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Federal Highway Administration
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Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
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LTPP News This newsletter is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information. |
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| Publication Number: N/A Date: March 2005 |
Publication Date: March 2005
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Customer Service
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The Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) program works to keep the transportation community informed about our research activities through meetings, workshops, publications, and our web site. Members of our team have heard from many of you, especially at the Transportation Research Board 2005 Annual Meeting, that you are interested in having more frequent and direct contact with us.
To meet this need for improved communication, we are introducing an email newsletter to keep you informed on a regular basis about the progress and activities of the LTPP program.
We plan to provide brief updates on progress in important program activities, including data collection, data releases, new products and publications, pooled fund studies, and data analysis. We will also provide links to our website or to one of our team members for those who are interested in getting more in-depth information.
We welcome your feedback on ways to improve the format and content of the newsletter, more information you'd like to see provided, and any other ideas or suggestions you have. Just send a message with your comments or ideas to ltppinfo@fhwa.dot.gov.
Please forward this newsletter to others you think might find it interesting or useful. If a colleague has forwarded this newsletter to you and you'd like to receive it directly, just send us a request at ltppinfo@fhwa.dot.gov. You may also discontinue the newsletter by sending us a message to remove your name from our distribution list.
Thank you for your continued support of LTPP.
Aramis López, Jr.
LTPP Team Leader
aramis.lopez@fhwa.dot.gov
LTPP Standard Data Release #19 is now available!
LTPP: Year in Review 2004 (HRT-04-125).
On September 9, 2004, a contract was awarded to Cornell University to begin work for the National Pooled Fund Study TPF-5(039) "Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) Calibration Center and Operational Improvements." Initiated in 2002, this study addresses aging equipment issues at the four LTPP regional FWD calibration centers. Project scope includes not only updates to computer hardware, software, and data acquisition equipment, but also modifications to the current calibration procedure to reduce calibration time. The contract has a 5-year length with 2 base years to cover the initial improvements and 3 option years to address additional work desired by the state participants, such as the establishment of additional calibration facilities and technical support for all the calibration centers. Currently there are 15 participating States that have pledged $565,000 through 2007, and additional commitments and participation is encouraged. More information can be found at www.pooledfund.org (search for TPF-5(039)) or contact Mike Moravec at 410-962-5623 (mike.moravec@fhwa.dot.gov) or Eric Weaver at 202-493-3153 (eric.weaver@fhwa.dot.gov).
The climate data module of the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Pavement Performance Database contains weather statistics and indices for each test section estimated from nearby weather stations at 899 project sites. Because the performance of a pavement is directly affected by its environment, of which climate is a large part, identifying climatic conditions and trends for a particular area is very important for making pavement design, maintenance, and rehabilitation decisions. The data sources include the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) for test sections in the United States and the Canadian Climatic Center (CCC) for Canadian test sections. Climate data for LTPP test sections were first added to the database in 1992, updated in 1998, and in 2004 the climate data module was updated with data covering the period from 1997 to 2002. The next LTPP climatic data update is expected in 2008. For more information about the procedures used for climatic data updates and for the structure and elements of the climatic data module respectively, refer to the following reports: FHWA-RD-00-133, LTPP Climatic Database Revision and Expansion, and FHWA-RD-03-088, Long-Term Pavement Performance, Information management System: Pavement Performance Database, User Reference Guide. Contact Eric Weaver 202-493-3153 (eric.weaver@fhwa.dot.gov)
