A slideshow summary of the Transportation Research Board's pre- and post-September 11, 2001, transportation security activities is updated monthly.

Since September 11, 2001, 125 security-, emergency management-, and infrastructure protection-related planning and implementation projects have been initiated through the Transportation Research Board (TRB). Ninety-two of these projects have been completed; 15 projects are in progress; and 18 projects have contracts pending or are currently in development. This report, updated monthly, provides...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2234 consists of 14 papers that explore improving resilience of critical infrastructure systems, material convergence and its determinants, defending transportation networks against attack, location of medical facilities, and site considerations for points of dispersing after biological terrorist attack. Thi...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has released a brochure that commemorates the first 50 years of the program and highlights some of the milestones in research that continue to have an impact on how state highway agencies are building, managing, maintaining, and evolving the nation’s highway system. NCHRP will celebrate its 50th anniversary on June 19, 2012. ...

Since September 11, 2001, 125 security-, emergency management-, and infrastructure protection-related planning and implementation projects have been initiated through the Transportation Research Board (TRB). Ninety-two of these projects have been completed; 15 projects are in progress; and 18 projects have contracts pending or are currently in development. This report, updated monthly, provides...

TRB’s Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Research Results Digest 2: Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program: A Status Report provides an update on the industry-driven, applied research program that develops near-term, practical solutions to improve the information used in managing risk associated with the transportation of hazardous materials.

The latest issue of TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Impacts on Practice highlights information included in ACRP Report 22: Helping Airport and Air Carrier Employees Cope with Traumatic Events that is described as “critical” by Hilary Fletcher, former County Manager for Pitkin County, Colorado. Ms. Fletcher is founder of the Colorado Aviation Recovery Support Team that helps co...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 150: Communication with Vulnerable Populations: A Transportation and Emergency Management Toolkit describes how to create a communication process to reach vulnerable populations regarding their transportation options in emergencies. The toolkit provides a guiding framework and tools for constructing a scalable, adaptable communication pro...

A featured article in the July-August issue of the TR News explores the difficulties of passenger screening, the vulnerabilities of baggage and cargo screening—and in the supply chain—and problems with technologies.

A featured article in the July-August issue of the TR News examines trends, hindrances, solutions, rationales, policies, and practical models in efforts to counter natural and man-made threats to our nation’s security. According to the authors, countering threats effectively and efficiently requires cooperative, public–private, practitioner-guided programs to build infrastructure resilience at ...

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 Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Report 6: Feasibility of a Consolidated Security Credential for Persons Who Transport Hazardous Materials discusses the feasibility of consolidating several existing security credentials, which are necessary under current regulations and policies, into one credential for all transportation modes. The report evaluates the credentiali...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 90: Video Surveillance Uses by Rail Transit Agencies explores the current use of electronic video surveillance technology solely by passenger rail agencies onboard railcars, along rights-of-way, and more.

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 Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Report 3: Guidebook for Conducting Local Hazardous Materials Commodity Flow Studies is designed to support risk assessment, emergency response preparedness, resource allocation, and analyses of hazardous commodity flows across jurisdictions. The guidebook updates the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Guidance for Conducting Hazard...

TRB’s Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Report 4: Emerging Technologies Applicable to Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety and Security explores near-term (less than 5 years) and longer-term (5–10 years) technologies that are candidates for enhancing the safety and security of hazardous materials transportation for use by shippers, carriers, emergency responders, or ...

TRB’s Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Report 5: A Guide for Assessing Community Emergency Response Needs and Capabilities for Hazardous Materials Releases provides step-by-step guidance on assessing hazardous materials emergency response needs at the state, regional, and local levels. The report also addresses matching state, regional, and local capabilities with potent...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2196 contains 19 papers that explore a new algorithm for the static user equilibrium traffic assignment problem, evacuation network modeling, multiobjective optimization for multimodal evacuation, constructing transit origin-destination tables from fragmented data, the impact of variations in travel demand a...

TRB’s Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Report 2: Assessing Soil and Groundwater Impacts of Chemical Mixture Releases from Hazardous Materials Transportation Incidents explores a tool to help assess, classify, predict, and quickly communicate fate and transport characteristics of chemical mixtures released into the soil and groundwater as a result of hazardous materials t...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 525, Vol. 16: A Guide to Emergency Response Planning at State Transportation Agencies is designed to help executive management and emergency response planners at state transportation agencies as they and their local and regional counterparts assess their respective emergency response plans and identify areas needing improvement....

TRB’s Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Research Results Digest 1: Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program: A Status Report provides an update on the industry-driven, applied research program that develops near-term, practical solutions to improve the information used in managing risk associated with the transportation of hazardous materials.

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2166 contains 14 papers that explore ship-based greenhouse gas reduction negotiations; supply chain coordination for port sustainability; the berth-scheduling problem; a web-based foreign waterborne cargo data system; global port operations and their influence on port labor; measuring the concentration degre...

The National Research Council has released a report that explores how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is building its capabilities in risk analysis to inform decision making. The report also evaluates the quality of the current approach to estimating risk and examines how DHS might improve its current risk analysis procedures. TRB is a division of the National Academies, whi...

TRB‘s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Legal Research Digest 32: Reconciling Security, Disclosure, and Record-Retention Requirements in Transit Procurements highlights the legal requirements that are relevant to the transit procurement process of balancing the competing needs of open government and public security. The report explores federal and state requirements concerning record ...

TRB Conference Proceedings 47: Research on the Transmission of Disease in Airports and on Aircraft is the summary of a September 2009 symposium. The symposium examined the status of research on or related to the transmission of disease on aircraft and in airports, and the potential application of research results to the development of protocols and standards for managing communicable disea...

The Naval Studies Board, part of the National Academies’ Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences (DEPS), has released a letter report that is the first component of a study to assess the implications of climate change for the U.S. Naval Services. The report highlights issues that could have potential near-term impacts, impose a need for near-term awareness, or require near-term planning t...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 645, Blast-Resistant Highway Bridges: Design and Detailing Guidelines explores code-ready language containing general design guidance and a simplified design procedure for blast-resistant reinforced concrete bridge columns. The report also examines the results of experimental blast tests and analytical research on reinforced con...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2138 includes 18 papers that explore driver distractions leading to crashes, impact of increases in cognitive workload on young adult drivers, impact of cognitive task complexity on drivers, effects of cognitive and perceptual loads on driver behavior, immediate recall of driver warnings in forward collision...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2137 includes 16 papers that cover transportation safety management, emergency evacuation and services, the security and mobility of intermodal freight networks, and various aspects of school transportation.

TRB’s Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program (HMCRP) Report 1: Hazardous Materials Transportation Incident Data for Root Cause Analysis examines potential technical improvements to hazardous materials accident databases that are collected and managed by various agencies. The report explores gaps and redundancies in reporting requirements and attempts to estimate the extent of the unde...