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...

Asphalt mixture mechanical tests (such as Hamburg Wheel-Track, Asphalt Pavement Analyzer, Indirect Tensile Cracking) are growing in use by numerous state departments of transportation (DOTs) as part of their standard material specifications to complement volumetric properties and help ensure satisfactory asphalt mixture performance. Transportation Research Circular E-C294: Adjustment to Asphalt Mixtures to Meet Performance Testing Requirements and Allow Innovations , from the Transportation Research Boar...

Asphalt pavement stakeholders are working toward a common goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 and incorporating the use of technologies and tools to rationally quantify the environmental impacts of asphalt pavement materials and construction alternatives. Transportation Research Circular E-C295: Day-to-Day Practices to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Asphalt , from the Transportation Research Board, summarizes a session called "Day-to-Day Practices to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Asphalt," which was hel...

The design of asphalt mixtures for use in infrastructure applications has generated significant research and focus over recent years. Recent advancements in mechanical testing of asphalt mixtures, often referred to as "performance tests," brought to the asphalt community the concept of Balanced Mix Design (BMD) and the use of these tests to augment or go beyond volumetric design. TR Circular E-C293: Listen Up! Challenges for Asphalt Balanced Mixture Design Implementation and How the Research Community Ca...

Monitoring travel on the nation's roadways is crucial for understanding the dynamics of the U.S. transportation system. This involves both broad assessments, such as calculating annual average daily traffic to report on vehicle miles traveled, and detailed analyses, like examining freeway operations on a minute-by-minute basis. TR Circular E-C292: Advancing Highway Traffic Monitoring Through Strategic Research: 2024 Update , from the Transportation Research Board, is a collaborative effort of over 60 spe...

Dielectric Profiling Systems and Paver Mounted Thermal Profiling can be used to advance pavement quality measurement of the entire mat from a limited number of random post-construction measurements to near-continuous measurements in real time during construction. TR Circular E-C290: Implementing Dielectric Profiling Systems for Real-Time Quality Control , from the Transportation Research Board, presents a summary of a workshop that took place during the 2023 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting i...

The increasing volume of plastic waste generated each year is a global problem—one that has been magnified following the 2017 passing of China’s Operation National Sword policy that ended the import of waste plastics into the country effective January 2018. Rightfully, this action has awakened a renewed effort to reduce and recycle plastic waste and asphalt pavements have been identified as a potential new end-market opportunity. TR Circular E-C291: Recycling Waste Plastics in Asphalt Pavements , from th...

The community of stakeholders in safe mobility for older adults use technical terms or expressions that can have very specific meanings across disciplines. The variety of different interpretations often leads to miscommunication. Moreover, the terminology continually changes to keep pace with advances in technology, measurement tools and methods, and transportation options. TRB's Transportation Research Circular E-C289: Taxonomy and Terms for Stakeholders of Older Adult Mobility  provides a referenc...

To encourage adoption of performance engineered mixtures (PEM) concepts, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration offered various levels of incentive funding to state agencies to help offset the costs of additional shadow testing, data collection, and reporting. TR Circular E-C287: Using Performance Engineered Mixtures to Improve Pavement Performance and Sustainability: State Experiences presents important highlights from the PEM pilot projects in six states.

The 4th Innovations in Freight Data Workshop was held September 19–21, 2023, at the Keck Center of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in Washington, DC. TRB's Transportation Research Circular E-C288: Innovations in Freight Data: 2023 Workshop presents the discussions and presentations from the workshop.