Currently, a well-defined and validated set of metrics to use in monitoring work zone performance do not exist. This pilot test was conducted to assist state DOTs in identifying what work zone performance measures can and should be targeted, what data they will need to collect to compute those measures, and what methods exist to obtain that data. Work zone activity and traffic data from five work zone projects were gathered and analyzed. Multiple data sources and collection methods were examined and utilized to the extent available at each project. These sources were field crew personnel...

In 2004, a team of representatives from the Federal Highway Administration, State highway agencies, industry, and academia visited Canada, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, and the United Kingdom. The purpose of this International Technology Scanning Program study was to identify practices that might be evaluated and applied in the United States to improve construction management. One significant scan finding was that the countries visited had an advanced awareness of risk assessment and allocation techniques that are just now evolving in U.S. highway agencies. This instructional...

Much of America's transportation infrastructure is reaching the end of its design life and needs to be reconstructed. At the same time, traffic levels and the resulting congestion levels continue to increase steadily. These two factors combined pose a significant challenge to State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). To address this challenge, FHWA has been working with State DOTs and industry to develop a "toolbox" of potential solutions. One tool in this toolbox is performance contracting. Performance contracting is an approach where a private...

This primer has been developed to assist agencies in establishing and monitoring a useful set of work zone safety and mobility performance measures. Work zone performance measures are metrics that help to quantify how work zones impact travelers, residents, businesses and workers. Work zone performance measures help agencies improve their understanding of how their decisions during planning, design, and construction affect work zone safety and mobility, and thus can help improve how they make decisions for future work zones. The primer describes possible work zone performance measures, and...

Highway hydraulic structures perform the vital function of conveying, diverting, or removing surface water from the highway right-of-way. They should be designed to be commensurate with risk, construction cost, importance of the road, economy of maintenance, and legal requirements. One type of drainage facility will rarely provide the most satisfactory drainage for all sections of a highway. Therefore, the designer should know and understand how different drainage facilities can be integrated to provide complete drainage control. Drainage design covers many disciplines, of which two are...

Highway hydraulic structures perform the vital function of conveying, diverting, or removing surface water from the highway right-of-way. They should be designed to be commensurate with risk, construction cost, importance of the road, economy of maintenance, and legal requirements. One type of drainage facility will rarely provide the most satisfactory drainage for all sections of a highway. Therefore, the designer should know and understand how different drainage facilities can be integrated to provide complete drainage control. Drainage design covers many disciplines, of which two are...

This document discusses the physical processes of the hydrologic cycle that are important to highway engineers. These processes include the approaches, methods and assumptions applied in design and analysis of highway drainage structures. Hydrologic methods of primary interest are frequency analysis for analyzing rainfall and ungaged data; empirical methods for peak discharge estimation; and hydrograph analysis and synthesis. The document describes the concept and several approaches for determining time of concentration. The peak discharge methods discussed include log Pearson type III,...

The Federal Highway Administration document "Highways in the River Environment - Hydraulic and Environmental Design Considerations" was first published in 1975, was revised in 1990, and is now issued as Hydraulic Design Series 6, "River Engineering for Highway Encroachments." This document has proven to be a singularly authoritative document for the design of highway associated hydraulic structures in moveable boundary waterways. This revised document incorporates many technical advances that have been made in this discipline since 1990. In addition, Hydraulic Engineering Circulars (HEC) 18,...

Hydraulic Design Series Number 5 (HDS 5) originally merged culvert design information contained in Hydraulic Engineering Circulars (HEC) 5, 10, and 13 with other related hydrologic, storage routing and special culvert design information. This third edition is the first major rewrite of HDS 5 since 1985, updating all previous information and adding new information on software solutions, aquatic organism passage, culvert assessment, and culvert repair and rehabilitation. The result is a comprehensive culvert design publication. This publication contains the equations and methodology used in...

Debris accumulation at culvert and bridge structures openings is a widespread problem. The accumulation of debris at inlets of highway culverts and bridge structures is a frequent cause of unsatisfactory performance and malfunction. This accumulation may result in erosion at culvert entrances, overtopping and failure of roadway embankments and damage to adjacent properties, increased local scour at piers and/or abutments, and the formation of pressure flow scour. Consideration of debris accumulations and the need for debris-control structures should be an essential part of the design of all...