American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials ( AASHTO ) is a non-profit association of the Ministries of Transport ( Highway and Transportation Department ) of the 50 US states as well as Puerto Rico .
The Washington, DC- based organization is responsible for aviation , roads , waterways , rail, and public transportation . It is intended to coordinate the work of the individual agencies and is not a federal body of the United States, but an association of the individual states. However, it has comparable creative power, since all federal states follow the resolutions as members of the organization.
The AASHTO is, among other things, responsible for the design of the highways in the USA. It publishes specifications, associated test guidelines and instructions.
The organization was founded in December 1914 under the title American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) and was initially only responsible for the design of the highways. Since other transport routes also fell into their area of responsibility in the further course , the name was changed to the current one on November 13, 1973.
The AASHTO defines, for example, the structural design of highways (including the design of intersections and curves), specifications for transport materials, specifications for the design of bridges and criteria for crash tests . She also coordinates the numbering of interstate roads, i.e. Interstates , US Routes (often also US Highway ) and US Bicycle Routes .
