Productivity AutomationVerified

Reviewed and published by trentmaziarz, July 7, 2026. Discovered and drafted by our automated research pipeline.

MassDOT deployed HEKA (Highway Engineer Knowledge Assistant), an internal AI chatbot that helps highway engineers quickly find answers to questions about project rules, regulations, and design specifications. The tool went live in November 2024 and is used daily by engineers across the Highway Division.

Details

HEKA is built on Amazon Bedrock and uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to respond to queries about highway project design guides, specifications, and standard operating procedures, drawing from documents stored in SharePoint. The tool was developed through the Northeastern University Burnes Center AI for Impact co-op program. In early testing, engineers observed a 78% time savings compared to manual document searches. As of May 2025, MassDOT's AI team was exploring wider adoption with the Highway business unit.

Products affected

HEKA (Highway Engineer Knowledge Assistant)

Sources & Evidence

News Article

AI assistant built by Northeastern grad helps MassDOT engineers work faster

Northeastern Global News·Jul 2025

https://news.northeastern.edu/2025/07/14/ai-assistant-massdot-engineer/

News Article

Artificial intelligence: Saving you money, and helping MassDOT build faster

NBC Boston·Jul 2025

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/artificial-intelligence-saving-you-money-and-helping-massdot-build-faster/3757709/

Company Disclosure

HEKA – Highway Engineer Knowledge Agent

Northeastern University Burnes Center for Social Change·Jul 2025

https://burnes.northeastern.edu/projects/heka-highway-engineer-knowledge-agent/

Company Disclosure

AI is Here to Stay – Anu Goutham MassDOT MAY 6-7, 2025

UMass Transportation Center (MassDOT presentation slides)·May 2025

https://www.umasstransportationcenter.org/Document.asp?DocID=1475

Cite this record

Trace Foundation. (2026). Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT): MassDOT deployed HEKA (Highway Engineer Knowledge Assistant), an internal AI chatbot that helps highway engineers quickly find answers to questions about project rules, regulations, and design specifications. The tool went live in November 2024 and is used daily by engineers across the Highway Division (data as of 2026-07-07) [Data set record]. AI Trace. https://www.aitrace.org/r/practice/bad26f3d-6294-47b4-8d61-71c815ecafa7. Accessed October 6, 2026.

Stable link: https://www.aitrace.org/r/practice/bad26f3d-6294-47b4-8d61-71c815ecafa7
Data as of: July 7, 2026
Last verified: Not recorded

How to cite AI Trace

Other practices by Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT)

ProductivityMassDOT integrated GitHub Copilot into its internal IT department in summer 2024, giving software developers an AI tool that suggests and completes code as they write it.Data AnalysisMassDOT tested an AI framework developed with UMass Lowell that analyzes aerial photographs to automatically detect and classify crosswalks across the entire state of Massachusetts, identifying approximately 88,000 crosswalks in 2021 imagery.Data AnalysisMassDOT tested machine learning combined with GIS mapping to build a model that identifies roads with the highest concentrations of serious crashes, known as a High-Injury Network (HIN).

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