The Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting is virtual this year. The meeting features dozens of sessions on how COVID-19 has impacted transportation and how transportation professionals are responding.
We wanted to understand how restrictions and changes brought about by COVID-19 were affecting many of our clients, including cultural resources professionals at state Departments of Transportation (DOTs), and how they were responding.
To find out, we conducted a survey in June 2020 after most changes had been implemented. As we were talking to different DOTs, we observed trends and topics that posed challenges, and models for success.
The goal was to share this information to connect the DOTs, so we compiled the results. First we presented the results of the June survey at the mid-year TRB AME60 (formerly ADC50) meeting in July 2020.
Then, to gauge how things had changed in six months, we conducted a follow-up survey in December 2020. The results of this second survey will be presented at the TRB Annual Meeting on January 29th.
Emily Pettis and I will be co-presenting Re-Connecting the DOTs Pandemic Response in the session Hindsight is 20/20: How Did Organizations Manage Section 106 with the COVID-19 Outbreak? (Lecture Session 1424) on January 29th from 10:00 am – 11:30 am ET. We hope you can join us.
For a sneak peek at the Top 4 Greatest Challenges facing state DOT cultural resources professionals and the major changes that have taken place with the past six months, check out a copy of the presentation here.