What is VIHSC All About?
VIHSC LLC is a company founded November 2, 2022 by Brian L. Schleppi to provide consulting services, training services, and research services in the subject areas of Highway Surface Characteristics and Vehicle Interaction Properties as well as Transportation Asset Management.
Who is the Owner and Founder?
Brian L. Schleppi is the sole owner and founder. Brian retired from the Ohio Department of Transportation in July of 2021 after 35 years of service.
Expertise:
Brian has over 30 years of experience in highway ride quality. He has leveraged inertial profile technology and helped develop its application for use at highway owner agencies. He:
Verified, debugged software on, diagnosed and repaired hardware on, and operated numerous inertial profiling systems; trained scores of people on operation of inertial profilers
An expert user, trainer and influencer on the development of ProVAL software since 2001
A leader in inertial profiler certification standards and practices
Led development of International Roughness Index (IRI) smoothness specifications for pavements while at the Ohio DOT
Pioneered and led development of IRI smoothness specifications for bridge encounters while at the Ohio DOT
Developed a program to verify and ensure the quality of contractor reported acceptance data on construction projects with IRI based smoothness specifications
Is an expert in simulating diamond grinding machines for use in corrective action on both pavements and bridge encounters
Taught people how to develop corrective actions plans and successfully execute them in the field
Worked with both AC and PCC paving contractors as well as bridge contractors to improve smoothness of both pavements and structures at construction
Taught operations/maintenance agency staff how to leverage Inertial Profiler technology to develop and successfully execute variable depth milling and uniform HMA filling plans at particularly rough pavement/bridge interfaces where both approach pavement and approach slabs had settled significantly
Developed software programs to aid processing, editing, scrubbing, analyzing and reporting inertial profiles and subsequent IRI data; was lead Business Subject Matter Expert on the development of a modern sophisticated application to do the same
Worked with a highway network profiler manufacturer to develop an analysis tool to analyze and report localized roughness at the network level via GIS to determine the roughest locations to target for corrective action
Brian has over 30 years of experience in every role of highway network data collection using sensory instrumented multi-subsystem data collection vehicles. From equipment specification and procurement, operation, data analysis and reporting required by the FHWA for HPMS data submissions for use in national performance measures (IRI, Rutting, Cracking, Faulting). He:
Ensured the cleanest, most complete, timeliest, and error free pavement data possible
Is an expert in highway friction measurement and management.
Has over 25 years of experience in operating locked wheel friction testers and interpretation of results
Worked with a highway network profiler manufacturer to develop and utilize macrotexture depth analysis and reporting via GIS on the Ohio state system highway network
Developed and implemented and agency wide Highway Friction Management Program
Developed treatment options for improving friction at numerous real-world locations
Successfully advanced the novel treatment of longitudinal diamond grooving on multiple Asphalt Concrete surfaces where insufficient macrotexture compromised sufficient available wet friction
Developed and delivered a 90-minute lecture on the fundamentals of Tire/Pavement Friction and Grip: RPUG 2020 Recordings - RPUG (sspa.us)
Brian is an expert in highway surface texture and how it interacts with pneumatic rubber tires for all the highway surface characteristics and vehicle interaction properties.
Brian was part of a team at the Ohio DOT that advanced and matured Pavement Management and then went on to build and advance Transportation Asset Management (TAM) at the agency. These were efforts that necessitated data standards and data governance across multiple data businesses for the development and maintenance of asset inventories and conditions assessments. This was a fundamental step in TAM such that all asset information could be tied linearly, spatially, and temporally to the base highway network. This work led to cross asset optimization, basic performance management of assets with goals of improved or steady state conditions, and eventually to synergies and savings from multi-year joint capital and operations workplans.
More about Brian the person:
Brian grew up in a grain farming operation outside of Columbus, Ohio. He took care of and managed 15-20 head of beef livestock at any given time with his siblings to earn money and learn about business in his adolescent through college years. He learned a strong work ethic and the farm experience taught him many valuable business and life lessons.
Brian earned an undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University in 1989. He is a proud Buckeye who went on to earn a Master of Business Administration from Franklin University in 2001.
Brian has been a lifelong student of leadership both formally and informally. He believes in team efforts and that all of us are always smarter than any of us. He is a proponent of transparency, cooperation, collaboration, empowerment, coaching (and being coached), accountability, evaluation and diverse backgrounds and perspectives. He believes in leaving things better than you found them as one is able. He believes in positive contributions to the local community and to society in general.
Brian enjoys a good laugh as well as anyone, the outdoors, old trucks and farm equipment, music of numerous genres, and singing. He sang in a gospel a Capella quartet for over 20 years. He is a fan of beverages commonly produced in Kentucky.
