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Spotlight Continued

  • Posted: Jan 26
    University of Utah research will help the Utah Department of Transportation identify freeway bottleneck locations that are suitable for coordinated ramp metering control and evaluate both the safety and operational performances of the system. The work will also study the additional delay created to the ramps by ramp metering controls when a certain congestion level on the freeway mainline is expected to be achieved.
  • Posted: Jan 20
    Based on recommendation results from University of Wyoming research, engineers at the Wyoming Department of Transportation will be able to specify concrete that resists shrinking and cracking.
  • Posted: Jan 13
    Researchers at the University of Wyoming have developed a set of engineering properties for most bedrock encountered by the Wyoming Department of Transportation as they construct transportation infrastructure elements such as bridges. 
  • Posted: Jan 10
    Researchers at the University of Wyoming surveyed groups from across the state that partner with the Wyoming Department of Transportation on road safety to learn about their needs with regard to the quality, timeliness, completeness, and format of data provided on crashes and roadway inventories.
  • Posted: Dec 29, 2022
    Carrie Tremblatt, a transportation professional and Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado Denver, has been named the 2022 Student of the Year for the Mountain-Plains Consortium. She will be honored with other award winners from across the country during an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., in January.
  • Posted: Dec 16, 2022
    Chris Pantelides, MPC program director and researcher at the University of Utah, was recently elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. ASCE fellows have made celebrated contributions and developed creative solutions that change lives around the world.
  • Posted: Dec 13, 2022
    University of Utah researchers combined off-the-shelf video equipment with machine learning software to develop a system for monitoring operations and small general aviation airports that lack control towers and staff to do so.
  • Posted: Nov 22, 2022
    Researchers at the University of Wyoming are developing new analysis methods that will improve the consistency and efficiency of driving piles in intermediate geomaterials, a transitional geomaterial between soil and hard rock, often found in the Rocky Mountain region.
  • Posted: Nov 18, 2022
    Researchers at the University of Utah are studying automated data collection technologies that can be used to gather information on roadway assets such as traffic signs, bridges, pedestrian access ramps, and pavement.
  • Posted: Nov 14, 2022
    Researchers at Colorado State University developed an integrated tool that provides a more accurate consideration of various adverse driving conditions, including those in work zones. The new tool will allow planners and emergency responders to develop work zones and traffic patterns that reduce the risk of accidents and enhance traffic flow even when driving conditions become adverse or hazardous.
  • Posted: Nov 10, 2022
    Researchers at the University of Utah are developing bridge designs that dissipate seismic forces during earthquakes so that the bridges can remain operational. The bridge designs are compatible with accelerated bridge construction techniques, which reduce construction costs and traffic disruptions.
  • Posted: Nov 8, 2022
    Researchers at the University of Wyoming are tracking eye movements to learn what captures the attention of workers on construction sites and how rapidly they perceive hazards. The research is the first step toward a new way of improving construction jobsite safety.
  • Posted: Nov 3, 2022
    Researchers at the University of Wyoming are closely examining the characteristics of fatal and severe motorcycle accidents in Wyoming and Utah to identify methods and models that can be used to assess roadways to improve motorcycle safety.
  • Posted: Oct 27, 2022
    Researchers at the University of Wyoming are developing and improving vehicle communication protocols and creating signal control programs to prepare for the integration of connected and autonomous vehicles into traffic.
  • Posted: Oct 18, 2022
    Researchers at South Dakota State University are developing a database to help pavement engineers select the best types and application rates of tack coats, the asphalt-based material applied between pavement layers to improve structural performance.
  • Posted: Oct 12, 2022
    Researchers at the University of Utah are developing tests for asphalt that can predict their performance in the field so that optimum life of pavements can be attained, and maintenance investments can be minimized.
  • Posted: Oct 10, 2022
    Researchers at the University of Utah are developing performance-related tests that will allow highway agencies to select asphalt mixtures for optimal performance thus significantly reducing maintenance costs.
  • Posted: Oct 7, 2022
    Research at South Dakota State University will provide bridge engineers with design tools that will substantially reduce the cost of some bridge foundations and protect existing bridge foundations from the damaging effects of scour, the erosion of soil from around those foundations.
  • Posted: Oct 6, 2022
    Researchers at Colorado State University developed new modeling techniques to assist in planning emergency medical services (EMS) response. The techniques help predict the resilience of the transportation network in terms of EMS response to help implement optimized post-disaster medical response plans, and also to identify the most cost-effective measures for preventing EMS response disruptions.
  • Posted: Sep 28, 2022
    Researchers at Colorado State University used responses to written and oral interviews and questionnaires administered to bridge personnel in state DOTs to identify the reasons behind the gap between researchers and practitioners. The effort helped provide insights about how to facilitate research implementation and change in state DOTs and other transportation or government organizations.
  • Posted: Sep 26, 2022
    Researchers at South Dakota State University tested new precast column connection details that could potentially reduce the time it takes to construct bridge bents by a factor of three to four while meeting seismic requirements.
  • Posted: Sep 21, 2022
    Join us on September 22 for a webinar with Dr. Rouzbeh Ghabchi, based on MPC project 575, Characterization of the Plant-Based Bio-Asphalt Binder and Bio-Additives.
  • Posted: Sep 13, 2022
    Researchers at Colorado State University are developing ways to enhance models that aim to help improve planning, emergency response, and other critical decisions that rely on accurate travel time predictions.
  • Posted: Aug 30, 2022
    University of Wyoming researchers developed a new system for setting speed limits on roadways that are characterized by steep downgrades and curves. They used high-fidelity dynamic simulation modeling to assess lateral and roll stability of different vehicle types on various road surface conditions.
  • Posted: Aug 25, 2022
    Researchers at South Dakota State University found that mixed media filtration using steel chips and steel slag can be used as an effective treatment tool to remove E.coli and phosphate from stormwater runoff. This filtration technology will improve stormwater management and protect natural water resources.
  • Posted: Aug 25, 2022
    Researchers at Colorado State University are developing a method of inspecting infrastructure elements such as guardrails and bridges. The method is more objective than typical visual inspections and has the ability to store and track changes in condition over time.
  • Posted: Aug 11, 2022
    Researchers at Colorado State University are exploring new ways to limit the damage to transportation infrastructure caused by the expansive soils that are common across the Mountain-Plains region.
  • Posted: Aug 1, 2022
    Research at the University of Wyoming will help transportation managers and policymakers decide on strategies for implementing appropriate alternative interchanges in consideration of growing traffic demands, safety, and limited budgets.
  • Posted: Jul 20, 2022
    Researchers at the University of Colorado Denver developed an analytical model that can be used to improve repair technique designs for concrete suffering from a common reaction between aggregate and Portland cement that can damage and weaken concrete over time.
  • Posted: Jul 12, 2022
    Congratulations to Prasanna Humagain, named Doctoral Researcher of the Year; Hossein Nasr Esfahani, named College of Engineering Outstanding Ph.D Scholar of the Year; and Sailesh Acharya, named the College of Engineering Graduate Poster winner.
  • Posted: Jun 29, 2022
    This study aims to build a framework to assess the resilience performance of a typical traffic network in terms of post-earthquake EMS by comprehensively capturing the interactions between building infrastructures, injured people who may need EMS, disrupted traffic networks, limited EMS resources, and specific hazards.
  • Posted: Jun 22, 2022
    Researchers at Colorado State University found that urban roadway flooding can be reduced by diverting storm water from just 1% to 5% of directly connected impervious areas (i.e., streets, parking lots, rooftops) to bioretention areas, a part of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI).
  • Posted: Jun 3, 2022
    UGPTI's 26th Annual Awards Banquet will be held October 6, 2022, at the Holiday Inn, in Fargo, ND, to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to the transportation industry in the region. The social begins at 5:30 p.m. with dinner at 6:45 p.m. Nominations for award winners closed earlier this month and will be announced later this summer.
  • Posted: Jun 1, 2022
    University of Utah student Yinhu Wang recently gave a webinar discussing his work on Optimizing Snowplowing Operations in Utah via Routing and Truck Allocation.
  • Posted: May 4, 2022
    Researchers at North Dakota State University studied crash reporting by four Indian tribes to develop a pragmatic approach that tribes can refine based on objectives related to accountability, sovereignty, and system integrity.
  • Posted: Apr 19, 2022
    Earlier this year at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington D.C., Utah State University Civil and Environmental Engineering master's student Joshua Ward received an Eisenhower Transportation Graduate Fellowship.
  • Posted: Apr 19, 2022
    University of Utah Ph.D. student Zhao Zhang and his advisor Xianfeng "Terry" Yang were awarded the 2021 Best Dissertation Award from the TRB Standing Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Applications (AED50) at TRB's Annual Meeting in January. The title of the dissertation is "Modeling Freeway Traffic Flows with Hybrid Machine Learning."
  • Posted: Mar 22, 2022
    North Dakota State University Transportation and Logistics Ph.D. student Yun Zhou has been named a 2022 Lifesavers Traffic Safety Scholar and attended the Lifesavers National Conference on Highway Safety Priorities, March 12-15, in Chicago.
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