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    <title>Transport Research International Documentation (TRID)</title>
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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
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    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Transport Research International Documentation (TRID)</title>
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      <link>https://trid.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Executive Strategies to Deliver Practical Design</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1517626</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Since the early 1990s (post Interstate era), the transportation community has faced uncertainty in funding at federal, state, and local levels. These cycles of high and low funding tended to be challenging but relatively short, and they were typically followed by long-term funding/financing solutions. In recent times, the low funding periods have been extended for many years with only short-term solutions, or “fixes”. This funding uncertainty has forced states to review their policies, processes, and practices for delivering transportation improvements by stretching available funding as far as possible. This resulted in the development and use of Practical Design and related initiatives by a number of states to ensure that projects were not being over designed. The objective of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) 20-24(102) is to assist the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in engaging senior state transportation agency leaders in defining a program that will advance an understanding of Practical Design principles and practices and identify areas in which a potential work plan will help AASHTO advance the state of the practice. This final report provides a proposed AASHTO work plan and performance measure report.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2018 17:42:13 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1517626</guid>
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      <title>Cost–Benefit Analysis of the Highway Safety Improvement Program Projects in Wisconsin Using Empirical Bayes Method</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1494799</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) is a core Federal-aid program which aims to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads in the United States. HSIP projects implemented in Wisconsin cross a wide spectrum of highway safety improvements and enhancements. The objective of this paper is to present aggregated Benefit-Cost analysis of the HSIP projects implemented between 2007 and 2012 in Wisconsin in order to help determine the best future HSIP projects. The Benefit-Cost ratios are computed based on Before-After and Empirical Bayes methods and the cost of each project is compared with actual benefits observed in terms of reduction in the number of target crashes in the after period. Results indicate that in general, the HSIP projects implemented in Wisconsin yielded an average Benefit-Cost ratio of greater than one. Rumble strips, convert-to-signalized intersection, and guardrail-end-update projects yielded the highest Benefit-Cost ratios while convert-to-interchange and visibility improvement projects resulted in low ratios.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 26 Mar 2018 14:31:10 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1494799</guid>
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      <title>Utilization of a Geotechnical Asset Management Program – Lessons Learned from a Highway Improvement Project in Alaska</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1459436</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Over the past several years, efforts by owners, including State Departments of Transportation, have been initiated to develop asset management databases. One subset of an asset management database that can be challenging to define is that of geotechnical assets. Geotechnical assets include rock slopes, soil slopes, and retaining structures, that can have very long design lives and show few signs of distress for years. For a highway improvement project in Ketchikan, Alaska, the authors used the Geotechnical Asset Management Program (GAMP) provided by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) to review the locations and characteristics of unstable rock slopes, unstable soil slopes, and retaining walls along the project alignment. Reviewing this information allowed the authors to prioritize locations for inspection, rock mass and discontinuity surveys, and sample collection. As a result of the baseline geotechnical asset information collected, field efforts were reduced, resulting in cost savings to the ADOT&PF. In addition, using the baseline data, additional data were collected and key locations were identified where future maintenance and capital efforts should be focused. Utilization of the GAMP information for this project also provided ADOT&PF with information that can improve the quality of information collected on future GAMP efforts in Alaska]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 27 Mar 2017 09:35:52 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1459436</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Automated System to Prioritize Highway Improvement Locations and to Analyze Project Alternatives</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1439055</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) District One first deployed a web-based system in 2009, called the Congestion Management Process (CMP), to screen and prioritize highway locations on its Strategic Intermodal System (SIS) for low-cost, near-term improvements. The system prioritizes highway locations on the SIS within the district on the basis of a simple scoring method with seven performance measures (i.e., crash ratio, fatal crash, volume-to-capacity ratio, average annual daily traffic, truck volume, truck percent, and delay). Once the Florida DOT adopted the Highway Safety Manual (HSM), there was a desire to apply safety performance measures to the CMP that were consistent with the manual’s methodology. There also was a desire to explore and implement a more advanced project prioritization method for better location screening and prioritization and to add mapping capabilities to improve data visualization. This paper describes the district’s efforts to incorporate these improvements into the CMP system. The CMP system can calculate performance measures automatically, including two safety-related measures on the basis of the HSM methodology, and prioritize highway locations with the Analytic Network Process, an advanced multicriteria decision-making technique. The system can create thematic maps of performance measures and other input variables on Google Maps for data visualization. It also can evaluate potential projects and record project-level information. Although developed for the Florida DOT District One, the system can serve as a prototype and be customized to prioritize highway locations in other states.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 15 Feb 2017 17:03:24 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1439055</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Develop Multi-Scale Energy and Emission Models</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1363413</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The proposed project develops a tool for the assessment of short-term and medium-term effects of network-level traffic-flow improvement projects on energy consumption and environment. Current state-of-the-art models estimate vehicle fuel consumption and emissions based on simple vehicle trip characteristics. While this approach has been widely utilized by transportation planners/engineers for the evaluation of network-wide impacts on energy consumption and environment, it is not efficient for the evaluation of energy and environmental impacts of short-term and medium-term effects of network-level traffic-flow improvement projects, including Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) applications. This tool can be utilized to evaluate the energy and environmental impacts of alternative transportation-related projects prior to their implementation in the field and possibly reduce the adverse impacts of transportation projects on energy consumption and environment.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2015 01:01:15 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1363413</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Travel Time Reliability Based Highway Work Zone Scheduling</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1338338</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The continued deterioration of highway infrastructure in the US has resulted in an increased number, duration, and scope of work zone projects. Transportation agencies are facing great challenges to schedule and manage work zones efficiently and economically. Existing work zone scheduling models usually assume fixed average traffic impact given a designed work zone schedule. Recently, the incorporation of travel time reliability in evaluating highway facility and traffic improvement projects has drawn increased attention. In comparison to traditional average travel time based methods, it considers the full distribution of travel time under a large number of traffic scenarios such as demand fluctuations, incidents, weather, etc. Thus, incorporating travel time reliability can provide more comprehensive insights into the potential traffic impact of a highway improvement plan and new transportation facilities. However, the existing Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) toolbox of evaluating travel time reliability is complex and inefficient to be integrated into the optimization framework of the work zone scheduling problem. In this study, the authors develop simplified methods that identify and model the work zone impact on travel time and travel time reliability to provide evaluation input for the work zone scheduling problem. Combined with the work zone costs such as the maintenance cost, user cost, and additional accident cost, a new work zone schedule model is proposed that incorporates travel time reliability measures. A genetic algorithm is used to solve this combinational optimization problem. A numeric example is carried out to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the developed model.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 22 Mar 2015 17:14:38 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1338338</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>The Thika Highway Improvement Project: Changes in the Peri-Urban Northern Nairobi Metropolitan Region</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1323920</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Thika Highway Improvement Project (THIP) is a large infrastructure project that was performed to connect Kenya's capital city of Nairobi and the industrial town of Thika in the Northern part of the Nairobi Metropolitan Region. The project's main focus was on the expansion of the former dual carriageway (four-lane) Thika Road into six to eight lanes with dual service lanes for each side in most of the sections of the highway. Because the highway has been plagued with major traffic jams, high numbers of fatal accidents, and a terrible traffic management system, this new highway is intended to provide much needed relief to the region.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 2014 10:04:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1323920</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Indiana's Highway Needs Study</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1219457</link>
      <description><![CDATA[For many years the Joint Highway Research Project of Purdue University has conducted research in various phases of highway engineering in cooperation with the Indiana State Highway Department. Research has been conducted in many areas of highway materials and traffic and planning during this time. In the summer of 1954, the Research Project was directed to make a study of the needs of the 98,000 miles of roads and streets in Indiana. It was evident to many people that a great many inadequacies and deficiencies existed in the highway facilities, but it was necessary to have definite information about the specific needs in order to intelligently solve the resulting complex engineering and fiscal problems. Generally, the efforts of the early planning of the work were directed to the solution of the following problems (1) What are the physical needs? (2) How much will correction of the needs cost? (3) What is the relation of the cost required to eliminate the needs with anticipated sources of income for highway improvement? The final objective in answering these three basic questions was to develop information that would assist highway and legislative personnel to provide an adequate, efficient, and economical highway system in Indiana.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:54:54 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1219457</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Prioritizing Highway Safety Improvement Projects: A Multi-Criteria Model and Case Study with SafetyAnalyst</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1133919</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This paper presents a multi-criteria model for prioritizing highway safety improvement projects, in which a set of criteria related to the project’s technical, economic, and social impacts are properly weighted in consideration. The proposed model features an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework to tackle the multi-criteria decision making problem. Different from the conventional AHP, this paper adds a fuzzy scale level between the criteria level and the alternative level, which offers the advantage of preventing the vagueness and uncertainty on judgments of the decision-maker(s). Such a unique modeling feature is further embedded with a non-linear optimization formulation to maximize the consistency in pair-wise comparison and weight estimation for each criterion. Case study results reveal that the proposed model is efficient not only for selecting the most suitable project for a specific site, but also for determining the priorities for implementing those suitable projects among multiple sites given the budget constraint. Comparative study between the proposed model and the existing ranking methods has also indicated its capability to capture the comprehensive impacts of all contributory factors which have been neglected by most existing single multi-criteria approaches during the safety project selection process. The clarity of model inputs, ease of synthesizing the final score of each candidate project, and the interpretation of results with respect to different selection criteria offer its best potential to be used as an effective tool for highway safety managers to assess and refine the safety improvement investments.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:18:12 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1133919</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Portland’s Chinatown Festival Streets</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1131913</link>
      <description><![CDATA[As part of the Old Town Chinatown Streetscape Improvements Project, the City of Portland, Oregon completed construction of two festival streets last year. These are curbless streets each a block long, ordinarily open to traffic but designed to be closed to motor vehicles for special occasions and to then function like a beautiful public square. The streets are curbless, but are not truly “shared streets,” since there is a dedicated sidewalk area separated from vehicle traffic. Since no one in Portland had built a festival street before, several elements presented challenges in the design and construction and are presented in this paper.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:38:57 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1131913</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Economic and Land-Use Impacts of Wisconsin State Trunk Highway 29</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1131862</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The purpose of this study is to identify the economic impacts of the recently constructed four-lane highway facility in Wisconsin. A recommended methodology was outlined in a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) study, Using Empirical Information to Measure the Economic Impact of Highway Investments. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) followed this methodology and used additional analytical methods, including utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) applications to identify and map businesses along the corridor. Local officials and business leaders in communities along Highway 29 were surveyed to determine the impacts of the highway improvements. Land use or development plans were gathered for current and anticipated economic activity along the highway. Rates of population growth, per capita income, business growth, tourism expenditures, locations of new and expanding manufacturing plants, and average daily traffic (ADT) counts were compared between Highway 29 and the comparison two-lane U.S. Highway 10. Many businesses indicated that the highway improvement reduced travel times and improved the reliability of product delivery. Improved safety, reduction in congestion, and lower freight charges for deliveries were also frequently mentioned benefits. Some downtown businesses continue to have the same customer base, while others are losing customers to businesses in larger communities that are within commuting distance. On the other hand, some businesses attract new customers traveling on Highway 29. The new bypasses on Highway 29 have created business opportunities for more development along the access points in the communities, and reduced traffic levels, mainly of trucks traveling in the downtown areas. Interviews with local property tax assessors indicate an increase in the values of properties sold near the expanded highway. In some cases, the property values increased substantially depending on the type of development.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:47:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1131862</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Evaluation of Social Impact: A Suggested Approach</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1107906</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In recent years, the investigation of the effects of highway improvements on the social structure existing in the chosen highway corridor has become a necessary part of the transportation planning process. The environmental impact statement, as required by the 1970 Federal Aid Highway Act, stipulates that the social effects of the proposed highway on a neighborhood or community be studied and that adverse effects be kept to a minimum. Of extreme importance in the planning and eventual construction of.highways, then, is assurance of only minimal disruption of the surrounding social entities such as existing neighborhoods and communities. At the beginning of this study it was assumed that the gathering of impact data must be predicated upon an ability to define the entity involved or at least to classify it. It was hypothesized that types of neighborhoods and communities could be identified and typologized according to their expected reaction to the impact of highway development. However, a review of the literature revealed that such an approach was inadequate since the variables encountered would be infinite. Therefore, the authors decided to investigate several social units which were hypothesized to take on the appearance of a social group that is often termed a "neighborhood". The results of background research indicated that a singular set of methods and a problem directed research design would be considerably more informative and flexible for the purpose of impact evaluation than would the establishment of a series of residential categories. Both obtrusive and unobtrusive research measures were used to gain a working knowledge of the social groups. The success attained in using these measures to determine the neighborhood qualities of a residential area demonstrates the need for utilizing a combination of techniques in impact evaluation studies.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:43:03 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1107906</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>A dynamic modeling approach to investigate impacts to protected and low-income populations in highway planning</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1105051</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Environmental justice (EJ) assessment has traditionally focused on identifying distributive effects to protected populations. Federal and State highway improvement programs have been established to stimulate economic development for these populations. While this issue has long been recognized as part of EJ initiatives, no quantitative comparisons of highway construction impacts on protected populations have been reported in the literature. This paper presents a dynamic modeling approach to investigate impacts to protected and low-Income populations in highway planning using an integrated Geographic Information System (GIS) and Genetic Algorithms (GAs) optimization framework. Using census and county level parcel data, the model integrates various socioeconomic factors into a GIS while generating highway alignments using GAs. Examples using county level census data from North Carolina are demonstrated to test the sensitivity of generated highway alignments with constrained distances from protected populations. The results indicate that it is important to consider local social and economic effects, in addition to regional planning objectives when measuring the effectiveness of feasibility studies associated with highway construction. Within the proposed modeling framework attention is directed on various EJ initiatives, such as environmental health and safety laws in minority and low-income areas. The model would help planners, designers, and policy-makers understand the intricate interrelationships among local communities, while facilitating more scientific and economically equitable planning for highway construction projects.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:27:32 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1105051</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Recovery Act: Funding Used for Transportation Infrastructure Projects, but Some Requirements Proved Challenging</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1105249</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This report responds to two U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)  mandates under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). It is the latest report on the uses of and accountability for Recovery Act funds in selected states and localities, focusing on the $48.1 billion provided to the Department of Transportation (DOT) to invest in transportation infrastructure. This report also examines the quality of recipients’ reports about the jobs created and retained with Recovery Act transportation funds. This report addresses the (1) status, use, and outcomes of Recovery Act transportation funding nationwide and in selected states; (2) actions taken by federal, state, and other agencies to monitor and ensure accountability for those funds; (3) changes in the quality of jobs data reported by Recovery Act recipients of transportation funds over time; and (4) challenges faced and lessons learned from DOT and recipients. As of May 31, 2011, nearly $45 billion (about 95 percent) of Recovery Act transportation funds had been obligated for over 15,000 projects nationwide, and more than $28 billion had been expended. Recipients continue to report using Recovery Act funds to improve the nation’s transportation infrastructure. Highway funds have been primarily used for pavement improvement projects, and transit funds have been primarily used to upgrade transit facilities and purchase buses. Recovery Act funds have also been used to rehabilitate airport runways and improve Amtrak’s infrastructure. The Recovery Act helped fund transportation jobs, but long-term benefits are unclear. For example, according to recipient reported data, transportation projects supported between approximately 31,460 and 65,110 full-time equivalents (FTE) quarterly from October 2009 through March 2011. Officials reported other benefits, including improved coordination among federal, state, and local officials. However, the impact of Recovery Act investments in transportation is unknown, and GAO has recommended that DOT determine the data needed to assess the impact of these investments. Federal, state, and local oversight entities continue their efforts to ensure the appropriate use of Recovery Act transportation funds, and recent reviews revealed no major concerns. The DOT Inspector General found that DOT generally complied with Recovery Act aviation, highway, and rail program requirements. Similarly, state and local oversight entities’ performance reviews and audits generally did not find problems with the use of Recovery Act transportation funds. GAO’s analysis of Recovery.gov data reported by transportation grant recipients showed that the number of FTEs reported, number of recipients filing reports, and portion of recipients reporting any FTEs decreased over the past two reporting quarters as an increasing number of projects approached completion or were awaiting financial closeout. The Federal Highway Administration performs automated checks to help ensure the validity of recipient reported data and observed fewer data quality issues than in previous quarters but does not plan to use the data internally. Certain Recovery Act provisions proved challenging. For example, DOT and states faced numerous challenges in implementing the maintenance-of-effort requirement, which required states to maintain their planned level of spending or be ineligible to participate in the August 2011 redistribution of obligation authority under the Federal-Aid Highway Program. In January 2011, DOT reported that 29 states met the requirement while 21 states did not because of reductions in dedicated revenues for transportation, among other reasons. The economically distressed area provision also proved difficult to implement because of changing economic conditions. With regard to the high speed intercity passenger rail and Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant programs, GAO found that while DOT generally followed recommended grant-making practices, DOT could have better documented its award decisions.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:25:03 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1105249</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Proposed Methodology for Estimating the Impact of Highway Improvements on Urban Air Pollution</title>
      <link>https://trid.trb.org/View/1105331</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The aim of this methodology is to indicate the expected change in ambient air quality in the vicinity of a highway improvement and in the total background level of urban air pollution resulting from the highway improvement. Both the jurisdiction in which it is located and groups living adjacent to the proposed improvement should be made aware of the total and relative change to be expected. This change should be related to levels of air pollution which have known effects on human, animal, and crop health, property values, and activity operating costs such as cleaning and air filtering in urban areas. If the construction of a highway network will itself lend to air pollution exceeding established air quality standards, or in conj unction with the land uses it encourages will exceed such standards, the local. jurisdictions should be aware of tho trade offs between highway and other types of pollution needed to stay below the standards set for the area. In addition the procedure for estimating vehicle emission levels and concentrations on the improvement right-of-way can also be used to estimate the effects of air pollution on driver behavior and highway safety.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:24:11 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://trid.trb.org/View/1105331</guid>
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