Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Score! We look at Texas roads and bridges in light of ASCE's 2025 Infrastructure Report Card.
Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issues its Report Card for America's Infrastructure. Expressed in reader-friendly letter grades, the ratings document the current state of the country's major infrastructure assets, while also identifying needed improvements and contextualizing the relative health of these assets over time. Today, we talk to two experts--TTI's Edith Arámbula Mercado and the Texas Department of Transportation's Jamie Farris--about ASCE's 2025 report card and how Texas ranks nationally in terms of the health and reliability of its roads and bridges.
Howdy, everyone. Welcome to Thinking Transportation, conversations about how we get ourselves the stuff we need from one place to another. I'm Allan Rutter with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Some things just seem to belong together: peanut butter and chocolate, Lennon and McCartney, Wesley and Buttercup. It also seems that the word "infrastructure" in most news stories is inevitably preceded by the adjective "crumbling": crumbling infrastructure. But is there any way of knowing if our roads and bridges are in bad shape, getting worse, or getting better? Today, we'll be discussing assessments of America's infrastructure issued every four years by the American Society of Civil Engineers. We are joined by two Texas experts in transportation - how it gets built, how it lasts, and how it gets maintained. Jamie Farris is the director of the Bridge Division of the Texas Department of Transportation. Edith Arámbula Mercado is a research engineer and Recyclable Pavement Materials Program manager at TTI and also serves as the deputy director of the Center for Infrastructure Renewal (CIR). Welcome to you both.
Edith Arámbula Mercado:Thanks for having us.
Jamie Farris:Yes, thank you. Thanks for having me.
Allan Rutter:So first, let me get something out of the way. I want to remind our audience that while the three of us are employed by the state of Texas, our conversation today involves three people expressing views, opinions, or observations that are solely our own and do not necessarily reflect those of TxDOT, TTI, or the CIR. So with that out of the way, let's first let our audience get a chance to meet you and get to know you a little better. One of the questions I would have is how have each of you made the journey to engineering in general and to pavements and bridges in particular? Let me start with you, Jamie. How'd you get into the bridge world?
Jamie Farris:All right. So my journey into bridges started at The University of Texas as an undergraduate architectural engineering student. For two summers, I worked as a research assistant for Dr. Joseph Yura on bridge research. And so after graduating, I ended up going to work for a consulting firm designing bridges for about three years before I came over TxDOT's Bridge Division. And I've been working at TxDOT's Bridge Division for over 22 years.
Allan Rutter:So you got into bridges pretty quickly. Right. Okay, Edith, what's your journey?
Edith Arámbula Mercado:Well, I was raised in a household of engineers. So my dad is a mechanical engineer. My mom has a degree in physics and math. Both have graduate degrees. All my sisters are either architects or engineers. So it was pretty obvious from my background that I was going to go into engineering. So I chose civil engineering. I did my undergrad at Monterrey Tech in Mexico. And the focus there is primarily structural engineering, you know, design of concrete and steel structures. However, soon after graduation, I was able to land a job with the public works department in one of the cities that is close to Monterrey. And I was given the task of developing and implementing a pavement management system. I didn't know much about that, but it was kind of my window into the pavement world. I finally got to see, you know, how roads were made, what type of maintenance strategies were applied. And that led me to wanting to learn more about it. So I joined the Texas A&M graduate program. I did my master's and PhD here at A&M. And after working for Federal Highways and private consulting, I made my way back and joined TTI as a research engineer. And I've been here since 2010. So this will be my 15th year with TTI.
Allan Rutter:Great. Thank you very much for that. So today we're going to be talking about a infrastructure report card Let me get into helping our audience understand what this is. So as part of the American Society of Civil Engineers-- or ASCE, that's how we'll refer to them-- often, as part of their advocacy for infrastructure improvements, they've prepared a comprehensive assessment of the nation's major infrastructure systems in what they call a Report Card for America's Infrastructure. And they issue this every four years since 1998. The last time this quadrennial report card was issued in 2020 Edith joined our OG podcast host, Bernie Fette, to discuss the report card. Now, earlier this year, the 2025 version of this report card was published. So before getting into the letter grades of pavement and bridges, let's talk a little bit about some of the big picture trends these guys discussed at a national level. The first major trend they noted centered on the subject of resilience. The report states, " aging infrastructure systems are increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and extreme weather events, creating unexpected and often avoidable risks to public safety and the economy." So for the two of you, are you guys seeing public infrastructure owners at the state and local level paying more attention to resilience as they plan and construct roads and bridges? Jamie, how are you seeing resilience being addressed by you and your peer state DOTs?
Jamie Farris:So I would say that definitely resilience is considered more than ever across the nation and at TxDOT and the local level. And so we're definitely seeing that nationally.
Allan Rutter:Edith?
Edith Arámbula Mercado:I agree with Jamie. Yes, I think resilience is getting a lot more attention now, especially after extreme events. If you remember that winter storm we had here in Texas, February 2021, created a lot of problems like widespread power outages. People couldn't drive because of ice and extreme cold. So that forces agencies to rethink what are they going to do about these events, right? What materials are you going to select? What design and construction process practices they're going to do in order for infrastructure in general, not just roads or bridges, to withstand these extreme conditions. So for payments, I think you could look into engineer materials or revising existing methods or specifications to ensure that the way you are combining these materials and putting them down in construction are able to withstand these more extreme conditions that we're all experiencing year by year. I think ASCE report mentions that for every dollar you spend on resilience, you can have a $13 imposed disaster recovery cost savings. So I think that makes a strong case for making this type of investment.
Allan Rutter:So Jamie, how are you seeing resilience being incorporated in terms of materials, methods of construction or maintenance practices?
Jamie Farris:So I would say-- if you're just looking at TxDOT-- so TxDOT as a whole started developing a statewide resiliency plan in 2023. And this was to strengthen the resilience of the state's multimodal transportation system and to kind of look at potential hazards. And so that's kind of TxDOT as a whole, but if we narrow down to bridges, TxDOT's been incorporating resiliency details and materials for bridges for many years. Some of the examples that I can think of, you know, we utilize epoxy- coated reinforcing in the northern part of our state because that part of the state will receive ice storms or snow. And so there's a lot of salts that they use on the bridges, which is very corrosive to the decks. And so that epoxy- coated reinforcing protects that steel from corrosion. And another way that we incorporate resiliency -- is about five years ago, we did a statewide program to retrofit two- column bridges with crash walls. And that was another way to make them more resilient. We also... Whenever we need to replace bridges, if they're over water, we try to get the substructure, the columns out of the water. And so that reduces the number of obstructions in the water. And it also helps with the erosions of the column and the piers. And then it also helps with the debris not getting caught in those columns. So those are just some of the ways that we try to help on the resiliency side.
Allan Rutter:Well, that sounds like it's something that you can plan for. And it sounds like it's also planning for making sure that the infrastructure can last longer. And in terms of those bridges, it's not going to create obstructions that lead to additional flooding.
Jamie Farris:Right.
Allan Rutter:The next trend these guys noted was the need for sustained investments. [The] 2021 report came out just before the latest federal service transportation bill was passed that fall. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act increased funding takes time to make its way into actual projects. How can predictable funding affect the overall condition and functionality of our roads and bridges? Not necessarily to say how much money you have, but the fact of predictability and to be able to plan for it. How does that show up in how roads and bridges are
Jamie Farris:Well, I guess I can speak on the bridge side. So having predictable funding allows us to plan for the future, and we can also prioritize projects based on the bridge condition. And it not only allows us to better use our resources, the resources that everybody will see in construction with the materials, but it also helps us plan our personnel resources. And so we can focus on the projects that will be constructed sooner. And so it kind of helps us, once we have that predictable funding, we know that we can prioritize projects and we can dedicate technicians and designers on those projects.
Edith Arámbula Mercado:Yeah, I definitely agree. I think just predictable funding gives you the ability to plan, right? So you can preserve existing roads or you can even try new materials or methods. You can also train workforce, right, to support both the current needs but also future innovations. And that Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that you mentioned has been, I think, key in that regard because that reliable funding will support the maintenance programs that will help you extend payment live and avoid more costly repairs in the future.
Allan Rutter:So the final trend these guys noted was the need for better data on key performance indicators in infrastructure areas like school facilities, broadband, stormwater, and public parks, where there weren't a whole lot of good measures on how well things were going. What are some of the ways that public infrastructure owners collect performance data on our surface transportation networks? In other words, how can you measure conditions on roads and bridges?
Jamie Farris:For bridges, TxDOT and all states, you know, we have to adhere to federal requirements for bridge inspections. And so that involves inspecting bridges at certain intervals. And so at TxDOT, because we have so many bridges, we have over 57,000 bridges, that means that we're inspecting 2,300 bridges every month, all year long, every year. And so if you can imagine, that's a lot of data. Those bridge inspectors, they have to report the conditions on the various parts of bridges. And so that data gets stored in one system, and then TxDOT can use that data to prioritize bridge project. And then also, we use it to predict future bridge deterioration. And then we can look at all the data for one structure or maybe one type of structure, and we can look at historic trends and then we can kind of identify what details or what ways that we constructed the bridges, you know, that maybe we need to change or maybe we need to tweak. And so it's a really good way to kind of see how things are going over time. And it gives engineers insight on, you know, how to improve the way that we're doing things and also to make our designs more resilient to the environment.
Edith Arámbula Mercado:Yeah, I think similar to bridges, the condition assessments are routine. I think Texas uses a pavement management information system, or PMIS, and they collect data on ride quality, cracking, rutting. So it's just to give the agency, TxDOT, like an idea of how are the roads performing, what roads are doing good. which roads need maintenance or rehab, and also to have that historical record of the systems that are working and why, what type of designs or construction practices led to that success. So all this data is being collected on a routine basis, but it also requires certain analysis and determining trends and seeing how things are developing over time and those type of analyses as well.
Allan Rutter:So not only are we both encouraged on the federal side to do that kind of performance assessment and management, sounds like TxDOT and other DOTs are using that information to track how well things are performing out in the field. I think the other thing that maybe our audience doesn't fully appreciate is in a state as big as Texas-- in 25 districts of the Texas Department of Transportation-- pavement conditions and bridge conditions in each one of those districts from one end of the state to the other, different soil conditions, different weather patterns. It's a very different kind of thing to watch how bridges and pavements are performing in different parts of the state.
Jamie Farris:Correct.
Edith Arámbula Mercado:Yeah, that's right.
Allan Rutter:So finally, let's look at some grades, because it's a report card after all, and how some of those grades have changed. In terms of roads and bridges, given that you guys, that's your thing, the 2021 grade for roads was about a D, and in 2025, the grade was D+. In 2021, the grade for bridges was C, and it was the same in 2025. So a bit of progress for roads, steady state on bridges, although neither of them are going to get on on the Dean's List anytime soon. Now, let's think about that low grade for roads on a national level. For the ASCE, given their methodology, that grade stems from a relatively high percentage of roads in poor or mediocre condition. In 2023, that was about 39 percent poor or mediocre, which was down from 43 percent in 2020; high operating costs from congestion of those conditions, and high numbers of traffic deaths. Edith, what are some of the ways that roadway infrastructure could be improved to improve those overall condition scores or reduce traffic deaths from traffic crashes? What are some of the ways of thinking about roadway design that can improve its overall condition?
Edith Arámbula Mercado:Yeah, so, I mean, as you mentioned, 40 percent or near 40 percent of U.S. roads remain in poor or mediocre conditions. There's a clear opportunity for making meaningful progress, right? So I think one way you could improve conditions scores and safety is by combining materials that are durable, but also doing a smart design. The road has certain features such as skid resistance, -high- visibility striping, rumble strips, shoulders. All those contribute to safer driving conditions, but are not necessarily the mixture itself, right? At the same time, if you want to build these longer lasting pavement, you need to prevent issues like potholes, for example, or rutting that could create unsafe conditions and also increase the vehicle operating costs. Because if you have to close a road to give it maintenance, you're going to have increased congestion and create headaches for the public. So I think there's a lot of opportunities here in which roads could improve that grade. And I think it is not bad. Like you said, you know, there was a slight improvement, but I think more could be done.
Allan Rutter:So bridge condition scores are higher than those of roadways, 44 percent in good condition, 49 percent in fair. The ASCE states that bridges in fair or good condition can be preserved at a lower cost than bridges in poor condition. So what are some of the reasons, Jamie, that bridges might be in better condition than roadways? And then what are some ways that infrastructure owners can invest in routine maintenance rather than more expensive rehab?
Jamie Farris:I think one reason that you likely see bridges in such good condition is because bridges are designed for long lifespans. So their design life will be longer. They're also slower to show deterioration, even though we know that they're deteriorating, but it's just progressing very slowly. I do believe investments should be made on our infrastructure to maintain what we have. And cyclical maintenance is a great way to preserve our assets. When I think of that for bridges, I think cleaning joints, cleaning out deck drains, sweeping bent caps and abutments and sealing our decks, and then also setting regular schedules for each bridge for maintenance. And that'll extend the life of the bridge as well as if you're taking care of it as you go along as the life of that bridge, then you may not need costly repairs in the future. Another thing I think bridge owners can do is basically focus on water. So if you can protect the beam ends or the caps from being exposed to water, then you can do a tremendous job protecting the bridge. The water and the chloride that are on the bridge decks, they'll just lead to faster corrosion of all the bridge components. So I think just adding that protection can do a lot for the life of the bridge.
Allan Rutter:So it sounds like bridge maintenance is a lot more expensive than maintaining a house, but it's kind of the same thing. You've got to do the regular maintenance to keep things up, otherwise it becomes more expensive. And I really like this notion of protecting against water because one of the things a home in Texas needs to be concerned about is either too much water or not enough water and how that affects your overall structure and particularly on your foundations. So I think most of the people listening to this can understand the purpose for making those regular investments in maintenance and protecting our structures from the kinds of things that'll tear it up. This may be a good chance for us to shift into a more Texas-focused discussion. Turns out that the Texas section of ASCE also issues their own Texas- specific report cards. 2025 scores for roads and bridges were higher than those for the national grades. And we'll talk a little bit about that. The bridge grade in 2025 for Texas is B- minus, unchanged from 2021. And the road grade is C- minus in 2025, up from D- plus in 2021. So Texas bridges are in better condition in that more bridges in Texas are in good and fair condition, and the percent of bridges in poor condition is lower, only about 1.2 percent in Texas compared to a national average of 6.8 percent. Jamie, what are some of the reasons why Texas bridges might be in better condition than national averages?
Jamie Farris:So there are a few factors that have helped us on this front. And one of them is, 25 years ago, TxDOT made a commitment to start replacing bridges in poor condition. And so there was dedicated funding, and there still is, to bridge replacement and bridge rehabilitation that's been consistent over the years. And this has allowed Texas to decrease the number of poor-c onditioned bridges over that 25 years. So since we've gotten the percentage down, we're now shifting our emphasis to preservation and maintenance because we have one of the lowest percentages of poor- conditioned bridges in the nation. And so we're doing a great job. And another factor that, in Texas, some of our regions have relatively benign environments. That means they're not as harsh on our bridges. That type of environment combined with a preservation mines that kind of work together to keep our bridges in good health.
Allan Rutter:So by the harsh environment, you're talking about cold weather and freeze-thaw cycles, or is it... what else could have to do with that?
Jamie Farris:I would say kind of more what I was talking about is the benign environment. We're talking about like West Texas, very dry environment where that kind of helps, and so it's not a corrosive environment.
Allan Rutter:Ah, okay. That makes sense. So, similarly, Texas roads are in relatively better condition than our national averages. Statewide percentage of lane miles in good or better condition is 89 percent in 2023. Nationally, only 45 percent are good or better. So, Edith, why might Texas roads be in better condition than national averages?
Edith Arámbula Mercado:In my opinion, the key factor here is preventive maintenance. You know, when you do these early applications of treatments such as seal coats, overlays, crack sealing, microsurfacing, and other strategies, you do that on a periodic basis before your pavement deteriorates severely, you're keeping that road in a good acceptable condition. It's kind of similar to what you were mentioning earlier with that house analogy. If you leave your house to deteriorate and then you're going to have to do a costly repair of your whole roof, for example. But if you're keeping up with small repairs throughout time, you're kind of prolonging the life of that asset and not having to come and do a major repair later on. I think also the ongoing research that we have at TTI and other research institutions in the state helps create these tailored strategies, especially for districts tailored to their local conditions, maybe their materials, their weather conditions. Like we were saying, you know, Texas is a big state, so some areas are very dry, some areas are very wet, some areas have freeze, some areas are very hot. And I think that level of flexibility, providing recommendations based on research for different districts is very valuable. And lastly, I'm going to say, you know, pavements do fail. After all, you know, the world is not perfect. So TTI has these very strong department or agency maybe that they conduct these forensic analyses for districts. So they go back and measure things, especially when they are early failures and try to determine, okay, what did go wrong? Is this a problem of materials? Is this a problem of construction? And that helps create this knowledge base so that designs and construction practices can be improved.
Allan Rutter:So finally, the Texas report card, like the national version, indicates or includes a discussion of innovation in improving conditions, particularly the bridge report discusses how TxDOT's $30 million RTI-- or Research and Technology Innovation-- Program helps improve the efficiency and speed of bridge construction in a reliable manner. And as a result, Texas has the lowest bridge replacement costs in the nation, which can be attributed to its investment in innovative technology. Some of those innovations they mentioned are modern sensors, drones, advanced materials. Jamie, what are some of the innovations that TxDOT has been deploying to make bridges last longer?
Jamie Farris:Like you said, Allan, TxDOT has a very robust research program, and that's a huge advantage to Texas. Some of the projects that I would say that would include, kind of, making bridges last longer is we've had several projects that have to do with redundancy of bridges. We've had projects where we're developing a concrete mix overlay just to improve the resistance to cracking and increase durability. We've had research on the calibration of bridge performance models, kind of, to help us see those trends and deterioration models. We've had research on evaluating the performance of sealers and coatings that are applied to bridges and their substructures. And then we've also had research on innovative bridge superstructures and high velocity flood events. And so after some of these research projects we implement their findings either in design or in construction practices. For instance, we've included shear keys on substructures to help resist lateral forces from floodwaters, and so this is all from research. And we've also changed our bridge standards to have smaller spacing in the column reinforcing, and that will help if it has a crash event, you know, it'll help from vehicles. So we try to take what we research and implement it. And that's, kind of, the key thing that I think that we do really well at TxDOT.
Allan Rutter:So Edith, what are some of the innovations that TTI has been working on to improve conditions of Texas roadways? What are we helping do that continues to help those pavements last longer?
Edith Arámbula Mercado:Well, at TTI, we're currently implementing balanced-mix design. This is not a new concept, but we are in the stage of implementing it now. It has a national interest, and it's a framework in which we're trying to make pavements last longer by balancing their performance. So we want sort of, like, a Goldilocks mix that will sustain loads and not rut, but also sustain climate and not crack. So all these combined is called a balanced-mix design, or BMD. And as I said, Texas is currently a leader on the national implementation level. We're also doing a lot of research on reclaimed asphalt pavement, or RAP, and that is reusing the old pavement that's existing and incorporating it in new pavement. And when we do that, we try to deliver what we call the three E's, which is having good engineering performance, good economic value, and good environmental benefits. So that's a big push that we're doing. So we're having that more sustainable roads. We're also looking into aging protocols. And why is that important? Because as we just mentioned, there are more extreme events. So we're trying to simulate how these materials will age in the field and what type of extreme conditions they can experience while still being durable and performing as intended. Lastly, we're doing some non-destructive quality control techniques, such as GPR or ground penetrating radar, and some other compaction monitoring systems. And the goal here is to combine these data with emerging data analytics such as AI or machine learning to potentially link construction data to longevity of the pavement. So I think in summary, all these efforts just are aiming to support Texas in making smarter and more efficient decisions that can improve the condition and the life of Texas roads.
Allan Rutter:And one of the things that sounds pretty consistent on both the road and bridge side is some of those innovations are about if you can make things last longer, and if you can build them in such a way that they are going to last longer, the inconvenience to roadway users of maintenance projects or reconstruction (or particularly replacing a bridge, which is kind of a major thing), that will inconvenience the rest of the citizens and drivers within the state a lot less. So not only they get more value out of their money for what got invested in the infrastructure itself, but they're not being inconvenienced by that ongoing redoing something.
Edith Arámbula Mercado:That is correct. I think all of us have been on roads that have been under construction for a while, and that can be a headache. So the more we can do as researchers to prevent that from happening, I think the user is happier.
Allan Rutter:Well, and it also sounds like we're constructing that infrastructure in different ways, learning from what we've been measuring over time.
Jamie Farris:Definitely.
Allan Rutter:Well, from today's conversation, one of the things I can tell is that improving transportation infrastructure is a passion that both you guys share. Tell our listeners a little bit more about why you're eager to get to work each day. Jamie, I'll let you start.
Jamie Farris:So I guess for me, as a native Texan, I like the idea of making a difference for Texas. And I'm really proud to work with all the people, you know, men and women at TxDOT. I'm constantly impressed with my colleagues. And I've learned so much from the people that I work with. And I can honestly say that I've got friends that I work with. And my job also gives me the opportunity to sit on some national committees. And so... This has been awesome. Just over the years, learning from others, learning from other states, as well as sharing some of our best practices. It's been a great opportunity for me. And then I guess lastly, I would say for me, I can honestly say that I learn something new every day. And I feel like it's extremely fulfilling for me just to be there and go to work every day and learn something.
Allan Rutter:Edith?
Edith Arámbula Mercado:I think what keeps me motivated is knowing that our work touches people's lives, you know. Because a smooth road or a safe road is not just an engineering challenge, but it's just something that people will experience every day while they commute to work or to a vacation. So that knowledge is very motivating. In addition, like Jamie said, I get to collaborate with incredibly talented people across agencies and universities. We apply these engineering principles to solve real- world problems. And for me specifically, it's very rewarding when the materials and methods that we work with in the lab or we do research on and the recommendations we come up with get implemented on actual projects, seeing ideas coming into reality. And the end goal is, of course, to create this road network that is safe and that is durable. But the things that go along with it are just very satisfying to me and keep me motivated.
Allan Rutter:Well, that's great. I really appreciate you guys spending some time with us today, helping us and our listeners understand what's been happening in Texas on roads and bridges and why things have maybe better in Texas than they are other places, but also to understand how we're making a difference going forward. Thanks for spending time with us and with our listeners today.
Jamie Farris:Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Edith Arámbula Mercado:Thank you. It's a pleasure.
Allan Rutter:Longer-lasting infrastructure starts with fixing small problems before they become bigger, more expensive problems. Edith and Jamie have just shared good news that TTI and TxDOT are learning from years of condition monitoring and research to build better roads and bridges with materials and designs that will last longer as Texas traffic increases and Texas weather remains unpredictable. Thanks for listening. If you liked what you heard or learned something, please take just a minute to give us a review, subscribe, and share this episode. I invite you to join us next time for another conversation about getting ourselves and the stuff we need from point A to point B. Thinking Transportation is a production of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, a member of The Texas A&M University System. The show is edited and produced by Chris Pourteau. I'm your host, Allan Rutter. Thanks again for joining us. We'll see you next time.