Background, Funding & Oversight

HOW THE LRRB WORKS

Transportation practitioners from local agencies submit ideas to the LRRB, which selects and approves proposals. The MnDOT Office of Research & Innovation provides administrative support and technical assistance. Researchers from MnDOT, universities and consulting firms conduct the research, and the LRRB monitors the progress.

Research sponsored by the LRRB helps to improve the quality of Minnesota’s transportation systems. The impact of this research multiplies as more and more engineers see potential applications through the technology transfer efforts of LRRB’s Research Implementation Committee.

WHO CONDUCTS TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH IN MINNESOTA?

Transportation research in Minnesota involves extensive and productive collaborations among federal and state agencies, local units of government, the University of Minnesota, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, other universities and private industry. These collaborations take place through a number of formal and informal partnerships. For example, the LRRB RIC, which includes county and city engineers, University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies staff and MnDOT research staff, may contract with a private engineering consultant to implement a research project. Researchers from MnDOT, universities and consulting firms conduct the research, and the LRRB monitors progress. MnDOT’s Office of Research & Innovation provides the necessary administrative support services to the LRRB and RIC.

IMPACTS

Here are some of the impacts of LRRB research initiatives:

• Co-sponsorship of MnROAD, an innovative real-world pavement test facility that includes a low-volume track.
• More than 500 completed research projects, with the results of many projects such as recycled asphalt in mix, now used routinely.
• Funded research and implementation assistance for new spring-load restriction guidelines, which save an estimated $14 million annually in road repair costs.
• Demonstration grants for innovative city and county public works projects (Operational Research Program for Local Transportation Groups (OPERA) )
• Technology transfer through coordination and funding of education, training and library services.

WHO OVERSEES THE LRRB?

The LRRB is overseen by a 10-member board, whose membership is governed by statute  (Minnesota Rules 8820.32). In addition, the LRRB works through its Research Implementation Committee to transform research results into hands-on practical applications. The LRRB has also established an outreach subcommittee to promote LRRB research and products to the transportation community.

HOW IS THE LRRB FUNDED?

Each year, the County Screening Board and the City Screening Committee recommend to the Commissioner a sum of money that the Commissioner shall set aside from the county state-aid highway fund and the municipal state-aid street fund. According to Minnesota statutes, the amount set aside from each of these funds shall not exceed one-half of 1 percent of the preceding year’s apportionment sum.

The LRRB’s funding cycle is based on a fiscal cycle. Yearly funds set aside for the LRRB can be carried forward for one year. Any balance remaining in the research accounts at the end of each year from the sum set aside for the year immediately previous are transferred back to the county and municipal state-aid highway funds. The LRRB annual budget has grown from about $86,000 in 1960 to a current budget of approximately $3 million.