The PDDM was first published in 1988 in English units. It was re-released in 1996 as a Metric document. Beginning in 2005 the document was published with dual units. The following archived versions of the PDDM are available for reference purposes ONLY within Federal Lands Highway offices (see the Revision Log for more information):

• 2018 Edition - updates to Chapters 1, 5 and 12
• Transmittal 16 (2014) - updates to Chapter 10
• Transmittal 15 (2014) - updates to Chapters 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, plus formatting changes to remaining chapters
• Transmittal 14 (2008) - Entire manual updated, new Chapter 11 & 12
• Transmittal 13 (2005) - Entire manual updated
• Transmittal 12 (2000) - Chapter 7 and Section 9.4.I updated
• Transmittal 11 (1998) - Chapter 8 updated
• Transmittal 10 (1998) - Exhibit 9.38 (Standard Drawings) changed only
• Transmittal 9 (1997) - Exhibit 9.38 (Standard Drawings) changed only
• Transmittal 8 (1997) - Exhibit 8.3 updated
• Transmittal 7 (1996) - Entire manual updated
• Transmittal 6 (1994) - updates to Section 9.6 and Exhibits 9.22A to 37
• Transmittal 5 (1994) - updates to Section 7.4.5 and Exhibit 7.10
• Transmittal 4 (1994) - updates to Section 9.4.I.2 and Exhibits 9.21 & 31
• Transmittal 3 (1993) - Subsection 1.1.C updated
• Transmittal 2 (1991) - Section 8.4.H.3 updated
• Transmittal 1 (1988) - Entire manual created