Aashto Latest Edition

[Adam Makin]

Developedby the AASHTO Committee on Materials and Pavements, these standards contain specifications, recommended practices, test methods, and provisional standards commonly used in the construction of highway facilities.

The 2023 edition of the Materials Standards contains a total of 556 standards and includes four new and 100 revised standards. (Click here to download the Summary of 2023 New and Revised Materials Standards.)

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) welcomes the republication in whole or in part of any original content from The AASHTO Journal with proper attribution to the association and publication. This includes a link to direct visitors to the AASHTO Journal website.

In 1984, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) published the first edition of the Green Book, a compilation of specifications and guidelines for geometric design. Keeping pace with the industry, AASHTO publishes new editions every few years-the most recent being the 7th edition, released in 2018. AASHTO is now working toward the 8th edition.

Over the years, the Green Book has been a primary reference to provide design guidance on highways and streets. Continued shifts toward increasingly multimodal transportation networks, however, make it natural for this industry resource to shift too. Responding to a resolution to integrate further flexibility into design standards, even before the 7th edition was finalized, AASHTO knew the 8th edition had the potential for a comprehensive update. As transportation planners and designers work to meet the full range of road users, they need more than structured dimensional guidance for various land use contexts; they need performance metrics that embrace a comprehensive and flexible design approach to support project decision-making.

This project included evaluating substantive documents/resources for applying performance-based approaches, conducting numerous visioning sessions, and gathering feedback through conferences, webinars, conference calls, and supplemental meetings with practitioners throughout the country. The Green Book 8 Vision developed through this process served as a foundation for continued efforts to advance Green Book 8 development.

This Green Book 8 Visioning Project resulted in an outline for the 8th Edition that was refined and adopted by the AASHTO Technical Committee on Geometric Design. Using this outline, the NCHRP Project 07-29 Project Team will develop the 8th edition of the Green Book and will integrate performance metrics that meet the full range of users and consider metrics that inform project decision-making comprehensively.

The adopted outline consists of four parts. Part I introduces performance-based design concepts and design decision-making. Part II provides performance metrics and an overview of applying a performance-based process framework. Part III covers geometric elements and configurations, using much of the detailed content from Green Book 7.

Part IV is a new set of chapters developed specifically for Green Book 8. These chapters focus on the specific considerations of integrating context classification into roadway planning and design. It will apply principles and guidance from Parts I, II, and III to each context and describe the qualities and characteristics of each context classification. We at Kittelson had the chance to develop this new section of the forthcoming guidebook through NCHRP Project 15-77: Aligning Geometric Design with Roadway Context, and the Draft Part IV Chapters can be accessed as NCHRP Web Only Document 320.

The NCHRP 07-29 Project Team, led by Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), is currently developing chapters for Green Book 8 with close coordination with the AASHTO Technical Committee on Geometric Design. We look forward to seeing how this monumental document incorporates the Green Book 8 Vision and many other research activities and outcomes that serve as the foundation for this important next edition. Our industry has shifted toward a focused approach for multimodal and context-based design and this Green Book 8 can support practitioners to further develop projects that meet the needs of the wide range of users on our transportation system.

This publication provides guidelines for the maintenance actions to address fatigue cracking, as well as details at risk of constraint-induced fracture (CIF) in steel bridges. It is a synthesis of best practices from published literature, project reports, and past and on-going research projects, as well as input from industry professionals. Intended to be a practical reference text for a wide range of audiences, including maintenance contractors, asset managers, and design engineers, this publication provides detailed descriptions of the driving causes of fatigue cracking and CIF in steel bridges and accepted methods for repair or retrofit.

These guidelines offer guidance on bridge design for human-induced extreme events. It provides information on the response of concrete bridge columns subjected to blast loads, as well as blast-resistant design and detailing guidelines and analytical models of blast load distribution. The guidelines include discussion on how to potentially reduce risk of other structural bridge components (e.g., bridge towers, cable stays, suspender ropes), as well as other intentional hazards to consider for threat vulnerability risk assessments (nonexplosive cutting devices, collisions or impacts, and fire). This second edition includes additional resources for identifying potential solutions to mitigate risk from other intentional hazards. This 2022 2nd edition supersedes the first edition, published in 2011.

These guide specifications address the design of bridges subjected to light rail transit (LRT) loadings, or both LRT and conventional highway traffic loadings. This second edition provides additional definitions common to the rail industry and clarifies the application of live loading and derailment loading. It also revises language to improve consistency with the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, 9th Edition, with which they are designed to be used.

Recent years have seen devastating tsunami events in Asia, and the likelihood of such an event happening on the West Coast of North America is growing. The Guide Specifications for Bridges Subject to Tsunami Effects, 1st Edition, provides methods for estimating the risk posed by tsunamis in new bridge design, and identify accepted methodologies and details to mitigate that risk in design. With the introduction of these guide specifications, bridge designers now have a means to quantify forces associated with a tsunami event and a systematic method of applying these loads to bridge structures. For states with bridges exposed to tsunami hazard, the implementation of these guide specifications will result in more robust structures that are better able to survive a tsunami event and participate in the recovery of affected areas. These guide specifications were developed by the AASHTO Committee on Bridges and Structures, Technical Committee on Loads and Load Distribution.

This fourth edition of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Provisional Standards contains 71 Provisional Standards which supersede previously published regular and interim editions of the Provisional Standards. All Provisional Standards covered in this edition have been balloted and approved for publication by the AASHTO Highway Subcommittee on Materials. A chronology on the year to year status of the Provisional Standards is included immediately following the Table of Contents. Subjects covered by these Provisional Standards are as follows: Soils; Aggregates; Metallic Materials and Coatings for Bridges; Box Culvert, Culvert Pipe, and Drain Tile; Bituminous Materials; Concrete; Pavement Structures; and Environmental Quality (deicing chemicals).

MAJOR REVISIONS TO THE 2021 EDITION

In Fall 2020, AASHTO Publications conducted a survey of our customers who use the Materials Standards. Based on the overwhelming responses and feedback we received, we have made the following revisions to the 2021 Edition:

Click here to download a Summary of 2021 New and Revised AASHTO Materials Standards, which includes the designation number, title, technical section number, and balloted revisions for each standard.

AASHTO Accredited laboratories are eligible to receive an exclusive promo code to purchase the 2021 edition at the discounted AASHTO member price. An email with more details has been sent to all applicable laboratories.

QUESTIONS/TECHNICAL SUPPORT?

The first release of sign design details for new signs in the 11th Edition of the MUTCD are now available on the Standard Highway Signs publication webpage. Specifically, this release includes sign design details for the new warning signs. In addition to the sign design details, supporting vector graphics are also included in multiple formats. Additional phased releases will be posted periodically as the new sign design details become available, ultimately resulting in a completely new edition of the Standard Highway Signs publication.

The MUTCD, which has been administered by the FHWA since 1971, is a compilation of national standards for all traffic control devices, including road markings, highway signs, and traffic signals. It is updated periodically to accommodate the nation's changing transportation needs and address new safety technologies, traffic control tools, and traffic management techniques.

On December 19, 2023, a Final Rule adopting the 11th Edition of the MUTCD was published in the Federal Register with an effective date of January 18, 2024. States must adopt the 11th Edition of the National MUTCD as their legal State standard for traffic control devices within two years from the effective date. The Federal Register notice, which provides detailed discussion of the final dispositions of major changes from the 2009 edition, can be viewed at -27178.

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