TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD
COMMITTEE A1F07 WASTE MANAGEMENT IN TRANSPORTATION
2000 ACTIVITY REPORT
2000 Annual Meeting Activities
Twenty people attended the
Committee meeting held on January 12, 2000 in the Hilton Hotel, Washington
DC. The following subcommittee reports
were given: Secretary, Steering,
Research, Newsletter, Annual Meeting, and Summer Meeting. Membership status was discussed since
membership terms expired in 2000.
Another major topic of discussion was research. Two paper sessions and a poster session were
held during the annual meeting.
National Conference on Transportation and Environment for the 21st
Century
This conference in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania was held in lieu of the typical summer meeting. There were eleven sponsors including TRB,
FHWA, EPA, CTE, PennDOT, and PA DEP.
Thirteen TRB committees, including A1F07, participated in the conference. A1F07s sessions fell under the Systems
Preservation and the Environment track of the multi-faceted program. The A1F07 committee coordinated six
presentations. The theme of the
presentations was Environmental Management Systems (EMS). Three presentations dealt with conceptual
planning and design of EMS. The other
three presentations dealt with implementation of an EMS.
Eighteen people attended the
committee business meeting held during the conference. Reports were given from the Steering,
Research, Annual Meeting, Summer Meeting 2001, and Technology Transfer
Subcommittees. Due to recent membership
rotation, the committee reported that there were nine new members.
Membership
There are currently 24 Committee
members representing state and federal transportation agencies, consultants,
research councils, and universities.
There are over 50 Friends of the Committee.
Strategic Planning
The Committee Work Plan is being
updated for 2001. The Work Plan will
contain detailed information regarding assignments, due dates, internal and
external communications, and Committee activities relevant to and planned for
2001. Items covered in the plan include
Committee membership, TRB research, technology transfer, Committee sponsored
papers/conferences/workshops, communications, and Committee direction.
Research Needs
Work was conducted by the
Committee to determine what research has been conducted since Circular 469 was
published. A survey was developed to
determine current research needs of DOTs.
Based on the results of the survey, an action plan was developed and
will be presented at the 2001 Annual Meeting.
The committees research
statement that was further developed by Washington and Pennsylvania DOTs was
funded by NCHRP. The purpose of the project is to develop a system for
environmental information management and decision support for transportation
plans, programs, projects, operations, and maintenance activities. The desired system will facilitate
information gathering and data collection requirements for technical and policy
decision making in transportation. TRB
contracted with Booz-Allen & Hamilton to develop the system. To date, the following tasks have been
initiated or completed:
·
Review of literature, practices, policies, and
regulations
·
Development of draft best practice model to
identify environmental information management and decision support systems and
data management practices
·
Development of user needs and information survey
instrument
·
Refinement of initial concept
Other Items
Planning for the 2001 Mid-Year
Workshop to be held in Key West, Florida in conjunction with the A1F05
committee began in late summer 2000.
