Researchers with the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at NDSU surveyed local road managers across North Dakota and with a special emphasis on the oil-producing region of North Dakota to learn about road safety activities.
Researchers at the University of Utah are improving analytical and numerical methods to estimate the amount of permanent ground displacement associated with liquefaction-induced lateral spread.
Researchers at North Dakota State University and the University of Utah studied traffic in the Salt Lake City area to learn more about how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted traffic and traffic safety. Most transportation research to date has focused on the early stages of the pandemic, but this study examined traffic patterns and crash trends throughout the pandemic.
Congratulations to MPC researcher Ying Huang on being named the 2023 winner of the NDSU College of Engineering Excellence in Teaching Award. Huang is professor and Welch Faculty Fellow of civil, construction and environmental engineering. Her teaching focus covers surveying, materials and transportation infrastructure design. She has developed two new courses at NDSU, broadening the offerings in transportation engineering available to students.
In a study of snowplow routes in northern Utah, researchers at the University of Utah proposed routes that improved the efficiency by an average of 4.87% in terms of vehicle miles, 13.95% in terms of deadhead miles, and 15.38% in terms of turnaround time.
With more than 47,000 culverts under highways in Utah, researchers at the University of Utah developed a culvert management system and manual for the Utah Department of Transportation to help prioritize its inspection and maintenance efforts.
Researchers at Colorado State University are developing improved computer models to better predict precipitation-induced landslides, particularly those in mountainous areas, which can pose risks to property and infrastructure such as roads and bridges and result in injuries and deaths.
Research at the University of Utah is addressing the disconnect between asphalt mixture tests and the inputs for the structure design of pavements. Because of its complexities, the dynamic modulus (which represents the stiffness of the asphalt material when tested in a compressive, repeated load and is required as an input into the structural design of asphalt) is seldom measured, resulting in average or default values being used.
UGPTI researcher Raj Bridgelall was inducted this week as a fellow by the National Academy of Inventors. He was among 169 distinguished academic inventors who were inducted as fellows at the NAI’s national meeting in Washington, D.C.
Research at South Dakota State University shows that a new bridge system made with cross-laminated timber (CLT), which exhibits desirable design strength and low environmental impacts, offers a suitable replacement for bridges on low-volume roads.
Truck crashes on steep downgrades are often caused by brake failures resulting from overheated brakes generated by excessive braking. Research at the University of Wyoming has resulted in a better understanding of the relationship between truck weight and the maximum descent speeds necessary to prevent road crashes on mountainous downgrades.
CSU civil and environmental engineering master's degree student Daniel Sanchez earned an honorable mention in the Great Minds in Research category of the CSU Graduate Showcase in November. He received the award with Dr. Karan Venayagamoorthy, professor of civil and environmental engineering, for their presentation, "Semi-Trucks and Trailers Overturning in High Crosswinds."
Ziluo Xiong, CSU civil and environmental engineering Ph.D. student, was recently awarded the Jack E. Cermak Wind Engineering Graduate Fellowship by the CSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Colorado State University Ph.D. student Mohammad Teymouri was recently awarded the Slag Cement in Sustainable Concrete Research Award from the Slag Cement Association. The work was honored April 5 during the spring American Concrete Institute Convention in San Francisco.
Yirong Zhou, a civil and environmental engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Utah, was recently awarded a scholarship from the Utah Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Winners of the $500 scholarships are selected based on outstanding scholarship, work experience, and activity within their student section of ITE.
Researchers at North Dakota State University are developing an innovative computer modeling technique that can serve as an efficient decision-making system to predict crash occurrence and severity, identify contributing factors to crashes, quantify their effects, and evaluate proposed countermeasures.
A switch to automated parking systems that assess on-street parking fees for the exact amount of time parked would be fairer for drivers and would help transportation planners manage traffic and parking demand better, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Denver.
Research at the University of Utah shows that introducing connected automated vehicles (CAVs) into traffic flow can elevate safety performance, especially on freeways. CAV adoption will likely reduce rear-end and lane-change crashes.
Research at the University of Utah resulted in protocol specifications for handling material and sample compaction to reduce variability in testing. The research also revealed areas for additional research to assure that results from the text correlate to improved highway performance.
Researchers at Colorado State University are learning more about the complex hydrology that contributes to stream flows in order to develop recommendations for building bridges that can better withstand the effects of erosion.
Researchers at South Dakota State University developed a simple, straightforward benefits estimation methodology for evaluating the financial benefits of proposed access management treatments, including the design, spacing, operation, and locations of street connections, interchanges, driveways, and median openings.
University of Utah researchers developed and tested a computational modeling technique that can predict the local and global response of column-to-footing joints with recessed grouted spliced sleeves in seismically active areas.
Researchers from the Mountain-Plains Consortium's eight collaborating universities presented papers and posters and participated in committee meetings at the January 8-12 meeting. They were among the more than 20,000 transportation administrators, practitioners, policy makers, and researchers who attended.
Researchers at the University of Utah found that road efficiency and safety was improved in snowy and icy conditions when variable speed limit signs used amber instead of white lettering on a black background.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
