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Federal Highway Administration / Publications / Focus / April 1996

Accelerating Infrastructure Innovations

Publication Number: FHWA-SA-96-015
Date: April 1996

AASHTO Approves 10 New Provisional Standards

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has approved 10 new provisional standards for products of the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP), bringing the total number of SHRP-related standards to 59.

As with previous provisional standards, the latest additions will be used and evaluated by the highway community for 2 years, at which point the AASHTO Subcommittee on Materials (SOM) will approve them as full standards or extend their provisional status for another 2 years. This process ensures that highway agencies and technicians have access to new information as quickly as possible and allows the highway community to begin testing the new specifications and procedures.

Two existing provisional standards have been accorded the status of full standards:

TP14-93 describes the testing of aggregates and stabilized portland cement mixtures, while TP33-93 concerns the evaluation of the quality of fine aggregates and will be useful in Superpave work, says Haleem Tahir, AASHTO's research implementation coordinator.

The 10 latest additions to the list of provisional standards concern bituminous materials, concrete, and environmental quality measurements.

The new bituminous materials provisional standards are Superpave Volumetric Mix Design (MP2-95) and Practice for Designing Superpave HMA (hot-mix asphalt) (PP28-95). Tahir says the asphalt standards "will propel implementation of Superpave."

The latest environmental quality measurement provisional standard is Evaluating Deicing Chemicals (PP29-95). These chemicals are "one of the key products useful to highway operations engineers involved in snow removal activities," Tahir notes.

The SOM also adopted seven provisional concrete standards, all with an emphasis on the treatment of bridge decks and other concrete structures, particularly by means of cathodic protection.

The provisional standards will be published within the next few weeks. For more information, contact AASHTO at 444 N. Capitol St., N.W., Suite 249, Washington, DC 20001 (telephone: 202-624-5800; fax: 202-624-5806).

Mike Lackey Takes SOM Helm

Mike Lackey of the Kansas Department of Transportation (DOT) has been named chairman of the AASHTO Subcommittee on Materials. He replaces Michael Cuddy, who recently retired from the New York State DOT. As chairman, Lackey intends to push for continued progress down the path charted by Cuddy.

"One of the big things is solving all the little details on the AASHTO standards and making sure we follow up," he says. Lackey is a strong supporter of Superpave performance-based specifications and quality control/quality assurance procedures, both of which give contractors responsibility for the end product. "If you want a chocolate cake, don't tell them what to put in the recipe," says Lackey. "Tell them what you want it to taste like."

Updated: 06/27/2017
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