Texas PDH Bundle 2026

This course draws on NCHRP research examining the potential impacts of automated vehicles on highway infrastructure across four categories — physical infrastructure, traffic control devices, TSMO and ITS systems, and urban multimodal infrastructure — from the perspective of infrastructure owner–operators. The course covers SAE automation levels and operational design domains, AV sensor dependencies on pavement markings and TCDs, platooning effects on pavements and bridges, V2I connectivity and digital infrastructure needs, and near-term readiness strategies by functional road class. Students will develop the technical foundation to evaluate AV-related infrastructure impacts, identify agency preparedness gaps, and apply early readiness strategies to existing design, maintenance, and asset management programs.

Drones cut the cost and risk of bridge inspection access, but the 2022 National Bridge Inspection Standards decide which drone photographs can support a rating. The course maps where that line falls: FHWA's position on advanced inspection technology, why NSTM inspections stay hands-on, and where a flight has a legitimate place in the workflow. Drawing on two federal research programs, it works through the variables that determine whether imagery can support element-level ratings, including standoff distance, camera settings, lighting, wind limits, and airframe choice, and identifies which conventional access methods a flight can replace and where the savings are real. The final sections cover review: what a desk reviewer can defensibly take from imagery, how remote measurement compares to hands-on measurement, and what AI defect detection and photogrammetry deliverables require before anyone flies.

MSE wall reinforcement and driven piles are usually protected from corrosion by extra steel alone, sized to corrode away over the service life. How much extra steel to provide is the subject here. Built on the National Academies' 2023 study Corrosion of Buried Steel at New and In-Service Infrastructure, FHWA and Caltrans guidance, and two Wisconsin forensic studies, the course explains how soil corrosivity is measured and where the standard tests mislead, how agency acceptance criteria differ, and how the AASHTO and Darbin metal loss models size sacrificial thickness along with the conditions those models depend on. It covers the mechanisms uniform rate models miss, including pitting, macrocells, stray current, and microbial attack, and the protection options when added steel is not enough. The final sections turn to structures already in service: monitoring hardware, electrochemical condition assessment, a forensic case study of an MSE wall destroyed by de-icing salt, and a risk scoring framework for prioritizing inspection across a wall inventory.

This course covers the hydraulic design of roadway pavement drainage and roadside conveyance systems, drawing from Chapters 5 and 6 of FHWA's Urban Stormwater Management in the United States: Hydraulic Engineering Circular No. 22 (HEC-22), 4th Edition. The course addresses design storm frequency and allowable spread, surface drainage features and hydroplaning, gutter flow equations for uniform and composite sections, and open channel flow concepts and stable channel design for roadside and median channels. Students will apply Manning's equation-based methods to size gutters and roadside channels, select appropriate linings, and evaluate channel stability under design flow conditions.

When a highway project delivers both a 3D model and plan sheets, the contract has to say whether the model or the sheets govern. Most state agencies have not answered that question, and the course examines the two that have: New York, which amends its contract language so designated electronic files carry the same standing as plans, and Florida, which signs and seals CADD files against a per-file hash. It covers what each approach can and cannot detect when a file changes after sealing, the survey limitations a contractual model inherits, how level of development bounds what a model may be used for, keeping digital deliverables reviewable for bidders without CAD software, and who revises a sealed file when construction forces a change. Survey data from NCHRP Synthesis 664 shows how far practice has actually moved, and the course closes with a decision sequence for projects in states with no published guidance.