FRA and RailTEC at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign examined the performance of degraded concrete crossties installed on U.S. high-speed rail and joint passenger/freight rail corridors.  Research showed that center binding conditions often led to flexural cracks in concrete crossties. This research resulted in revisions to the AREMA Manual of Railway Engineering (Chapter 30 – Ties) and to FRA’s Track and Rail and Infrastructure Integrity Compliance Manual.