TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has released a pre-publication, non-edited version of Research Report 890: Using Recycled Asphalt Shingles with Warm Mix Asphalt Technologies.  The report documents the development of a design and evaluation procedure that provides acceptable performance of asphalt mixtures incorporating warm mix asphalt (WMA) technologies and rec...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board has released 12 early access papers addressing construction, including: Leveraging Intelligent Compaction and Thermal Profiling Technologies to Improve Asphalt Pavement Construction Quality: A Case Study ( link ) Managing Public Communication Strategies in Accelerated Highway Construction Projects ( link ) Traffi...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 519: The Renewal of Stormwater Systems Using Trenchless Technologies summarizes technologies used for the renewal of stormwater systems, including new, emerging, and underutilized trenchless methods, and identifies future research needs. Both trenchless replacement and trenchless renewal methods can reduce negative impacts as...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 515: Practices for Preventing Roadway Departures identifies and summarizes practices being used by state departments of transportation (DOTs) to prevent roadway departure crashes and to identify the data-driven advantages and disadvantages of these practices. More than half of all traffic fatalities result from roadway depart...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 516: Tack Coat Specifications, Materials, and Construction Practices provides state agencies across the United States with guidance as they reevaluate their tack coat specifications, the materials they use, and the practices by which the tack coats are placed. Pavement thickness design assumes that pavement works together as ...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 250: Use of Automated Machine Guidance within the Transportation Industry studies automated machine guidance (AMG) implementation barriers and develop strategies for effective implementation of AMG technology in construction operations. AMG links design software with construction equipment to direct the operations of ...

To keep pace with accelerating rate of research distribution, the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board is now publishing articles as soon as they are finalized. The latest papers to be published are as follows: Use of a Laser Diffractometer to Obtain the Particle Size Distribution of Fine-Grained Soils Interstate Speed Profiles Conditioning and Testing Pr...

TR Circular E-C230: Culverts and Soil–Structure Interaction: Fifty Years of Change and a Twenty-Year Projection summarizes the presentations from the TRB 93rd Annual Meeting on January 14, 2014 in Washington, D.C. In the past 40 to 50 years have seen significant changes in the pipe industry in terms of materials used, structure sizes, shapes, and joint capabilities. Design methodologies ha...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 242: Recommended AASHTO Guide Specifications for ABC Design and Construction documents the results of a synthesis of past research regarding Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC), leading to the development of Guide Specifications for Accelerated Bridge Construction. Part 1 of the report includes Design Specifications...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 870: Field Performance of Corrugated Pipe Manufactured with Recycled Polyethylene Content explores the use of corrugated high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe manufactured with recycled content and proposes guidelines for manufacturing these pipes to ensure they meet the service life requirements for the given appl...

The full edition of the July–August 2017  TR News  magazine is now available.  Moving research into practice is the theme of feature articles in this edition. Authors describe today’s successes, present a systematic approach that has proved effective at a state department of transportation, describe federal programs encouraging innovations at the state level, discuss initiatives ...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 863: Material Properties of Cold In-Place Recycled and Full-Depth Reclamation Asphalt Concrete  presents procedures for determining material properties of cold-recycled asphalt mixtures for input to pavement structural design programs. Highway agencies are placing increasing emphasis on sustainability, recycling, a...

The full edition of the May-June 2017 TR News is now available. This edition explores the role of transportation in economic development. Articles feature information about benefit-cost analysis, freight production models, transportation satellite accounts, and right sizing strategies. The TR News is TRB's bimonthly magazine featuring timely articles on innovative and state-of-the-art research ...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) has released Final Report 181: Development of Small Specimen Geometry for Asphalt Mixture Performance Testing. The use of small specimen geometries in Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester (AMPT) offer a means to measure as-built pavement layers. Small specimen geometries may improve the e...

The latest of TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Ready Results explores TRB's Highway Capacity Manual and NCHRP Report 825 : Planning and Preliminary Engineering Applications Guide to the Highway Capacity Manual. The sixth edition of the HCM incorporates the latest research on analyzing the capacity of highways and streets, ensuring that the manual will continue to be a...

The latest of TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Ready Results explores NCHRP Report 826 : Estimating Highway Preconstruction Services Costs, which explores ways to implement a framework for data-driven cost-estimating models for transportation projects. This framework helps agencies to estimate how much it will cost to plan, program, permit, and design a project during...

The latest of TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Ready Results explores NCHRP Report 831 : Civil Integrated Management (CIM) for Departments of Transportation, which provides an overview of benefits to agencies that use digital data tools, such as GPS and lidar, and applications, such as 3-D modeling of complex construction strategies and asset management.

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 856: Specifying and Measuring Asphalt Pavement Density to Ensure Pavement Performance examines the current state of knowledge and existing agency practices to measure and specify the in-place density of asphalt pavements. The report aims to guide agency decisions on selecting measurement methods and requirements for in-...

A featured article in the May-June 2017 issue of the TR News examines how to develop appropriate evaluation frameworks that account for the integration of new technologies into the infrastructure in order to accurately value the current highway system. The TR News is TRB's bimonthly magazine featuring timely articles on innovative and state-of-the-art research and practice in all modes of trans...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 850: Applying Risk Analysis, Value Engineering, and Other Innovative Solutions for Project Delivery examines the state of the art in managing project development and delivery through application of Value Engineering (VE). VE is a systematic process that combines creative and analytical techniques to achieve a common und...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 511: Relationship Between Chemical Makeup of Binders and Engineering Performance documents the current practices of departments of transportation (DOTs) in the selection of the chemical composition of a binder used in pavement applications. The study provides information about the selection of binders and postproduction addit...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 236: Incorporating Slab/Underlying Layer Interaction into the Concrete Pavement Analysis Procedures develops mechanistic-empirical (M-E)  models (and software) to consider the interaction between the concrete slab and base layer and its effect on pavement performance. The current American Association of State Hig...

TRB has released its requirements for submitting papers for presentation at the 2018 TRB Annual Meeting and/or publication in the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board . This guide covers the organization and formatting of manuscripts for peer review and for publication, as well as instructions for submission. Papers that do not follow the guidelines will ...

The latest of TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Ready Results examines NCHRP Research Results Digest 391 : Modulus-Based Construction Specification for Compaction of Earthwork and Unbound Aggregate. Proper compaction of roadway base and subbase is vital to ensure good pavement performance throughout its life span. Modulus, a measure of stiffness, predicts the performan...

The latest of TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Ready Results examines an update to fuel usage factors. NCHRP Report 744 : Fuel Usage Factors in Highway and Bridge Construction provides guidance for more than 1,000 new fuel usage factors and guidance on implementing them, along with a tool for calculating factors for specific contracts and situations.

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) latest Research Topic Highlights explores the use and application of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA). This fact sheet summarizes the use of WMA and applications in the past decade. WMA is produced at temperature that is cooler than hot mix asphalt (HMA), reducing worker exposure to asphalt fumes as well as reducing emissions. The publication pr...

The latest of TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Ready Results  explores test methods for adhesive anchors—bolt systems augmented by structural adhesives. Adhesive anchor systems add holding strength to steel-to-concrete connections such as concrete construction panels. However, short-term tests of fully cured adhesives do not accurately predict long-term performan...

A featured article in the March-April 2017 issue of the TR News highlights photos from the 96th TRB Annual Meeting, January 8-12, 2017. The article features photographs of sessions, workshops, committee meetings, and awards. Bruce M. Smith, Apperson Crump PLC, and General Counsel, Memphis Area Transit Authority, delivered the delivered the 2017 Thomas B. Deen Distinguished Lecture on “Ethical I...

A featured article in the March-April 2017 issue of the TR News highlights photos from the 96th TRB Annual Meeting, January 8-12, 2017. The article features photographs of sessions, workshops, committee meetings, and awards. Bruce M. Smith, Apperson Crump PLC, and General Counsel, Memphis Area Transit Authority, delivered the delivered the 2017 Thomas B. Deen Distinguished Lecture on “Ethical I...

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 504: Strategic Program Delivery Methods explores holistic approaches to maximizing the benefits of time and cost savings when delivering transportation programs, rather than delivering individual projects. While a considerable amount of published research has focused on the process of selecting an optimal project delivery met...