What's New in Materials

Register and make hotel reservations today for the TRB 99th Annual Meeting, January 12-16, 2020, in Washington, D.C. Registration is required for all Annual Meeting attendees, including session speakers, poster presenters, and those who attend the exhibit hall, career fair, or any workshops. Discounted registration fees end November 30, 2019. As part of TRB's Centennial Celebration, all full r...

Bridge owners and designers are invited to a TRB webinar on Tuesday, December 3, 2019, from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM ET. This webinar will identify and compare several advanced performance structural materials that may be used on bridges. Material options that enhance the performance and durability of bridges have increased over the years, many of which may be broadly implemented on various bridges. ...

TRB officially turns 100 on November 11, 2020. To help celebrate, TRB is asking you to “Tell Us ‘Our’ Story.” The TRB “Tell Us ‘Our’ Story" centennial activity is designed to allow as many of you (TRB’s volunteers and friends) as possible to participate in the TRB Centennial Celebration through the submission of your stories. The “Tell Us ‘Our” Story” Centennial activity consists of a series of...

How does our profession engage the affected community in the decision-making process for their transportation system in a comprehensive, equitable, and accessible manner and provide meaningful input that informs transportation decision-making? Read about past, present, and future efforts by the Technical Committee on Public Involvement in Transportation Decision Making to address this question ...

Portland limestone cements (PLCs) with higher limestone contents are evaluated in Laboratory and Outdoor Exposure Site Evaluations of Portland Limestone Cements , a report from the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin. This report identifies the durability and sustainability of various materials used in PLCs.

Material durability and quality control of concrete bridge structures is examined in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) for Pretension Applications: Material Acceptance Criteria and Advancing Anchorage Designs , a report from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). The goal of this report is to establish a testing methodology VDOT may use to evaluate the quality and durability of ...

The construction of a bridge with corrosion-resistant steel girders is documented in Virginia’s First Corrosion-Resistant ASTM A1010 Steel Plate Girder Bridge , a report from the Virginia Department of Transportation. This report outlines the types of materials used, compares costs of these girders to traditional ones, and identifies steps in the fabrication process.

TRB turns 100 on November 11, 2020. You are invited to join your colleagues listed below who have contributed to the TRB Century Club to support activities that will mark the anniversary; promote the value of transportation research; and celebrate the achievements of TRB’s volunteers, sponsors, affiliates, and staff. Details on the Century Club and a link to contribute is available at https://t...

For some 70 years, the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) has presented tools for quickly evaluating and comparing the operational effects of alternative design scenarios, allowing analysists to screen a variety of approaches, and select a reasonable number before considering more costly measures. Learn about the history of the HCM--TRB's "Best Seller." As part of the Centennial Celebration, TRB has...

Concrete is a porous material that allows materials to move through it. The number of pores connected in the concrete, also known as the permeability, influences the ability of fluids to penetration the concrete. And this permeability parameter is an important transport mechanism for freeze-thaw damage, corrosion, alkali silica reaction, and sulfate attack. The TRB Innovations Deserving Explora...

Act now to secure your exhibit space at the 2020 TRB Annual Meeting, January 12-16, 2020, in Washington, D.C. All indications are that attendance at the meeting will be the largest ever. Don't miss this opportunity to demonstrate your organization's support for transportation research and innovation, and to showcase your products and services to more than 13,000 transportation professionals. So...

Be a part of TRB history! All 2020 Annual Meeting attendees are invited to participate in a group photo to celebrate TRB’s centennial. Come to Ballroom C in the convention center on Sunday, at 1:00 p.m., and the photo will be taken promptly at 1:15 p.m. Space in the ballroom is limited to about 2,000 and attendees will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis. Register and make hotel res...

Construction projects involving precast columns for bridges are evaluated in Synthesis of Precast Bridge Column Designs , a report from the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas at Austin. The use of prefabricated substructures on bridges may help speed up the construction process and prevent lane closures.

The durability of quarry by-products affected by temperature and moisture are evaluated in Durability Aspects of Stabilized Quarry By-product Pavement Base and Subbase Applications , a report from the Illinois Center of Transportation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These materials are evaluated for wet-dry and freeze-thaw durability in order to be incorporated in standard pr...

As the Transportation Research Board (TRB) reaches its centennial and the Standing Committee on the Conduct of Research (COR) reaches its 51st year in the third decade of the 21st century, the committee is are provided with an opportunity to reflect on the history, the current state, and the future of transportation research and the role of COR. Learn more about the history and accomplishments ...

The Interactive Program for the 99th TRB Annual Meeting, January 12-16, 2020, in Washington, D.C. is now available. This helpful online tool enables you to navigate through some 5,000 presentations in nearly 800 transportation-related sessions at the meeting. The Interactive Program contains the full schedule of sessions, workshops, and committee meetings. It includes titles, dates, times, pres...

The TRB “Tell Us ‘Our’ Story centennial activity is designed to allow as many of you (TRB’s volunteers and friends) as possible to participate in the TRB Centennial Celebration through the submission of your stories. The “Tell Us ‘Our” Story” Centennial activity consists of a series of monthly questions that will help capture your stories. According to Francine Shaw-Whitson, Senior Advisor...

The feasibility of using recycled plastics in road applications is examined in Viability of Using Recycled Plastics in Asphalt and Sprayed Sealing Applications , a report from Austroads. This report explores using recycled plastics into asphalt mixes and provides case studies of road trials. The report is available for no fee after logging onto the site.

Bridge engineers were invited to a TRB webinar on Tuesday, November 12, 2019, from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM ET. The webinar provided a summary of the findings from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP)’s Research Report 907 : Design of Concrete Bridge Beams Prestressed with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) Systems. Due to the differences in the physical and mechanical behavi...

December 8, 1921 -- Be it resolved that the American Association of State Highway Officials welcomes the establishment by the National Research Council of the Advisory Board on Highway Research, and that the Association pledges its support to the Advisory Board in this much-needed effort to stimulate and coordinate highway research.  Learn about the fruits of a partnership that started alm...

Expansive soils, also known as swell-shrink soils, have been a problem for civil infrastructure such as roads and foundations since ancient times. These soils swell and shrink with changes in moisture content, causing buildings and pavements to crack. The reason for this behavior is the presence of the heaving/swelling mineral that expands when exposed to water. These soils are present in the m...

TRB turns 100 on November 11, 2020.  As part of TRB's Centennial Celebration, all full registrants attending the 2020 Annual Meeting will be eligible to pick up a complimentary copy of the book, The Transportation Research Board, 1920–2020: Everyone Interested Is Invited by Sarah Jo Peterson, which chronicles the important events, people, and successes that helped make TRB what it is today...

Concrete is the most widely used synthetic material on earth. In the U.S., more than 75 percent of bridges and more than 60 percent of interstate highways are made of concrete. There is no other bulk material on the horizon that could replace concrete as the backbone for our increasing demands in infrastructures. Despite several decades of studies, concrete bridges, highways and infrastructures...

Paratransit services emerged as a distinct transportation mode in the late 1960s and 1970s. These services were implemented in a variety of communities, providing flexibly scheduled service to the general public. TRB recognized this new service with formation of a committee in 1974 to address the new mode—designated then as the “Urban Transport Service Innovations Committee.” Renaming came five...

Interested in having a TRB Centennial component as part of a 2020 meeting or event your organization is sponsor? The TRB Centennial Roaming Exhibit is designed to allow organizations to have a TRB Centennial exhibit booth as part of a meeting or event they are hosting during 2020. The booth can be configured for a table top exhibit or for a 10 x 10 to 10 x 20 square foot booth. The booth is not...

AM Online, the repository for TRB Annual Meeting content (a version of which was previously known as the “Compendium of Papers”) is going away, but it is being replaced by a new process that will provide material much more quickly and, ultimately, to a wider audience.  Read  mor e .

The regulations of frangibles are defined in the Frangibility Guidebook Version 1.0 , a report from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Frangibles are structures that are able to survive the environmental loads encountered within an airport's operating area and at the same time, offer little or no resistance to a stray aircraft. This guidebook determines the proper selection and installat...

The quality of different coarse aggregates are explored in Next Generation Iowa Pore Index: Phase 3 , a report from the Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University. Understanding the various properties of coarse aggregates is important to accurately predict pavement durability.

The performance of asphalt with different amounts of recycled materials is discussed in Assessing Increased Use of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement in Asphalt Mixtures , a report from the Virginia Department of Transportation. This report presents the initial construction and laboratory performance data and discusses the lessons learned from trials that used different amounts of recycled asphalt.

Learn how five men from Iowa shaped TRB’s earliest decades with their expertise and commitment to research and how they succeeded in part because Iowa exemplified in the extreme the close relationships between universities and state highway departments during their earliest years. As part of the Centennial Celebration, TRB has initiated the History Highlights series that will regularly release ...