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NCHRP Overview
  • About NCHRP
  • Implementation Program
  • Resources

    For Problem Submitters

    • Problem Statement Template
    • Writing an Effective Research Statement

    For Panel Members

    • Information for Panel Members
    • The Roles of NCHRP Panel Members and Liaisons
    • CRP Diversity Statement

    For Proposers

    • Information for proposers
    • Manual for proposers
    • Requests for Proposals
    • CRP Diversity Statement

    For Contractors

    • Information for Contractors
    • Procedural Manual

    For AASHTO Committees and Councils

    • NCHRP 20-123: Support for AASHTO Committees and Councils
    • CRP Staff liasions to AASHTO
    • TRB Snap Searches
    • Research “How To” Guides for AASHTO Committees

    Research Roadmaps

    • Critical Issues in Transportation 2019
    • NCHRP Foresight Report 750 Series
    • NCHRP 20-112: Transportation and Public Health
    • NCHRP 20-113: Transformational Technologies (other than CV/AV)
    • NCHRP 20-114: Multimodal Freight Transportation
    • NCHRP 20-122: Rural Transportation Issues
    • NCHRP 20-102: Impacts of Connected Vehicles and Automated Vehicles on State and Local Transportation Agencies
    • NCHRP 20-59(54): Transportation System Resilience: Research Roadmap and White Papers

    NCHRP Projects

    • All Projects
    • Find a Project
    • Requests for Proposals
    • Upcoming Projects

    NCHRP Publications

    • Research Reports
    • Syntheses of Practice
    • Rights and Permissions
  • Need help?
  • Staff Contacts
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  • IDEA
  • International Sharing
  • Legal Studies
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  • search
    Search

the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP)

The States’ Highway Research Program

Systematic, well-designed, and implementable research is the most effective way to solve many problems facing state departments of transportation (DOTs) administrators and engineers. Often, highway problems are of local interest and can best be studied by state DOTs individually or in cooperation with their state universities and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transportation results in increasingly complex problems of wide interest to highway authorities. These problems are best studied through a coordinated program of cooperative research.

In 1962, recognizing this need, the Chief Executive Officers of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) initiated an objective national highway research program using modern scientific techniques—the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP). Funded by participating member states of AASHTO, NCHRP also receives critical technical support from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), United States Department of Transportation.

The Transportation Research Board (TRB), part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, was requested by AASHTO to administer the research program because of TRB’s recognized objectivity and understanding of modern research practices. TRB is uniquely suited for this purpose for many reasons: TRB maintains an extensive volunteer committee structure from which authorities on any highway transportation subject may be drawn; TRB possesses avenues of communications and cooperation with federal, state, and local governmental agencies, universities, and industry; TRB’s relationship to the National Academies is an insurance of objectivity; and TRB maintains a full-time staff of specialists in highway transportation matters and research project management to bring the findings of research directly to those in a position to use them.

The annual research program is developed on the basis of research needs identified by chief administrators and other staff of the highway and transportation departments, by committees of AASHTO, and by FHWA. Topics of the highest merit are selected by the AASHTO Special Committee on Research and Innovation (R&I), and each year R&I’s recommendations are proposed to the AASHTO Board of Directors, the National Academies, and FHWA. The scopes of research projects to address these topics are defined by NCHRP, and qualified research agencies are selected from submitted proposals. Administration and surveillance of research contracts are the responsibilities of the National Academies and TRB.

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A Year of NCHRP
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Why NCHRP Works
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NCHRP Summary of Progress Through 1988

NCHRP at 50 Years

A half century ago, representatives of the predecessor organizations of AASHTO, TRB, and FHWA recognized the importance of a state DOT-driven research program addressing common transportation needs, and on June 19, 1962, the last signatory made the three-way agreement official that created the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. The basic terms and philosophy of that original agreement have remained essentially unchanged over the past 50 years, resulting in findings and recommendations that have made a difference, be it through direct guidance to the state DOTs or other means, such as the numerous AASHTO specifications and guides and their updates that are based on NCHRP research. This publication provides an opportunity to take a glance back at the history and accomplishments of the program that has been advancing transportation for the past five decades.

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