Publication Number: FHWA-SA-98-026
Date: October 1998

Articles in this Issue

Long-Term Pavement Performance Program: Learning Why Pavements Perform as They Do

In its first decade, the long-term pavement performance (LTPP) program developed a solid, working knowledge base of information on how asphalt and portland cement concrete pavements perform. Pavement engineers and managers are now using that information to replicate past successes and avoid recreating past failures.

Los Angeles County Counts on Superpave Mix To Handle Overloaded Trucks

The $2 billion Alameda Corridor project in the Los Angeles area poses a huge challenge for the State and local highway agencies involved in the project-namely, to build a pavement designed to carry 41 million equivalent single-axle loads (ESALs)* over 20 years, a traffic load many times higher than most highway projects.

A Hands-On Introduction to DataPave

DataPave, a new software program from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), contains such a wealth of data from the long-term pavement performance (LTPP) program that if the information were transferred to floppy disks, the stack would reach higher than a 44-story building. To help engineers and others from State highway agencies, private industry, and the academic community learn how to navigate this data, FHWA, in cooperation with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), has held a series of 1-day workshops around the country.

Transportation in the Information Age: Symposium Features Techniques for Improving Public Communications

Our country may run on planes, trains, and automobiles, but the public is often not fully aware of the work transportation agencies do to maintain roads and other facilities, increase safety, and make travel easier. How can those in the transportation field better communicate with their customers and increase awareness of transportation issues? To find out, make plans to attend "Getting Our Message Out: Elevating Public Awareness of Transportation Issues," a 2-day symposium scheduled for December 3-4, 1998, in Alexandria, Virginia.

FHWA and NAPA Study Tender Zone in Superpave Mixes

Tenderness might be a desirable quality in a steak, but it's not nearly as desirable in an asphalt mix. To address the problem of tenderness at certain temperature ranges in hot-mix asphalt designed using the Superpave system, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) held a workshop in Maryland in June for State highway agency and industry personnel. The workshop was designed to formulate a work plan to better understand the cause of tenderness in these mixtures.

Winter Maintenance for the New Millennium

For the Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota departments of transportation (DOT), winter maintenance has gone state-of-the-art. In 1995, the three States formed a consortium, supported by the Center for Transportation Research and Education at Iowa State University and the Federal Highway Administration, to design and develop an advanced winter maintenance truck. Three years later, this design is now a reality and the prototype vehicles are hitting the roads in each State to take on the challenges of snow and ice. While the trucks are proving to be moving laboratories, evaluating the effectiveness of new technologies, they are also already important additions to the States' maintenance fleets.

SHRP Implementation Calendar