Analysis Finds Balanced Approach Saves Money

摘要

The U.S. invests over $90 billion every year on highway improvements. Due to the magnitude of this investment and on-going discussions about increasing this investment, highway officials are under tremendous pressure to demonstrate good stewardship of roadway infrastructure moneys. This is nothing new, and is in fact, similar to what highway officials experienced at the beginning of the interstate era. In response to some public instances of federal-aid program fraud and abuse and questions concerning industry monopolies, AASHO (the precursor to AASHTO) developed contract procedures and guidelines based on transparency and founded on sound engineering, that leveraged the benefits of healthy and spirited competition between industries involved in the production of paving materials. These guidelines serve as the basis for both current FHWA policy and recent NCHRP guidance on pavement type selection.