The document summarizes the role of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in developing engineering standards for highways in the United States. AASHTO is a nonprofit organization made up of state departments of transportation that works with federal and local agencies. It develops over 200 technical guidelines and standards through volunteer committees to provide consistent standards across diverse state practices. Key areas covered include bridges, traffic control, geometric design, safety, pavements, construction materials, and software.

1. The Role of Highway Engineering
Standards in the United States of
America
by
Dr. Anthony Kane
AASHTO Director of Engineering and Technical
Services
at The Middle-East Regional Congress
Abu Dhabi UAE
November 29, 2010

2. Presentation Overview
• Explanation of AASHTO and the role of
states in the USA vis-à-vis the federal
government
• The standards development process
• Discussion of the importance of standards
• Discussion of key roadway guides and
standards
• Follow-up contacts–email addresses
• Q&A

3. What is AASHTO?
• The American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials is a
nonprofit association founded in 1914
• Members include:
– Highway and transportation
departments of the 50 states, the District
of Columbia, and Puerto Rico
– 35 Associate Members from Federal,
State, and Local agencies and other
countries
• Covers all five modes:
– Highways - Air
– Transit - Rail
– Water

4. Role of AASHTO
• AASHTO is a forum for good road practices; and a
technical standards-setting organization ; and a
policy making organization
• Similar to:
– Nordic Road Association (Sweden, Denmark,
Norway, Iceland and Finland)
– Austroads (Australia and New Zealand)
– TAC (Canadian Provinces plus the private sector)

5. Variety in the USA
• Governance of the highway functions in the 50
states; for example with regard to highway safety
(only two state DOTs have the state highway patrol
police function; half the state DOTs have the
behavioral programs ; and only a third have the
motor vehicle and driver licensing function)
• Diversity of the states
– Geography
– Climate
– Road systems’ ownership—on average 19% of the
public roads are owned by the states

6. A CORE Mission of AASHTO
To Provide Technical Services
– Develop Technical Guidance
– Develop and License Software
– Publications
– Centers of Excellence
– Laboratory and Product Assessments

7. Technical Activities
Development of Technical Guidance
2,000 volunteer committee
members – Over 200 committees
Guidelines and Standards
approved by balloting the
State DOTs
Over 200 titles
Used worldwide

8. Standards and Guides
Design Standards; standard specifications ;and guides
• Importance of them (way for the diverse USA states to
be united)
• 20th century – pavements, structures, geometric design,
construction and maintenance
• 21st century – same plus roadway operations, safety,
and ITS
• Legal aspects vis-à-vis the federal government; some
required by regulation; e.g.:
– the MUTCD on all roads (4 million miles)
– the geometric design guide (the NHS—national highway
system—about 160,000 miles)
– the bridge codes on all federal-aid projects

9. Process for developing and
refreshing standards and guides
• The appropriate AASHTO technical
subcommittee reviews relevant research and
other findings and prepares new or updated
standards (note :associate members of
AASHTO partake in this process –foreign
members; and toll authorities and large cities
and counties)
• Ballot voted on by the Standing Committee on
Highways ( the top highway official in each
state)—2/3rd required positive votes

10. Types of Standards/Guides
• Bridges
• Traffic Engineering
• Geometric Design
• Safety
• Pavements
• Construction
• Materials
• Data
• Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)

11. Bridge Standards – Examples
New Editions in 2010
• LRFD Guide Specifications for the Design of
Pedestrian Bridges
• LRFD Design
• LRFD Construction
• Technical Manual for Design and Construction of
Road Tunnels
New Editions in 2011
• Manual for Bridge Evaluation, 2nd Edition
• Manual on Bridge Element Inspection, 1st Edition
• Guide Specification for Design of Externally
Bonded FRP Systems for Strengthening
Concrete, 1st Edition
• Bridge Aesthetics Sourcebook—Practical Ideas
for Short- and Medium-Span Bridges, 1st Edition

12. Manual on Uniform Traffic Control
Devices (MUTCD)
• Standards and guidance for
designing highway signs, traffic
signals, pavement markings
• Power of law—federal
regulation—all roadways
regardless of federal funding
• Exceptions—engineering
judgment

13. “Green Book” – Geometric Design
• Geometric design criteria for new
roads and highways
• Required on all projects using federal-
aid on the National Highway System
• Updated every 4-6 years based on
new research
• Current issues:
– Context-sensitive design
– Exceptions
– “Complete streets”
• Companion volume on flexibility in
highway design

14. Safety Guides – Examples
• Roadside Design Guide
– Safety treatments for minimizing
consequences of leaving the roadway
– Synthesis of common practices, rather
than a standard or policy
• Highway Safety Manual
– Quantitative analysis of design
decisions on safety
– Manual of new methodologies for
evaluating safety

15. Pavement Guides
• Multiple documents covering various
aspects of pavement, including
– Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement
Design Guide
– Friction Guide
– Local Calibration
Guide

16. Construction Standards/Guides
• AASHTO Guide Specifications
for Highway Construction
– Used by the states in developing
their own highway construction
specifications – allows for flexibility
within the states (state law,
procurement methods, typical
practices)
– FHWA maintains web site with
state specs:
www.specs.fhwa.dot.gov/

17. Materials Specifications
• Materials Book (Red Book), 30th Edition
– Four Volumes, contains over 400 specifications
– Materials covered include
• Concrete
• Asphalt
• Aggregate
• Pipe
• Traffic Paint
• Reinforcing Steel
• Many more…

18. TransXML
A New Data Exchange Standard
• Electronic data format standards for transportation
engineering data – similar to HTML
• The goal: to provide for the uninhibited exchange
of electronic data between various software
applications and data customers
– “Vendor-neutral” format
– Inter-operability – all software and machines talking to
each other
– Reduce costs, save time, and improve quality of the
resulting product
• www.transxml.com

19. Laboratory Accreditation and
Services
- AASHTO Accreditation available to member
agencies and private laboratories.
– Laboratory Services include distribution of
proficiency samples to laboratories in 22
countries outside of the USA
• Participants in Lebanon, Libya, Egypt,
Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi
Arabia

20. Software Developed Cooperatively
by the DOTs
AASHTOWare (www.aashtoware.org)
• Software solutions developed through a technical
service program at AASHTO
• Allows member agencies to pool resources to
develop, support, and maintain software at
substantially lower costs than custom/individual
development
• Many applications based on AASHTO Standards
• All 50 states license one or more AASHTOWare
products.

21. AASHTOWare Products (examples)
Construction Project Lifecycle: AASHTO
Trns•port® – Modular suite of products
– AASHTO BRIDGEWare ®
• Pontis ® – Bridge Management System
• Virtis ® – Bridge Analysis and Load Rating
– In accordance with AASHTO LRFR
requirements
• Opis ® – Bridge Design and Analysis
– In accordance with AASHTO LRFD specification

22. AASHTOWare Products (cont’d.)
– Roadway: DARWin-ME™
• Based on the Mechanistic-Empirical
Pavement Design Guide
– Right-of-Way: Turbo Relocation™
– Safety: SafetyAnalyst™
• Based on Highway Safety Manual

23. Follow-Up
• General: Jim McDonnell, jimm@aashto.org and Tony Kane
akane@aashto.org
• Bridges/Structures: Kelley Rehm krehm@aashto.org
• Geometric Design: Keith Platte kplatte@aashto.org
• Pavement Design: Keith Platte kplatte@aashto.org
• Construction: Greta Smith gsmith@aashto.org
• Safety: Kelly Hardy khardy@aashto.org
• Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD): Jim McDonnell
jimm@aashto.org
• Publications: Erin Grady: egrady@aashto.org
• Software (AASHTOWare) Jan Edwards jedwards@aashto.org
• ITS: Bill Brownlow: wbrownlow@aashto.org
• Membership applications: Monica Russell mrussell@aashto.org

24. Questions
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25. AASHTO
444 North Capitol Street NW, Suite 249
Washington, DC 20001
202-624-5800
www.transportation.org