One of the ways a state department of transportation or other transportation agency can address work zone safety and other impacts is to develop and implement a transportation management plan (TMP). The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 945: Strategies for Work Zone Transportation Management Plans provides a practitioner-ready guidebook on how to select and implement strategies that improve safety and traffic operations in roadway construction work zones. Supplemen...

This report from earlier in 2020 is relevant to the latest issue of TR News ( #328 , on stormwater management). The infiltration approach to stormwater management involves the design, construction, and operation of engineered systems that infiltrate stormwater runoff into soils. These systems, referred to as “infiltration best management practices (BMPs),” are intended to reduce the volume of stormwater runoff and associated pollutants that discharge to stormwater systems and receiving waters via surface...

Electrochemical properties of earthen materials such as electrical resistivity, pH, salt concentrations, and organic contents are commonly used to characterize the corrosion potential of buried metal elements that are in direct contact with the surrounding soil. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 958: Improved Test Methods and Practices for Characterizing Steel Corrosion Potential of Earthen Materials proposes a protocol describing best practices for sampling, t...

This 2010 TRB report on planning, design, construction, maintenance, and operation of roundabouts remains useful in helping to explain the trade-offs associated with roundabouts. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Report 672: Roundabouts: An Informational Guide – Second Edition  updates the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s Roundabouts: An Informational Guide , based on experience gained in the United States since that guide was published in 2000. Errata Equation 6-3 o...

Performance-based seismic design (PBSD) for infrastructure in the United States is a developing field, with new research, design, and repair technologies; definitions; and methodologies being advanced every year. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 949: Proposed AASHTO Guidelines for Performance-Based Seismic Bridge Design presents a methodology to analyze and determine the seismic capacity requirements of bridge elements expressed in terms of service and damage ...

With a quick search online, you can discover the answers to all kinds of questions. Findability within large volumes of information and data has become almost as important as the answers themselves. Without being able to search various types of media ranging from print reports to video, efforts are duplicated and productivity and effectiveness suffer. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 947: Implementing Information Findability Improvements in State Transportatio...

Management of traffic signal systems is a critical function for every transportation agency.  Thanks to advancements in technology, it is now possible to collect large amounts of data at signalized intersections, leading to the development of dozens of performance measures. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's pre-publication draft of NCHRP Research Report 954: Performance-Based Management of Traffic Signals provides information to help agencies invest in signal performance measu...

State transportation agencies will always fulfill a role in the emergency-management effort - for all incidents, from the routine traffic incident through major emergencies to catastrophic events. State agency plans and procedures are expected (indeed required if the agency seeks federal compensation) to be related to state and regional emergency structures and plans. This involves multi-agency, multi‐jurisdictional cooperation in emergency planning and operations. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Re...

Since 2009, when NCHRP's last Security 101 report was released, there have been significant advances in transportation security approaches, including new strategies, programs, and ways of doing business that have increased the security of transportation systems as well as ensured their resiliency. Hazards and threats to the system have also continued to evolve since 2009. While the incidence of large-scale terrorist attacks has remained small, transportation agencies are at increasingly greater risk...

Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) is a relatively new congestion management approach that has been gaining interest for its potential to mitigate congestion with few changes to the existing transportation infrastructure. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 899: Broadening Integrated Corridor Management Stakeholders addresses a broad range of operational and efficiency issues that are critical to bringing non-traditional (freight, transit, incident response, an...