TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 718: Fatigue Loading and Design Methodology for High-Mast Lighting Towers provides criteria for the fatigue design of high-mast lighting towers. The report also includes a series of proposed revisions with associated commentary to the fatigue design provisions of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Offic...

This fall, TRB will release Rockfall: Characterization and Control, which will address rockfall hazard identification and evaluation, investigation process, mitigation options, and maintenance and management programs. The 400 page publication will include a DVD with video clips of rockfall field tests and several historical movies documenting rockfall field activities. Because of the expec...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 432: Recent Roadway Geometric Design Research for Improved Safety and Operations reviews and summarizes roadway geometric design literature completed and published from 2001 through early 2011, particularly research that identified impacts on safety and operations. The report is structured to correspond to chapters in th...

Roundabouts have seen unprecedented growth across the United States, from just a handful a decade ago to more than 2,000 and counting. National guidance had to keep pace with the needs of states and communities planning and implementing roundabouts, and NCHRP took a lead role.

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 428: Practices and Procedures for Site-Specific Evaluations of Earthquake Ground Motions identifies and describes current practice and available methods for evaluating the influence of local ground conditions on earthquake design ground motions on a site-specific basis. The report focuses on evaluating the response of soil de...

In regions across the nation, bridge engineers know that the next major seismic event is coming—maybe tomorrow, maybe centuries from now. DOTs have the critical charge of designing for earthquakes and protecting the lives of travelers.

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 187: Seismic Design of Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil Bridge Abutments with Modular Block Facing explores design methods and construction guidelines for using geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) systems in bridge abutments in seismically active regions. The report focuses on single-span, simply-supported bridges subjecte...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Legal Research Digest 57: Tort Liability Defense Practices for Design Flexibility focuses on tort liability defense practices and cases involving the exercise of discretion in design. The report is designed to help provide a framework for determining potentially successful strategies to employ when defending design decisions made follo...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) has released a Capacity Projects Brief, which summarizes the status of products being produced within the Capacity area of SHRP 2. The objective of Capacity Research in SHRP 2 is to develop tools for systematically integrating environmental, economic, and community requirements into the analysis, planning, and design of new highway c...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2262 contains 23 papers that explore spacing between freeway ramps, three-dimensional alignment, sight distance, design consistency for two-lane highways, passing process on two-lane rural highways, reduced-conflict intersections, operational interactions between freeway managed lanes and parallel, general p...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 714: Special Mixture Design Considerations and Methods for Warm-Mix Asphalt: A Supplement to NCHRP Report 673: A Manual for Design of Hot-Mix Asphalt with Commentary presents special mixture design considerations and methods used with warm-mix asphalt. NCHRP Report 714 is a supplement to NCHRP Report 673: A Manual for Design of ...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2228 consists of 15 papers that explore performance bond benefit–cost analysis; green contracting in highway construction; optimal hedging of commodity price risks in highway contracts; wireless real-time productivity measurement system; a performance attributes matrix for highway rehabilitation projects; ad...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 422: Trade-Off Considerations in Highway Geometric Design describes the processes that transportation agencies currently use to evaluate geometric design trade-offs between competing interests. The report also highlights existing key publications on conventional approaches, context-sensitive solutions/context-sensitive design...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 703: Guide for Pavement-Type Selection includes processes for conducting systematic evaluations of pavement alternatives and for making decisions on pavement-type selection. The processes may be used for both agency-based and contractor-based type selections and may be applied to different pavement types and structures.  Fu...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2223 includes 14 papers that explore intersection design practices, two-lane rural highways, operational improvements as an alternative to traditional highway construction, travel time evaluation of a u-turn facility, operational characteristics of super 2 highways in Texas, development and validation of spe...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 697: Design Guidelines for Increasing the Lateral Resistance of Highway-Bridge Pile Foundations by Improving Weak Soils examines guidance for strengthening of soils to resist lateral forces on bridge pile foundations. The report presents computational methods for assessing soil-strengthening options using finite-element analysis...

The July-August 2011 TR News assembles feature articles exploring the state of security and critical infrastructure protection, including an assessment of U.S. infrastructure resiliency, North American perimeter security and the movement of trade, the security of bridges and tunnels, measures to protect rail and transit from attacks, the effects of piracy on the global supply chain, a...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-R01-RW-2: Development of the Selection Assistant for Utility Locating Technologies documents the development of the  Selection Assistant for Utility Locating Technologies (SAULT) web-based software tool that provides decision-support software and supporting information databases for the selection of utility-locating approac...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) has released the latest version of its Capacity Program Brief, which summarizes recent progress within the Capacity area of SHRP 2. The objective of Capacity Research in SHRP 2 is to develop tools for systematically integrating environmental, economic, and community requirements into the analysis, planning, and design of new highway capac...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 415: Design Fires in Road Tunnels information on the state of the practice of design fires in road tunnels, focusing on tunnel fire dynamics and the means of fire management for design guidance. Note:  On September 20, 2011, the following errata was released related to NCHRP Synthesis 415.  The electronic version of...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2203 is the first of three volumes that collectively present 90 technical papers pertinent to low-volume roads, 44 by authors from the United States and 46 by authors from 18 other countries. Volume 1, contains 27 papers that address environment; safety; design; and economics, finance, and planning aspects o...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 417: Geometric Design Practices for Resurfacing, Restoration, and Rehabilitation documents the current state-of-the-practice related to nonfreeway resurfacing, restoration, and rehabilitation projects. Appendix G, Summary of Good Practices: Incorporating Safety into Resurfacing and Restoration Projects, to NCHRP Synthesis 417...

TRB’s Transportation Research E-Circular E-C155: Sensitivity Analyses for Flexible Pavement Design with the Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design Guide contains the proceedings of a workshop that was held in conjunctions with the 2010 TRB 89th Annual Meeting. The workshop was developed to provide information for transportation agencies in the process of, or considering the implementation o...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 159: Supporting Materials for NCHRP Report 673 contains the final report on the project that developed  NCHRP Report 673: A Manual for Design of Hot Mix Asphalt with Commentary and Appendixes C through F to the report. NCHRP Report 673 contains a mix design manual for hot-mix asphalt (HMA) that incorporates ...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 673: A Manual for Design of Hot-Mix Asphalt with Commentary incorporates the many advances in materials characterization and hot-mix asphalt (HMA) mix design technology developed since the conclusion of the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP). The final report on the project that developed NCHRP Report 673 and Appendixes C...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 683: Protocols for Collecting and Using Traffic Data in Bridge Design explores a set of protocols and methodologies for using available recent truck traffic data to develop and calibrate vehicular loads for superstructure design, fatigue design, deck design, and design for overload permits. The protocols are geared to address th...

The fifth edition of the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM2010), which updates HCM2000, will significantly enhance how engineers and planners assess the traffic and environmental effects of highway projects.  Order your copy of the HCM 2010 today and it will be shipped within 24 hours. Rush order received by 12:00 p.m. Eastern will be shipped the same day. The HCM2010: • provides an integrated ...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 675: LRFD Metal Loss and Service-Life Strength Reduction Factors for Metal-Reinforced Systems explores the development of metal loss models for metal-reinforced systems that are compatible with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials' Load and Resistance Factor Design Bridge Design Specifications. ...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 169: Determining Guidelines for Ramp and Interchange Spacing documents the research effort related to the development of NCHRP Report 687: Guidelines for Ramp and Interchange Spacing.  NCHRP Report 687 explores guidelines for ramp and interchange spacing based on design, operations, safety, and signing considerat...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 687: Guidelines for Ramp and Interchange Spacing explores guidelines for ramp and interchange spacing based on design, operations, safety, and signing considerations. The report is designed to help aid the decision-making process when an agency is considering new ramps or interchanges on existing facilities, modifying ramps and ...