TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Final Report for NCHRP-IDEA Project 155: Corrosion Resistant, Structurally Reinforced, Thermal Spray Coatings for In Situ Repair of Load Bearing Structures addresses the potential use of high-velocity thermal spray for in-situ reclamation of corroded components in load bearing infrastru...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Final Report for NCHRP-IDEA Project 153: Bridge Retrofit Laser System addresses development of an advanced laser measurement system to accelerate the bridge retrofit process in order to reduce the time between identification of repair needs for resumption of service for a bridge.

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 197: Guidelines for the Load and Resistance Factor Design and Rating of Riveted and Bolted Gusset-Plate Connections for Steel Bridges explores the failure modes of steel truss bridge gusset plated connections. The report also includes a review of past literature on the strength of hot-driven rivets. The following appe...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Renewal Project R06G has released a prepublication, non-edited version of a report titled Mapping Voids, Debonding, Delaminations, Moisture, and Other Defects Behind or Within Tunnel Linings that identifies techniques that appear to provide useful information for evaluating tunnel linings.

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 441: High Performance Concrete Specifications and Practices for Bridges documents the types of specifications and practices used by state transportation agencies to produce high performance concrete for bridges. The report also identifies specifications and practices reported as having improved concrete performance and t...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Renewal Project R19A has released a prepublication, non-edited version of a report titled Design Guide for Bridges for Service Life that provides information and defines procedures to systematically design new and existing bridges for service life and durability.

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 440, Performance-Based Seismic Bridge Design (PBSD) summarizes the current state of knowledge and practice for PBSD. PBSD is the process that links decision making for facility design with seismic input, facility response, and potential facility damage. The goal of PBSD is to provide decision makers and stakeholders with data...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-R06B-RW-1: Evaluating Applications of Field Spectroscopy Devices to Fingerprint Commonly Used Construction Materials documents evaluation results of practical, portable spectroscopic equipment for in-situ analysis of a wide range of commonly used construction materials. The report also includes proposed American A...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) SHRP 2 Report S2-R04-RR-2: Innovative Bridge Designs for Rapid Renewal: ABC Toolkit describes standardized approaches to designing and constructing complete bridge systems for rapid renewals. The report includes design standards and design examples for complete prefabricated bridge systems, and proposes specification language for accelera...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 733: High-Performance/High-Strength Lightweight Concrete for Bridge Girders and Decks presents proposed changes to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) bridge design and construction specifications to address the use of lightweight concrete in bridge gir...

The Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, part of the National Academies’ Division on Earth and Life Studies (DELS) has released a report that finds that sustainable urban development is dependent on coordinating and managing underground infrastructure--such as utilities, transportation networks, and building foundations--as part of an integrated, above- and below-ground system. The report exp...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2313 discusses 21 papers on topics including general structures; steel bridges; concrete bridges; field testing and nondestructive evaluation of transportation structures; tunnels and underground structures; culverts and hydraulic structures; structural fiber-reinforced polymers; and critical transportation ...

On February 19, 2013, TRB’s Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Committee sent its third letter report to Victor Mendez, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The committee provides advice and assistance on the conduct of the LTBP program, which is designed to collect research-quality data on a large representative sample of in-service U.S. highway bridges and to analyze t...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-R06A-RR-1: Nondestructive Testing to Identify Concrete Bridge Deck Deterioration identifies nondestructive testing technologies for detecting and characterizing common forms of deterioration in concrete bridge decks. The report also documents the validation of promising technologies, and grades and ranks the technologies based o...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Renewal Project R09 has released a prepublication, non-edited version of a report titled Guide for the Process of Managing Risk on Rapid Renewal Projects that describes a formal and structured risk management approach specifically for rapid renewal design and construction projects that is designed to help adequately and efficiently antici...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2310 consists of 15 papers that explore geoengineering quality analysis and design of foundations; the use of geosynthetics in wall and pavement applications; stabilization of problematic soils and recycled materials; and the design, and environmental and material properties of thermoplastic pipe.

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Renewal Project R04 has released a prepublication, non-edited version of a report titled Innovative Bridge Designs for Rapid Renewal that documents the development of standardized approaches to designing and constructing complete bridge systems for rapid renewals. The report also describes a demonstration project on US 6 over the Keg Cree...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No 2292 consists of 20 papers that explore carbon emissions of road maintenance; bid selection methods for road maintenance contracts; maintenance costs of extreme weather events; life cycle of hot in-place pavement recycling; prioritization of pavement preservation; life-cycle cost analysis for pavement preserv...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 734: Hydraulic Loss Coefficients for Culverts explores culvert designs that maintain natural velocities and minimize turbulence to allow migratory species to pass through the culvert barrel. The report describes the refinement of existing hydraulic relationships and the development of new ones for analysis and design of culverts...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Renewal Project R02 has released a prepublication, non-edited report titled Geotechnical Solutions for Soil Improvement, Rapid Embankment Construction, and Stabilization of the Pavement Working Platform: Final Phase 2 Summary Report that addresses issues designed to help mitigate obstacles that have the potential to prevent the ...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Renewal Project R02 has released a prepublication, non-edited draft of a report titled Geotechnical Solutions for Soil Improvement, Rapid Embankment Construction, and Stabilization of the Pavement Working Platform: Web-Based Information and Guidance System Development Report that describes the development of a web-based inf...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) has released a project brief that reviews advances in methods to help transportation agencies meet rapid renewal goals through nondestructive testing and nondestructive evaluation techniques.

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Final Report for NCHRP-IDEA Project 142: A Shape Memory Polymer Based Self-Healing Sealant for Expansion Joint explores a sealant for use in expansion joints in pavements and bridges to help prevent adhesive and cohesive failures through a self-healing mechanism, thereby minimizing the ...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 378: Evaluation of Bridge Scour Research summarizes key finding of three NCHRP projects that explored processes and predictions related to pier scour, abutment and contraction scour, and geomorphic scour. The results of the three research projects summarized in NCHRP RRD 378 were each published separately in the...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 437: Assessing the Long-Term Performance of Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls explores methods to assess the long-term performance of mechanically stabilized earth walls. For the purposes of the report, "long-term" denotes the period of time from approximately one year after the wall is in service until the end of its desig...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2268 consists of 14 papers that explore construction road user costs in rural areas, value of tablet computers in transportation construction inspection, benefits of three- and four-dimensional computer-aided design models, comparison of public–private partnerships and traditional procurement methods, constr...

On August 3, 2012, TRB’s Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Committee sent its second letter report to Victor Mendez, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The committee provides advice and assistance on the conduct of the LTBP program, which is designed to collect research-quality data on a large representative sample of in-service U.S. highway bridges and to analyze the...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 725: Guidelines for Analysis Methods and Construction Engineering of Curved and Skewed Steel Girder Bridges offers guidance on the appropriate level of analysis needed to determine the constructability and constructed geometry of curved and skewed steel girder bridges. When appropriate in lieu of a 3D analysis, the guidelines al...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 721: Fatigue Evaluation of Steel Bridges provides proposed revisions to Section 7—Fatigue Evaluation of Steel Bridges of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Manual for Bridge Evaluation with detailed examples of the application of the proposed revisions. Appendixes A-D to NCHRP Report...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 190: Structural Design of Culvert Joints explores the effect of longitudinal bending on joints in rigid (reinforced concrete) and flexible (corrugated steel and thermoplastic) culverts. The report examines two joint types--those that release the longitudinal bending moments (denoted ‘moment-release joints’) like gaske...