Spotlight Project: InfoMaterials™

The FHWA InfoMaterials web portal is a centralized gateway to infrastructure research and materials testing data. It provides an efficient interface with visualization capabilities, enabling users to explore the data. The portal offers storage, retrieval, dissemination, and visualization capabilities for highway infrastructure research data collected through FHWA, State, and other national efforts. The datasets housed within this portal are updated to include additional data resulting from ongoing research.
 

Image source: FHWA.

Originally established as one of the major research areas of the Transportation Research Board's Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP), the LTPP program monitors, collects, and disseminate pavement performance data from test sections located on in-service highways throughout North America. In total, 2581 test sections were monitored. The collected data include information on seven modules: (1) inventory, (2) maintenance, (3) monitoring, (4) rehabilitation, (5) materials testing, (6) traffic, and (7) climatic.

Spotlight Project: InfoPave™

LTPP InfoPave includes creative tools for data viewing, identification, and selection that help users create their own personalized datasets, summary reports, queries, and much more. The portal gives users the ability to share data selections, views, or queries with other users, which can exponentially improve LTPP data usage across geographic boundaries and time zones. With LTPP InfoPave, data are at users’ fingertips, allowing them to obtain the right data efficiently and extract practical information regarding pavement engineering and management.

Image sources: FHWA

The overall objectives of the LTBP Program are to inspect, evaluate, and periodically monitor representative samples of bridges nationwide to collect, document, maintain, and manage high-quality quantitative performance data over an extended time horizon. These objectives will be accomplished by taking advantage of advanced nondestructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM) technologies in addition to traditional visual bridge inspection approaches. The program will also require close collaboration with State transportation departments, academia, and industry. The LTBP Program is designed in part to collect critical performance data that are not available elsewhere and merge it with data gathered from available sources.

Spotlight Project: InfoBridge™

The LTBP InfoBridge web portal is a centralized gateway providing efficient and quick access to bridge performance-related data and information. The portal includes multiple tools that facilitate bridge data visualization and analytics. It provides for storage, retrieval, dissemination, analysis, and visualization of data collected through State, national, and LTBP Program efforts to provide users with the ability to holistically assess bridge performance on a network or individual bridge basis.

Spotlight Project: Bridge Component Condition Forecasting Models

An ongoing research project within the LTBP Program consists of developing models that forecast the conditions of bridge components (bridge decks, superstructures, and substructures). Three models are being developed and are implemented into InfoBridge: 1. Time in Condition; 2. Deep Learning; and 3. Proportional Hazards Deterioration models. All three models use historic National Bridge Inventory (NBI) data in addition to data from other sources, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) climatic data, to forecast bridge component conditions.

Spotlight Project: Bridge Network Condition Forecasting Models

Recently LTBP Program staff developed and continue to improve on models that forecast bridge network condition. Two models that build upon LTBP’s bridge component condition forecast models are being developed and are implemented into InfoBridge. These models allow users of the InfoBridge web portal to forecast conditions for any selected subset of bridges available within the NBI.

Image sources: FHWA