Committee on Right of Way, Utilities and Outdoor Advertising Control

AASHTO Liaisons
Patricia Bush, Program Manager for Bridges and Design
pbush@aashto.org
Eric Kopinski, AASHTO Engineering Fellow
ekopinski@aashto.org

Technical Subcommittees Overview

On May 5, 2003, the full Committee voted to adopt an internal organization for subcommittees on each of the technical areas in Right of Way, Utilities and Outdoor Advertising Control. Chairs for the Right of Way & Utilities Technical Subcommittees have been appointed by the AASHTO Right of Way, Utilities, and Outdoor Advertising Control Committee (CRUO) Steering Committee Chairman.

Technical Subcommittees:

The Right of Way (R/W) Vice-Chair, Utilities Vice-Chair, and Outdoor Advertising Control Vice-Chair serve as the single point of contact and provide coordination for their respective technical subcommittees:

R/W Technical Subcommittee Contact – Perry Johnston, Arkansas
Utilities Technical Subcommittee Contact – Nelson Smith, Maryland
Outdoor Advertising Subcommittee Council Contact – Jim Spalla, Florida

The Technical Subcommittees will assist the full CRUO Committee by focusing the attention and expertise of the members of the Subcommittees on specific business areas of responsibility in Right of Way, Utilities, and Outdoor Advertising Control; identifying technical developments, trends, initiatives, innovations and potential problems; and providing an annual report on current issues in each particular area of responsibility.

Technical Subcommittees’ three main objectives are to:

  1. Encourage and facilitate broader participation among member state DOTs and allow people, who have a special interest in some technical aspect of our business to meet to compare notes and share ideas;
  2. help the Committee gather ideas from these experts in various technical areas in order to help us plan for future work efforts of the committee, research, conference programs, etc;
  3. and make the work of the Technical Subcommittees more visible to the Committee membership in order to encourage participation.

Only those individuals eligible for general or active membership as provided in Article III of the Committee’s Operating Procedures shall become eligible to chair or hold membership on a technical subcommittee. Representatives of local government agencies and members of the private sector concerned with transportation and transportation issues, particularly those relating to right of way and utilities, are encouraged to become involved with and participate on technical subcommittees. These individuals may participate in the subcommittee as affiliate members, but may not vote on matters taken under consideration by the subcommittee.

Technical Subcommittee Chairpersons will be responsible for the following:

  • Recruit, sustain, and maintain up to date membership for their Technical Subcommittees.
  • Chair a Technical Subcommittee “round table” meeting at the Annual Conference, and assist an Steering Committee member assigned to facilitate a session on your Technical Subcommittee subject matter at the annual conference.
  • Conduct an annual meeting of your technical subcommittee by video teleconference, teleconference, email, or a combination thereof, on a date you select between the close of the annual conference (April or May) and the steering committee’s annual planning meeting the following January, (Note: Chairperson will have notes created from their annual meeting and submit a report to their Subcommittee coordinator for review at the annual planning meeting. This report is due Dec. 31 of each year. Items note selected for break-out session presentations will be included on the agenda for their technical subcommittee “round table” sessions at the annual conference).
  • Chairpersons who must step down from their position must help the Steering Committee to determining a replacement from the members in their technical subcommittee.

The annual Technical Subcommittee meeting should, at a minimum, cover:

  • New and interesting things are going on in this field
  • Is there anything the Subcommittee needs to be working on in this area?
  • Are any states trying new approaches to the technical area?
  • Any best practices that can be shared?
  • Any new technologies emerging?
  • What problems are you experiencing in your technical area?
  • Any research in your area that needs to be conducted?
  • What topics would you like to see addressed at the annual conference?

All Technical Subcommittee Chairs are invited to contact their respective Steering Committee Coordinators at any time should they have any questions or need any assistance. The R/W, Utilities, and Outdoor Advertising Control Committee Executive Board greatly appreciates all the hard work the Technical Subcommittee Chairs do and the many contributions they make to the work of the Committee.