TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 429: Geotechnical Information Practices in Design-Build Projects addresses how states use geotechnical information in solicitation documents and contracts for design-build highway projects. The report examines current practices regarding the allocation of geotechnical risk and the level of geotechnical information provided wi...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 63: Measurement of Gaseous HAP Emissions from Idling Aircraft as a Function of Engine and Ambient Conditions is designed to help improve the assessment of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) emissions at airports based on specific aircraft operating parameters and changes in ambient conditions.

TRB’s Transportation Research Circular E-C162: Winter Maintenance and Surface Transportation Weather includes papers that were presented at the April 30-May 3, 2012, conference in Coralville, Iowa. Issues addressed by the papers include environmental stewardship and sustainability, road safety under winter conditions, decision support systems, winter surface friction, blowing and drifting snow,...

Roundabouts have seen unprecedented growth across the United States, from just a handful a decade ago to more than 2,000 and counting. National guidance had to keep pace with the needs of states and communities planning and implementing roundabouts, and NCHRP took a lead role.

In regions across the nation, bridge engineers know that the next major seismic event is coming—maybe tomorrow, maybe centuries from now. DOTs have the critical charge of designing for earthquakes and protecting the lives of travelers.

TRB’s second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) has released a Capacity Projects Brief, which summarizes the status of products being produced within the Capacity area of SHRP 2. The objective of Capacity Research in SHRP 2 is to develop tools for systematically integrating environmental, economic, and community requirements into the analysis, planning, and design of new highway c...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2262 contains 23 papers that explore spacing between freeway ramps, three-dimensional alignment, sight distance, design consistency for two-lane highways, passing process on two-lane rural highways, reduced-conflict intersections, operational interactions between freeway managed lanes and parallel, general p...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 183: Guide for Managing NEPA-Related and Other Risks in Project Delivery is a guide on the use of risk management as a means to help support the early identification of key issues during the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process; the effective application of management action and other resources to avoid or...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2252 contains 19 papers that explore economic and environmental optimization of vehicle fleets, driver response to energy information feedback, California's low-carbon fuel standard, feebates and fuel economy standards, energy use for transport in 27 European Union countries through 2030, and a comparison of...

The Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, part of the National Academies’ Division on Earth and Life Studies (DELS), has released a report that reviews the draft 10-year strategic plan for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). According to the committee that produced the report, the plan, which shapes and coordinates climate and related global environmental change research effo...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 60: Guidelines for Integrating Alternative Jet Fuel into the Airport Setting identifies the types and characteristics of alternative jet fuels; summarizes potential benefits; addresses legal, financial, environmental, and logistical considerations and opportunities; and aids in evaluating the feasibility of alternative jet fuel production...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2242 consists of 15 papers that explore evaluation of sustainable transportation, sustainability assessments by transportation agencies, quantifying the economic domain of transportation sustainability, sustainable transportation planning, sustainable road transport in the European Union, measuring the perfo...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2238 consists of 13 papers that explore evaluating transit investments in developing countries; normalized volume measurement for nonmotorized traffic flow; location-based data for estimated traffic on urban arterials; same-day mode choice modeling; application of fuzzy roughness index to roads economic deci...

The TRB Standing Committee on Ecology and Transportation has released the latest issue of its Ecology and Transportation Update. The online newsletter is published intermittently and is designed to disseminate information about current research and developments in ecology and transportation. The opinions expressed in the Ecology and Transportation Newsletter are those of the authors and do...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 56: Handbook for Considering Practical Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Strategies for Airports is designed to assist airport operators in identifying, evaluating, prioritizing, and implementing practical, low-cost strategies to reduce and manage greenhouse gas emissions. AirportGEAR, an interactive decision support tool developed as a c...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2253 consists of eight papers that explore time-dependent structural response of full-depth reclamation, the compactability of recycled concrete aggregate, distressed pavements supported on a base course containing recycled concrete aggregate, continuously reinforced concrete pavement containing recycled con...

The National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council have released a report that examines the causes of the blowout of the Macondo well that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. The report provides a series of recommendations, for both the oil and gas industry and government regulators, intended to reduce the likelihood and impact of any future losses of well contr...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2233 consists of 21 papers that explore integrated bus information systems, the effects of operational efficiency on pollutant emissions, corridor-level air quality analysis of freight movement, comparison of greenhouse gas and criterion pollutant emissions, and operating variables on particle number emissio...

TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Research Results Digest 103: Sustainable Public Transportation: Environmentally Friendly Mobility is an overview of an international study mission that explored how public transportation systems in several cities in India and China have implemented plans, policies, technologies, and strategies for creating more livable communities through bus, m...

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 57: The Carbon Market: A Primer for Airports provides information on carbon and other environmental credit trading markets, and highlights the potential opportunities and challenges to an airport's participation in these markets. The primer also addresses the new terms and concepts related to the carbon and other environmental markets.

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 708: A Guidebook for Sustainability Performance Measurement for Transportation Agencies describes the underlying principles of sustainability as it relates to transportation, possible goals that can be used to address those principles, and performance measures that can be used to address those goals. Aspects of sustainability-re...

Airports across the country are experiencing increases in complaints about aircraft noise from residents outside the federally defined, impacted area, determined by a noise contour of 65 DNL (day–night average noise level). Research conducted under TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) has identified best practices for airports in communicating with residents affected by aircraft no...

The Ocean Studies Board, part of the National Academies’ Division on Earth and Life Studies (DELS), has released an interim report of a congressionally mandated study that provides options for expanding the current Deepwater Horizon (DWH) damage assessment to include the analysis of ecosystem services to help address the unprecedented scale of the spill in U.S. waters and the challenges it pres...

TRB’s Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2207 contains 16 papers that explore direct measurements of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds, nano–titanium dioxide additive, performance of Superpave projects, coarse aggregate angularity, physical hardening, new low-temperature performance-grading method, and correlation of moisture loss and str...

TRB Special Report 307: Policy Options for Reducing Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Transportation examines the potential for policies to yield major changes in transportation energy use and emissions trends by policy measures targeting cars and light trucks, medium and heavy trucks, and commercial airliners. These three modes are by far the largest users of energy by U.S...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 363: Hydroacoustic Impacts on Fish from Pile Installation explores the prediction and mitigation of the negative impacts on fish from underwater sound pressure during pile and casing installation and removal.  Appendices A through H for RRD 363 are available online.

TRB’s National Freight Cooperative Research Program (NFCRP) Report 13: Freight Facility Location Selection: A Guide for Public Officials describes the key criteria that the private sector considers when making decisions on where to build new logistics facilities. A final report that provides background material used in the development of NFCRP Report 13 has been published as  NCFRP Web-Onl...

TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Web-Only Document 1: Web-Only Document 1: Background Research Material for Freight Facility Location Selection: A Guide for Public Officials (NCFRP Report 13) provides background material used in the development of NCFRP Report 13 , which describes the key criteria that the private sector considers when making decisions on where to bui...

The latest issue of TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Impacts on Practice describes how officials at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) used ACRP Report 11: Guidebook on Preparing Airport Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories to develop a GHG emissions inventory for DFW.

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 53: A Handbook for Addressing Water Resource Issues Affecting Airport Development Planning identifies appropriate responses to a variety of water resource issues affecting airport planning and development. The handbook includes options for setting up a water resource management program and outlines the steps necessary to implement that pr...