Benefits of Attending the TRB Annual Meeting for the Utah DOT

The Utah Department of Transportation has realized more than $3.8 million in savings for every UDOT employee who has attended a TRB Annual Meeting since 2003, savings that have far surpassed the cost to UDOT of regularly sending their staff to the meeting. UDOT has developed and implemented a process for tracking the benefits to the Department that come from UDOT personnel’s attendance at the TRB Annual Meeting.

The Research Division of the UDOT Project Development Group coordinates this process and tracks the progress of implementation of key ideas brought back from the Annual Meeting by UDOT personnel.  Since the tracking process began in 2003, UDOT has implemented 136 innovative ideas relating to contracting methods, safety improvements, accelerated bridge construction, and other areas and has realized more than $189 million dollars in actual savings.

A podcast on the Utah experience was produced as part of the National Academies Sound of Science series.   An article, published in the November/December 2009 issue of the TR News, TRB's bimonthly magazine, provides additional informaiton on the value of the Annual Meeting.