Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-04-022
Date: January/February 2004

Articles in this Issue

Shields of Steel: California Introduces New Mobile Work Zone Protection Device

In January 2001, two California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) highway maintenance workers were hit by an impaired driver whose car penetrated a work zone. One of the workers, Mark Balsi, lost a leg in the accident. From that tragic incident has come an innovation designed to significantly improve safety for workers along the Nation's highways.

Mobile Asphalt Lab: Technology on the Go

Over the past year, the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) mobile asphalt laboratory has traveled to eight States, carrying an array of testing equipment and technologies and assisting highway agencies with everything from performance testing of asphalt mixes to obtaining data inputs for the proposed 2002 Guide for Design of New and Rehabilitated Pavement Structures, developed under National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 1-37A.

Choosing the Accelerated Construction Route in New Jersey

When the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) began planning improvements to the westbound structure of the Rt. 46 Bridge spanning Overpeck Creek in Bergen County, it faced numerous challenges. The bridge is located next to the New Jersey Turnpike and is only about 8 km (5 mi) west of the George Washington Bridge leading into New York City, so minimizing the impact of construction on the traveling public and completing the work as soon as possible was vital.

2004 Concrete Bridge Conference: Building a New Generation of Bridges

Make plans now to attend the 2004 Concrete Bridge Conference (CBC), to be held May 17-18, 2004, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sponsored by the National Concrete Bridge Council (NCBC), American Concrete Institute, and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the conference will feature 18 technical sessions on state-of-the-art topics, with an emphasis on rapid bridge construction and high-performance concrete applications.

FHWA Construction and Project Management Team: Reach for Your Tool Box

Now here to provide technical assistance to highway agencies and others and to deliver a tool box of ready-to-implement technologies is the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) new Construction and Project Management Technical Service Team. The team was created to support technology deployment and to better serve a range of transportation customers. Team members represent more than 75 years of combined expert experience.

LTPP Traffic Data Pooled-Fund Study Underway

The Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) program continues to move forward with its Specific Pavements Study (SPS) Traffic Data Collection pooled-fund study. The study is designed to fill in gaps and improve the quality and quantity of monitored traffic data from the LTPP program's SPS-1, -2, -5, -6, and -8 projects. To date, 20 States have contributed approximately $2.7 million to the study.

Highway Technology Calendar