AASHTO M288 Geotextiles What/Who is AASHTO?
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials is known as AASHTO. This organization was established by the State DOT's to work towards common goals. AASHTO consists of professionals from each of the states' highway and transportation departments. They are responsible for assigning route numbers for the .S. route system. AASHTO's primary functions include! Ad"ocating Ad"ocat ing for transporta transportation tion issues issues in #ashingto #ashington$ n$ facilitating facilitating information information sharing sharing between the State Dot's through meetings% workshops and the &nternet$ and de"eloping globally recognized transportation engineering guides% standards and software. One of those standards is AASHTO ()). AASHTO ())*+, is published within its two*"olume -Standard Specifications for Transportation aterials and ethods of Sampling and Testing-. S abrics offers geote/tiles that satisfy AASHTO re0uirements. A S abrics' AASHTO selection guide is a"ailable in a link at the bottom of this page. A Brief History of AASHTO
&n the early +1)2's the use of geote/tiles in the nited States was still relati"ely new and there were really not any accepted standard design methodologies for using geote/tiles. &n +1)(% the 3ommittee on aterials of AASHTO% the American 4oad and Transportation 5uilders Association 6A4T5A7 and the Association of 8eneral 3ontractors 6A837 formed 9oint Task orce (, 6T (,7 to re"iew the suggested geote/tile specifications being proposed by the ederal Highway Association 6H#A7 8eote/tile anual. The task force was a di"erse group of contractors% members of the geote/tile industry and representati"es of "arious state and federal transportation agencies. &n +1): the task force appro"ed fi"e material specifications that included notations on installation procedures for the applications of pa"ing% subsurface drainage% separation% erosion control and silt fencing. ;"entually the fi"e were merged into one single specification. This became known as ())*12. This specification was re"isited and re"ised as the geote/tile industry in the nited States blossomed. The latest "ersion is ())*+,. NTPEP (National Transortation Pro!"#t E$al"ation Pro%ra&' AASHTO
% from the popular 4egional Testing acilities 64Ts7 organized by H#A% SASHTO and
#hile many State DOT's ha"e adopted AASHTO ()) standards% many unfortunately combine them with their own specifications or re0uire their own testing in addition to
())*+, co"ers si/ geote/tile applications! Subsurface Drainage% Separation% Stabilization% =ermanent ;rosion 3ontrol% Sediment 3ontrol and =a"ing abrics. Howe"er% AASHTO ())*+, is not a design guideline. &t is the engineer's responsibility to choose a geote/tile for the application that takes into consideration site*specific soil and water conditions. #hen site conditions are unknown% engineers can refer to AASHTO ())*+, Sur"i"ability Default 3lasses for guidance. Sur"i"ability is di"ided into ? 3lasses! 3lass 6+7 being the most se"ere and 3lass 6?7 being the less se"ere. ;ach 3lass is then subdi"ided according to elongation. This offers a choice of
