Transportation Engineering Commons^™

Effect Of Waste Covid-19 Masks On Compaction Characteristics Of Silty-Clay Soil, Sydney K. Lawson

Honors College Theses

The present study aims to explore the effect of adding shredded waste Covid-19 masks to silty-clay soil on the soil’s compaction characteristics for beneficial use in embankment, the subgrade of roadways, or backfill. This was accomplished by using two different types of masks: blue surgical masks and KN95 masks. Both mask types were hand shredded into half-inch sections using safety-scissors. The maximum dry density (MDD) and optimum moisture content (OMC) are the two most important compaction characteristics, and they were determined by the Standard Proctor Compaction Test (ASTM D698 / AASHTO T99). The change of both the MDD and OMC …

Proposed Charlotte To Atlanta High-Speed Passenger Rail Line: An Economic, Infrastructural, And Developmental Analysis In The Upstate Of South Carolina, Ian C. Macurda, Kimberly Whitehead

SC Upstate Research Symposium

This research paper is an in-depth analysis of the high-speed passenger rail line proposed between Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA and its impact on the economy, infrastructure, and future development of the Upstate of South Carolina. Currently, passenger rail service between Charlotte and Atlanta is offered on Amtrak at late hours throughout the night on its long-distance passenger rail line The Crescent from New York City, NY to New Orleans, LA. The train is often delayed and is operating at a deficit for Amtrak, like most of their long-distance routes. Traffic on Interstate 85 through the Upstate is another issue …

Modelling Techniques For Slab Track Systems, Mohamed Hafez Fahmy Aly, Islam Mahmoud Abou El-Naga, Ahmed Abdul Hay Soliman, Muhammad Ahmad Diab

Journal of Engineering Research

The railway slab track has replaced the ballast material in the classical ballasted track with reinforced concrete slab or asphalt layer to cope up with the increasing axle loads, train high-speeds, and to reduce overall maintenance cost. This paper aims to investigate the linear and nonlinear behavior of the most common slab track systems (BÖGL, Shinkansen, and RHEDA 2000) using American (AREMA) loads for different soil types to recommend the most suitable analysis type for each component of the slab track systems. Slab track Finite Element models have been built using Midas GTS NX software. The geometric model for each …

Performance Assessment Of Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials With Low To High Thermoregulation Range In Asphalt Binder, Anil Kumar Baditha, Ayyaz Fareed

Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow Symposium

Asphalt pavements face significant challenges due to low temperature cracking and rutting caused by extreme temperature fluctuations and traffic loading. These issues result in higher maintenance costs and reduced service life of the pavements. To address this, researchers explored the use of Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials (MPCMs) to induce thermoregulation in asphalt pavements. However, the existing research focused on high-temperature performance of binders, highlighting the need of research on evaluating the low-temperature performance. Therefore, the study aims to evaluate the impact of incorporating MPCMs on low to high temperature performance of binders. Three types of MPCMs were incorporated into asphalt …

Use Of Waste Plastics In Asphalt Mixes: Addressing The Variability Of Source, Venkatsushanth Revelli, Anil Kumar Baditha

Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow Symposium

Use of waste plastics in asphalt mixtures suffers from a serious problem of significant variability with global sources; preventing proper guidelines for field applications. The aim of this study is to address the variability in source of waste plastic and its impact on asphalt mixture design. The study was designed to provide a selection criterion to evaluate the suitability of waste polyethylene (PE) for asphalt pavements. PE obtained from five sources was used as a replacement for asphalt binder. Dry mixing of plastics with asphalt and aggregate was performed at the dosage levels of 3%, 6%, and 9%. The changes …

Drivers’ Hazard Avoidance During Vehicle Automation: Impact Of Mental Models And Implications For Training, Ganesh Pai Mangalore

Doctoral Dissertations

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are vehicle automation systems that have become more accessible and prevalent in vehicles in recent years. But the introduction of such technologies introduces new human factors challenges. Past literature suggests that users of vehicle automation lack the necessary and appropriate knowledge about their automation system. This may play a negative role in their hazard avoidance abilities when driving with automation features. Improving mental models and knowledge could generally lead to safer interactions with vehicle automation systems, but any effort to develop hazard avoidance skills when driving with vehicle automation is impeded by the lack of …

Analyzing Video And Isobus Data To Understand Risk And Safety Practices For Roadside Mowing, Nathan Sprague, Timothy Wiegman, J. T. Evans

Graduate Industrial Research Symposium

In Indiana, roadside mowing covers 11,200 miles, presenting significant risks. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) seeks safer methods, including automated evaluations and autonomous robots. Analyzing 120 hours of video and ISOBUS data, we quantify mower interactions with the road and obstacles, finding mowers on -road up to 91% of the time in rural areas and 57% on highways. Key obstacles identified include signs and posts. This research aids in developing risk assessment models and safety evaluations, aiming to improve mowing safety and efficiency, and it supports future development of autonomous mowing technologies.

Evaluation Of Ndot’S Sediment Barrier Practices Using Performance Data, Michael A. Perez, Wesley N. Donald, J. Blake Whitman, Brian G. Roche

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

To protect waterways adjacent to construction projects with disturbed land, a 50 ft (15 m) vegetated buffer or equivalent sediment controls are required. However, there is little guidance on the effectiveness of vegetated buffers in removing sediment or how sediment barriers can aid shorter buffers or replace buffers. A modeling methodology was developed and used to determine the performance of 11,664 50 ft (15 m) vegetated buffer configurations with Nebraska conditions; sediment capture averaged 92.6% and ranged from 18.5% to 99.5%. To determine the performance of Nebraska Department of Transportation standard and modified sediment barrier installations, a large-scale testing methodology …

Online Instructional Tools For Motor Carriers, Brian Howell, Jennifer Walton, Paul Ross, Andrew Martin

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Commercial motor carrier customers on Kentucky highways must register and pay taxes for licensing and credentialing requirements. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) provides an online Motor Carrier Portal that offers information and instructions on meeting these requirements, but customers have increasingly resorted to calling into KYTC’s motor carrier help desk, thereby straining limited personnel resources. The Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) coordinated with KYTC to develop a series of online instructional videos that can better assist customers with applying for and meeting credentialing requirements.

KTC researchers used a three-phase approach to determine the feasibility and requirements for instructional videos. First, they …

Beneath I-280: Excavating A Neighborhood Lost To San José Freeways, Leila Ullmann, Gordon Douglas

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, thousands of people in San José, California were displaced from their homes as the state used eminent domain to purchase land and uproot neighborhoods for the construction of Interstate freeways. This report presents a multifaceted research and public knowledge effort that uncovers some of the communities buried beneath these freeways, in the area where I-280 and CA-87 meet today near downtown San José. The project builds primarily from previously unprocessed California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) archival documents, which this project studies for the first time. The records are rich in detail about valuation and sale …

Reliability-Based Analysis Of Horizontal Curve Design By Evaluating The Impact Of Vehicle Automation On Roadway Departure Crashes And Safety Performance, Omar Al-Sheikh, Seyed Hooman Ghasemi, Mohammad Jalayer

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Faculty Scholarship

Roadway departure (RwD) crashes are significant safety concerns, especially at horizontal curves. The design of these curves plays a crucial role in mitigating RwD crashes. Thus, a thorough understanding of the interaction between driver behavior, vehicle automation, and geometric design is vital. Substantive safety, which emphasizes the inherent safety in a road's design and function, serves as the foundation of our approach. Building on this, the study employs a safe system approach to investigate the performance of horizontal curves under both non-automated and partially automated conditions, using a reliability-based analysis focusing on Stopping Sight Distance as the primary driver demand. …

Containerization Of Seafarers In The International Shipping Industry: Contemporary Seamanship, Maritime Social Infrastructures, And Mobility Politics Of Global Logistics, Liang Wu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation discusses the mobility politics of container shipping and argues that technological development, political-economic order, and social infrastructure co-produce one another. Containerization, the use of standardized containers to carry cargo across modes of transportation that is said to have revolutionized and globalized international trade since the late 1950s, has served to expand and extend the power of international coalitions of states and corporations to control the movements of commodities (shipments) and labor (seafarers). The advent and development of containerization was driven by a sociotechnical imaginary and international social contract of seamless shipping and cargo flows. In practice, this liberal, …

Pilot Study On Improving Crash Data Accuracy In Kentucky Through University Collaboration, Michael A. Fields, Eric Green, Robert Kluger, Xu Zhang, Kirolos Haleem

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Without high-quality crash data and robust interpretive/analytical tools to analyze these data, transportation agencies will struggle to develop evidence-based strategies for improving road safety. Crash narratives are one element of crash reports that pose especially acute interpretive challenges. These narratives supplement coded data and give an account of incidents authored by responding law enforcement officers. Despite their value, conducting manual reviews of the 150,000+ crash reports and narratives issued in Kentucky each year is not feasible. To address this challenge, reviewers examined approximately 8,000 crash narratives from calendar year 2020 using a proprietary web-based quality control tool to identify discrepancies …

Laboratory Evaluation Of Warm Mix Additives At Lower Than Traditional Compaction Temperatures, Abdelrahman Mahmoud Waheish Ali

Theses and Dissertations

The study aims to evaluate the impact of warm mix additives (WMA) on the rheological and performance properties of asphalt binders and mixtures. For this purpose, PG 76-28 and PG 58-28 were obtained with one organic (Sasobit Redux) and three chemical WMA (Rediset, Evotherm, and Zycotherm). All WMA-modified asphalt binders were aged at three different aging levels. Laboratory tests such as performance grade (PG), critical temperature differential (ΔTc), asphalt binder cracking device (ABCD), linear amplitude sweep test (LAS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were performed. In addition to the binder testing plan, this study also evaluated the impact of …

Enhancing Bridge Resilience And Overheight Vehicle Mitigation Through Innovative Sacrificial Cushion Systems, Aly Mousaad Aly, Marc Hoffmann

Faculty Publications

Transportation departments have made significant strides in addressing the challenges posed by the increasing weights of trucks on bridges. While there is a growing awareness of overheight vehicle collisions with bridges, implementing effective countermeasures remains limited. The susceptibility of bridges to damage from such collisions is on the rise, further exacerbated by unpredictable lateral impact forces. This study employs nonlinear impact analysis to assess the response of an unprotected vehicle-girder model, yielding realistic deformation outcomes comparable to observed impacts on the US-61 bridge. Predictions for a truck traveling at 112.65 km/h indicate deformations of 0.229 m, 0.161 m, and 0.271 …

Data From: Active Transportation Counts From Existing On-Street Signal And Detection Infrastructure, Sirisha Kothuri, Patrick Allen Singleton, Mahyar Vahedi Saheli, Elizabeth Yates, Joseph P. Broach

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Datasets

This study’s objective was to use data from existing traffic signal infrastructure to estimate pedestrian volumes. Pedestrian push-button actuations were collected from signal controller logs at 49 intersections in western Oregon and an additional 16 intersections in eastern Oregon. These actuations were then compared to observed pedestrian counts, totaling over 34,000 people, obtained from video recordings. After exploring various options, a simple quadratic relationship was modeled using a single measure of pedestrian signal activity: the number of push-button presses (filtered to remove multiple presses within 15 seconds). The model’s predictions showed a correlation of 0.86 with observed pedestrian volumes and …

Estimation Of Origin-Destination Matrix Using Open-Source Applications Based On Traffic Counts For Mansoura City In Egypt, Ahmed N. Awaad, Sherif M. El-Badawy, Elsayed Abd-Elazem Shwaly, Usama Elrawy Shahdah

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Origin-destination matrices (ODMs) are essential to transportation planning but estimating them can be difficult and expensive. This study presents a framework for estimating ODMs using traffic flow counts using open-source tools. The framework was applied to a dataset from the city of Mansoura in Egypt. The Flowrouter algorithm, which is part of the SUMO microscopic traffic simulation model, was used for routing traffic between traffic flow counting locations. Additionally, the “Implausible Routes” algorithm was used to eliminate unrealistic routes from the generated solution. The results show that the ODM obtained is a reasonable representation of the demand between the different …

Operations Research In Civil And Environmental Engineering, Nicholas Lownes

Open Educational Resource

The purpose of this text is introduce fundamental operations research techniques to the civil and/or environmental engineering student, providing a broad background in linear programming, integer programming and network optimization. The material is presented in such a manner so that the student does not need an extensive background in operations research or or linear algebra. Applications include transportation engineering, project management and general civil and environmental engineering applications.

Characterization Of Recent Wild Pig‑Vehicle Collisions In Georgia, Usa, Jeremiah L. Psiropoulos, Emily Howe, John J. Mayer, Sophie C. Mckee

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Vehicle collisions with wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are reported almost everywhere this species is found. However, this is one of the least studied and characterized forms of damage that these invasive animals cause in the United States (US). We analyzed 518 wild pig-vehicle collisions (WPVCs) that took place statewide in Georgia between 2015 and 2021. From that dataset, we analyzed several parameters in order to better understand and characterize these accidents on a scale that had previously not been done in the US. Wild pig-vehicle collisions were reported from 105 out of the 159 counties in Georgia, increasing …

A Practical Framework For Component-Level Structural Health Monitoring Of The Gerald Desmond Bridge, Mehran Rahmani, Vesna Terzic, Andrea Calabrese, Brittany Cambell

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Bridges serve as critical transportation infrastructure, but traditional maintenance inspection to ensure their safety is time-consuming, costly, and labor-intensive, especially for larger and more complex structures. This study presents a practical framework for the instrumentation, data acquisition, and remote condition assessment of the Gerald Desmond Bridge, California’s largest cable-stayed bridge. The framework aims to establish a foundation for real-time or near real-time remote health monitoring of the bridge’s critical elements. The study highlights the advantages of remote monitoring in terms of efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and early detection of damage.