Document Library

This research provides a framework for inventorying assets and for assessing the condition of ferry assets.

This international compendium shares best practices in the management and maintenance of roads across countries that are members of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program.

With all the recent rules coming from FHWA and FTA, transportation agencies need to understand what is applicable for them and by when. The new TPM Timeline Tool is a web-based interactive tool intended to help State DOTs, MPOs, and transit agencies understand and plan for their federally-required performance management activities. By interactively displaying all the applicable requirements on either a timeline or table, agencies can quickly visualize the requirements that are of interest to them and delve deeper into any of them. This tool used federal docket materials available as of October 2017 and was based on a Missouri DOT MAP-21/FAST Act Implementation Matrix. Check it out here.

This document is a pavement distress data quality management plan produced by the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT). It details the department's quality management approach, protocols, quality control procedures, and independent verification methods.

Crashes at intersections are one of the leading causes of highway fatalities. In 2014, intersection crashes alone resulted in 8,664 fatalities out of the 32,675 total roadway deaths that year. As a means to address traffic-related fatalities and injuries on the Nation’s roadways, the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Safety employs a focused approach to safety. This approach is built around three technical focus areas--roadway departures, intersections, and pedestrians/bicycles--and prioritizes resources and efforts to help States and local agencies address their road safety needs. More specifically, the Intersection Safety Program focuses on the many variables that influence safety at intersections, from behavioral factors and special users to intersection design and facility type.

One of the key tools that falls under this program is the Intersection Safety Implementation Plan (ISIP), which can be instrumental in helping transportation agencies reduce intersection-related traffic injuries and fatalities. States develop ISIPs as a way to include intersection safety in their Strategic Highway Safety Plan, either as a standalone emphasis area or integrated across various emphasis areas. Although a State’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan might identify some strategies for improving intersection safety, the ISIP establishes more detailed implementation activities, countermeasures, strategies, deployment levels, implementation steps, and required funding.

This document explains how State DOTs can develop financial planning processes to support development of their 10-year transportation asset management plans (TAMPs). The FHWA defines a TAMP financial plan as “a long- term plan spanning 10 years or longer, presenting a State DOT’s estimates of projected available financial resources and predicted expenditures in major asset categories that can be used to achieve State DOT targets for asset condition during the plan period, and highlighting how resources are expected to be allocated based on asset strategies, needs, shortfalls, and agency policies.”1 The TAMP financial plan describes the financial environment in which the agency expects to operate on an annual basis over the full time period covered by the TAMP.

This document provides guidance on the risk element of a risk-based transportation asset management plan (TAMP), defines risk, and provides guidance on how the risk element can be applied to meet the requirements of a risk-based TAMP.

Montana's long range plan was first adopted in 1995, and most recently updated in 2017. It details the state's transportation policy direction a 20-year horizon and guides decision-making. The long range plan collects information about the transportation assets in addition to surveys and public comments to address the current and future transportation needs.

The objective of this research, NCHRP 13-04, was to develop a Guide for Optimal Replacement Cycles of Highway Operations Equipment. The guide included processes and tools for consideration in making decisions regarding the optimal replacement cycles of on- and off-road highway operations equipment used by state highway agencies.
The study’s report, Research Report 879: Optimal Replacement Cycles of Highway Operations Equipment, acts as a handbook on equipment replacement concepts and an instruction manual for making cost-effective replacement decisions. The research report presents a process for determining replacement needs for highway operations equipment, identifying candidate equipment units for replacement, and preparing an annual equipment replacement program. The products include a guidance document and an Excel-based replacement optimization tool to support the equipment replacement process and facilitate its implementation.

The objective of this research, NCHRP Project 14-20A Consequences of Delayed Maintenance of Highway Assets, was to develop processes for quantifying the consequences of the delayed application of maintenance treatments on highway pavements, bridges, and other physical assets. The research expressed consequences in terms of performance indicators (e.g., distress and level of service), costs to owners and road users, and other relevant factors and defined delayed maintenance applications by (1) the inability to meet the agency-defined application schedule or (2) the available budget relative to an unconstrained budget (i.e., availability of the funds required to perform all needed maintenance). 

The Caltrans Division of Maintenance continually seeks improved methods and equipment to increase efficiency and worker safety, which in turn supports Caltrans’ mission and goals. The sealing of highway pavement cracks and longitudinal joints has been identified as an area possibly in need of enhancement. Unsealed pavement cracks, either in the form of random stress failure cracking or linear joints, accelerate highway pavement deterioration due to water and debris penetrating the structural section, thereby undermining pavement integrity. According to Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) study results, a properly installed, heated application of rubberized asphalt joint seal should remain effective an average of five years. All the major sealant manufacturers recommend the crack or joint be dry and free of all dirt, dust, debris, and vegetation prior to applying their rubberized asphalt sealants for optimum performance. Failure to properly clean a pavement crack or joint may result in the seal failing as soon as one thermal cycle, i.e. in less than one year. Unfortunately, conventional highway pavement crack cleaning techniques are innately labor-intensive and require workers to be on foot and exposed to traffic for prolonged periods of time, which often downgrades crack preparation tasks to low priority in a sealing operation. Caltrans Maintenance is interested in a broad look at equipment used by other state transportation agencies, as well as any recent innovations in crack cleaning technologies that may be utilized by Caltrans Maintenance to enhance highway sealing operations and thereby improve pavement maintainability statewide.