In 2018, the Utah Legislature not only handed the Utah Dept. of Transportation a record $1.7-billion budget, it also tasked the agency with looking a little further down the road, so to speak.

“立法机关认为我们已经成长为一个更大的组织，就自动驾驶汽车，人工智能和增长而言，发生了很多事情，因此他们大大扩大了该部门的范围，” UDOT执行董事Carlos Braceras说。。

扩展包括UDOT负责加强全州规划，与区域政府和发展的资本运输项目更紧密地合作，包括铁路，公交快速运输（BRT）和其他过境计划。18luck官网Braceras说：“我们希望与社区合成一项更好的工作，以了解其土地利用决策的影响以及我们作为州运输部的能力，以帮助满足这些社区的需求。”

UDOT currently has 84 projects underway, and for fiscal year 2020, the agency will manage a budget of $1.8 billion. Last year, to fulfill directives from the Legislature, UDOT promoted two employees, Teri Newell and Jason Davis, to fill new deputy director positions. Newell manages planning and investment and Davis leads engineering and operations.

尽管这些行政变更正在进行中，但该机构继续进行重大项目。18luck官网最大的是在犹他州北端的高速公路和州高速公路互换的4.5亿美元的重新配置和改进，被称为技术走廊。渐进设计建设合同包括新的立交桥，道路重新调整和扩大。它是由Ames Construction和Wadsworth Brothers Construction的合资企业完成的。

还在建设中，是盐湖县15号州际公路的1.36亿美元扩大，由总部位于犹他州的拉尔夫·L·沃兹沃思建筑公司（Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction）领导。该项目增加了一个新的南行车道，从2100向南到南12300年，并在I-15/州际公路215 South交汇处重新设计了南行坡道，以改善交通流量。

今年夏天,工作人员将完成重建I-215 from the I-15 interchange in North Salt Lake to 2200 North. Sundt Construction’s work on the $25-million project is focused this spring on completing a new diverging diamond interchange (DDI) at Redwood Road and I-215.

今年将加速的一个新项目将是在莱顿和里弗代尔城市之间的北行I-15上增加了近12英里的Express车道。

推出新技术

In his new position as deputy director of engineering and operations, Davis has been overseeing implementation and testing of new technologies for the agency.

Last year the agency piloted a Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) and Multi-Modal Intelligent Traffic Signal System. It allows buses and other public vehicles to communicate with traffic signals in real time to keep traffic running as smoothly as possible on major arterials.

UDOT与犹他州运输管理局合作，将系统安装在红木路沿线的公交路线上。DSRC系统安装在主要南北路线11英里的交叉口的信号上。

“The bus talks with the signals and the signals talk with the bus,” Davis says. “The system knows where the bus is—if it’s on schedule, how many people are on the bus—and it can make decisions to adjust signals to keep it on schedule. We’ve seen a remarkable increase in reliability on the route, starting in the low 80% of on-time arrival up to the low 90%.”

The system has since been expanded to the two BRT vehicles operating in Provo and was tested on several snowplows this winter. “If we can give our snowplows signal preemption, we can get the roads cleared quicker, and that makes it safer for everyone,” Davis says. “We are going to evaluate what we saw from the tests we did at the end of this winter, and it may be something we expand to our fleet.”

很快将公开首次亮相的另一个创新是自动驾驶班车。

戴维斯说：“我们希望参与这项技术，因为我们认为这是使我们更接近道路上零死亡目标的下一步。”“当引入安全带时，它们的安全性提高了，安全气囊和防弹刹车也是如此。94％的事故是人类造成的，但我们希望让人们习惯于没有人开车的想法。”

In its recent session, the state Legislature adopted a measure to address the liability and legality of driverless vehicles. Partnering with a company called Easy Mile, UDOT driverless shuttles will be deployed in contained areas like shopping mall parking lots and university and state agency campuses, Davis says.

“It is really not very exciting when you first use it because it’s slow,” says Braceras. “But we don’t really want it to be exciting. We want people to see the capability and get used to it and see where we’re going.”

不再简单的东西

计划负责人纽厄尔（Newell）和她的团队将集中在全州范围内的努力上，因为犹他州的城市繁忙，新居民和卧室社区或半农村城镇都感到自己的道路压力。

纽厄尔说：“当我们面对如此大的增长时，我们确实需要每个人都专注于我们将如何应对。”“我们已经用完了简单的解决方案。我们未来30年所面临的事情将使每个人共同努力，并进行一些真正的前瞻性思维，以保持生活质量。”纽厄尔说，在过去的一年中，一个“利益相关者”委员会组成了一个委员会，其中包括州长经济发展办公室，犹他州自行车，地铁规划组织，UTA等，以对国家和运输作用创造长期愿景。

“We are not sure what will come out of this process at this point, but in the end it will influence our project prioritization process,” Newell says. “The last time we made updates to our prioritization process was 15 years ago, and we know it is time to update it. We want to know what comes out of this visioning process so we can match up projects with statewide goals in mind.”

纽厄尔部门内部的部门还将包括一个技术和创新集团，该小组收集和分析该机构收集的数据。“我们收集了很多数据，” Braceras说。“当我们将所有这些数据彼此放置时，我们认为我们将能够提出更好的问题并获得更好的答案。”

Newell says bringing the collected data together within one group will allow it to be more useful. Among the new projects is a program to charge electric and alternative-fuel vehicles a fee for miles driven as a way to address the problem of lower tax revenue as many vehicles operate outside the reach of gasoline taxes and as fuel efficiency increases.

纽厄尔说：“我们正在研究一项将于2020年开始的自愿报告计划。”“我们知道这是方向发展的方向，我们希望将来有一种不同的收集机制。”