WTS-Boston – August 2021

By Megha Parameswaraiah, EIT (Michael Baker International)

On August 17th, the WTS-Boston Professional Development Committee hosted MassDOT Design Justification Workbook Training led by key MassDOT staff: Andy Paul (MassDOT State Highway Design Engineer), Jackie DeWolfe (MassDOT Director of Sustainable Mobility) and Andrew Wilkins (MassDOT Transit Coordinator). MassDOT’s mission is to deliver excellent customer service to people traveling in the Commonwealth by providing transportation infrastructure which is safe, reliable, robust, and resilient. MassDOT, in alignment with this mission, works to provide a transportation system that can strengthen the state’s economy and improve the quality of life for all. 

Presenter Jackie DeWolfe began the presentation by showing sample pictures of pedestrians, bicyclists, and people waiting to take transit in inconvenient and unsafe conditions during all types of weather due to poor public policies and design decisions. MassDOT understands the importance of transportation choices, people’s ability to move around, and providing safe transportation facilities for all users across the Commonwealth. As a step towards increasing the percentage of everyday trips made by walking and bicycling, MassDOT published statewide pedestrian and bicycle plans in 2019 with a vision to provide safe, comfortable, and convenient options for short trips with a goal to eliminate pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries. MassDOT also gathers key matrix data of the users and their performance measures to help in creating plans to design safe transportation facilities.

Presenter Andy Paul took over the presentation to explain MassDOT’s effort to develop a directive to connect policies at the secretary level with engineering practices. MassDOT’s comprehensive approach to meet the statewide vision and goals includes creating a directive that contains both State and FHWA controlling criteria; these criteria help to ensure designs are safe for users of all ages and abilities with the use of accepted engineering standards.

Presenter Andrew Wilkins continued the presentation by talking about the 2020 updated MassDOT Engineering Directive E-20-001, which establishes the Controlling Criteria and Design Justification Process for MassDOT Highway Division projects. The updated controlling design criteria has led to establishing a new Design Justification Workbook to document the decision-making process for design projects. The engineering directive conforms with current FHWA controlling criteria and establishes new state design criteria for transit provisions and ramp length along with refined MassDOT-specific controlling criteria – pedestrian facilities and bicycle facilities. Statewide project samples presented at the webinar showed a context-sensitive solution to address bicycle, pedestrian, and transit needs.

The Design Justification Workbook provides designers with a uniform method for evaluating design criteria and documenting the design decision for each controlling design element, and it streamlines MassDOT's design review process. Proposed design criteria that do not meet the minimum criteria require documentation and justification in the workbook.

The presentation helped us to understand the importance and details on preparing the Design Justification workbook required for all MassDOT Highway Division projects. Thank you, Jackie DeWolfe, Andy Paul, and Andrew Wilkins for speaking with WTS-Boston!

Sources:

MassDOT bike plan: https://www.mass.gov/service-details/bicycle-plan

MassDOT pedestrian plan: https://www.mass.gov/service-details/pedestrian-plan

MassDOT tracker: https://www.massdottracker.com/wp/

Engineering Directive E-20-001: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massdot-design-justification-reports#design-justification-workbook-