The design, fabrication, and installation of cross-frames for curved and highly skewed steel girder bridges can be difficult and time-consuming. In these bridges, the girders twist and deflect, creating differential vertical displacements and rotations such that cross-frame fit can result in multiple challenges. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's NCHRP IDEA Final Report for Project 227: Adjustable Cross-frames for the Erection of Steel Girder Bridges develops, numerically...

A sensor system embedded in ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber strips, utilizing force transducer technology to detect tire widths, vehicle classifications, and wheel wander at highway speeds can be deployed in high-traffic corridors to monitor wide-base tires and their impacts on pavement performance. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's NCHRP IDEA Final Report for Project 238: Low-Cost Sensing System for the Detection and Classification of Wide Base Tire Types...

New IDEAs for Rail Safety: Annual Report of the Rail Safety IDEA Program  presents a summary of progress on investigations conducted as part of the Rail Safety Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (Rail Safety IDEA) program sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration and overseen by the Transportation Safety IDEA Program Committee. The Rail Safety IDEA program provides funding for projects that promote innovative approaches to improving railroad safety or performance.

Environmental stewardship and compliance requirements can be complicated for both airport operators and their workforce. Airports encounter a diverse range of environmental challenges, some of which require permits and a thorough understanding of compliance intricacies. ACRP WebResource 21: Environmental Stewardship and Compliance Training for Airport Employees , from TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program, offers environmental and sustainability trainings, quizzes, and resources tailored to the spec...

TRB’s Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) program has released the latest issue of its New IDEAs for Highway Systems: Annual Progress Report , which summarizes projects active or completed during the 2024 program year. A project of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), the NCHRP Highway IDEA program seeks proposals with potential to advance the construction, safety, maintenance, and management of highway systems. The program is sponsored by the member states of the Amer...

The most inherent advantage of a smooth pavement surface is its reduced noise levels compared to a pavement that is not smooth, but beyond the noise impacts there lies indirect and direct benefits that people gain from a smooth pavement. Transportation Research Circular E-C297: Concrete Pavement Smoothness: 2023 Workshop , from the Transportation Research Board, was developed from presentations made during the 102nd TRB Annual Meeting in a workshop titled "Concrete Pavement Smoothness."

Awareness of the vulnerability of the country’s existing electrical system has increased with the frequency of short-term blackouts and long-term utility outages. Power outages impact airport operations by causing flight delays, extended layovers, disruptions in cargo operations, loss of revenue, and limitations in airports’ ability to provide emergency support. ACRP WebResource 19: Airport Microgrid Implementation Tools provides tools that can be used by airports to analyze the feasibility of implementi...

Through data analytics, airports can perform valuable tasks such as better visualizing their data to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their operations, developing predictive analysis, backing up their management decisions with hard data, identifying operational inefficiencies, and leveraging historical information and/or real-time data to better plan for the future. ACRP WebResource 18: Implementing and Improving Data Analytic Capabilities in Airports , from TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research P...

Federal laws and rules require performance standards to be implemented to enhance stewardship of the transportation infrastructure and foster greater innovation in delivering a resilient transportation system, including the life of pavement systems, that supports prosperity and opportunity. Transportation Research Circular E-C296: Foundation Design and Construction for 100-Year Pavement Systems documents the presentations and discussions from two workshops held during the 2024 and 2023 TRB Annual Meeting...

Prestressing systems for railroad concrete crossties originated from the need to redistribute and localize prestressing forces to regions where they are required and, thus, optimize the design and counteract the appearance of the predominant cracking patterns. The TRB IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis) Program's Rail Safety IDEA Final Report 46: Adaptive Prestressing System for Concrete Crossties: Prototype Development details a product that features railroad concrete crossties that incorp...