 What if we could move an entire bridge into place in a weekend and open the highway to traffic by the Monday morning rush hour? What if we could repair a road by dropping precast concrete pavement panels into place at night and keeping it open to traffic during the day? What if we could close a highway completely so it can be fixed in a fraction of the time it normally takes while keeping traffic moving on alternate routes? We can. The highways for life program is working with our partners to show the highway community how to do it and helping agencies and industry get it done. Highways for Life is a federal highway administration initiative with a mission to improve the American driving experience. We all know the challenge. Aging highways and bridges need rehabilitation and reconstruction. Traffic congestion is growing making it hard to fix roads without creating huge backups and the resources available make it tough to pay for all of the repairs needed. Highways for Life offers a solution. Change the way we build the highway system to reflect today's realities. Congress established the Highways for Life pilot program in 2005 to do just that. Highways for Life uses several approaches. The Vanguard Technology Initiative is designed to greatly accelerate the adoption of high payoff innovations. In the past it could take decades for innovations to become mainstream. The Vanguard Technology process uses dedicated teams, proven marketing approaches and designated funding to deploy innovations much faster. For each innovation, technical and marketing experts identify needs, set implementation goals, develop a strategy and work to accelerate adoption. It's a process that can work for any innovation and Highways for Life has created a step-by-step guide to developing marketing plans that organizations can use to carry out their own innovation deployment to demonstrate the success of the Vanguard Technology process. We're using it for five innovations. One is the road safety audit, a tool to improve the safety of roadway design and operations. As a result of the marketing team's work, 38 states have held workshops on how to perform audits. Several states have made audits a standard practice and three states have full-time road safety audit coordinators. Another innovation is prefabricated bridge elements and systems. These are manufactured off-site or next to the work zone and moved into place for quick installation. The result is less traffic disruption, improved safety and more durable bridges. More than a dozen states have tried prefabricated components. At least seven have adopted accelerated bridge construction as a standard practice. Precast concrete pavement systems are also cast off-site and installed in a short time span. That cuts traffic congestion on projects and produces more durable pavements. At least nine states have used or planned to try this technology to revolutionize their highway renewal and repair. We're also promoting techniques to make work zones work better. The marketing team is providing tools and technical assistance to help states lessen the impact of work zones by reducing the number needed, cutting the time drivers and workers are exposed to them and improving work zone safety and mobility. The newest Vanguard technology is the safety edge. Used at the interface of the paved roadway in the grated shoulder, it's an economical asphalt paving technique designed to reduce runoff the road crashes. Several states have already adopted the safety edge as a standard. The technology partnership program helps private sector innovations make the leap from promising prototypes to market-ready products. It works by providing funds to refine and test the best ideas already developed by industry. As part of the program, more than three dozen states have tested the technologies. They're gaining valuable experience in using the innovations and they are now able to champion their deployment. So far, highways for life has awarded grants to seven technologies. Two are safety related. Three innovations focus on improving asphalt pavement quality. Two technologies are aimed at building better bridges. The demonstration construction projects program gives states incentives for projects that use proven but rarely used innovations. So far, highways for life has awarded grants for 25 projects in 21 states. The projects feature more than two dozen innovations, prefabricated bridge components, precast concrete pavement systems, work zone safety techniques, full road closures, high performance materials, innovative contracting methods, and more. Most projects include showcases at which transportation professionals can observe innovations in action. Participants can see the benefits firsthand and take what they learned back to their own states, accelerating the spread of innovation to benefit highway users. States are enjoying great success with the innovations they're trying through highways for life. To support innovation acceleration, highways for life offers seminars, workshops, and web conferences. Other resources include DVDs, technology briefs, a website, a newsletter, and a video library. We've also developed a series of demonstration project reports documenting the innovations deployed, their role in meeting performance goals, and the economic value of using the innovations. These learning tools help highway professionals get comfortable with using innovation and setting performance goals, and most important, making them standard practice in their agencies. Accountability is a crucial part of the highways for life effort. From the beginning, we've involved stakeholders from throughout the highway community seeking feedback on the best ways to implement innovation and improve how we build highways. And satisfaction surveys tell us whether demonstration projects meet the needs of the ultimate customers, road users. While working with stakeholders to encourage innovation use, we've learned some key lessons. Proven readily available innovations can be used on construction projects to save money, boost safety, minimize impact on drivers, and produce longer lasting roads and bridges. Innovation should be used on a project because it's the best solution to meet performance goals. Customer needs and performance goals should drive the use of a new technology. Only a fraction of the millions spent on highway research goes to innovation deployment. Resources, both funding and people, need to be dedicated to getting these technologies into everyday use. Another lesson we've learned is that the highways for life movement cannot be an isolated or one-time effort. Instead, it's the beginning of a culture shift in the highway community, one that changes the way highways are built. Through highways for life, we've begun to harness the power of innovation by deploying available technologies with immediate, tangible benefits. We've begun the process of greatly accelerating innovation use so the nation can benefit now instead of years from now. We've begun a movement toward using performance goals to build highways and seeking the best solutions to meet those goals. Highways for life, it's how we're improving the American driving experience and it's everyone's opportunity.