1. Overview of FHWA’s Work Zone Safety Grant
In April 2006 FHWA issued a RFA (Request for Application) for a Work Zone Safety Grant. The estimated total program funding was $17,226,000 and FHWA expected to make up to 5 awards.
ATSSA put together a “team” consisting of internal staff and external partners to respond to the RFA.
ATSSA was awarded $11.9 million of the total grant.

2. 3 Areas Highway Work Zone Worker Safety Training
Highway Work Zone Safety Guidelines Development
Highway Work Zone Safety Guidelines Training
The grant covers 3 major areas. Within each of these areas there is a detailed work program that was included with the grant application. I will briefly cover the work program for each area.

3. Area 1: Work Zone Training
WESK – What Everyone Should Know About TTC Training
TCT – Traffic Control Technician
TCS – Traffic Control Supervisor
FIT – Flagger Instructor Training
ETC – Emergency Traffic Control
LEO – Law Enforcement Officer
NTC – Nighttime Traffic Control
Utility – Utility Traffic Control
Area 1 is the course delivery component – one of the reasons our application was successful is that we have existing courses ready to “hit the street” and we didn’t have the long development time of our competitors. A second reason is that our TCT, TCS, and Flagger courses have an outstanding reputation. A third is that FHWA thinks that ATSSA is synonymous with training.
We have prioritized these courses in the order that we can successfully plan their release them – over the next couple of months we will be making some minor adjustments to the course curriculum, ensuring that the courses follow NHI guidelines, and making the courses 508 compliant. Then, in the second quarter of 07 we will start working on the schedule for delivery.
Course delivery will start 10/07.

4. Area 1: Work Zone Training
Course delivery will start 10/07
1340 total courses covering all 50 States
Will follow NHI Guidelines
Modules with objectives and recap
Instructional design

5. Area 1: Next Steps Prepare courses for scheduling
Prioritized roll out of courses 
Modified existing courses 
NHI Guidelines 
Schedule and promote courses 
The courses have been prioritized and modified. We’ve also made sure the courses follow NHI guidelines for development.
All courses have been submitted to FHWA for review and approval.
The WESK and TCT courses have been finalized.
We are on schedule to start delivery of courses in October 2007.

6. Area 1: Next Steps WESK courses scheduled
TCT/TCS/FIT courses scheduled
NTC courses scheduled
UTC, ETC and LEO courses
Tentatively scheduled – Need input
All schedules, course descriptions and registration information is on
We are also sending out promotional s.
In the next month or so we will start a post card marketing campaign.
We’ve put ads and blurbs in a variety of publications.
Executive Overviews of all 8 courses are available upon request.

7. Special emphasis = Higher priority
“Opportunity States”
16 States that:
Are in the top ½ of States by total fatalities, and
Have a fatality rate that is above the national average or the safety trend is below the national average.
Key Message: Define “opportunity state”
Est. Presentation Time: 2 minutes
Explanation of Cues/Builds: Text box appears upon click
Suggested Comments: The new focused approach involved FHWA reviewing data to identify States with the greatest opportunities for contributing to the reduction of the national highway fatality toll. Sixteen States, each with a fatality rate above the national average of 1.5, or with a fatality improvement trend over the past 5 years below that of the national average, were identified as "opportunities" for safety improvements and are called "opportunity States." In terms of overall roadway fatality numbers, opportunity States were chosen among those that rank in the highest half of all States. (All analysis was based on 2002 data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System.) The 16 opportunity States will have access to three new resources from FHWA: additional funding, additional staff, and priority assistance from leadership in advancing safety goals. Each opportunity State will receive $50,000 in seed money in fiscal year (FY) 2005 to advance its highway safety program. FHWA is reallocating the funds from the Office of Safety to FHWA field offices, a shift in agency philosophy on where the money can be put to the most effective use. FHWA has asked these States to develop proposals on how they intend to use the funds--either to develop a comprehensive highway safety plan or to make progress on an existing plan. Each State is at a different point in the development and implementation of a comprehensive highway safety plan, so the funding is designed to move each State's efforts to the next level.
Suggested Questions: What is an opportunity state?
Additional Information: This is an FHWA designation
Possible Problems: ATSSA does not have a say on which states are selected. It is a function of crash statistics, as explained in the previous slide.
Special emphasis = Higher priority

8. The 15 “Opportunity States”AL GA MO SC AZ KY NC TN CA LA IN TX FL MS PA
Here are the 15 “opportunity states”.
We are busy contacting state DOTS, local public officials, ATSSA members, contractors and other interested parties in each of these states.
We had a mtg with National LTAP to discuss marketing and outreach.
We have a TCT level course scheduled with NDLTAP which will be presented via video teleconference.
We’ve reached out to NACE, NUCA, APWA, AASHTO, and other interested parties.
We are open to working with anyone – our goal is to compliment the existing training that’s available and to get these courses in the hands of as many people as possible.

9. Area 1: Next Steps “Open” courses: first come first served
FREE to federal employees
$25 for public officials
$50 all others
We are taking
registrations NOW!
These courses fees must be pre-paid and the purpose is to ensure that people don’t register and then not show up. We want full classes.

10. Area 1 Status WESK: COMPLETED TCT: Approved draft, IG under dev.
TCS: Submitted draft
FIT – Submitted draft
ETC – Submitted draft
LEO – Submitted draft
NTC – Submitted draft
Utility – Submitted draft
Our goal is to have all courses reviewed and approved by September 1, 2007.

11. Area 2: Guidelines Development
Develop guidelines in 5 areas:
Positive protection
High-visibility garments
Pedestrians and work zones
Maintenance work zone
safety
Work zone planning, impact
assessment and mitigation
We provided FHWA with 31 potential subject areas. These 5 areas were chosen after extensive discussion with a Practitioner’s Group and with FHWA.
We are in the process of identifying potential products to be developed that will cover these 5 areas.

12. Area 2: Next Steps Identify Guidelines Subject Areas
Synthesis document of existing policies, regulations, and guidelines 
Gaps & needs analysis
Practitioner group meeting 
Develop guidelines and training materials
We are now in the process of developing the guidelines for these 5 areas.

13. Area 2 – Next Steps Finalize list of products by area with FHWA
Develop draft guideline documents
Address review comments
Finalize guideline documents
Develop outreach plan and materials
Develop training materials
Develop evaluation plan
Over the next few months, we will finalize the list of products by are and then start drafting guideline documents.

14. Area 3: Guidelines Training
Development and Implementation of Training Programs:
400 Total Courses
We will be developing and delivering approximately 400 training courses under Area 3.

15. Area 3: Guidelines Training
Five areas:
Traffic Control Design Specialist
Urban Work Zone Design
Work Zone Strategies
Analytical Tools for Work Zone Planning
Pedestrian and Bicycle Considerations in Work Zones
We provided FHWA with a list of potential subject areas that we felt would lend themselves to course development. These are the 5 areas they’ve asked us to develop and deliver.

16. Area 3: Next Steps
Planning for Area 3 will come in year 2 of the grant
This work will begin in October 2007.

17. Outreach and Marketing
Quarterly Newsletter
Ads and Articles in various
industry publications
has the latest information on grant activities
We are also publishing a quarterly newsletter
We’ve placed ads and articles in various industry publications

18. Grant Partners SAIC – Science Applications International Corporation
National Sheriffs Association
JM Morales and Associates
James Bryden
Ernest Huckaby
Mark Robinson of SAIC is the Team Leader for Area 2.
NSA is helping with the ETC and LEC courses.
Juan Morales of JMMorales and Associates is the Team Leader for Areas 1 and 3.
Jim Bryden and Ernie Huckaby provide technical assistance under Area 2.

19. Outreach Partners National Tree Care Industry Association NACE
National Towing and Recovery Association
American Red Cross
AASHTO
Also discuss Outreach Partners:
National Tree Care Industry Association
NACE
National Towing and Recovery Association
American Red Cross
AASHTO
They have agreed to assist us with marketing and outreach.

20. Internal Grant Team Donna Clark - GRANT PROGRAM MANAGER
Catherine Saunders
Tammy Loving
Dave McKee
Jim Baron
Lisa Wetzel
Mitzi Lao
Tracey Clark
Kristi Henderson

21. Questions
Donna Clark or