Minutes for the
Transportation Curriculum Coordination Council (TCCC)
Semi-Annual Meeting
Hotel Viking, Newport Rhode Island
June 10-11th, 2003
Attendees:
Jim Sorenson, FHWA - HIAM
Dan Sanayi, FHWA-HIAM
Ewa Rodzik, NHI
Woody Hood, MDSHA, MARTCP
Donna Clark, AATTSA
Peter Osborn, FHWA-ERC
Leo Stevens, NETCCP
Bill Beuter, VDOT
Bud Darby, NICET
Lee Onstott, NMSHTD, AASHTO Construction
Paula McGee, AASHTO Training Directors
Chris Newman, FHWA - HIAM
Alan Samuels, AZ DOT, AASHTO for Construction
Chris Anderson, Iowa DOT M-TRAC
Sergi Amirkhanian, Clemson University
Howe Crockett, FHWA WFLHD
Greg Doyle, FHWA MA, NETCCP
Bernie Kuta, FHWA Resource Center
June Dea, Program Administrator
Ben Gribbon, FHWA Office of Safety
Mike Moravec, FHWA-ERC
Robert Peda, PennDOT
Day One
Crockett - Welcome & Introductions Information Sharing
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H. Crockett - According to Garth, the HMA course was the best received course in Idaho.
- D. Clark - Donna works for ATSSA and is joining the TCCC council to work with Jack Cowsert in the Safety area. ATSSA is responsible for roadway safety training and standardizations. ATSSA trains approximately 20,000 annually.
- G. Doyle - QA course undergoing final revisions. Scheduling a pilot for December. Tweaking the proposal for the 134050 course.
- C. Anderson - M-TRAC will meet Aug 26-28th in Albuquerque. Would like the TCCC to come and present. M-TRAC is concerned about NHI's role and would like to see the agreement done. Interested in a construction survey course. This meeting has subsequently been cancelled.
- J. Sorenson - A FHWA field construction manager is being selected. There will be 5 teams and a national Resource Center (RC) construction team. RC's are there to help the states.
- B. Kuta - RCs interaction with regional groups are still in flux
- L. Onstott - Division Offices (DO) not familiar with who to contact
- J. Sorenson - FHWA is suffering from attrition and has to do more peer activities. TCCC will work with M-TRAC to help.
ACTION: Dan will work with Chris Anderson to present at the M-TRAC meeting. Carry the TCCC message and pledge FHWA support.
- G. Doyle - nice letter written from the TCCC to the field offices requesting help.
ACTION: Include a copy of the division office memo in the minutes for distribution to all TCCC members.
- W. Hood - AASHTO Materials Meeting will be hosted by MD and would like TCCC involved. A course in precast/prestressed fabricators for the Mid-atlantic region is in the approval process. NICET's soils & aggregates technician course will be modified for hands-on. Construction manager's course is under development and generic for national use. Geared for Project engineers and above.
ACTION: Alan, C. Newman, Greg and Bill Beuter will assist Woody with the construction mgr's course.
- W. Hood - Need to develop a scope for the bolting certification course, preferably a cross section of DOT and industry.
ACTION: Peter Osborn will offer 3 or more names to Woody.
- W. Hood - profiler course is done but too high level - need one for the field level
- L. Onstott - Brian Williams is working on a course in his group
- B. Kuta - WAQTC is still working on the RFP for a program administrator. Will share info with Woody.
- G. Doyle - NETTCP has had an Executive Director for years. No scope, but works financially because of course fees. Can talk to Leo Stevens or Bowker on it.
- B. Peda - in house staff pulled together a maintenance curriculum and got commitments nationally. The NICET maintenance training has potential crossover into construction.
- L. Onstott - wants TCCC participation in the AASHTO construction summer meeting. Wants success stories like Geotech (Peter Osborn) and striping in MD.
ACTION: TCCC (Dan & Chris N.) will prepare presentations for AASHTO summer meetings. Include CD of TCCC website.
TCCC Business Planning Update (J. Sorenson & J. Dea)
An AASHTO CEO needs to be appointed executive director of the TCCC. A letter has been sent to AASHTO asking for the nomination. Once the ED is in place, then the committee can move forward with development of a business outline. This will likely require a separate meeting of the TCCC executive committee members in a smaller meeting to iron out vision, mission and goals for the business plan.
TCCC Funding (J. Sorenson)
The money issues still need resolution. Jim believes there are obligated funds around $245,000, but accounting only shows $173,000. Jim is having June track down missing obligations and money. The pooled fund money will only be used to fund course development and the TCCC administrators' contract.
Various issues were raised regarding getting states to obligate. Instructions need to be developed on how to join a pooled fund. Some states weren't willing to use research money to fund training, considering training to be too "soft". Folks aren't sure of what type of money to use - state planning and research (SP&R) or other funding. It was noted that the groups that stand to benefit the most - the construction and maintenance folks, must be on board to make a consolidated appeal to the research managers.
ACTION: June will include a copy of the TCCC funding in the minutes.
NHI Agreement (E. Rodzik)
The TCCC council decided that the TCCC/NHI agreement needs to be completed by August 1, 2003. An Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was selected as the most suitable mechanism. A smaller group was elected to facilitate work on the agreement. Ewa will coordinate discussion on the MOA. Specific language that the TCCC would like spelled out in the agreement include assurances that states won't have to pay for the courses, copies will be made available, and that vendor costs will be separate.
ACTION: C. Newman, Leo, Paula, Bob, Woody and C. Anderson will work with Ewa to develop the joint agreement. Ewa will develop a schedule for Howe. Howe will distribute materials for developing the agreement by June 17. The draft agreement will be disseminated to the council for comments. Concerns raised from the responses need to be addressed in the agreement. Deadline for the final agreement is August 1st.
Resident Engineer Academy (B. Beuter)
The survey encompassed visits to 3 states - MD, CA, and WA and phone interviews with GA and NC. The information gathered in the survey can be used towards the 5 areas. The survey made no specific recommendations. Bill suggested that a subcommittee could take the survey and use it. Jim suggested that the report be put on a CD and the TCCC can post it on the website.
ACTION: Bill will send CD and abstract to Dan for posting on the web.
Geotech/RC (P. Osborn)
Peter provided the panel with a look at the new RC/TST structure and role. Peter proposed that the TCCC help fund the course in subsurface investigation. The council advises that the title needs to be changed to be more applicable to the TCCC and for the field people to more readily understand the subject. The total cost for development of this course is around $175,000. Howe suggests that the TCCC provide $25,000 this year for development of this course. Jim notes that we've already funded 2 other courses in the Geotech area and cannot afford to spend limited TCCC resources in one area.
NTTD (C. Anderson)
The joint meetings of the NTTD, M-TRAC and the TCCC will take place in Kansas City, winter 2004. Howe suggests that the meeting be held as late in the year as possible, preferably December. Chris asks the members to volunteer to help her with the agenda.
ACTION: Paula, Bud, C. Newman, and Doug Townes will help with agenda development. Chris Newman to draft a letter to NCHRP requesting their support of the joint meeting and allow state technical trainers to attend the meeting.
Train the Trainer (C. Anderson)
Dan informs the council that the scope of work for this course was presented to Rick Barnaby of NHI and he will look into co-funding it's development. NHI will repackage their current course and may do one or more pilots. There has been no further word on this. Bryan Legan, Doug Townes, C. Anderson and Dennis Dvorak are on this team.
ACTION: Dan will follow-up with NHI.
Course Updates (D. Sanayi)
Dan provided an update for upcoming courses.
- Train the trainer - HIAM presented the scope to NHI. NHI agreed to help develop the course and offered to co-fund and develop a pilot or two.
ACTION: Dan will follow up with NHI. A panel for this course was selected. The members are C. Anderson, Brian Legan, Doug Townes, and Dennis Devorac.
- Bolting course - The council is interested in this course.
ACTION: Woody and Peter will send Dan course information.
- Structural coatings - No new information to report on this course.
- Concrete construction inspection - Mike Arasteh and Woody are on the panel. NC has developed a similar course which might be useful.
ACTION: Jack will provide information on NC course to Dan. Dan has followed up with the contact provided by Jack, but has not heard back.
- QA technologist - The course was piloted in Dec '02 and on schedule for Nov '03.
- Reinforced soil structures - The panel for this course consists of Peter, Dan, Jerry Dimagio, and Larry Jones.
ACTION: Peter agreed to send Dan a SOW on this course. The panel will meet on Aug 11th to review the scope and work on an RFP.
TCCC Website Update
June updated the council on the changes to the website. The course database should be ready for course input by June 30th, 2003. The search engine for the course database has been modified to search based on area, and region/state. Per request of the council, an ask TCCC page has been added so people can post questions on the website. For security reasons, all questions, modifications and additions to the website will be screened by Dan Sanayi before posting on-line.
ACTION: June will develop a timeline for key actions and developments in the TCCC website and distribute it to the group. The website is up and ready for course input. All state users will be assigned a user ID and a computer generated password. Any additions and/or updates will be added on a separate page and posted to the database after a screening process.
Training Effectiveness Proposal (C. Anderson)
A scope was written and sent to TRB. TRB subsequently rejected it because funding cannot be used to develop guidelines such as this. Instead, this project can be funded as a NCHRP research project. The scope needs to be revised to be area oriented (materials, maintenance, and construction) and present this at the 3 subcommittee meetings. An estimate needs to be developed and then presented to the subcommittees. Submit to subcommittees and FHWA. Only one committee needs to pass it and the others will likely endorse it. Contract through NHI using an expanded scope. Relate materials testing and QA.
ACTION: Serji will revamp current scope and give to C. Anderson, C. Anderson will update the TCCC and develop a cost estimate.
NICET Maintenance/Construction (R. Peda, B. Darby)
They have a 3 week foreman academy in place. They have done a level 2 analysis and moving to a level 3 analysis, which is generally 6 months to 1 year evaluation after training. They have a 5 year goal. They are seeing crossover with construction although basic math was a problem with the crossover. Bud describes the NICET Certification Program Review Manual. NICET is looking at a national program. A gap analysis has not been done yet.
Day 2
Curriculum Development
Matrix Discussion
The council discussed the areas where matrices still need to be developed. The council agreed to the revised format proposed by Bob Peda. The focus of this working session was to identify major subject areas and disciplines and defining competencies. Team members were asked to complete specific subject areas. Teams were also asked to identify 2-3 courses that needed to be developed.
ACTION: The 5 team leaders are designated as part of the curriculum consultant oversight committee.
Materials - Testing of materials needs to be a separate matrix from workmanship. Woody, M. San Angelo, Garth, and Bud on team.
Construction - gaps in lean concrete base; HMA pretty well done; help needed in PCC Pavement; aggregates need work; drainage and erosion control need work
Geotech -
ACTION: Peter will flush out matrix
Structures Construction Inspection
ACTION: Dan will have scope reviewed by the panel and take to NHI for the RFP process. This has been completed.
Maintenance - Bob Peda agreed that this should be a stand-alone curriculum
Universal courses should be on the matrices, not state-specific (which would go into the database). Have a consultant identify discipline areas that would apply across the 5 matrices so those elements can be put as a search field as for the database. Keep separate matrices for construction and materials.
ACTION: Chris Newman will prepare an SOW to bring a consultant on board that will assist the council with the matrices. Tom Malerk, Lee Onstott, Paula McGee, and Howe Crockett are on the oversight committee of this action.
AASHTO Subcommittee on Traffic
Ben Gribbon from the Safety Office suggested that TCCC get the Traffic subcommittee involved.
ACTION: Howe will write a letter to the subcommittee.
Ideas for Courses
Lee proposes a Construction Surveying Verification course. The cost estimate was between $25-50,000. Bill Beuter has an entry level course for this.
ACTION: Paula will develop a scope for this course.
Bob Peda proposes 5 courses in the maintenance area, of which 3 are in development and one is already done. The new course he proposed was titled Pipe, Culvert, and Underdrain Replacement & Repair Procedures and Specifications.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held Dec 4-5th at a location TBD.
CBT Proposal
Mike Moravec presents a Construction Basics Training CBT series. The MNDOT geometric design CBT series will be used as the foundation and modified for construction. The cost for the series is $165,000. Jim is willing to consider the CBT, but only if it specifically fits the TCCC.
ACTION: Moravec will provide 8 CDs to Howe for distribution to TCCC team leads, L. Onstott and Bud for evaluation.
