U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000


Skip to content
Facebook iconYouTube iconTwitter iconFlickr iconLinkedInInstagram

Focus

Federal Highway Administration / Publications / Focus / October 1999

Accelerating Infrastructure Innovations

Publication Number: FHWA-RD-99-108
Date: October 1999

Articles in this Issue

ASR Lead States Team Rolls Out New Guide Specifications

Alkali-silica reactivity (ASR) is a pervasive problem in almost all States, occurring beneath the surface of portland cement concrete (PCC) and causing cracks, spalling, and other damage in pavements and structures. To help highway agencies and others learn how to protect new PCC roads and bridges from ASR, the ASR Lead States team has prepared a draft guide specification. The specification, titled "Portland Cement Concrete Resistant to Excessive Expansion Caused by Alkali-Silica," is currently undergoing review by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Subcommittees on Construction and Materials.

DataPave 2.0 Puts More Information at Your Fingertips

Eleven years into the 20-year long-term pavement performance (LTPP) study, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has now collected enough raw data to fill a stack of floppy disks as tall as a 132-story building. Since 1997, highway researchers, designers, and others have been able to access this information using the DataPave 97 software. To make exploring, extracting, organizing, and presenting LTPP data easier and more efficient for a wide variety of users, FHWA is releasing an updated version of the software, DataPave 2.0, this month.

In Brief

Don Goins, chief engineer of operations at the North Carolina Department of Transportation (DOT), has joined the AASHTO Task Force on SHRP Implementation. He replaces Larry Goode of North Carolina DOT, who had served from 1994-1998. The Task Force met last month in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Lead States: Preparing for the Future

With the goal of "preparing for the future," members of seven American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Lead States teams gathered in St. Louis, Missouri, on August 30-31 for the fourth annual Lead States workshop. The teams will wrap up their work in 2000 and then turn their responsibilities over to various AASHTO subcommittees. At the workshop, team members reviewed their accomplishments to date and discussed both their remaining goals and their transition plans for shifting responsibilities to the subcommittees. Liaisons from each of the subcommittees also attended the workshop to assist in the transition planning. All of the teams are working on completing their transition plans by January 2000.

Second Annual Contest Encourages Students To Delve into LTTP Data

Did the first DataPave contest pass you by? Here's another chance to get in on the action, as the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) launch the second annual contest for college students. Using the new DataPave 2.0 software (see DataPave 2.0 Puts More Information at Your Fingertips), which contains information on traffic, materials, performance, environment, and other variables at the more than 2,400 long-term pavement performance (LTPP) test sections across the United States and Canada, students choose a research objective. They then conduct the research, analyze the data, and submit the findings in the form of a paper for evaluation. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2000.

Tech Briefs Report on Partial Depth Spall Repair and Galvanic Cathodic Protection

Two new Tech Briefs summarizing recently concluded Federal Highway Administration research projects will be available this fall. Each brief reports the key findings of the research and details how these findings will affect current practices.

Highway Technology Calendar

Updated: 06/27/2017
Federal Highway Administration | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590 | 202-366-4000