Engineering Commons^™

Development Of The Nebraska Department Of Transportation Winter Severity Index, Mark R. Anderson, Behzad Esmaeili, Curtis L. Walker, Dylan Steinkruger, Sogand Hasanzadeh, Pouya Gholizadeh, Bac Dao

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Adverse weather conditions are responsible for millions of vehicular crashes, thousands of vehicular deaths and billions of dollars in economic and congestion costs. Many transportation agencies utilize a performance or mobility metric to assess how well they are maintaining road access. This research focuses on the development of a winter severity index for the State of Nebraska (NEWINS). NEWINS is an event-driven index that was derived for the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) and its districts across the state. The NEWINS framework includes a categorical storm classification framework and climatological aspect to capture atmospheric conditions more accurately across the diverse …

Identifying And Addressing Soil Property Issues Affecting Roadside Vegetation Establishment, Xu Li, Martha Mamo, Walter H. Schacht, Tala Awada, Humberto Blanco-Canqui

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Attaining adequate vegetation cover along highways is important for NDOR to comply with EPA’s stormwater regulations. However, low plant cover is a common problem on shoulders (first 16 feet off the pavement) of many highways in Nebraska. The ultimate goal of this study is to identify cost-effective engineering solutions that assure adequate seed beds (i.e., soil conditions) for establishment of selected seeding mixtures. The objectives of this study are to (1) characterize the soil properties along roadsides where vegetation stands have not developed well, and (2) verify the effects of select soil property parameters on plant germination and establishment.

Sampling …