AASHTO HM
Standard specifications for transportation materials and Methods of sampling and testing and provisional standards
| Organization: | AASHTO |
| Publication Date: | 1 January 2019 |
| Status: | inactive |
| Page Count: | 5,222 |
scope:
INTRODUCTION TO MATERIALS STANDARDS
Overall Organization, Release Schedule, and Subject Areas
This 2019 Edition of Transportation Materials is divided into three parts. Part 1 contains specifications and practices for materials; Part 2 includes methods of testing and specifications for testing equipment, many of which contain both U.S. Customary and Metric units of measure; and Part 3 contains provisional standards. A number of specifications were included in this publication at the request of the AASHTO Subcommittee on Bridges and Structures.
Updates are released annually in three groups, broken up by subject area. Summaries of changes and revision charts are provided for each release for Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. When a standard is revised or reconfirmed, the release number will appear, with month and year in parentheses, beneath the designation number. Releases 1 through 3 occur in April, June, and July, respectively, covering the following subjects:
• Release 1-Hydraulic Cement and Lime; Fresh Concrete; Hardened Concrete; Pavement Measurement; Bridge and Pavement Preservation; and Quality Assurance and Environmental.
• Release 2-General Manufactured Materials.
• Release 3-Geotechnical; and Bituminous Materials and Mixtures.
Authorship
General jurisdiction over Association standards in this field rests with the AASHTO Highway Subcommittee on Materials, which has members representing each of the 50 States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia that constitute the Member Departments of the Association, and the U.S. Department of Transportation. In addition, the Subcommittee has representation from several of its Associate Members, including the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority, and The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Also represented on the Subcommittee are some of the Association's International Associate members, including the Canadian Provinces of Nova Scotia and Ontario. A list of the member-authors as of the Subcommittee's most recent annual meeting precedes this Introduction.
Beginning in 1993 with the Sixteenth Edition, material specifications and test methods are published by AASHTO each year. Annual revisions are voted on by the Association's 52 Member Departments prior to the publication of each new edition and, if approved by at least two-thirds of the Member Departments, they are included in the edition as standards of the Association.
Types of Updates
A full or provisional standard is designated as revised if technical changes have been balloted and approved by the Subcommittee. A standard is designated as reconfirmed if it has undergone technical review to determine that it is still up to date and in use, and that it does not require revision; such a review is required:
• every four years for a full standard, and
• every one or two years for a provisional standard, depending on its progress through its 8-year provisional life cycle.
If a standard is no longer used, it may be discontinued by Subcommittee vote, in which case the standard header alone will be published that year with a notice saying that the standard has been discontinued and giving a brief explanation as to why. In subsequent years, the standard will be deleted from the publication, meaning that it is no longer maintained by the Subcommittee. A discontinued standard will appear in the subject and numeric Tables of Contents with "Discontinued" immediately after its designation number. Any deleted standards will be listed separately the first year they are not included; in subsequent years, they are not listed.
Likewise, if a standard is reclassified from one standard type to another (specification/pract
More information about the structure and meaning of designation numbers is included at the end of all Tables of Contents.
ASTM Equivalency
Many of these standards agree with those of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). In all cases where the Association and ASTM standards are technically identical, or substantially identical with some changes, reference to the ASTM designation number is shown in the heading of the specification.
In previous editions, AASHTO has printed ASTM standards which have been adopted by AASHTO and given an AASHTO designation. This was done under a long-standing copyright arrangement between AASHTO and ASTM. Starting with the Thirty-First Edition, AASHTO-approved ASTM standards are not printed. Instead, the AASHTO specification includes the corresponding ASTM designation number and any AASHTO exception to the ASTM specification. A complete list of AASHTO specifications with corresponding ASTM standards is included for Part 1 and Part 2.
Mandatory and Nonmandatory Additional Content
Per the Style Manual for AASHTO Publications and the Subcommitteeʼs guidelines, standards may include supplementary requirements, annexes, appendixes, and notes. Some are mandatory and some are not.
• Supplementary requirements apply only when specified within a contract.
• Annexes are mandatory requirements.
• Appendixes are nonmandatory information.
• Numbered notes, whether within the text or listed as endnotes, are nonmandatory, explanatory material.
• Lettered notes in tables and figures are mandatory except when they occur in appendixes or in supplementary requirements not specified within a contract.
Sharing Your Comments
Comments regarding these specifications are welcomed and should be addressed to the Executive Director of AASHTO, 444 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite 249, Washington, DC 20001. AASHTO's website and internet address is
Document History
