Farm equipment, generally referred to as “implements of husbandry” (IoH), has been considered to be local vehicles on farms that do not use public roads often, if at all. As a result, state and local jurisdictions vary widely in managing IoH. Apparently, the growth of IoH has far outpaced that of other legal highway vehicles, warranting concern with bridge safety. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 951: AASHTO Load Rating Provisions for Implements of Husbandry (...

Understanding pandemics, their impacts to transportation, and potential effective response has become more important, not only for the response to COVID-19, but also if, as the World Health Organization warns, we are now “living in a time of viruses.” TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program and Transit Cooperative Research Program have jointly issued this pre-publication draft of NCHRP Research Report 963/TCRP Research Report 225: A Pandemic Playbook for Transportation Agencies , which was cr...

Pavement recycling is a technology that can restore the service life of pavement structures and stretch available funding for pavement rehabilitation. In general, pavement recycling techniques remix the existing pavement material and reuse it in the final pavement in the form of a stabilized layer. Limitations to further widespread implementation of pavement recycling processes have been reported in previous national research efforts. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's pre-publicatio...

With increased connectivity between vehicles, sensors, systems, shared-use transportation, and mobile devices, unexpected and unparalleled amounts of data are being added to the transportation domain at a rapid rate, and these data are too large, too varied in nature, and will change too quickly to be handled by the traditional database management systems of most transportation agencies. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 952: Guidebook for Managing Data from Em...

Most laws, ordinances, and rules concerning truck routes are established for through trucks; however, trucks with local origins or destinations may use other roads and streets to travel to and from the established truck routes. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 943: Design and Access Management Guidelines for Truck Routes: Planning and Design Guide helps transportation agencies establish appropriate methods of choosing truck routes to ensure that the selected r...

Satisfactory pavement performance can only be assured with appropriate process controls to ensure compacted materials meet proper density and stiffness requirements. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 933: Evaluating Mechanical Properties of Earth Material During Intelligent Compaction details the development of procedures to estimate the mechanical properties of geomaterials using intelligent compaction (IC) technology in a robust manner so that departments of ...

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...