The States’ Highway Research Program
Systematic, well-designed, and implementable research is the most effective way to solve many problems facing
state departments of transportation (DOTs) administrators and engineers. Often, highway problems are of local
interest and can best be studied by state DOTs individually or in cooperation with their state universities
and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transportation results in increasingly complex
problems of wide interest to highway authorities. These problems are best studied through a coordinated
program of cooperative research.
In 1962, recognizing this need, the Chief Executive Officers of the American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials (AASHTO) initiated an objective national highway research program using modern
scientific techniques—the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP). Funded by participating
member states of AASHTO, NCHRP also receives critical technical support from the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA), United States Department of Transportation.
The Transportation Research Board (TRB), part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and
Medicine, was requested by AASHTO to administer the research program because of TRB’s recognized objectivity
and understanding of modern research practices. TRB is uniquely suited for this purpose for many reasons: TRB
maintains an extensive volunteer committee structure from which authorities on any highway transportation
subject may be drawn; TRB possesses avenues of communications and cooperation with federal, state, and local
governmental agencies, universities, and industry; TRB’s relationship to the National Academies is an
insurance of objectivity; and TRB maintains a full-time staff of specialists in highway transportation matters
and research project management to bring the findings of research directly to those in a position to use them.
The annual research program is developed on the basis of research needs identified by chief administrators
and other staff of the highway and transportation departments, by committees of AASHTO, and by FHWA. Topics of
the highest merit are selected by the AASHTO Special Committee on Research and Innovation (R&I), and each year
R&I’s recommendations are proposed to the AASHTO Board of Directors, the National Academies, and FHWA. The
scopes of research projects to address these topics are defined by NCHRP, and qualified research agencies are
selected from submitted proposals. Administration and surveillance of research contracts are the
responsibilities of the National Academies and TRB.
NCHRP at 50 Years
A half century ago,
representatives of the predecessor organizations of AASHTO, TRB, and FHWA recognized the importance of a state
DOT-driven research program addressing common transportation needs, and on June 19, 1962, the last signatory
made the three-way agreement official that created the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. The
basic terms and philosophy of that original agreement have remained essentially unchanged over the past 50
years, resulting in findings and recommendations that have made a difference, be it through direct guidance to
the state DOTs or other means, such as the numerous AASHTO specifications and guides and their updates that
are based on NCHRP research. This publication provides an opportunity to take a glance back at the history and
accomplishments of the program that has been advancing transportation for the past five decades.
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