Engineering Commons^™

Specialized Safety Training And Tracking For Kytc Construction And Maintenance Personnel, Gabriel Dadi, Ashtarout Ammar, Seth Atkins, Martha Horseman

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

High-quality safety training is critical for educating employees in the highway construction and maintenance industry about workplace hazards and giving them tools to remove and/or minimize associated risks. But researchers and state transportation agencies have not committed enough resources to develop safety trainings that address the unique needs of this sector. This report fills in this gap for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) by cataloguing safety training resources available through other state and federal transportation agencies, documenting trainings available to Cabinet staff, identifying and prioritizing training gaps, and critically evaluating the content, quality, and duration of training resources. A web-based …

Initial Project Estimates For Design, Right Of Way, Utilities, And Construction, Christopher Van Dyke, Bryan Gibson, Jeff Jasper, Bob Lewis, Doug Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Estimating the cost of highway construction projects is among the more challenging tasks state transportation agencies routinely deal with. Developing accurate estimates is a particularly fraught exercise during the planning and scoping phases, when projects have not been thoroughly defined and information on specifics is in short supply. While the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has used several methodologies to generate initial cost estimates for design, right of way, utilities, and construction (DRUC), approaches vary between the agency’s districts. This report proposes a framework for estimating DRUC-related expenses that can be adopted throughout the state. Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) researchers developed …

Non-Nuclear Methods For Compaction Control Of Unbound Soil And Granular Layers, Brad Rister, Charlie Sun, Kean H. Ashurst Jr., Tim Jones, Christopher Van Dyke

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

In highway construction, the nuclear density gauge (NDG) is the industry standard for measuring soil density and moisture. They are widely used at state transportation agencies, however, because of their reliance on radiation, NDGs are expensive to maintain and have unique storage requirements. Operators must also earn specialized certifications and adhere to rigorous safety protocols. Equipment manufacturers have developed several non-nuclear density gauges which are more user friendly, however, their accuracy has sometimes not equaled NDGs. This comparative study evaluated the performance of the eGauge (a relatively new device) to NDGs. Over 100 soil density and moisture measurements were collected …

Recycled Materials In Kentucky Highway Construction, David Q. Hunsucker, Laura Whayne

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The objectives of this study were to identify and list waste materials which should be recycled to reduce solid waste disposal; report current and past efforts of the Kentucky Department of Highways to utilize recycled and waste materials; determine through a thorough literature search and review, the efforts of other local, state, national and international transportation agencies to utilize recycled materials; and, present preliminary recommendations listing areas where additional recycling efforts appear promising, feasible and needed.

Waste materials that were identified which could be recycled to reduce solid waste disposal included demolition waste (building rubble, recycled concrete pavement, recycled asphalt …

Low-Strength (Pozzolanic) Materials For Highway Construction, Gary W. Sharpe, Larry Epley, David L. Allen, Herbert F. Southgate, Robert C. Deen

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

No abstract provided.

Highway Construction In Windblown Silts Of Western Kentucky, Robert C. Deen

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

It has been shown that engineering experience and performance histories of earthwork structures and foundations in distinctive physiographic regions provide valuable insights applicable to the planning and construction of future projects. Geologic information further categorizes earth materials on the basis of parent material and geologic processes which modify the rock and soil masses. A knowledge of the resulting topographic expression or landforms and reference to geologic and soils information contained in surveys, reports, and maps is particularly useful in the early stages of planning and site selection. When sufficient information is available, regional units may be recognized for the purpose …