wider transportation community.Innovation Program and PracticesCaltrans’s tools to solicit and manage innovative ideas reside behind the agency’s firewall on the Caltrans OnRamp intranet site available to employees. Innovation Station is powered by Brightidea, a commercial crowdsourcing platform (113) that directly connects with Caltrans Outlook accounts to allow employees to engage in the innovation process.Innovation Station is used to solicit two types of innovations:• Idea Factory provides opportunities for staff to submit an innovative idea and engage in con-versations about innovative ideas. Each idea is subject to a review process: – Submissions are provided to all Caltrans innovation liaisons and ITAC members to share within their functional areas. – Based on the category selected by the submitter, an email is triggered for delivery to the subject matter expert (SME) for that innovation category with a survey that includes ques-tions about the viability of the idea and asks for suggestions and feedback. – The completed survey is linked to the idea submission page in the Idea Factory. – Caltrans employees are encouraged to comment and engage on each idea submission. – If an idea prompts interest on the part of SMEs in the appropriate functional area, discus-sions will proceed that may lead to piloting or implementing the idea.There are currently about 100 projects in the Idea Factory. A new position in the Innovation Branch is expected to focus on helping submitters work with their divisions or programs to move ideas toward implementation. While the Innovation Branch cannot implement innova-tions, it can provide support to the people attempting to do just that.• Innovation Exchange is used for Caltrans employees to capture, share, and search vetted and implemented innovations across the agency. Each submission includes implementation details, the value and benefits of the innovation, and contact information.• Each employee submission is subject to an approval process: – The Innovation Branch reviews each submission to ensure completeness and consistency with the Innovation Exchange purpose. – Submissions that pass the initial review are vetted by an innovation liaison or subject matter expert in collaboration with the appropriate office chief or team lead.Innovation Station is also used to track other innovation-related activities, including the appli-cation processing for the agency’s Build a Better Mousetrap competition, and the advertising and registration associated with district innovation fairs.Caltrans also takes advantage of the funding available through the FHWA-sponsored STIC program with the California STIC (CalSTIC). CalSTIC’s goal is to identify new strategies to respond to the challenges affecting California’s transportation infrastructure and to promote innovations that will deliver a safer, more efficient, and sustainable transportation system.Other elements of the innovation program include the following:• Innovation fairs are periodically convened by Caltrans districts. A 2021 event sponsored by District 11 (114) offered virtual exhibit halls with Caltrans division posters and posters and marketing materials provided by vendors, district committees, and professional organizations. The 7th Bi-Annual Caltrans Bay Area I-Fair (115) is another example.

44 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of Transportation• Caltrans Innovation Expo (116), a biennial agencywide event, highlights the agency’s creative employees and innovative projects. The first-ever event was held in 2020. Both the inaugural event and the one held in 2022 were virtual to accommodate COVID-19 pandemic limita-tions. The Innovation Branch is planning an in-person event for 2024.Capturing and Tracking InnovationsInnovation Branch administrative users of the Brightidea platform can export data to Excel to produce sortable lists of innovative ideas and projects and other data about the innovation program. While the Brightidea platform provides a one-stop shop for innovation data, the per-formance measurement aspect of the Caltrans innovation program is in its infancy. Innovative ideas that are submitted via the Idea Factory are not currently followed up on by Innovation Branch staff. This type of evaluation and measurement is anticipated to begin soon, with a focus on championing the implementation efforts that are underway—or could be—within Caltrans’s divisions and programs. The ability to estimate cost savings and other quantifiable results of innovations, while desirable, is not anticipated in the near future.Communicating InnovationsCaltrans has developed an innovation logo (FigureÂ20) to brand its innovation-related com-munications. The agency’s suite of communication products that highlight innovation within the agency and more broadly include• Innovation of the Month. This material is distributed via Constant Contact using an email distribution list that includes all Caltrans employees and people who signed up to receive it during the 2020 and 2022 Innovation Expos. Each newsletter typically includes an innovation of the month pulled from Innovation Station.• Annual innovation report. Caltrans published its first annual innovation report in 2021. AÂrecently published Innovation Annual Report (117) highlights more than 50 innovative projects that were deployed enterprise-wide in 2022. Projects are divided into eight categories, with each single-page project description presenting the challenge the innovative idea addresses, the innovative solution, and its result (FigureÂ21). Contact information is provided for readers with questions. The 2022 report will serve as a baseline for future reports that are expected to shift from description to analysis, with Caltrans measuring the progress and performance of the implemented innovations. Future annual reports may also include mapping and other, more interactive ways to present the agency’s innovative initiatives.• Videos. California State University, Sacramento (CSU Sacramento), is preparing a video that summarizes elements of the 2022 Innovation Annual Report, and the Innovation Branch is hoping to prepare more videos during 2023.• Public-facing website. The Innovation Program is creating a truncated, public-facing version of Innovation Station. In addition to presenting a rotating selection of innovations, the public-facing site is expected to include information about the Caltrans process to solicit, share, and support innovations.FigureÂ20. Logo for the Caltrans innovation program.

Case Examples 45 Internal and External Innovation PartnersCSU Sacramento is a key partner in Caltrans’s innovation efforts. Under the current four-year contract, the university provides technical and support services that include graphic design, sup-port for district innovation fairs and the agencywide Innovation Expo, and meeting facilitation for groups such as the ILC. Caltrans’s contract with CSU Sacramento is intentionally broad to allow Caltrans to obtain the services it needs as new demands arise.The Innovation Branch also maintains internal and external partnerships to provide innovation-focused training. Caltrans’s Learning and Development Office offers an online inno-vation course of two half-day sessions for frontline and other staff to identify and apply creative approaches to problem-solving, develop their abilities to explore strategies and think analytically, and recognize their own capacity to innovate. The curriculum and presentation of a two-day course that had been offered by CSU Sacramento, Leaders Tool for Innovation and Creativity, are being reviewed for retooling as a future course offering.Program ChallengesAll agencies anticipate or experience challenges when implementing an innovation program. A draft Innovation Action Plan, developed in March 2023 (118), anticipated some of these poten-tial challenges and considered how to create and sustain a culture of innovation at Caltrans. FigureÂ21. Excerpt from Caltrans’s recent Innovation Annual Report.

46 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of TransportationSpecific recommendations proposed for the next year were organized into five “building blocks for innovation”:• Strategy. Provide consistent, vocal leadership and messaging, with regular leadership updates; develop a dashboard for tracking innovation performance metrics.• Governance. Address innovation, informed risk, and lessons learned from failure in perfor-mance goals and metrics; provide time and resources to develop and build out new innova-tive ideas.• Culture. Build the expectation that when encountering failure, lessons learned will be shared to improve future problem-solving.• Process. Develop a process to quickly identify the point at which a failure criterion is met; document and share lessons learned.• People. Identify and promote leaders at all levels who drive collaborative innovation; show senior leadership taking informed risks.Lessons LearnedCaltrans noted the following lessons learned from its efforts to launch, improve, and expand its innovation efforts:• Obtain leadership support. For Caltrans, leadership support is outlined in the strategic plan, and a chartered committee of executives provides direction and support for agencywide innovation.• Avoid reinventing the wheel. From the perspective of Caltrans’s Innovation Branch chief, one of the most innovative things you can do is not reinvent the wheel. Borrow from agencies with more advanced programs and adapt processes that are working elsewhere to fit within your agency.• Make innovation a core function. Too often, innovation is not seen as a critical part of the day-to-day business of a transportation agency. Establishing the Innovation Branch and providing the staffing to expand current innovation efforts is laying the groundwork to ensure Caltrans’s innovation efforts continue to advance.• Develop a deep bench of innovators. Caltrans is interested in developing innovation champions who will serve as proactive partners in advancing innovation, and who will supplement and expand on the contributions of the current group of innovation liaisons.• Provide an incentive for staff to participate. Innovation leaders ask employees to consider moving away from traditional practices and embrace new ways of doing things. Incentivizing that impetus to look for effective changes could be provided with seed money for an innova-tive project, which can be challenging, or arise organically from a culture focused on innova-tion. Without innovation-specific funding, the Innovation Branch has done small things like stickers for hard hats and looks for other ways to incorporate innovation—and recognition for it—into other programs.• Establish statewide pathways for innovation. Consider what is needed to scale-up a local innova-tion for statewide implementation and provide the necessary support. In a state like California, with its large, diverse transportation network, that also means considering how an innovation that works well in the more rural reaches of Northern California can be effective in intensely urban portions of Southern California.Delaware Department of TransportationBackgroundDelDOT is the smallest of the state DOTs featured as case examples in this synthesis, with approximately 2,500 staff members. Unlike most other states, DelDOT maintains nearly 90% of

Case Examples 47 the state’s roadways—about 14,000 roadway lane miles (119). DelDOT maintains four district offices across the state’s three counties.Unlike the other case example state agencies, DelDOT does not maintain a formal innovation program with a bureau, division, or section focused on innovation. Instead, innovation has taken hold and continues to grow informally and organically at DelDOT, supported by agency leader-ship and moved forward by seasoned, innovative senior staff who understand how to move from idea to implementation and who mentor others in the agency interested in innovating. With no formal funding for innovation, DelDOT seeks seed money for innovative projects from outside sources such as FHWA’s STIC and other grant programs.Innovation Program and PracticesThe only formal innovation-focused program DelDOT maintains is its STIC (120). DelDOT’s deputy director of the Division of Transportation Solutions serves as the agency’s STIC coordinator, sharing information, encouraging participation, and soliciting innovative ideas across divisions. DelDOT’s STIC projects may seek to capitalize on EDC initiatives or innovations implemented by other state DOTs. STIC coordination represents 5%–10% of the deputy director’s job.Informal Innovation ProcessesIdentifying innovations is both a top-down and bottom-up process at DelDOT. Senior leaders attending various national meetings and conferences serve as a pipeline to identify possible innovations. Agency leaders learn about an innovation being piloted at another agency and bring that information back to DelDOT, enlisting senior-level staff in the appropriate functional area to investigate the idea and determine how it might be applied within DelDOT.The informal process that has long encouraged innovation at DelDOT relies on senior-level staff with experience across a range of functional areas; these staff members have themselves had success developing innovative ideas and seeing them through to implementation. There is no single position within DelDOT that is responsible for innovation. Given the agency’s small size, leadership support, and the freedom and autonomy accorded to the staff, the senior staff members with experience realizing innovations tend to be well-known, and novice innovators commonly reach out to these seasoned staff members. Novice innovators might be advised to query other state DOTs or other SMEs, conceptualize the new product or process, anticipate questions or problems, recommend solutions, understand the risks and potential benefits, identify funding sources, and contemplate how the innovation can be implemented.For DelDOT’s Division of Transportation Resilience and Sustainability, innovations are evalu-ated on the basis of a three-legged stool of engineering, economics, and environment. Overriding those three elements is the agency’s number one priority—public safety. A recent example of the agency’s informal, agencywide focus on innovation is the use of an innovative pavement material to address flooding in coastal communities that tend to flood year-round. These communities frequently have only one road in and one road out. When the roads are flooded, vital services to the communities are cut off until the flooding recedes. The agency’s innovative solution to this problem prompted interest from the state’s governor (121) and other states experiencing similar flooding.Innovation FairDelDOT held its first-ever innovation fair in October 2017 (122). Inspired in part by Missouri DOT’s Innovations Challenge and Innovations Showcase (45), the fair was created for DelDOT employees to share their new innovative ideas and those already in use. These innovations took the form of new products, practices, and technologies, as well as advances in design. To encourage

48 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of Transportationparticipation, the agency reached out through email blasts, flyers, meetings in each of Delaware’s three counties, and the weekly internal newsletter, Team Spirit, published by DelDOT’s Office of Public Relations.The competitive event presented a People’s Choice Award and Panel’s Best in Show. A five-point rating scale was used to assess submissions for the Panel’s Best in Show on the basis of cost savings, benefits to the community, ingenuity, transferability, and effectiveness. Voting was conducted online, and winners were announced in the Team Spirit newsletter.Careful attention was paid to the location of the event. The agency’s Maintenance and Opera-tions Resource Center offered ample outdoor space for large equipment and indoor space for the posters, tables, and presentation space participants required (FigureÂ22). The cost to hold the four-hour fair was estimated at $1,000 (123). A second innovation fair, held in 2018, highlighted 18 employee innovations. While DelDOT has not yet held any subsequent innovation fairs, fair planners have considered creating a separate category for high school and college student par-ticipation and opening the event to the public.Informal RecognitionDelDOT also recognizes staff advancing innovative ideas more informally through the award-ing of challenge coins and articles in the weekly Team Spirit newsletter. DelDOT’s director of Transportation Resilience and Sustainability notes that most agency innovators are humble and aren’t seeking recognition. When prompted to describe their motivation to innovate, many DelDOT staff members note that they are identifying and advancing innovations simply to improve the day-to-day work they perform with their colleagues.Communicating InnovationsIn addition to using a weekly newsletter to share innovations and other agency news, DelDOT’s cabinet secretary conducts monthly online town halls to update the department on hot topics, which may include new or innovative practices. Once each year, typically after employee surveys are completed, the cabinet secretary goes out into the field to meet in person with all sections across the department. Though these in-person meetings are not innovation focused, frontline staff may opt to use them to share innovative ideas with agency leadership.FigureÂ22. Description of the event space for DelDOT’s 2017 innovation fair.

Case Examples 49 Internal and External Innovation PartnersDelDOT frequently partners with the University of Delaware on activities and training coordinated by the university’s T2/LTAP Center. DelDOT is also open to exploring partnerships with the private sector. Agency staff may take an initial meeting but are careful to perform the necessary due diligence to determine if a vendor’s proposal is a viable solution to a DelDOT con-cern. A recent inquiry from Google, a current service provider to another Delaware state agency, illustrates DelDOT’s openness to possible collaborations. A Google representative expressed interest in the work the agency is doing within its new Division of Transportation Resilience and Sustainability.Agency innovation champions also participate on national committees. Each DelDOT voting member of these committees has sufficient agency experience to understand how to dissemi-nate relevant information within and beyond their divisions, ensuring that the information isn’t siloed but shared with those who may wish to act on it. DelDOT staff members also frequently participate in meetings and conferences, sharing their own innovations with a wider audience and developing a network of transportation professionals across the country that can be tapped when the agency investigates a new idea.Program ChallengesWith no formal innovation-specific staff or funding, documenting the performance of inno-vative ideas—both implemented and not implemented—remains a challenge for DelDOT. The agency has had success documenting performance when resources are readily available. For example, University of Delaware students have been tasked with data gathering and monitoring the impact of projects on which DelDOT and the university collaborated. The agency also tracks innovations when required by the funding organization (for example, the periodic reporting required under FHWA’s STIC program).Lessons LearnedDelDOT, a small state DOT that supports an innovation culture but has no formal innovation program, noted the following lessons learned from its efforts to launch, improve, and expand its innovation efforts:• Obtain leadership support. Management support is the most critical aspect of encouraging innovation. Over time, DelDOT leadership has been supportive of innovation and willing to take calculated risks. Effective DelDOT innovators seek counsel from leadership and keep them informed at each step of moving an innovative idea toward implementation.• Develop a deep bench of innovators. Agencies with an ingrained innovation culture will likely have seasoned staff members with a deep understanding of the agency and its needs. Encourage newer staff members to innovate and connect them with an innovation mentor to help navi-gate the process of taking an idea from concept to implementation.• Perform the necessary due diligence. Innovators must be prepared to advocate for innovation by doing the research and gathering the resources to better understand the issue and reaching out to people within the state and beyond, including industry, to understand the current state of practice.• Document lessons learned. DelDOT is seeking to improve this aspect of the agency’s approach to innovation by making sure institutional knowledge stays within the agency as the more sea-soned innovators retire. The agency also plans to track the innovations attempted and failed, as well as those that succeeded, which will provide critical guidance to future innovators.

50 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of TransportationNew Jersey Department of TransportationBackgroundIn terms of the size of the agencies featured in these case examples, NJDOT is a medium-sized agency, with a staff of approximately 5,600 in the summer of 2021. Though it is the fourth-smallest state in the nation in terms of surface area, New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the country.Innovation is central to NJDOT, exemplified by the agency’s Commitment to Commu-nities (124). This initiative advances the commissioner’s vision for how NJDOT should be regarded by its internal and external stakeholders and includes these core values that “define the NJDOT as an organization”:• Inform,• Innovate,• Collaborate,• Empower, and• Evolve.Like two of the other case example states, NJDOT has been active in the innovation space for some time but recently hired an innovation coordinator to expand agency efforts to include an agencywide focus on innovation.As part of its amplified focus on innovation, NJDOT developed the following definitions of innovation and research to guide agency efforts:Innovation at NJDOT is the practice of using new, original critical thinking to identify, evaluate, develop, and implement new ideas, processes, products, and technologies that result in improved safety, mobility, efficiency, sustainability, or quality of New Jersey’s transportation system.The goal of NJDOT’s Innovation Program is to gather, evaluate, and research new ideas while imple-menting and rapidly deploying proven innovative products, systems, policies, practices, standards, specifi-cations, procedures, and technologies (original or new to NJDOT) that create valued outcomes and foster a culture of innovation.Research at NJDOT is the process of systematically conducting studies and evaluating innovative solu-tions to transportation challenges affecting those responsible for designing, constructing, and maintaining New Jersey’s transportation infrastructure.The desired outcome of the research process is to ultimately lead to the development of new knowledge and technologies that can be applied across the department to improve the safety, mobility, sustainability, accessibility, and efficiency of New Jersey’s transportation system.A strategic plan for innovation, which the agency plans to develop, is also expected to inform how the agency expands its innovation program. Such a plan will provide a baseline by describ-ing current innovation efforts and laying out a plan for where the agency wants to go.Program AdministrationNJDOT’s Bureau of Research is housed within the agency’s Statewide Planning Division under the umbrella of Planning, Multimodal, and Grant Administration (PMGA). The bureau has 12 staff members:• Bureau manager,• Innovation coordinator,• Lead research project manager,• Lead research scientist,• Program specialist,

Case Examples 51 • Research project managers,• Librarian, and• Contract administrators.This staff manages both state and national research and implementation activities, innova-tion, and information and technology transfer, which includes the LTAP and the New Jersey Transportation Research Library. Of the 12 bureau staff members, only one position—NJDOT’s relatively new innovation coordinator—focuses on innovation full time. The remaining positions focus on innovation to varying degrees depending on the role.The Bureau of Research is in the early stages of establishing a department-wide innovation program to augment its current innovation activities. Bureau staff sought and received approval for the agencywide innovation plan from the agency’s commissioner and the assistant commis-sioners of NJDOT’s PMGA divisions. Benefits of the expanded innovation program are expected to include• Making valuable connections with innovators across the agency;• Improved assessment and tracking of innovation initiatives that are occurring across the agency;• Agencywide notification and coordination of grant opportunities; and• Expanded marketing of the agency’s innovative accomplishments.Funding InnovationThe agency’s budget does not provide funding dedicated solely to innovation (other than fund-ing the staff working with innovations). NJDOT tries to take advantage of the $100,000ÂSTIC Incentive funding allocated annually to each state. The agency has also been awarded grant fund-ing through FHWA’s AID and AIM programs and is aware of current funding through U.S. DOT Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants Program (106). NJDOT also capitalizes on FHWA T2 program funds. This small, formula-based program man-aged through each FHWA state division office funds administrative-type projects of $10,000 or less, reimbursing awardees for eligible costs. The agency also leverages FHWA’s SP&R funding for research to advance innovation.Generally, when an innovation is ripe for implementation, the SMEs associated with the pro-gram or group advancing the innovative idea apply for the necessary funds and manage the implementation of the innovation. The Bureau of Research’s innovation team assists, as needed.RecognitionThough the agency would like to elevate, recognize, and support innovators, the lack of fund-ing presents challenges. The research program offers rewards for outstanding student, implemen-tation, best researcher, best research customer, and best poster at an annual research showcase. The Bureau of Research also initiated an award program for Exemplary State Transportation Innovation Council Members, with its first recipient announced at the 3rd Quarter STIC Meet-ing in September 2023. These awards recognize council members who demonstrate outstanding leadership and continuous contribution to the success of the NJ STIC program. The agency hopes to include awards for innovative thinkers in the future, which would recognize idea sub-missions to the NJ Transportation Ideas Portal (52).Program StructureInnovation is considered one of the Bureau of Research’s five major functions, with the innova-tion coordinator working in tandem with the agency’s research-focused team.

52 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of TransportationAn expanded innovation program will seek to build on the successful NJ STIC program, which focuses on innovations that are already proven and market-ready, to expand to untested innovations, encouraging NJDOT innovators to feel safe in taking risks and supporting an inno-vation process that takes an idea through to final implementation. The new agencywide program will combine the top-down and bottom-up approaches to innovation. The agency’s commis-sioner sets the expectation that department leaders will participate in a revamped Innovation Advisory Team, and solicitation of non-STIC innovations through an ideas portal reflects the bottom-up aspect of the innovation program.Innovation Program and PracticesNJ STICThe NJ STIC, the agency’s longest-standing innovation program, considers innovative ideas that are reflected in each biennial round of EDC initiatives. A change to the NJ STIC charge that expands the existing STIC framework to accommodate non-EDC innovations is expected to be outlined in the strategic plan for innovation that will be developed in 2024.The current NJ STIC structure includes these key groups:• Executive Team. Composed of two members from the Bureau of Research, assistant commis-sioner for PMGA, FHWA deputy division administrator, and FHWA innovation coordinator, this team manages the STIC’s operation and serves as the primary point of contact for agency leadership and FHWA.• Core Innovation Areas (CIAs). Each of the five CIA teams has an FHWA and NJDOT lead appointed by the Executive Team. Teams operate in these topic areas: – Infrastructure preservation, – Mobility and operations, – Organizational support and improvement, – Planning and environment, and – Safety (Safety is the agency’s number one priority.).Team size is determined by the CIA lead and the level of support needed to implement initiatives. Slots on the CIA teams are filled by team leads and recommended by the assistant commissioner for PMGA. CIA team leads present updates on the innovations they oversee at the NJ STIC’s quarterly meetings.• Innovation Advisory Team (IAT). The former iteration of the IAT was composed of CIA team leaders and other FHWA and NJDOT staff, including representatives from functional areas aligned with the five CIA teams. The IAT provided support to the Executive Team, meet-ing periodically to assess progress toward implementation, identify new innovations ready to implement, and plan the STIC quarterly meetings.Central to the new agencywide program is a revamped IAT composed of mid-level managers and SMEs from each division and program who will serve as innovation liaisons for the pro-gram. This team will gather and share innovations and projects, assist with innovation fairs and workshops, pursue innovation funding opportunities as appropriate, and serve as a central point of contact for the agency’s innovation coordinator.STIC participation has a broad reach beyond the DOT and includes the state’s metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), local agencies, and university and industry partners. NJDOT recently instituted a new practice that shifts the identification of innovations to this broad-based constituency. Each STIC innovation cycle begins with a statewide caucus, a relatively new prac-tice to make sure the right people are in the room to determine if a proposed innovation is fea-sible, identify possible barriers and how to overcome them, and anticipate what will be needed to implement an innovation.

Case Examples 53 STIC Challenges and OpportunitiesIn November 2022, Rutgers University, as part of its contractual support for the Bureau of Research, distributed the NJ STIC Innovative Initiatives Survey (125). The survey sought to raise awareness of FHWA’s EDC initiatives and identify innovative transportation practices that are being undertaken in the state. Survey findings highlighted these challenges when implementing EDC innovations:• Lack of funding for competing priorities,• Lack of guidance and information, and• Relevance of EDC to organizations that are not facility owners (for example, MPOs).Opportunities to enhance NJ STIC’s effectiveness include• Providing more training and technical assistance for local agencies interested in adopting EDC initiatives and other innovations. NJDOT collaborates with its LTAP to offer training and may investigate possible training offered through FHWA’s Office of Innovation Implementation Resource Center (126).• Proactively targeting recruitment of non-participating stakeholders external to NJDOT, such as universities and students, to get them involved and engaged with the STIC.• Sharing information about NJ STIC more broadly to ensure the STIC and the benefits of inno-vation are known to New Jersey organizations.Capturing and Tracking InnovationsGathering IdeasThe NJ Transportation Ideas Portal (52) uses the IdeaScale crowdsourcing platform to gather innovative ideas for consideration by the NJ STIC and research ideas for consideration by the Bureau of Research (FigureÂ23).Innovative ideas are accepted by employees and the general public. While the portal has been gathering research ideas since 2019, combining the solicitation of ideas for innovation and future FigureÂ23. Image from NJDOT’s IdeaScale platform soliciting innovative ideas.

54 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of Transportationresearch is relatively new. Before 2023, NJDOT gathered innovative ideas through another portal, no longer in operation, that proved to be less easily managed than the current platform.Portal submissions are reviewed by Bureau of Research staff to determine the right track for each idea (research, innovation, or other). Ideas are then assigned to a research project manager (for research ideas) or the IAT or NJ STIC CIA team lead (for innovative ideas).SMEs from each agency program will be expected to update the NJ Transportation Ideas Portal with innovative ideas as the innovation program moves agencywide.Tracking InnovationsNJDOT’s innovation coordinator anticipates the development of a searchable database of innovative ideas that will describe each idea’s disposition (feasible or not feasible) and the person or entity overseeing the innovative idea. Data to inform development of this database may come from the IdeaScale portal used to gather ideas for research and innovation.Communicating InnovationsNJDOT has a robust technology transfer program that includes these innovation-focused communication products and services:• Innovation Spotlight articles that highlight initiatives aligned with the agency’s mission;• Tech Talk! Program, a lunchtime events series that informs NJDOT employees and the wider transportation community about recent NJDOT-sponsored research and innovations;• Tech Transfer News, a quarterly newsletter distributed to employees via email that describes recent innovations;• Videos that raise awareness of the Build a Better Mousetrap competition, highlight research projects from concept to implementation, and heighten awareness of agency innovations;• Email marketing and social media that target communications about the bureau’s events, research, and accomplishments;• Annual Research Showcases that include panel discussions on innovation and award New Jersey’s LTAP Build a Better Mousetrap winner with the Innovator Award;• Innovative Initiatives website (127) that highlights the work of NJ STIC in implementing EDC initiatives and organizes innovations into the five CIAs; and• Key informant interviews with SMEs at other state DOTs and elsewhere that inform the agency’s innovation initiatives.A March 2021 Communications Plan (128), produced by Rutgers University and funded in part with STIC Incentive funding, was developed “to improve the effectiveness of the NJ STIC through continuing communications and engagement with STIC stakeholders at the local, regional, and state levels, as well as external stakeholders like industry and academia” (FigureÂ24). The plan describes more than 25 innovation practices, tools, methods, and strategies to capture and share information about the agency’s innovation initiatives. The plan, which won the 2022 STIC Excellence Award, has led to expanded member engagement and increased attendance at quarterly STIC meetings (129).Quarterly, the Bureau of Research reviews what it terms “hot topics” that are discussed across the agency or highlighted by agency leadership. Bureau staff members identify topics that are appropriate for a Tech Talk!, video, or newsletter article.In addition to these efforts, the innovation coordinator frequently presents on the agency’s innovation practices at peer exchanges, conferences, and TRB committee meetings. NJDOT actively markets its innovation efforts through flyers or presentations, or by participating at innovation-related events.

Case Examples 55 Internal and External Innovation PartnersRutgers University is a key partner to NJDOT in administering selected Bureau of Research programs. With funding available through the SP&R program, the agency contracts with the university to assist with aspects of the NJ STIC, the agency’s web presence, and the larger tech-nology transfer program.Bureau of Research staff members participate in a range of national transportation committees and groups, including the AASHTO RAC and ICoP. Periodic meetings of these committees and innovation-focused groups, peer exchanges, and other innovation-related conferences provide a forum for sharing information and learning from others. The one-on-one interactions that these innovation-focused committees and groups foster have been particularly useful for NJDOT. Bureau of Research staff members regularly share what they have learned about other states’ innovations with SMEs in the relevant functional areas.Design SummitIn May 2023, NJDOT collaborated with FHWA and the American Council of Engineering Companies of New Jersey to sponsor an innovation-themed Design Summit. An annual event, this year’s daylong summit attracted more than 300 attendees for its 10-year anniversary. NJDOT’s innovation coordinator participated in meeting planning and served on the presenter team.The summit included presentations by representatives from FHWA and NJDOT innovation champions on EDC-7 initiatives and NJDOT projects. The NJDOT presentations set the stage for a series of interactive brainstorming sessions for attendees to consider potential barriers to implementing the innovations presented and offer ideas to mitigate them. The summit pro-vided an opportunity to share NJ STIC efforts with a wider audience and encourage those in Source: Reference Number 128.FigureÂ24. Cover of the Communications Plan developed for the NJ STIC.

56 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of Transportationattendance to sign up for the NJ STIC email distribution list and share their innovative ideas through the online portal.Program ChallengesAll agencies anticipate or experience challenges when implementing an innovation program. NJDOT noted the following challenges in its program:• Managing risk aversion. NJDOT has been fortunate to operate within a culture of strong leader ship support for innovation that creates an environment where it is safe to fail.• Forming and engaging teams to implement innovations. Developing and supporting teams that will move an innovation forward, and finding the right people, with leadership support, who share a common, carefully considered goal can be challenging.• Recruiting new participants in the innovation effort. The agency makes its quarterly STIC meet-ings as interactive as possible, bringing in outside agencies to present on innovations beyond those being investigated by NJDOT in an ongoing effort to share the innovation message with a wider audience.Lessons LearnedNJDOT noted the following lessons learned from its efforts to launch, improve, and expand its innovation efforts:• Obtain leadership support. The Bureau of Research engaged leadership early as plans were being developed for an agencywide innovation program. Leadership plays a key role in the NJ STIC and provides critical support in communicating the message that participating in the agency’s innovation efforts is not optional—it’s the mission of the department and part of everyone’s job.• Employ a dedicated innovation officer or coordinator. Finding a home for innovation and dedi-cating staff time to advancing it will reap rewards in terms of the volume of innovation-related work that can be done and provide an opportunity for more strategic development of the innovation program.• Develop a deep bench of innovators. The agency’s long-term efforts developing the NJ STIC and cultivating a wide range of stakeholders who participate—and are invested in—the innovation effort has been instrumental to NJDOT’s success.• Maintain a robust technology transfer program. Technology transfer activities that center on communication, knowledge sharing, resources, and training are imperative to developing a culture of innovation.• Adopt a hybrid approach to innovation. Combining a top-down and bottom-up approach to developing an innovation program lends itself to creating a safe-to-fail environment. With input from the top that supports and advances innovation, and mid-level managers and front-line staff actively involved in selecting and advancing the implementation of innovative ideas, NJDOT’s innovation program has succeeded by meeting in the middle.• Use external engagement to enrich the innovation effort. The agency participates in as many innovation-related committees and groups as possible. It also seeks out other agencies’ lessons learned and effective practices and adapts what it learns to fit NJDOT.Texas Department of TransportationBackgroundTxDOT’s 12,000 employees make it one of the largest state DOTs in the country. The agency’s 34 divisions and 25 districts support a transportation network with 197,000 lane-miles that con-nect the state’s rural, metropolitan, and urban communities.

Case Examples 57 Innovation is encouraged throughout TxDOT. This department-wide innovation focus appears in the agency’s 2023–2027 Strategic Plan (130) as Strategic Goal 4: Foster Stewardship, which includes the following action item: Identify efficiencies and develop innovative and cost-saving ideas to improve the system and operations.In 2023, TxDOT launched a formal innovation program—Innovative Transportation in Texas—to supplement and expand on longer-standing innovation efforts. The new innovation program seeks to identify, evaluate, and develop innovative solutions to meet the state’s grow-ing transportation needs. The recent hiring of an Innovation Section director in the Division of Strategic Planning allows the agency to focus on a multifaceted plan to integrate innovation at all levels of TxDOT.Program AdministrationTxDOT’s Division of Strategic Planning houses the new Innovation Section as one of four sections or branches supported in the division: Enterprise Programs, Innovation, Strategy, and Emerging Technology. Four staff members in leadership roles provide critical support for TxDOT’s innovation program:• Director of Strategy and Innovation directs business process improvements, strategic research, and innovation initiatives across TxDOT. Strategy and Innovation at TxDOT includes the Division of Research and Technology Implementation, which is home to one of the largest state DOT transportation research programs in the country, and the Division of Strategic Planning, described in the following: – Director of Research and Technology Implementation Division coordinates TxDOT’s long-standing research effort. This division directs applied research, implementation projects, product evaluations, and the LTAP, and ensures that the department is aware of national research results. All of these efforts can generate ideas for the innovation program that, in some cases, are ready to scale-up for broader implementation. – Director of Strategic Planning Division oversees business process improvements, strategic research, and innovation initiatives. This role also coordinates TxDOT’s strategies, perfor-mance analytics across TxDOT, and the enterprise strategic administrative programs and governance. The new Innovation Section resides in this division. ▪ Innovation Section director oversees a staff of six that is focused on identifying, imple-menting, and scaling transportation innovations across the agency.Funding InnovationTxDOT’s robust research program offers implementation-specific funding to scale-up com-pleted research for widespread use within the agency. While a similar targeted source of fund-ing is not currently available to fund innovations, the innovation team has been creative in its efforts to locate seed money to move innovations forward. Internally, research and plan-ningÂdollars are supplemented by funding available through the agency’s Unified Transporta-tion Program, the 10-year plan that guides development of transportation-related work across theÂstate.Externally, the agency seeks federal grant funding through a variety of sources. A staff person in the TxDOT Government Affairs Division reviews the Notices of Funding Oppor-tunity for transportation-related grants. (The TxDOT innovation team encourages a more expansive review of possible funding options that goes beyond transportation to include orga-nizations such as the National Science Foundation.) In addition to advising the agency of grants TxDOT is eligible for, this staff person also provides grant writing services to local governments to assist in their efforts to obtain grants and provides support letters for entities submitting grant applications.

58 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of TransportationThe next agencywide strategic plan will be developed by the Division of Strategic Planning, where the new Innovation Section resides. The next plan, which will address the period from 2025 to 2029, is expected to reflect a greater focus on implementation of innovation.Program StructureThree innovation-focused programs form the backbone of TxDOT’s longer-standing focus on innovation:Texas Technology Task Force (64)This task force advances the development of a high-performance transportation system, which will continue to position Texas as a leader in economic activity and technological innovation. The group’s four organizing principles are people, portfolio, plans, and process. Members include TxDOT executive leader-ship and technology domain experts. Membership is dynamic and undergoes periodic review to ensure the right mix of expertise.Texas State Transportation Innovation Council (TxSTIC) (65)This tactical, midterm (two to 10Âyears), implementation-oriented group provides a forum for researchers to present work. Members include FHWA, TxDOT, regional governments, MPOs and mobility authorities, engineering associations, county and local governments, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and the Texas Depart-ment of Public Safety. Formed in 2016, the TxSTIC is administered by the Texas LTAP. Projects focus on new ready-to-deploy technologies or related topics of interest, including EDC innovations.Texas Innovation Alliance (TIA) (66)This operational, short-term (less than two years) group encourages collaboration among state, regional, and local agency partners; knowledge sharing and best practices; and grant readiness. Members include representatives from TxDOT, cities, transit agencies, MPOs and councils of government, ports, and univer-sities. The TIA is an action network “committed to addressing community mobility challenges by creating a platform for innovation.” Its mission is to “strategically develop, launch, and sustain a portfolio of advanced mobility projects across Texas” (131).TxDOT is in the process of merging the TxSTIC and TIA to serve as a single implementation-oriented group that will continue to maintain the same functions and serve the same constitu-encies of the two groups before the merger. The Texas Technology Task Force’s future-oriented planning horizon remains unchanged.Supplementing these drivers of innovation is a legislatively mandated program developed to focus on cost savings. TxDOT’s Staff Suggestion Program (67) provides an online form that can be completed by a TxDOT employee, public citizen, contractor, or other government (state/local) representative. Submissions are reviewed by the program team and evaluated for future implementation. The agency receives little feedback through this program—there were only 16Âsuggestions last year and the agency had already adopted most of them. Though not heavily marketed, the program has identified four or five cost efficiencies over the life of the program. AÂproposed expansion of this program will encourage the submission of innovative ideas in addi-tion to possible cost savings. Submissions considered for future implementation will be posted online for public voting.Innovation Program and PracticesIn addition to continuing to support the combined TxSTIC and TIA, TxDOT is in the early stages of launching other aspects of Innovative Transportation in Texas. When fully imple-mented, the new innovation program will include programs and practices in three categories:• Innovation delivery;• Collaboration; and• Innovation operations.

Case Examples 59 Each program or activity on the innovations team’s to-do list has been carefully prioritized to determine which item should come first and how each new effort relates to what came before. A logical sequence of events will unfold incrementally to implement the elements of Innovative Transportation in Texas highlighted here:• Conducting district workshops. A team from the Division of Strategic Planning held district workshops in early 2022, meeting with all 25 TxDOT districts. Early conversations with engi-neers identified the topic areas of greatest interest to each district engineer and set the stage for a workshop with a broader district audience that delved deeper into selected topics.• Identifying, implementing, and scaling-up innovative projects. Brainstorming workshops led to the development of at least one innovative idea pursued by each district. Some districts advanced more than one project; some projects required more than a year to complete. After selecting one or more ideas, each district worked with the innovation team to execute the innovative idea.Of the 18 projects completed in 2022, three were selected to scale-up for agencywide imple-mentation. Project selection began with voting by the 25 districts to place the projects in priority order. The director of operations completed the final prioritization and selected the top three projects. The Innovation Branch is now responsible for scaling-up the three winning projects for statewide implementation.Establishing an innovation champion program. The agency’s first meeting of innovation champions was held in late August 2023 to lay the foundation for monthly meetings as the program launched (FigureÂ25). Monthly meetings will be augmented by virtual quarterly meetings when an innovation community of practice is formally established.The champion’s activities and goals are expected to include: – Communicate district/division priorities and interests. – Build support for innovation. – Brainstorm and share ideas for promoting innovations in districts/divisions. – Select innovations to feature from the champion’s district/division. – Participate in champion meetings and innovation communities. – Coordinate innovation project presentations.Source: Reference Number 132.FigureÂ25. TxDOT’s culture of innovation as described in a presentation to innovation champions.

60 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of Transportation – Track, review, and report on district/division innovation activity. – Assist with scaling selected innovations (connect with district/division SMEs, identify current district/division practices, and assist with developing standards). – Serve as a liaison for the district/division with the Innovation Branch.TxDOT anticipates that at least one person from all 25 districts and 34 divisions will become champions, which translates to approximately 60 people across both types of entities. The time commitment for innovation champions is estimated at two to eight hours per month.• Creating an innovation community of practice. Also in development, this group is expected to include TxDOT staff members and representatives from local and regional agencies, con-sultants, industry partners, and research institutes. Meetings are expected to include guest speakers and offer a forum for participants to share innovations, lessons learned, and emerg-ing technological successes. The member list for this group will provide the foundation for the distribution list for a new innovation newsletter.• Establishing a reward and recognition program. Beginning with the 2023 Innovation Invita-tional described below, TxDOT is launching a recognition program with both an internal and external focus. As part of the new program, the recipient of the 2023 TxDOT Innovator of the Year Award (a customized award plaque) was announced in October 2023. TxDOT anticipates including a recurring challenge or competition as part of the reward and recognition program.Other elements of the Innovative Transportation in Texas initiative are addressed in the Communicating Innovations subsection.Innovation InvitationalThe TIA’s 2023 Innovation Invitational (133), held over three days in July 2023, was the first of this type of innovation challenge sponsored by TxDOT. Developed in collaboration with the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas, this event brought together trans-portation leaders from across the state to learn about the latest technologies and develop Innova-tion Zones—“places to test, deploy, and scale creative transportation solutions”—to implement innovations in four topic areas:• Connected and automated vehicles;• Data and traffic operations;• Electrification; and• Mobility-as-a-service.Participants engaged for months before and after the July meeting:• April. Participants prepared for the July event by identifying the regional stakeholders who will collaborate to develop an Innovation Zone. These might include city, transit, TxDOT, county, port, and university partners.• May/June. Team members for each Innovation Zone met with TIA staff to identify and priori-tize locations and develop ideas.• July. Each team presented its idea, developed partnerships, and sought to advance develop-ment of the Innovation Zone concepts during the three-day event.• August. Teams met locally to assess the results of the Innovation Invitational, incorporate new ideas, and prepare presentations.• September. Each team presented its Innovation Zone concept to TxDOT leadership and a panel of industry experts.• Fall 2023. Winners of this competition received recognition at the fall meeting of the Texas Technology Task Force and on the TxDOT website. The Innovation Zone team presenting the most innovative project at the 2023 Innovation Invitational also received assistance from TxDOT with writing a grant proposal to fund the new innovation.

Case Examples 61 TxDOT is considering hosting this event every two years during an off year for the biennial Mobility Summit.Capturing and Tracking InnovationsTxDOT is in the early stages of developing an innovation database. To begin to populate that database, the agency is using district and division surveys conducted by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). The scope, project definition, and estimated cost of this database were in development at the time of publication. This database is expected to provide a historical record of innovation-related work, including implementation projects that successfully scaled-up a research result and innovation projects that may not have had the intended result when scaling-up was attempted. Until the database is available, the innovation team uses Excel spreadsheets to track innovation activities.The Division of Strategic Planning is also developing an internal dashboard using the Tableau platform (134). A segment of the innovation-related metrics will be related to TxDOT’s con-tract with TTI to provide services for the innovation program. TxDOT also expects to track the number of innovation ideas submitted by the districts and the number of innovations that are scaled-up for agencywide use. The full breadth of metrics is not yet known.Two years ago, the agency conducted an extensive leadership survey around the time it was transitioning from its previous emphasis on cost savings to the new innovation program. The survey sought information about where the agency should focus its attention in five focus areas. Survey results generated a list of first-level innovative ideas in the thousands that are being tracked in an Excel spreadsheet by the Innovation Section.Communicating InnovationsThe agency’s robust public web presence describes current Innovative Transportation in Texas communication efforts (63). (See FigureÂ26 for the innovation program’s logo.)A range of communication products and tools were recently launched—or will be—as TxDOT continues implementing its new multifaceted implementation program. These include• TxDOT Innovations and Technology Deployment Briefs (135). These two-page summaries highlight innovative transportation projects from around the state that are the product of partnerships forged through the TIA. The highlighted division and district innovations are the result of the first round of an ongoing program to launch innovations within the districts that are considered for agencywide use. Supplementing the innovation summaries are a Texas Innovative Projects map and glossary (136).• Videos. TxDOT expects to prepare videos to accompany the two-page summaries, mirror-ing an approach successfully employed by TxDOT’s research program. The research team FigureÂ26. Logo for the Innovative Transportation in Texas program.

62 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of Transportationcontracts with TTI, in partnership with an in-house communications team, to produce videos that highlight recently completed research.• Transportation Short Course (137). In October 2023, TxDOT collaborated with TTI to host the 97th annual Transportation Short Course to help agency staff earn continuing education credits. The Innovation Section director co-hosted a three-hour session during this hybrid in-person/virtual event that highlighted innovative projects from throughout the state.• Innovation Academy. An online curriculum is in development that will employ LinkedIn Learning and virtual meetings to present one introductory course, four core courses, four quarterly Lunch ‘n Learn discussions, and additional optional courses. The innovation cham-pions and other TxDOT staff members completing the course will earn an Innovator Virtual Badge. The new online course was expected to launch in November 2023.• Innovation newsletter. An innovation-focused newsletter is in development in tandem with an innovation community of practice. Membership in the community of practice will serve as the distribution list for this new newsletter.• Mobility Summit or other innovation-focused conference. Hosted by the Division of Strategic Planning, the Mobility Summit (138), last held in 2021 and tentatively planned for spring 2024, supports local governments by “providing an opportunity for policymakers, public agencies, research, industry, and community organizations” to come together to solve pressing mobility challenges. Future Mobility Summits may include an innovation track or TxDOT may opt to develop a separate, innovation-focused, conference-type event.Internal and External Innovation PartnersAs previously noted, TxDOT has a broad reach in establishing innovation partnerships and encourages the participation of local and regional public agencies, members of the construc-tion and consultant communities, and other transportation experts in the TIA and its activities. TxDOT collaborates with LTAP on its Build a Better Mousetrap program, and the EDC initiative plays a key role in the TxSTIC.Members of TxDOT’s innovation team participate widely and often in national innovation-related groups and activities, including the periodic State Innovation Forums organized by FHWA. The purpose of these forums, first held in 2017 and most recently convened in 2022, is to strengthen the innovation network among states by bringing together innovation professionals to discuss common experiences and develop tools to share innovations across the STIC network.Program ChallengesAll agencies anticipate or experience challenges when implementing an innovation program. The following list highlights the challenges that TxDOT noted in its program:• Ensuring agencywide communication. One of the focus areas for the new Innovation Section director will be ensuring that staff across the agency are aware of the innovations that other districts have implemented.• Prioritizing innovations. There are 25 TxDOT districts, and the agency is unable to provide the resources to advance 25 new innovations each year. Annually, TxDOT will have to prioritize identifying the innovative ideas that are most important for agency operations. TxDOT envi-sions this as an ongoing prioritization of what can be scaled-up for implementation across the agency.• Recognizing the limits of resource availability. TxDOT was fortunate to have a team of people who could be repurposed to focus on innovations. However, staff members in TxDOT’s dis-tricts and divisions are not similarly situated—they have full-time jobs doing something other

Case Examples 63 than innovation. The agency’s focus on innovation must be realistic and respectful, taking care that the innovation champion’s additional responsibilities do not become too burdensome.• Ensuring value in implemented innovations. Agencies should avoid implementing an innova-tion simply to implement. Frontline staff must be able to see the value in what is being imple-mented or will quickly lose interest in the innovation program.Lessons LearnedTxDOT noted the following lessons learned from its efforts to launch, improve, and expand its innovation efforts:• Obtain leadership support and staff engagement. Cultivating support and participation from the top-down and the bottom-up can break down silos and drive an innovation culture.• Practice strategic patience and tactical urgency. TxDOT has been working toward establishing an innovation culture for much of the last decade. Innovation advocates should be prepared for their efforts to take time. Agencies should practice patience when work toward major goals is met with limited results and be ready to act when technology changes or the right leader or right innovation comes along. As TxDOT’s Strategy and Innovation director noted, “Innova-tion is where opportunity meets preparation.”• Develop a comprehensive strategy. Agencies should make sure that all aspects of an implemen-tation have been considered, especially for innovations that are being scaled-up for statewide use. Aspects to consider include training, leadership, organizational structure, innovation processes, and resources. A comprehensive strategy is essential before implementing any new program.• Employ project risk-management practices. Good business practices, particularly those assess-ing risk, must be part of an innovation program. Agencies must consider where things might go wrong when evaluating a potential innovation.• Develop a continuous communication, or engagement, strategy. Agencies need to identify the audiences they are attempting to influence. Then, they can begin engaging them using a suite of communication and engagement strategies such as workshops, meetings, conferences, newsletters, technical briefs, and other communication products.• Engage across the agency. Most state DOTs are large, decentralized organizations. TxDOT has 34 divisions, and it is important for the Innovation Section to learn about the innova-tions going on within each of them. TxDOT advises agencies to reach out and engage; staff members are not purposefully holding back their innovations. Innovation teams can be used as shepherds who support innovations and share them with the larger agency, taking care to communicate the value of the innovation program and reasons why people should want to become involved.Wisconsin Department of TransportationBackgroundWith approximately 3,500 employees in an agency that also includes the Department of Motor Vehicles and State Patrol, WisDOT is one of the two medium-sized state DOTs highlighted in these case examples.Launched in 2014, WisDOT’s innovation program—Innovation Initiative—is the only engineering-focused innovation program among the five case examples appearing in this report. The diverse, business-oriented section managing the innovation program is guided by three core principles: people, process, and partnerships. These principles lay the groundwork for an infor-mal strategy to encourage innovation.

64 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of TransportationProgram AdministrationWisDOT’s engineering-focused innovation program is one of two innovation programs the agency has supported over the last decade. A department-wide innovation program managed by the Division of Budget and Strategic Initiatives is largely dormant today, though this division maintains a robust performance improvement program.The Innovation Initiative program is housed in the Division of Transportation System Devel-opment (DTSD) and guided by two key leadership positions:• Office of Workforce, Innovation, and Budget director, and• Innovation and Technology Section chief.These innovation leaders are supported by WisDOT Library staff members who conduct surveys of other state DOTs to assess the state of the practice of a potential innovation and gather relevant research. The team also includes a GIS specialist to geolocate innovations and is expected to continue to grow through engagement with other agency specialists.Funding InnovationEach year, DTSD builds a “Big Ticket” budget that includes funding for equipment, service contracts, and consultant needs that are expected to exceed $10,000 in the upcoming fiscal year. The innovation team works with agency programs to seek out innovations ripe for implemen-tation that can then be included in the “Big Ticket” list of funding needs. This approach does not, however, address all innovations. Repurposing existing budgeted funds may be possible for innovative ideas presented midyear that could not be reflected in the “Big Ticket” budget. The agency may also obtain grant funding for innovations through the STIC, Accelerated Innovation Deployment (AID), and SP&R programs.While these funding sources can provide seed money to implement an innovation, WisDOT recognizes that after the seed money has been expended, ongoing program-level funding must be reflected in subsequent annual budgets to institutionalize innovations.Program StructureWisDOT had no model to follow when formalizing its engineering innovation program. To develop the program, the agency’s first innovation lead looked to the innovation practices of large private sector companies such as 3M, IBM, and Google with an eye to the ways in which the state DOT environment differs from the private sector.Early DaysWisDOT’s innovation program began with an email address and a form for employees to complete and submit to proffer a new idea. A multidisciplinary Innovation Review Committee with representation from WisDOT’s five regions and central office was established to review the submissions. It was quickly apparent that staff members didn’t like completing and submitting a form, and there was little for the committee to review.Hybrid Approach to InnovatingThe new innovation program shifted from soliciting random ideas to ensuring that employees had a framework in the form of business initiatives that were developed and supported by agency leadership and well understood by staff. Staff members used this top-down framework to iden-tify innovations that fell within the framework.To supplement the leadership-driven innovation framework, the agency advanced a bottom-up approach to engage practitioners where they reside within WisDOT—the agency’s five regions. A regional structure of Local Innovation Teams was established to gather in monthly meetings

Case Examples 65 facilitated by a regional office leader designated by the innovation program. Innovation program managers from the central office made it a practice to attend only some of the Local Innovation Team meetings—maybe half—to remain a presence but not overshadow the innovative work advanced by each region.WisDOT’s Innovation Initiative concentrates on process improvements in technology, opera-tions, and project delivery within three focal areas (77):• Rapid identification and adoption of innovative best practices;• Modernization of IT tools and data systems; and• Creation of a culture of innovation that prioritizes continuous process improvement.As the Innovation Initiative website (139) notes, “[t]he combination of internal/external, top-down/bottom-up approaches has changed the culture of the organization and provided a struc-ture to rapidly identify, pilot, and implement innovations.”Innovation Program and PracticesFive-Step Innovation ProcessRather than implementing a formal solicitation of innovative ideas, the Innovation Initia-tive’s managers are advocates of letting WisDOT’s innovation culture drive the first steps toward innovation. Staff members interested in innovation will engage with central office staff as they’re ready, with the Innovation and Technology Section ready to serve as a powerful advocate that can break down barriers, establish a structure for the innovation process, and organize what’s needed to move from idea to implementation.Breaking the innovation process into five phases allows for ample dialogue among regional offices and the central office innovation team. The Innovation and Technology Section chief is the common thread woven through each of the following steps, facilitating the overall effort, bringing people together, and shepherding the process with a light touch.• The incubate phase is essential to determine if an idea is operationally and financially feasible before moving forward. Safety and security are also among the first issues addressed when an innovative idea is proffered.• During the demonstrate phase, the agency may engage with other state DOTs, vendors, and other possible stakeholders to better understand the current state of the practice surrounding an idea that, for WisDOT, would be innovative when implemented. This phase often involves the WisDOT Library in assessing the current state of the practice.• Ideas that remain viable at the end of the first two phases move to the pilot phase. Practitioners put the idea to the test, validating expected benefits and ROI and beginning to lay out what’s needed for an implementation phase if pilot results are favorable. At this stage, the central office innovation team can help break down any red tape that may be associated with procure-ment contracts or other challenges associated with testing a new innovation.Without an engaged champion, resources, staff, and funding needed to manage the new product or process over time, a successfully piloted project may not make it to the final imple-mentation phase. Projects lacking the resources to implement immediately after the pilot phase may be taken up later as resource availability changes.• Pilot results are communicated to leadership and other business areas and partners to make sure the results are not siloed, and stakeholders understand the implications of a wider implementation.• By the time an idea reaches the implementation phase, interested parties begin to develop a charter document and budget, identify other resource needs, determine who will own the new product or process, and make plans for how to implement and sustain it.While the innovation team can shepherd ideas and continue to foster the culture of innovation within WisDOT, team members are not responsible for implementing innovations. Successful

66 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of Transportationimplementations are led by an enthusiastic champion supported by leadership and a consensus within the relevant functional area that an innovation should be implemented. With five regions of diverse but often overlapping needs, the innovation team brings institutional knowledge and a practitioner’s lens to help build consensus among competing interests; however, it is the project champion who owns the final product of the five-step innovation exercise. FigureÂ27 illustrates the collaborative review inherent in WisDOT’s five-step innovation process.WI-STICAs the other case example states, WisDOT maintains a STIC as part of its innovation program. The WI-STIC “fosters external partnerships by including representatives from the contracting industry, local highway, and public works associations, engineering consultants, tribal task force, local technical assistance program, environmental agencies, and FHWA” (139). This group meets quarterly to discuss possible innovations and uses STIC Incentive funding to advance selected innovations.Capturing and Tracking InnovationsThe innovation team has not devoted significant efforts to capturing and tracking the innova-tions. Chief among the agency’s ongoing concerns is how this information can be curated and maintained over time. To date, tracking has been done fairly simply using an Excel spreadsheet that includes• Innovation title,• Brief description of the innovation,• Status (phases 1–5), and• Region contact for more information.Source: Reference Number 80.FigureÂ27. Illustration of the collaborative review employed in WisDOT’s five-step innovation process.

Case Examples 67 During the summer of 2023, the agency began the development of a more extensive track-ing tool that will supplement WisDOT’s global performance measures—the MAPSS (mobility, accountability, preservation, safety, service) Performance Improvement Program (140). The MAPSS program examines performance in five key goal areas: mobility, accountability, preser-vation, safety, and service. The new tracking system is expected to be used in tandem with the continuous improvement efforts already underway within WisDOT. Quarterly reporting is anticipated that will summarize the results of the new tracking efforts.Communicating InnovationsCurrently, WisDOT’s formal written communications highlighting agency innovations are limited. Innovations are primarily shared with the larger transportation community through presentations at conferences and meetings, including the American Council of Engineering Companies’ Wisconsin Transportation Improvement Conference (141) and meetings of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association. Social media has been used to share informa-tion with the general public; executive team meetings provide a forum to share innovations with internal stakeholders.Today, if an innovation is expected to result in a significant ROI, the innovation team submits a request to the agency’s continuous improvement team (142) to evaluate the project and esti-mate its impact. Many projects, while producing good results, do not achieve a sufficient ROI to warrant a continuous improvement evaluation.A recent restructuring within the Office of Workforce, Innovation, and Budget has made avail-able a communications unit that can assist the innovation team with developing new communi-cation products. This effort begins with an evaluation of internal communication and tracking activities and is expected to expand to explore external engagement practices.Internal and External Innovation PartnersThe innovation team works with a range of internal and external partners that include:• IT2, a statewide group that meets monthly to review technology-related innovations.• Wisconsin Highway Research Program (WHRP) (143), established in 1998 by WisDOT in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an applied research program. Through participation as a member of WHRP’s steering committee, the Innovation and Tech-nology Section chief can identify innovations that may be peripheral to the actual research projects but often lead to a solution that addresses a technology-related need or advances a process improvement.WisDOT is also an active participant in the AASHTO ICoP, which provides a network of national experts that can be tapped to answer questions between meetings and provide context for WisDOT’s innovation efforts. WisDOT innovation team members also attend FHWA’s peri-odic State Innovation Forums, peer exchanges, and the Transportation Lean Forum.Program ChallengesAll agencies anticipate or experience challenges when implementing an innovation program. The following list highlights the challenges that WisDOT noted in its program:• Managing an evolving workforce. The movement of new people coming on board and staff members with experience leaving the agency has an upside and a downside. New staff mem-bers tend to be more tech-savvy and interested in pushing innovations; more seasoned staff have the institutional knowledge that informs an innovative practice.

68 Innovation Programs and Practices of State Departments of Transportation• Finding the right innovation lead for the agency. Filling the innovation lead role with the right person is important. This position requires someone who can break down barriers, build rela-tionships, and learn how to navigate and network within a complex, often siloed organization.• Tracking innovation impacts. Gathering qualitative and quantitative information about the impacts of an innovation program is challenging when resources are limited. WisDOT is seek-ing to advance such an effort under a new department structure.Lessons LearnedA 2021 peer exchange presentation by WisDOT’s current director of the Office of Workforce, Innovation, and Budget offered these lessons learned (80):• Treat small ideas with respect.• Engage and support your practitioners.• Keep your process simple and nimble.• Fail fast and acknowledge “wins.”• Communicate incremental progress.• Use a value versus effort curve (FigureÂ28).Other lessons learned from WisDOT’s innovation-related efforts over the years may inform other agencies’ efforts to launch, improve, or expand innovation practices:• Obtain leadership support. The first step toward success in an innovation program is leader-ship support and buy-in, which have been essential to WisDOT’s success. Agency leaders provided critical resources, particularly by establishing a position focused on innovation, that set the stage for WisDOT’s successes.• Establish an innovation culture. The culture of innovation WisDOT has established over the nine years of the innovation program is one of the most significant program impacts. While establishing this culture is not easy or quick, the agency has had enough success—and that success has become known within the agency—for staff to remain engaged and proactive in approaching the innovation team with innovative ideas. Without an engaged, innovative cul-ture, the agency would not have the opportunity for cost savings, risk mitigation, or any of the other benefits an innovation program can produce.Source: Reference Number 80.FigureÂ28. WisDOT value versus effort curve.

Case Examples 69 • Develop a deep bench of innovators. Champions are critical to the innovation culture, and investing time in engaging and educating a new group of champions before the current cham-pion cohort retires ensures that the innovation program prospers as the workforce evolves.• Ensure transparency in innovation work. Encouraging dialogue and spending time educating the people participating in the innovation process ensure that they understand what’s needed and what’s possible. Such a practice will help to build powerful allies that can support an inno-vation throughout its life cycle.• Don’t be daunted by barriers. Red tape, bureaucracy, and process-driven practices can become inhibitors to success. Agency leaders should work quietly and diligently to overcome these barriers. The innovators do not need to know what happens behind the scenes to bring an innovation to the finish line.