The 2012 edition of the FEHRL US Scannning Tour started in Washington DC on Monday 26th March 2012 for the 12 delegates from BASt, ZAG, INRC, DRI, ARRB, TRL, NPRA, VTI, IFSTTAR and FEHRL with a visit to FEHRL member, FHWA. Michael Trentacoste from FHWA (see photo below) gave a welcome and introduction to the overarching theme of the tour which is "Adaptation to Climate Change", as did Martin Lamb of TRL and Markus Auerbach of BASt who presented FEHRL's approach to the theme. Butch Wlaschin of FHWA then followed with an overview of how the Federal Aid Program is adminstered, and short presentations were made of areas of vulnerability such as the Gulf Coast and pilots, programmes and studies to address this, as well as adaptation issues and products including the Bonner Bridge Study and Katrina/Ivan Technical Assistance.

In the afternoon, the dicussion resumed around research efforts including climate change projects and policy activities around funding and rising sea levels, and short tours were made of the laboratories. These US contributions have so far proved to be very extensive and detailed and FEHRL already has lots of synergies to follow up.

On Tuesday 27th March, the scanning team moved on New York to visit the New York City Administration's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability (PlaNYC) and were impressed by the focused approach there on actions and best practices in climate change adaptation planning. 

On 28th March, the team travels to Newark to visit the New Jersey Planning Authority (NJTPA). The tour will then continue with the visit of the Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC) in Baton Rouge on 29th March. On 31st March, all participants will then fly back to their home destinations.

Follow FEHRL Secretary-General's impressions of the 2012 FEHRL Scanning Tour via Twitter. Click here to access all the documents related to the Scanning Tour on the FEHRL FileZone.