U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
Focus
Accelerating Infrastructure Innovations |
Publication Number: FHWA-SA-98-027
Date: November 1998
When we last reported (November 1996 Focus) on the HWYCON software program developed under the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Subcommittee on Materials had recommended that HWYCON be evaluated for possible inclusion in its AASHTOWare software collection. HWYCON is an expert system that helps diagnose the cause of distress in concrete pavements and structures, determine appropriate repair and rehabilitation strategies, and select optimum construction materials.
After an extensive evaluation of the program, AASHTO has decided to include HWYCON in its AASHTOWare line of software. Its next step will be to survey States over the next several months to determine what changes or improvements they would like to see in the software. Based on the State responses, AASHTO will develop a 5-year strategic plan for either upgrading the software or supporting it in its current form.
Participants in the Federal Highway's (FHWA) Concrete Durability Showcase Workshop have had a chance to see HYWCON in action. According to Gary Crawford, FHWA's manager for the showcase workshop, most workshop participants who sampled the software found it very useful, "especially as a training tool for entry-level highway engineers."
The SHRP HYWY CON software is available from the Transportation Research Board (TRB). To order, call TRB at 202-334-3214 (order No. PC-406) or visit their bookstore on the Web at www2.nas.edu/trbbooks.
For more information on HWYCON, contact Gary Crawford at FHWA (phone: 202-366-1286; fax: 202-336-7909; email: gary.crawford@fhwa.dot.gov).