Text Size:  | Share:

Together, the nation’s federal, state, and municipal highway agencies spend upward of $35 billion each year on pavement construction, repair, maintenance, and associated engineering. Pavement is the most significant physical asset of these agencies. As a result, pavement research is especially prominent in highway research programs.

At the request of FHWA, TRB committees have addressed the need for and the content and conduct of highway pavement research programs. In 1997 RTCC offered recommendations on the need for research directed at dramatically increasing the service life of highway pavements (Developing Longer-Lasting, Lower-Maintenance Highway Pavement: Research Needs; TRB 1997). The TRB Workshop on Pavement Renewal for Urban Freeways was held to identify innovative techniques for the reconstruction of America’s urban freeway pavements (Get In, Get Out, Stay Out! Proceedings of the Workshop on Pavement Renewal for Urban Freeways; TRB 2000). In 1999 FHWA and the national concrete paving industry invited TRB to create a committee to review and advise on a congressionally mandated program of research aimed at improving the use of portland cement concrete pavements on federal-aid highways. Finally, TRB’s Long-Term Pavement Performance Committee has counseled FHWA and AASHTO on the necessary components of the Long-Term Pavement Performance Program. This program, managed by FHWA with the participation of the state departments of transportation, is the largest single highway research program in the world.