On May 13, 2013, TRB’s Committee for Intelligent Construction Systems and Technology: Program Review sent its first letter report to Victor Mendez, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The committee provides advice and guidance to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration concerning the conduct of its Intelligent Construction Systems and Technology program. In general, the ...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 746: Traffic Enforcement Strategies for Work Zones presents guidance for the safe and effective deployment of traffic enforcement strategies in work zones on high-speed highways (those with speed limits of 45 mph or greater). The report discusses the planning, design, and operation of traffic enforcement strategies, as well as a...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 194: Traffic Law Enforcement in Work Zones: Phase II Research is contractor’s final report providing background information for the project that produced NCHRP Report 746 Traffic Enforcement Strategies for Work Zones. NCHRP Report 746 presents guidance for the safe and effective deployment of traffic enforcement strat...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Final Report for NCHRP-IDEA Project 145: Extraction of Layer Properties from Intelligent Compaction Data examines a methodology that was developed to extract layer elastic modulus/stiffness from composite soil stiffness and global positioning system-based location provided by curre...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) has released a project brief that summarizes the results of SHRP 2 Renewal Project R15B: Identification of Utility Conflicts and Solutions Project, which explored best practices on the use of utility conflict matrices (UCM), developed and tested a standardized UCM concept, and developed training materials and implementation guidelines on ...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Reliability Project R03 has released a prepublication, non-edited version of a report titled Fatigue Risk Management Guide for Rapid Renewal Highway Construction Projects designed to help in the development and implementation of fatigue risk management in rapid renewal highway construction environments. The guide includes organizational p...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Reliability Project R03 has released a prepublication, non-edited version of a report titled Identifying and Reducing Worker, Inspector, and Manager Fatigue in Rapid Renewal Environments that documents worker fatigue impacts during rapid renewal operations in the highway construction industry; and describes development of an integrated fa...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-R06E-RR-1: Real-Time Smoothness Measurements on Portland Cement Concrete Pavements During Construction explores real-time smoothness measuring technologies for concrete paving. For the purposes of the report, real-time smoothness refers to measuring and evaluating the concrete pavement surface profile during construction along t...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Legal Research Digest 58: Legal Issues Surrounding the Use of Digital Intellectual Property on Design and Construction Projects is designed to provide an understanding of various legal issues surrounding the use of building information models on transportation design and construction projects. Those legal issues include ownership; upda...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 744: Fuel Usage Factors in Highway and Bridge Construction includes fuel usage factors for work items in the construction and maintenance of highways and bridges. The report includes the Price Adjustment Calculator Tool, a Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet, designed to assist in the calculation of payment adjustments for construction...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 381: Guidebook for Construction Management Practices for Rural Projects focuses on tools and techniques that may be used to help improve aspects of construction management in the rural environment. Tools and techniques covered in the report address issues such as construction administration, engineering, op...

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 second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Renewal Project R21 has released a prepublication, non-edited version of a report titled Composite Pavement Systems Volume 1: HMA/PCC Pavements that investigates the structural and functional performance of surfacing a new portland cement concrete (PCC) pavement layer with a high-quality hot mix asphalt (HMA) layer. The second report...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Renewal Project R21 has released a prepublication, non-edited version of a report titled Composite Pavement Systems Volume 2: PCC/PCC Pavements that investigates the structural and functional performance of placing a relatively thin, high-quality PCC surface atop a thicker PCC layer. The first report in the series,  Composite Pa...

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 Rockfall: Characterization and Control addresses rockfall hazard identification and evaluation, investigation process, mitigation options, and maintenance and management programs. The 600-plus page publication includes a DVD with video clips of rockfall field tests and several historical movies documenting rockfall field activities. Rockfall is an important, ongoing socioeconomic issue at...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 371: Quality-Related Pay Adjustment Factors for Pavements offers guidance pertaining to the quality-related pay adjustment factors used for flexible and rigid pavement construction.

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-R06C-RR-1: Using Both Infrared and High-Speed Ground Penetrating Radar for Uniformity Measurements on New HMA Layers that explores infrared imaging and ground penetrating radar technologies as non-destructive techniques to assess hot-mix asphalt (HMA) density and degree of segregation. The report also includes suggestions for ho...

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 second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Capacity Project C04 has released a prepublication, non-edited version of a report titled Improving our Understanding of How Highway Congestion and Price Affect Travel Demand that synthesizes travel demand models that predict how travelers’ behavior changes in response to changes in traffic congestion and in the price of travel.

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 National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 438: Expedited Procurement Procedures for Emergency Construction Services explores procurement procedures being utilized by state departments of transportation in coordination with federal agencies to repair and reopen roadways in emergency situations.

TRB Transportation Research Circular E-C168: Artificial Intelligence Applications to Critical Transportation Issues describes artificial intelligence (AI) applications in transportation and includes opinions on the future of AI by members of the committee that produced the report. The circular also contains 12 individually authored articles that describe five general AI areas: traffic operation...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 80: Guidebook for Incorporating Sustainability into Traditional Airport Projects describes sustainability and its potential benefits, and identifies different applications of sustainable initiatives in traditional airport construction and everyday maintenance projects. The printed version of the report includes a CD-ROM that includes an a...

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-R15B-RW-1: Identification of Utility Conflicts and Solutions provides concepts and procedures to identify and resolve utility conflicts that public agencies and utilities can use to help improve the highway project development process. Tools described in the report include utility conflict matrices that enable users to organize,...

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...