America's highway system includes more than 3.9 million miles of highways, arterials, and local roads and streets. These roads, which carry more than 90% of passenger trips and account for some 84% of freight value, are critical to meeting the mobility and economic needs of local communities, regions, and the nation. In addition to commercial and private vehicles, the roadways accommodate buses, bicycles, and pedestrians and provide vital links to all other modes of transportation. To address these challenges, Congress established the second Strategic Highway Research Program.

SHRP 2 will focus on applied research in the following areas, which were identified by experts who began planning for the program in 1999.  The focus areas were selected on the basis of their importance to the nation’s economic system and quality of life and because strategically targeted research in these areas promises to yield high payoffs.

Area	Focus
Safety	Prevent or reduce the severity of highway crashes by understanding driver behavior
Renewal	Address the aging infrastructure through rapid design and construction methods that cause minimal disruption and produce long-lived facilities
Reliability	Reduce congestion through incident reduction, management, response, and mitigation
Capacity	Integrate mobility, economic, environmental, and community needs in the planning and designing of new transportation capacity

Developments in research and technology—such as advanced materials, new data collection technologies, communications technology, and human factors science—offer an opportunity to improve the safety and reliability of the nation’s highway system.  In establishing SHRP 2, Congress recognized that breakthrough resolution of some significant problems requires concentrated resources over a short time frame.  SHRP 2’s intense, large-scale focus, requiring the integration of multiple fields of research and technology, is fundamentally different from the broad, mission-oriented, discipline-based research programs that have been the mainstay of the highway industry for half a century.

The first Strategic Highway Research Program (1988 to 1993) improved winter highway maintenance practices and revolutionized asphalt pavement design by producing the Superpave® system.   SHRP 2 adheres to the principal features of the SHRP model—a focused, time-constrained, management-driven program designed to complement existing research programs.  The SHRP 2 approach is also based on a decidedly customer-oriented view of highway needs.  SHRP 2 has the following characteristics:

Through targeted, short-term, results-oriented research, SHRP 2 will develop recommended procedures, practices, and applications to advance our nation’s highway system in the program’s key focus areas.  With SHRP as a model, many SHRP 2 products could be adopted as standards, guides, or recommended practices at the local, state, or federal level.

SHRP 2 will be managed by the Transportation Research Board on behalf of the National Research Council.  The program will provide for competitive, merit-based selection of research contractors; independent research project oversight; and dissemination of research results.  The SHRP 2 Oversight Committee has responsibility for all aspects of the program’s research activities.  Additional technical advisory committees will be established as necessary to bring experience, expertise, and counsel from academic, government, and other interested parties to SHRP 2.  The program will be conducted in close cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. 

SHRP 2 is authorized in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), Section 5210 (Public Law 109-59) through federal fiscal year 2009.  Funding for the 4-year program has been authorized at $205 million, subject to annual appropriations and other congressional action.

For additional information and updates visit http://www.TRB.org/SHRP2 .  Updates on SHRP 2 activities will also be highlighted in TRB’s weekly Transportation Research E-Newsletter.  To subscribe to the E-Newsletter, send an e-mail to RHouston@nas.edu with “TRB E-Newsletter” without the quotes in the subject field.