This synthesis report will be of interest to transportation agency planners; design, construction, and maintenance engineers; and administrators, managers, economists, and other decisionmakers involved in programming highway pavement projects. This synthesis describes current practice with regard to road user and mitigation costs in highway pavement projects. Information for the synthesis was collected by surveying U.S. and Canadian transportation agencies and by conducting a literature search of both domestic and foreign publications. This report of the Transportation Research Board provides detailed information on the various methods employed by transportation agencies to estimate user costs. The advantages and disadvantages of each are reported. Information on the various components of user costs (that is, time related, vehicle operating, safety, and environmental costs) is also included. In addition, the study reports on the various mitigation strategies available to agencies to reduce user costs. Information is also provided on how user costs and mitigation strategies have been applied to evaluate different alternatives; and how uncertainties, political considerations, and quality control contribute to the decisionmaking process.

The purpose of this manual is to provide clear and helpful information for maintaining gravel roads. Very little technical help is available to small agencies that are responsible for managing these roads. Gravel road maintenance has traditionally been "more of an art than a science" and very few formal standards exist. This manual contains guidelines to help answer the questions that arise concerning gravel road maintenance such as: What is enough surface crown? What is too much? What causes corrugation? The information is as nontechnical as possible without sacrificing clear guidelines and instructions on how to do the job right.

This Interim Technical Bulletin recommends procedures for conducting Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) of pavements, provides detailed procedures to determine work zone user costs, and introduces a probabilistic approach to account for the uncertainty associated with LCCA inputs.

This document updates and expands the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) User Benefit Analysis for Highways, also known as the Red Book. This AASHTO publication helps state and local transportation planning authorities evaluate the economic benefits of highway improvements. This update incorporates improvements in user-benefit calculation methods and, for the first time, provides guidance for evaluating important non-user impacts of highways. Previous editions of the Red Book provided guidance regarding user benefit measurement only. This update provides a framework for project evaluations that accurately account for both user and non-user benefits. The manual and accompanying CD-ROM provide a valuable resource for people who analyze the benefits and costs of highway projects.

Federal and state governments have played a vital role in the nation economy by facilitating the movement of people and goods through significant investments in highways. At the federal level, the Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) uses a computer model known as the Highway Economic Requirements System (HERS) to estimate the future investment required to maintain and improve the nation highways. DOT reports the results of this analysis to the Congress on a biennial basis. However, state governments make a large number of highway infrastructure investment decisions. States currently use a variety of analytic tools to make these decisions. Interest in using HERS at the state level has grown. Two states Indiana and Oregon are already using customized versions of the model, and in December 2000, FHWA began a pilot project to test its state-level version of HERS, called HERS-ST, with interested states.