NCHRP was established in 1962 to provide a continuing program of highway research. It is sponsored by member departments of AASHTO in cooperation with the FHWA, U.S. DOT, and is carried out under a three-way agreement among these agencies and the National Academies. AASHTO annually proposes specific research problems for inclusion in the NCHRP fiscal year activities. At least two-thirds of the member departments must approve the research problems and agree to their financial support before they can be brought into the Program. Following balloting by the member departments, the approved problems are referred to the Academies, where they are reviewed to determine their acceptability to the Academies for administration by TRB. Each State annually contracts with the Academies to commit a portion of its Federal-Aid Highway State Planning and Research (SPR) funds. In recent years, these funds have made available a cooperative pool of, on average, about $34 million for NCHRP each year through 2007. For programming purposes, funds available for 2008 and 2009 are estimated to be $36 million each. (Author/publisher)
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