Special report

This report contains the papers presented at the National Conference on Light Rail Transit, held May 8-11, 1988, at San Jose, California, as well as six additional papers submitted to the Transportation Research Board. Together with the proceedings of previous conferences, this report documents the development of North America's Light Rail Transit (LRT) systems and serves as a reference text for technical questions.

This synthesis describes the current state of the practice for the removal of lead-based paint from existing highway steel bridges. It will be of interest to state department of transportation bridge maintenance and construction engineers; regulators, consultants, and contractors involved with the removal of lead paint from bridges and structures; and structural coatings specialists, chemists, and researchers. Technologies developed over the past several years to remove paint and contain debris, and to protect workers and the environment are described. Detailed information on regulations, agency specifications, lead exposures during coatings removal, and containment practices is also presented.

Present a basis for a reasoned assessment of the value of data gathered for a policy study, using criteria that can be applied to a completed study or...

Assesses the injury compensation system that has evolved under Federal Employer's Liability Act (FELA) and compares it with the no-fault compensation systems that cover most U.S. workers. At the request of Congress, a TRB committee that produced this report compared FELA with other workers' compensation systems. Although the data for making such comparisons are imperfect, the committee concluded that the FELA process generally provides higher benefits but can result in delays in payments, involve higher transaction costs, and result in greater costs to railroads.