06-Appendix A - Quad Chart.docx

Appendix A – Project QUAD Chart The Quad Chart is used by numerous Government agencies during briefs. It provides a synopsis of the project objectives and progress, as well as providing a graphical representation of the project. The Quad Chart is one landscape oriented page divided into four quadrants and suitable for use in briefings which help Task Monitors explain your work to others. Emphasis is placed on brevity and factual statements. Also, technical engineering details are not included, as the Quad Chart may be used to brief those who are not technical experts in the art.

Each of the four quadrants that comprise the Quad Chart conveys information on a specific aspect of the project.

The first quadrant, located in the upper left-hand corner, comprises visually appealing graphics or pictures that clearly represent the key technological idea(s) or the expected impact of the research. If more than one picture is needed to clearly convey the technological idea(s), then a plurality of pictures may be used. Due to the limited space, the number of graphics and pictures should be limited to a maximum of five. If multiple pictures are included, they can be presented in any clear, appealing layout, such as a simple array of pictures or a collage of overlapping of pictures. However, they must fit neatly within the first quadrant. There may be something subtle or non-obvious to the casual observer in one or more of the pictures. If this is the case, graphics, such as red arrows, may be added to bring attention to important aspects of the picture(s).

Note: The Offerors shall clearly add copyright attribution under all graphics or pictures as presented in the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) R&D Communication Reference Guide (CRG). This CRG can be found at the following link https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/general/15058/15058.pdf.

The second quadrant, located in the upper right-hand corner, includes a brief project description. A bulleted list format is used to present this information. For purposes of brevity, the description should be limited to a maximum of five bullets.

The third quadrant, located in the lower left-hand corner, includes three to five quantitative statements discussing how the project work will revolutionize an area of importance to bridges and highway structures safety, durability, and/or efficiency improvement, such as preventing bridge collapse or detecting defects. Some questions that may be appropriate to address in this section are: How is the current system or procedure implemented now and with what limitations? What is truly new in your approach which will remove current limitations and improve performance and safety? And how much can performance and safety be expected to improve? As in the second quadrant, a bulleted list format is used to present this information.

The fourth quadrant, located in the lower right-hand corner, includes three to five significant project milestones and the approximate cost or projected cost associated with each of the milestones. The information is depicted on a three-year horizontal timeline or in a bulleted list format, as in the second and third quadrants.

The Quad Chart also includes a project title that is clearly visible and centered at the top of the page. The Quad Chart concludes with the name of the FHWA Task Monitor in the bottom left-hand corner and the name of the project partner in the bottom right-hand corner.

To achieve uniformity, certain fonts and font sizes are used in each of the above sections. All the text on the Quad Chart is placed in a common, clearly legible font, such as Times New Roman or Arial. The project title has a font size between 30 and 36. The text found in the second, third, and fourth quadrants has a font size between 14 and 16. The primary purpose of these limitations is to make the information clearly legible and to limit the amount of information on the Quad Chart.

Quad Charts will be accepted in Microsoft PowerPoint template provided only. The Quad Charts are limited to one page, and the file size is limited to 500,000 bytes (0.5 MB). If you are having trouble meeting the size requirements, a possible solution is to reduce the size of the images included in the file.

A sample Quad Chart outline is found on the Microsoft PowerPoint template provided.