Europe

Russia Program

The Russia Program was established to promote mutually beneficial U.S.-Russia partnerships among highway administrations and Technical Exchange Centers. The Office of International Programs (OIP) has had great success in the development of close working relationships between U.S. states and their Russian counterparts. There are currently four states involved in active Russian partnerships: Kentucky (with Perm), Maine (with Arkhangelsk), Minnesota (with Mariy El), and Tennessee (with Karelia). Exchange activities occur within each partnership each year so that partners may learn first-hand about the management structures and road technologies used by each counterpart.

Activities include joint technical seminars, high-level delegations to the U.S. and Russia, Russian internships in the U.S., and participation in U.S. technology transfer conferences. State departments of transportation share in the cost of hosting Russian delegations and interns, Russian travelers pay their international travel costs, and Russian highway administrations host U.S. visitors.

These partnerships provide Russia's regions with the technical and management information they need to carry out free-market reforms in the highway sector and to improve their highway networks. These partnerships also provide benefits to the U.S. by exposing the U.S. to transportation best practices used by their Russian partners and by opening Russian markets to products manufactured in the U.S.

Engineers from Russia's Perm Oblast recently presented innovative tunneling techniques in Kentucky.

The Program in Brief:

• Includes a broad range of activities such as joint seminars, targeted technical visits, internships, participation in technical exchange conferences, and ongoing communication between technical specialists.
• Reaches every level of road administration - from the governor level to maintenance managers and contractors.
• The Russian equivalent of AASHTO, the Russian Association of Regional Highway Administrators (RADOR), coordinates on behalf of the Russian partners.

Results and Benefits:

Delegations from partner states visit one another on an annual basis to learn first-hand about the management structures and road technologies used by their counterparts. These visits have uncovered a number of Russian technical developments that promise to improve the U.S. state of the practice, including:

• Vertical bridge welding methods
• Concrete testing procedures
• Maintenance management systems
• Roadside design to limit the accumulation of snow on roadways

Russia's regions have benefited from U.S. technical and management information to help carry out free-market reforms in the highway sector and improve highway networks, for example:

• Highway financing methods Bridge modeling
• Anti-corrosion bridge paint Highway safety
• Environmental mitigation Road construction; and
• Maintenance equipment, such as a zero-velocity salt spreader for winter maintenance.

Maine to Arkhangelsk Visit September 2-12, 2008

Success Stories

Mulching

• American mulching techniques took Archangel by storm - read more in Research & Technology Transporter

Tunneling Techniques

• Public Roads report on Perm oblast's innovative tunneling techniques
• Kentucky and a Russian Community Share Transportation Information

In 2009, the U.S. Russia Twinning partners will continue to engage in a variety of information sharing activities. The Office of International Programs will be working with U.S. and Russian partners in the coordination of:

• High level delegation visits between partners
• Technical exchanges; and
• Conference participation