Federal Highway Administration

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) recently completed the Fast Fix 8 bridge project in Nashville, with help from a Power Curbers slipformer belonging to Irwin Concrete Construction. TDOT’s goal was to replace eight ageing interstate bridges along Interstate 40 through Nashville using a process called Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC). This uses fast-paced, around-the-clock work to limit road closures and speed up bridge completion, impacting surrounding communities as little as possibl

There is mounting concern in the US at the high number of crashes during 2015. For the first seven months of 2015, there has been a 14% increase in the number of traffic fatalities compared with the same period in 2014. The data shows that there were 18,630 road deaths in this period, with over 2.2 million serious injuries. This is a notable increase and should the trend continue it will mean that 2015 will have had the highest rate of road deaths since 2007. The cause (or causes) of the increase in road de

The bidding process has started for the Gordie Howe International Bridge that will link Detroit in the US state of Michigan and Windsor, in the Canadian province of Ontario. The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA) has sent out a request for qualifications (RFQ) for the bridge that will likely be either cable stayed or suspension to cross the Detroit River. The bridge also likely will come with a hefty price tag – around US$1.62 billion, as World Highways reported in May in a feature on the proposed b

The Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL) and the Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) have pledged to increase cooperation on road research. A memorandum of understanding to cement the cooperation was signed during a one-day event that featured speakers from national members of FEHRL and CEDR. Stefan Strick, president of FEHRL and also of the German Federal Highway Research Institute, signed the memorandum alongside CEDR president Simon Grima, who is also chief office

In the United States, the National Operations Centre of Excellence has officially launched a web site to provide the transportation sector with the latest knowledge and management tools. Practitioners, researchers and policymakers will find on the site the latest resources and have the opportunity to discuss topics related to systems management and operations. The centre launched its website at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting in Washington, D.C. in mid January. Click here to view the site

The use of reclaimed asphalt pavement in the United States increased during 2013 after two years of no rise, according the latest report from the US National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA). The report found that more than 73 million tons of reclaimed asphalt pavement and 1.7 million tons of reclaimed asphalt roofing shingles were used in new asphalt pavement mixes in the United States during in 2013. Using recycled asphalt material saved about $2 billion in 2013 over the use of virgin materials,

In a bid to reduce costs, increase pavement quality, and minimise travel delays caused by road construction, the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) are to help agencies implement a tool that allows contractors to identify concrete pavement surface irregularities during construction. Real-time pavement smoothness has been selected for guided implementation under the second Stra

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in the United States is offering demonstrations of its Dynatest 6875H Highway Friction Tester (HFT) to state departments of transportation (DOTs). The HFT is a self-contained testing vehicle that maps friction at one-foot intervals continuously along a pavement section. Agencies can use friction data provided by the HFT for both network-level and project-level applications. Continuous friction testing can improve agencies' ability to measure friction through inte

When New York State Thruway wanted to experiment with unbonded concrete overlays, they chose an 8km, four-lane section of Interstate 90 near Hamburg as their test section. Surianello General Concrete, based in Buffalo, New York, won the bid to pave the 22.9cm thick concrete overlay. The age and the design of the original roadway created a major paving challenge. It was built in the 1950s and didn’t conform to current geometry requirements for superhighways. “They built it with a standard crown sectio

Transnational collaboration on road infrastructure innovation is the aim of the ERA-NET Plus (EN Plus) Infravation event. The Infravation 2014 Call for this collaboration of 11 countries on road infrastructure innovation will be launched on 3rd March 2014. It will pool funding of some €9 million, of which one-third comes from the European Commission (EC). For the first time, the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will also contribute funding to an EN Plus Call however. This is because the FHWA sees th