TRB’s Transportation Research Circular E-C162: Winter Maintenance and Surface Transportation Weather includes papers that were presented at the April 30-May 3, 2012, conference in Coralville, Iowa. Issues addressed by the papers include environmental stewardship and sustainability, road safety under winter conditions, decision support systems, winter surface friction, blowing and drifting snow,...

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 431: Practices to Manage Traffic Sign Retroreflectivity includes examples of practices that illustrate how different types of transportation agencies might meet federal retroreflectivity requirements for traffic signs.

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.

On March 16, 2012, TRB’s Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Committee sent its first letter report to Victor Mendez, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The committee provides advice and assistance on the conduct of the LTBP program, which is designed to collect research-quality data on a large representative sample of in-service U.S. highway bridges and to analyze thes...

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) Synthesis 425: Waterproofing Membranes for Concrete Bridge Decks documents information on materials, specification requirements, design details, application methods, system performance, and costs of waterproofing membranes used on new and existing bridge decks since 1995. The synthesis focuses on North American practices with some info...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) has released a project brief that provides an overview, brief description, and the status of the SHRP 2 projects related to underground utilities.

On March 5, 2012, TRB’s Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Committee sent its 29th letter report to Victor Mendez, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). The committee's reports are aimed at supporting the further success of the LTPP program, securing ...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) has released a Renewal Products Brief, which summarizes the status of products being produced within the Renewal area of SHRP 2. The goal of Renewal research in SHRP 2 is to advance the methods and materials that transportation agencies can use to renew the nation’s vital but aging highway system even as we continue to use and live n...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 693: Attracting, Recruiting, and Retaining Skilled Staff for Transportation System Operations and Management provides guidance designed to help transportation agencies recruit and retain qualified professional staff in the systems operation and management (SOM) area. The report explores SOM career paths, skill requirements, and ...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 182: Appendices to NCHRP Report 693 includes a set of tables showing systems operations and management job categories, number of positions, and educational requirements for all 50 states. NCHRP Report 693 : Attracting, Recruiting, and Retaining Skilled Staff for Transportation System Operations and Management provides...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Legal Research Digest 39: Competition Requirements of the Design/Build, Construction Manager at Risk, and Public-Private Partnership Contracts—Seven Case Studies explores the use of various project delivery methods, including design-build, construction management at risk, and a number of options considered public-private partnerships, ...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-L06-RR-1: Institutional Architectures to Improve Systems Operations and Management examines a large number of topics concerning organizational and institutional approaches that might help transportation agencies enhance highway operations and travel time reliability. The same project that produced SHRP 2 Report S2-L06-RR-1 also ...

TRB Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2258 consists of 17 papers that address spatial and temporal speed limit compliance, nighttime luminance of work zone drums, steady-burn warning lights, primary and precipitating factors in work zone crashes, motorist reactions to reduced work zone speed limits, truck-mounted changeable message signs, and work...

More than 7,000 crashes occur annually in highway work zones in Illinois, causing approximately 2,000 injuries. The number of work zone fatalities in the state reached a peak of 44, including 5 workers, in 2003. Speeding is one of the most important contributors, affecting the frequency and severity of work zone crashes. In 2004 the Illinois Department of Transportation deployed two self-contai...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 423: Long-Term Performance of Polymer Concrete for Bridge Decks addresses a number of topics related to thin polymer overlays (TPOs). Those topics include previous research, specifications, and procedures on TPOs; performance of TPOs based on field applications; the primary factors that influence TPO performance; current cons...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 365: Sustainable Pavement Maintenance Practices highlights the current practice in sustainable pavement maintenance and preservation. The report is designed to help quantify and understand how pavement maintenance and preservation practices minimize environmental impacts. As part of the development of this repor...

TRB Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2235 consists of 12 papers that examine estimating road vulnerability to damage from overweight vehicles, evaluation of public–private partnerships in roadway preservation, developing a corridor-level infrastructure health index, life-cycle cost-based pavement preservation treatment design, pavement preservati...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 704: A Performance-Related Specification for Hot-Mixed Asphalt provides a proposed performance-related specification (PRS) for hot-mix asphalt (HMA) in the form of the Microsoft Windows®-based Quality-Related Specification Software (QRSS). The QRSS is a stand-alone program for Microsoft Windows (versions XP and 7) that employs a...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-R26-RR-1: Preservation Approaches for High-Traffic-Volume Roadways documents the state of the practice of preservation treatment on asphalt and concrete pavements on high- and low-volume roadways. The report also report includes general guidelines on the application of preservation treatments on high-volume roadways. The same pr...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) has released a project brief that provides a snapshot of SHRP 2 progress. Since its authorization in 2005, 50 pilot tests and field demonstrations have been undertaken in 24 states, 35 documents have been published, data are being collected from nearly 1000 cars in the naturalistic driving study, and five invitational work sessi...

TRB’s Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Report 148: Cleaning Device to Remove Debris and Chemicals for Crack/Joint Sealing explores development of a tool designed to efficiently remove deicing chemical buildup and prepare pavement cracks and joints for sealing.

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2226 includes 16 papers that address calibration, prediction mechanisms, modeling, validation, and implementation issues related to the Mechanistic–Empirical Pavement Design Guide. This issue of the TRR also addresses structural analysis of pervious concrete pavement, the performance evaluation of two-layer ...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 364: Validation of LRFD Metal Loss and Service-Life Strength Reduction Factors for Metal-Reinforced Systems summarizes the results of research to further validate some key results of a project that resulted in publication of NCHRP Report 675: LRFD Metal Loss and Service-Life Strength Reduction Factors for Metal-...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Synthesis 27: Airport Self-Inspection Practices provides insight into common airport self-inspection practices. For the purposes of ACRP Synthesis 27, a comprehensive self-inspection program includes the components of training; inspecting; reporting discrepancies and findings; follow-up, resolution, and close-out; and quality control. The report...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2220 includes 11 papers that explore portland cement concrete exposed to automated deicing solutions; identification and tracking of highway bridge maintenance; health monitoring of prestressing tendons in posttensioned concrete bridges; bridge maintenance in New York City, New York; multicriteria bridge man...

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...

On August 5, 2011, TRB’s Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Committee sent its 28th letter report to Victor Mendez, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). The committee's reports are aimed at supporting the further success of the LTPP program, securing...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2204 is the second 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 2 contains 32 papers that address maintenance, stabilization, and geotechnical engineering aspects of low-vol...