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    <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title> Evaluate PVC Water Main Materials in Roadway Projects</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2731924</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Water main breaks within Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) R.O.W. pose significant risks to the Department and stakeholders, including complete road
closures, detours, as well as boil water advisories. MDOT is obligated to replace municipal water mains that are impacted by
Road and Bridge projects, typically at Project costs. The Department currently only specifies ductile iron water main (DIWM)
materials within the influence of its roadways. Rising costs of and supply issues with DIWM in recent years have caused
significant project delays. Municipalities are increasingly requesting the use of PVC water main materials within MDOT R.O.W.
to maintain material continuity of their facilities. Allowing use of alternative materials could reduce costs and/or delays to the
Department. MDOT needs data to address Municipal Engineers and Industry questions on the suitability of allowing PVC water
main on MDOT projects. Several factors must be evaluated in comparison to DIWM; the durability and expected design life,
historical leakage and breakage rates, cause of failures, the long-term safety of PVC water main materials on public health,
and life cycle costs. The research must provide data guidance and recommendations on the advantages and disadvantages of
PVC versus DIWM to allow consideration of a change to current policy.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:29:12 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2731924</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Quantitative Evaluation of Select Materials in Subgrade Alternatives</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2671990</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) has had a statewide policy in place for approximately 20 years where a select materials layer should be included beneath the pavement section in areas deemed difficult for subgrade construction. These areas are well-distributed throughout the state and notably include subgrades comprising silty soils, silty clay soils, soft clay soils, soils with high organic content, and other soils with a history of problems for construction. The WisDOT Facilities Development Manual (FDM) identifies and maps areas where problematic subgrade soils predominate in the form of Standard Inclusion Areas and warrant the design and application of a select materials layer. Ten select materials alternatives are provided in the FDM 11-5 and are assumed to provide an equivalent level of subgrade improvement. While the FDM provides 10 “equivalent” options, there is uncertainty regarding the true equivalency of each alternative. There is an urgent need to systematically and quantitatively evaluate the equivalency of alternative materials and options to address this limitation. Doing so will (1) provide cost savings by mitigating expenses and limited availability of select materials in many locations of the state, (2) provide designers with the confidence that alternatives will effectively perform, (3) reduce energy consumption and transportation emissions (e.g., long hauling distances) by more frequent use of locally sourced materials, and (4) foster sustainable development with beneficial use of alternatives including industrial by-products and recycled materials.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 18 Feb 2026 11:37:12 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2671990</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Vertical and Overhead Concrete Patches</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2671984</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Bridge elements undergo various types of damage throughout their service life requiring rehabilitation with vertical and overhead patch repairs. Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) guidance is limited to horizontal concrete surface repairs. Vertical and overhead patches typically include using different strategies, patch materials and repair reinforcements such as mechanical anchors, wire reinforcement, or fiber-reinforced polymer wraps. The field engineers mostly rely on manufacturer's repair recommendations and engineer discretion for guidance. The development of complete guidance protocols including patch-repair materials installation specifications, inspection requirements, and acceptance criteria is required to provide consistency and ensure the durability of concrete patches. The development of the protocols, specifications and an approved products list would be beneficial to ensure WisDOT delivers longer-lasting repairs. The researcher will investigate and provide material selection guidance, patch-repair materials installation specifications and repair strategies for concrete surface repairs in the vertical and overhead positions using different strategies, patch materials and repair reinforcements. This project will provide complete guidance protocols for minor to intermediate vertical and overhead concrete patch repairs in concrete bridge decks, slabs, prestressed concrete girders, piers and abutments located above and away from traffic. They will subject patch repairs to stress tests to evaluate patch durability. The researcher will develop patch-repair materials installation specifications, inspection requirements, and acceptance criteria. The researcher will develop repair specification recommendations and an approved products list, providing consistency and ensuring the durability of concrete patches.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 18 Feb 2026 11:21:37 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2671984</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Develop and Demonstrate an Evaluation Process for Acceptance of Additives for Use in Forensic Analysis in Hot Mix Asphalt</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2666836</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Although additives, modifiers, and extenders are commonly used in hot mix asphalt (HMA) designs, a robust and structured laboratory evaluation process is needed to assess their impact on performance and minimize the risk of incorporating these materials in routine use. The research team will develop a framework to evaluate new products in the context of asphalt materials, leveraging insights from existing methodologies such as NCHRP 1-130. The study will assess asphalt binders and mixtures, considering material selection, laboratory performance, and field validation using test sections. The final deliverables will include a laboratory assessment framework, performance-based criteria, and a template for long-term monitoring of additives in HMA.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 10 Feb 2026 14:43:18 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2666836</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Novel concretes made using supplementary cementitious materials and seawater (UM)</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2663226</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The production and curing of concrete utilizes billions of tons of freshwater every year. This is a major concern, especially in regions with water shortfalls. The research team has previously explored seawater-mixed concretes, and shown promising performance of such concrete, as long as steel reinforcement is not used. The objective of this research project is to show a proof-of-concept of using supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and seawater. Specifically: (1) Cement pastes will be designed with 60% PLC, 20% limestone, and 20% fly ash as binder. Freshwater and seawater will be compared. Cement paste hydration will be studied using isothermal calorimetry (7 days), thermogravimetric analysis and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (up to 91 days). (2) Cement mortars will be made and the flow measured in fresh state; and strength and bulk resistivity will be measured up to 91 days. (3) Concretes will be made and their slump, air content, and density measured in fresh state, and strength, and bulk resistivity will be measured up to 91 days. (4) In total four mixtures with varying water types will be tested to develop concrete utilizing SCMs and seawater that maintains performance with respect to control concrete mixtures.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 11:06:52 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2663226</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Durability and Cost-Benefit Assessment of Innovative Materials for Bridge Deck Maintenance and Construction</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2543852</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) manages one of the largest state transportation networks in the US, including over 9400 bridges. For existing and newly built bridges, concrete decks are the primary area of concern for durability due to aging, increased load demands, and direct exposure to corrosive environments, especially throughout the coastline and the Lowcountry. As a result, excessive cracking (e.g., due to aging, shrinkage, overloads, exposure to chloride salts) and corrosion-related damage (e.g., concrete spalling, loss of reinforcing material) are all-too-common conditions that hinder safety, reduce capacity, and negatively affect user satisfaction.

The condition of the State’s bridge decks is reflected in the National Bridge Inventory. In 2018, for the first time, the number of bridges rated as ‘Fair’ (4855, over 50% of the total) surpassed those rated as ‘Good’. This trend shows what bridge inspectors are well aware of—that the rate of deterioration exceeds the rate of rehabilitation and replacement. The outlook is that a ‘State of Good Repair’ is increasingly challenging, despite the SCDOT’s growing maintenance efforts.

In fact, the cost and impact on mobility of bridge maintenance and new construction put a premium on accelerating the transition to innovative deck materials that offer unprecedented durability and cost benefits. Compelling examples are ultra-high performance concrete, specialty admixtures (e.g., shrinkage-control, nano-amendment), cementitious-matrix overlays, externally bonded fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) systems, galvanized steel bars, and noncorrosive glass FRP (GFRP) bars whose cost is now on par with black steel.

In addition to bridge deck research, the proposed research will also focus on developing standard repair procedures for various bridge components. An emphasis will be placed on developing procedures that are relatively easy to perform by maintenance forces with commonly available equipment.

The proposed research aims to bridge the gap between state-of-the-art and field implementation. Doing so requires addressing a lack of familiarity by practitioners, a difficulty with assessing cost benefits, and a limited availability of SCDOT provisions and tools for design, and life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) for asset management.

]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Apr 2025 09:09:57 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2543852</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Transportation Materials Resource Center</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2441831</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Departments of Transportation (DOTs) have shown a growing interest in harnessing the benefits of innovative materials in transportation infrastructure. However, without proper evaluation of these materials, DOTs remain hesitant to fully incorporate them into their infrastructure. The Transportation Materials Resource Center (TMRC) aims to reduce these hesitancies by evaluating potentially innovative construction and maintenance materials using life cycle analysis and materials assessments, sharing the results through information exchanges and development of standards and certifications for materials partner agencies would like to incorporate into their transportation infrastructure.

OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of the TMRC is to champion the identification and evaluation of innovative materials for use in transportation infrastructure. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 16 Oct 2024 15:31:54 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2441831</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SPR-4860: Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Benchmark Project for Indiana Asphalt and Concrete Pavements</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2270076</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Environmental product declarations (EPD), in conjunction with mixture and pavement testing will provide data and a framework for guidance to make decisions for a high-quality and more sustainable asphalt and concrete mixtures. The data will be used to create benchmarks for Indiana asphalt and concrete mixtures and their environmental impact using EPD reports.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 18 Oct 2023 14:55:30 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2270076</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Pavement Preservation in Urban Environments: Best Practices in Materials, Technologies, and Applications</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2077934</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The project selection, materials, and construction of Pavement Preservation Treatments focused on the specific challenges of Urban Environments.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 06 Dec 2022 09:48:32 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2077934</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Integration of Repair and Remediation Methods into Pipe Material Selection Approach</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1868818</link>
      <description><![CDATA[​A currently ongoing research project (Durability of Pipe Materials in Soils; RP 2020-22) has developed a pipe material selection software in Excel. This software enables estimation of the service life of pipes made from different materials based on their anticipated exposure conditions. Exposure data (e.g., soil pH and resistivity) can be provided either directly by the user or are obtained from a linked geographic information systems (GIS) database that is integrated within the developed software. The linked GIS database is used to automatically compute the anticipated exposure condition corresponding with global positioning system (GPS) coordinates input by the user for a given project. The culvert pipe materials commonly used by NCDOT have been included in the software: reinforced concrete, galvanized steel, aluminized steel, cast iron, mild steel, aluminum alloy, and polymeric pipes. It is anticipated that the software will be ready for use by the summer of 2021. The research team identified enhancements to the software including integrating NCDOT's structural requirements, estimate service life and addressing the effects on subsurface mitigation. The work proposed herein aims to address these current shortcomings of the current work. The final product of the proposed research will include: (i) An upgraded pipe selection guide software that integrates structural requirements, repair and rehabilitation methods, and mitigation strategies into a unified pipe selection guide, and (ii) provisions accounting for the effects of various repair and rehabilitation methods on the service life of the pipe materials.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 26 Jul 2021 15:28:27 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1868818</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Documenting the Impact of Aggregate Quality on Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) Performance</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1486043</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In Texas, the Surface Aggregate Classification (SAC) system is currently used to qualify aggregates for hot mix asphalt (HMA), which ranks aggregates into SAC A, B, or C based on their magnesium soundness and acid insolubility values. Only SAC A aggregate is recommended on high volume roads. However, this classification has led to shortages of surfacing aggregates and increment in the cost of premium HMA surfacings because limestone, a main Texas aggregate source, has a SAC B designation due to the acid insolubility requirement. It is Texas Department of Transportation's (TxDOT’s) long-term goal to revise and possibly replace the existing SAC system with a system more related to in-service field performance. The main objective of this study is to provide the fundamental laboratory and field performance data required to make major changes of the current SAC system and provide guidelines for the enhancement of the Texas aggregate screening/selection criteria. To accomplish these objectives, the researcher team will use the existing databases (mainly the Project 0-6658 database with over 70 in-service highway test sections across the State and other in-house district databases) to correlate field performance in terms of skid resistance, as well as rutting and cracking, with the aggregate properties – supplemented with limited field data (skid) collection.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 20 Oct 2017 11:45:39 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1486043</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Texas Mill Test Information for Load Ratings</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1455980</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The objective of this project is to develop a database of material properties, including yield and ultimate strength, for historical steel materials that have been used in rolled sections and reinforcing bars over the past 80 years. The motivation for this project is to use more accurate values of material strengths in load rating, rather than the conservative values proposed in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Manual for Bridge Evaluation (MBE) that could result in increases to load ratings of historical structures, while maintaining the reliability (or the probability of failure) at the same level as acceptable values for new constructions. To this end, the project consists of nine tasks including a survey of the existing literature and other state Departments of Transportation (DOTs), compiling a database of historical material properties from Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) records, obtaining and testing material samples from decommissioned historical structures, conducting a statistical analysis of the data, and conducting example load ratings to illustrate and quantify the benefit of using the revised material property data for load rating historical structures.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 17 Feb 2017 15:26:58 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1455980</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Research for AASHTO Standing Committee on Highways. Task 374. Guidelines for Selecting Sign Sheeting Materials for AASHTO M268</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1350544</link>
      <description><![CDATA[There are two standard specifications for sign sheeting materials in the United States: AASHTO M268 and ASTM D4956. The AASHTO specification is based more on nighttime driver needs and the ASTM specification is based mostly on the performance of different products. While both specifications classify sign sheeting materials, neither specification provides guidance to help agencies select the appropriate sign sheeting materials. ASTM D4956 is more of a product based specification while AASHTO M268 is more of a performance based specification. The AASHTO M268 specification was developed by a team of state DOTs so that sign sheeting materials can be classified in a meaningful way. Research is needed to develop guidelines for M268 for selecting the most appropriate sign sheeting materials.
 
The objective of this project is to develop guidance that can be used by highway agencies in the process for selecting sign sheeting materials using AASHTO M268. This guidance addresses current regulations, driver needs, the latest human factors research, cost, availability, durability, ease of use, maintenance, sign type, typical placement and other relevant factors. The research includes a critical review of previous research related to sign sheeting materials and their effectiveness, identify and evaluate the process currently used for selecting sign sheeting materials, and develop guidelines. The guidance describes the types of sign sheeting materials, the specific design conditions where they perform best, and develops scenarios for sheeting type use for specific sign locations according to driver needs. The guidance recommends sign sheeting types for sign design, location, and placement while taking into account the retroreflectivity of various sign sheeting types and economics.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2015 01:00:54 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1350544</guid>
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