Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center houses the Office of RD&T, which is organized into the following Offices:

Office of Infrastructure Research and Development (R&D): this Office conducts and administers infrastructure R&D programs and projects for FHWA that address problems of national priority within the U.S. highway system.

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Office of Operations and Safety R&D: the Office of Operations R&D produces technology and tools to improve transportation system productivity, efficiency, and performance by proactively anticipating congestion and managing traffic.

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The Office of Safety R&D helps reduce highway crashes and related fatalities and injuries by developing and implementing safety innovations through a program of nationally coordinated research and technology development.

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Office of Corporate Research, Technology, and Innovation Management: The office’s key responsibilities include providing strategic direction to the FHWA on research, executing corporate research programs, coordinating FHWA research programs, ensuring research innovations move from the laboratory to implementation, and communicating research results.

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This quarter-scale model was made as part of the I–35W bridge investigation. On August 1, 2007, the I–35W bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, MN, collapsed, killing 13 and injuring 145 people. In support of the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation of the collapse, engineers at Turner-Fairbank were asked to identify the probable cause and develop guidance to guard against similar failures in the future.

Located on the grounds of the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, Reid Cemetery marks the remnants of the former Reid family farm. Purchased by the U.S. Government in 1940, the Reid family farm dates to 1819, when Robert S. Reid bought the land. In addition to the 11 marked graves of Reid family members buried here, there are 5 unmarked graves. The Reid family’s history in the United States dates to the early 1600s as members of the first British colony at Jamestown. The Federal Government is obligated to maintain the cemetery as part of the purchase agreement. In 2002, the cemetery grounds underwent significant landscaping, including removing two trees and installing a black iron fence.

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On June 14, 1994, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of FHWA, a time capsule was buried at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center. The time capsule, to be opened in 2093, contains, “technical and scientific items, centennial material, photos, and maps, plus brochures, letters, and memos that reflect our concerns here in the 1990s,” said then-FHWA Administrator Rodney E. Slater at the ceremony.

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Formally dedicated on October 11, 1995, the Oklahoma City Redbud Memorial Grove commemorates the lives of the 11 FHWA employees who lost their lives in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The 11 trees symbolize the enduring pledge to remember the FHWA employees lost in the bombing, and a memorial marker in the grove lists their names. At the dedication, then-FHWA Administrator Rodney E. Slater said the yearly blossoming of these trees will always "remind us of the many ways in which [these 11 FHWA employees] enriched our lives and contributed to our shared goals."

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Highway research is making highway transportation safer, smarter, more cost efficient, and environmentally sustainable. In short, research makes our lives better. Today's research efforts are particularly important—and timely—as more demands for personal mobility and transport of goods are placed on an aging highway network in need of rehabilitation and reconstruction. New technologies are available to address the challenges of developing higher performance, durable road and bridge surfaces and creating safer interactions and smarter traffic lights that respond to traffic flow.

The Process: The Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) is just one of the innovations Turner-Fairbank is bringing into routine use to address a dangerous and often fatal type of intersection traffic accident. DDIs were used in Europe, but lack of performance data limited acceptance in the United States. Turner-Fairbank developed a software program to evaluate alternative geometric designs, including the DDI, the displaced left turn, the median U-turn, and the restricted crossing U-turn.

The Product: After verifying the DDI model in analysis modeling and simulation, Turner-Fairbank invited highway officials from Kansas City, MO, to use the driving simulator to compare the DDI with a conventional diamond interchange. This evaluation led to the construction of the first U.S. DDI prototype in Missouri. Turner-Fairbank continues to work with the Missouri Department of Transportation to monitor DDI use and gather data that inform future research.

Herbert Fairbank was an important and widely recognized intellectual architect of the Nation's highway system in his lifelong career at the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR)—the forerunner to FHWA.

Mr. Fairbank began his career at the BPR in 1910, becoming the right-hand "concept man" of the legendary BPR Chief Thomas H. MacDonald. After conducting pioneering statewide highway planning surveys in the 1930s, he authored the seminal 1939 report Toll Roads and Free Roads that laid the groundwork for our current Interstate Highway System.

From his first Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) position as a junior highway engineer to his final position as FHWA Administrator (1969–1972), Francis "Frank" Turner committed his professional career to developing the Nation's roadways.

In his first major assignment in 1943, he expedited the completion of the 1,390-mile-long Alaska Highway and helped the Canadian and Provincial Governments organize highway maintenance activities.

Mr. Turner played an indispensable role in the conceptualization and creation of the Interstate Highway System. Beginning in 1954, when he served as the executive secretary to the President's Advisory Committee on a National Highway Program, he spent his career superintending the Interstate Highway System's construction. From 1969 until his retirement in 1972, he became the only lifelong employee to serve as the FHWA administrator.