This report discusses the product evaluation programs of state and provincial departments of transportation (DOTs). It summarizes DOT practices, including program organization, evaluation procedures, funding, and implementation of evaluation process results of potential products available for highway application, including materials, equipment, processes, and technologies. The report addresses the general use of evaluation programs within DOTs (including the use of state specifications, and laboratory and field testing results), the national programs that exist to support the integration of new products and technologies into practice (e.g., the Highway Innovation Technology Evaluation Center, the National Transportation Product Evaluation Program, and the AASHTO Product Evaluation List), and the general issues associated with conducting fair and objective evaluations of new products and implementation of approved products. Information for this synthesis report was derived from a literature search, on-line questionnaire responses from various DOTs, follow-up interviews and queries to selected public agencies, and other state survey results and summaries. (Author/publisher) This report may be accessed by Internet users at http://gulliver.trb.org/publications/nchrp/nchrp_syn_328.pdf
Samenvatting