The Shelf
Questions? Contact Arlene Mathison, Minnesota LTAP librarian, 612-624-3646, e-mail amathison@cts.umn.edu.
Guides
Guidelines for the Installation, Inspection, Maintenance, and Repair of Structural Supports for Highway Signs, Luminaries, and Traffic Signals (Federal Highway Administration)
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration has released guidance on the installation, inspection, maintenance, and repair of structural supports for highway signs, luminaries, and traffic signals. The guidance is designed to assist owners of ancillary highway structures in managing their inventory, identifying potential problem areas, and ensuring safe and satisfactory performance of structures. Downloaded Guidelines (6.2 MB PDF).
Guide for Curing of Portland Cement Concrete Pavements, Volume I (Federal Highway Administration)
This document provides guidance on details of concrete curing practices as they pertain to construction of portland cement concrete pavements. The guide is organized around the major events in curing pavements: curing immediately after placement (initial curing), curing during the period after final finishing (final curing), and termination of curing and evaluation of effectiveness of curing. Information is presented on selection of curing materials and procedures, analysis of concrete properties and jobsite conditions, and on ways to adjust curing practice to account for specific project conditions.
Reports
Application of Geophysical Methods to Highway Related Problems (Federal Highway Administration)
Geophysical data, when properly confirmed by conventionally acquired data, can provide valuable information about the physical properties of a subsurface or structure being investigated. Applied geophysical methods are often the quickest and most cost-effective means of investigation, and as such are increasingly being used by state DOTs to solve transportation-related problems.
This report provides highway engineers with a basic knowledge of geophysics and nondestructive test (NDT) methods to solve these problems. The first of the report's two parts is problem oriented and provides descriptions of geophysical imaging and NDT methods for use to solve specific transportation problems under the following headings: bridge system substructure and superstructure, pavements, roadway subsidence, subsurface characterizations, and vibration measurements. The second part provides additional guidance regarding geophysical theories.
This report will be of particular interest to geotechnical, structural, pavement, and construction engineers, as well as engineering geologists involved with site investigation of highways and other civil engineering structures, including pavement structures, retaining walls, embankments, and cut slopes.
An online version of the report can be found at www.cflhd.gov/agm.
Collaborative Research on Road Weather Observations and Predictions by Universities, State Departments of Transportation, and National Weather Service Forecast Offices (Federal Highway Administration)
This report documents the results of five research projects that evaluate the use of weather observations and modeling systems to improve highway safety and to support effective decisions made by the various jurisdictions that manage the highway system. Specifically, the research evaluated how environmental sensor station data, particularly Road Weather Information System (RWIS) data, could best be used for both road condition forecasting and weather forecasting. The collaborative efforts also included building better relations for training and sharing information among state DOTs, National Weather Service Forecast Offices, and universities to help state DOTs improve mobility on the roads and productivity in operations.
Evaluation of LS-DYNA Soil Material Model 147 and Manual for LS-DYNA Soil Material Model 147 (Federal Highway Administration)
These reports document a soil material model that has been implemented into the dynamic finite element code, LS-DYNA, beginning with version 970. This material model was developed specifically to predict the dynamic performance of the foundation soil in which roadside safety structures are mounted when undergoing a collision by a motor vehicle.
The manual completely documents this material model for the user. The evaluation documents the model's performance and the accuracy of the results, and discusses the developer's and evaluator's disagreements.
These reports will be of interest to research engineers associated with the evaluation and crashworthy performance of roadside safety structures, particularly engineers responsible for the prediction of the crash response of such structures when using the finite element code LS-DYNA.