Denver Tolliver, director of the Mountain-Plains Consortium, and John MacGowan, the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute’s national program coordinator, presented at the 18th annual Northwest Tribal Transportation Symposium in Spokane, Wash. The symposium was hosted by the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians – Transportation Committee and the Northwest Tribal Technical Assistant Program to address innovations in transportation and safety for Indian reservation roads.

Tolliver and MacGowan presented “Transportation Asset Management for Tribal Planning” based on studies of safety and maintenance conducted on U.S. highways and state roads in Montana. The session addressed how to apply this knowledge to Indian reservation roads and understand how treatments affect safety of roads. With this information, tribal transportation planners will better understand feasibility of various road maintenance strategies and how to critically analyze roads to adapt planning tools for use on reservation roads.

Additionally, Tolliver and MacGowan met with leaders from transportation organizations and tribal leaders. The objective of the meeting was to begin a dialogue and lay the foundation for a long-term, working relationship that will improve tribal transportation planning across the U.S.

The Northwest Tribal Technical Assistance Program is a program funded by Cooperative Agreements with the Federal Highways Administration to assist tribes in developing transportation resources, infrastructure and development opportunities for Northwest Tribes.