In 1987, the U.S. Congress authorized the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) a five-year, applied research initiative to develop and evaluate techniques and technologies to combat the deteriorating conditions of the nation's highways and to improve their performance, durability, safety, and efficiency.

Directed by a committee of top-level managers from state highway agencies, industry, and academia, SHRP operated as a unit of the National Research Council. The states paid for the program by contributing one-quarter of 1 percent of their federal-aid highway funds.