Transportation Engineering Commons^™

Hybrid Vehicle-Drone Routing Problem For Pick-Up And Delivery Services Mathematical Formulation And Solution Methodology, Aline Karak

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The fast growth of online retail and associated increasing demand for same-day delivery have pushed online retail and delivery companies to develop new paradigms to provide faster, cheaper, and greener delivery services. Considering drones’ recent technological advancements over the past decade, they are increasingly ready to replace conventional truck-based delivery services, especially for the last mile of the trip. Drones have significantly improved in terms of their travel ranges, load-carrying capacity, positioning accuracy, durability, and battery charging rates. Substituting delivery vehicles with drones could result in $50M of annual cost savings for major U.S. service providers.

The first objective of …

Vehicle Performance Analysis Of An Autonomous Electric Shuttle Modified For Wheelchair Accessibility, Johan Fanas Rojas

Masters Theses

Autonomous vehicles (AV) have the potential to vastly improve independent, safe, and cost-effective mobility options for individuals with disabilities. However, accessibility considerations are often overlooked in the early stages of design, resulting in AVs that are inaccessible to people with disabilities. The needs of wheeled mobility device users can cause significant vehicle design changes due to requirements for stepless ingress/egress and increased space for onboard circulation and securement. Vehicles serving people with disabilities typically require costly aftermarket modifications for accessibility, which may have unforeseen impacts on vehicle performance and safety, particularly in the case of automated vehicles. In this research, …

Social Justice Mitigation In Transportation Projects: Why And How Lexington Fayette Urban County Government Can Support The Lexington Community Land Trust’S Path To Self-Sustainability, Pamela Clay-Young, Steven Douglas Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The city of Lexington has reached a critical shortage of affordable housing available to families earning 80% - 50% of area median income (AMI). This study focuses on how to grow the Lexington CLT into self-sustainability while also narrowing the affordable housing gaps in Fayette County. Current research offers support for the city’s affordable housing program to adopt the community land trust model (CLT). The research recommends using tools such as the Lexington CLT, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Landbank Authority (LFUCLA), and Lexington’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, along with new development incentives, to develop a housing strategy that is cost …

Application Of Internal Curing To Improve Concrete Bridge Deck Performance, Arman Abdigaliyev, Yong-Rak Kim, Jiong Hu

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Due to the relatively high cement content and low water-to-cement ratio (w/c) used, bridge deck concrete is prone to premature cracking. Internal curing has been found to greatly reduce the chance of premature cracking as well as concrete deterioration. This research project was intended to develop internally cured bridge deck concrete based on a local mix design in Nebraska. Four different lightweight fine aggregate (LWFA) as internal curing agents were evaluated, and their effects on fresh, mechanical, durability, and shrinkage properties of concrete were studied. To identify the most effective LWFA dosage for shrinkage reduction, different replacement rates of sand …

Correlation Analysis Of Mdss And Newins, Mark R. Anderson, Curtis L. Walker, Nancy Barnhardt, Nathan Rick, Cameron Wunderlin

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Improving winter maintenance is a goal of most transportation agencies including the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT). One approach is to develop a decision support system to aid in the winter maintenance recommendations. Iteris has developed a maintenance decision support system (MDSS) and has teamed up with NDOT to provide winter weather guidance for operations. This report investigates how well the MDSS functions for several routes across Nebraska for different storm systems. The analysis was performed from saved events within MDSS and compared to meteorological observations during different storm events, mainly Colorado or Alberta Clipper type storms that moved through …

Development And Implementation Of A Moving Nondestructive Evaluation Platform For Bridge Deck Inspection, Sepehr Pashoutani, Jinying Zhu, Chungwook Sim, Brian Mazzeo, Spencer Guthrie

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Degradation in concrete bridge decks is typically manifested as rebar corrosion, concrete delamination, and surface cracks. Nondestructive evaluation and testing (NDE/NDT) technologies have been increasingly used in concrete bridge deck evaluation to identify, localize, and quantify deterioration in bridge decks. Each NDE method has its advantages and limitations on the type of defect that can be detected. Therefore, combining multiple NDE technologies is needed in order to give comprehensive and reliable information about the bridge deck condition. For effective application of multiple NDE tests, we need to use automated positioning for each NDE to facilitate post-processing and data fusion of …

A Rule Based Control Algorithm For On-Ramp Merge With Connected And Automated Vehicles, Ehsan Beheshtitabar

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

One of the designs for future highways with the flow of Connected Automated Vehicles (CAVs) cars will be a dedicated lane for the CAVs to form platoons and travel with higher speeds and lower headways. The connectivity will enable the formation of platoons of CAVs traveling beside non-platoon lanes. The advent of connectivity between vehicles and the infrastructure will enable advanced control strategies ̶ improving the performance of the traffic ̶ to be incorporated in the traffic system. The merge area in a multilane highway with CAVs is one of the sections which can be enhanced by the operation of …

Truck Trailer Classification Using Side-Fire Light Detection And Ranging (Lidar) Data, Olcay Sahin

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Classification of vehicles into distinct groups is critical for many applications, including freight and commodity flow modeling, pavement management and design, tolling, air quality monitoring, and intelligent transportation systems. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) developed a standardized 13-category vehicle classification ruleset, which meets the needs of many traffic data user applications. However, some applications need high-resolution data for modeling and analysis. For example, the type of commodity being carried must be known in the freight modeling framework. Unfortunately, this information is not available at the state or metropolitan level, or it is expensive to obtain from current resources.

Nevertheless, using …

Evaluating Crowdsourcing As A Vmt Reduction Tool To Support Smart Cities Initiatives, Shailesh Chandra, Rutviz Vyas, Ravi Mazin

Mineta Transportation Institute

Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is an indicator of vehicular emissions, which impacts climate change. Various stakeholders aim at reducing VMT to cause reductions in emissions. This research explores the use of crowdsourcing in supporting the efforts of the stakeholders in reducing VMT among college students at California State University Long Beach. Crowdsourcing is emerging as a very promising tool in finding solutions to problems otherwise impossible to solve without a collective human intelligence. A smartphone application is developed to collect travel data and behavior of 55 college students as participants. The behavior is tracked after providing advance information on parking …

Evaluation Of Coordinated Ramp Metering (Crm) Implemented By Caltrans, Amir Molan, Nivedha Murugesan, Alireza Shams, Cristina Tortora, Faridur Rahman, Jacky Loh, Anurag Pande

Mineta Transportation Institute

Coordinated ramp metering (CRM) is a critical component of smart freeway corridors that rely on real-time traffic data from ramps and freeway mainline to improve decision-making by the motorists and Traffic Management Center (TMC) personnel. CRM uses an algorithm that considers real-time traffic volumes on freeway mainline and ramps and then adjusts the metering rates on the ramps accordingly for optimal flow along the entire corridor. Improving capacity through smart corridors is less costly and easier to deploy than freeway widening due to high costs associated with right-of-way acquisition and construction. Nevertheless, conversion to smart corridors still represents a sizable …

Securing The Emerging Technologies Of Autonomous And Connected Vehicles, Shahab Tayeb, Matin Pirouz

Mineta Transportation Institute

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) aims to establish a network of autonomous and connected vehicles that communicate with one another through facilitation led by road-side units (RSUs) and a central trust authority (TA). Messages must be efficiently and securely disseminated to conserve resources and preserve network security. Currently, research in this area lacks consensus about security schemes and methods of disseminating messages. Furthermore, a current deficiency of information regarding resource optimization prevents further efficient development of this network. This paper takes an interdisciplinary approach to these issues by merging both cybersecurity and data science to optimize and secure the network. …

Design And Construction Of Drilled Shafts For Landslides, Malek Smadi

Purdue Road School

In general, weathered shale underlain by shale interbedded with limestone is the main forma-tion that underlies many of the slopes adjacent to the Ohio River in southern Indiana. During wet periods the weathered shale exhibits a sig-nificant decrease in strength, which has led to a number of landslides. In this session several case histories will be presented where drilled shafts have been used to repair and improve the safety of homes and roadways.

Plant Growth Layer: Recurring Special Provision 629-R-630, Kurt Pelz, Shawn Slaymon

Purdue Road School

This presentation encapsulates everything from what plant growth layer is and how it was developed to when it should be added to projects, its proper verification, and estimating PGL quantities. This presentation will also include project-specific examples of the limitations and expectations of PGL during the design and construction phase.

Superpave5: What Is It?, Matt Beeson, Gerry Huber

Purdue Road School

INDOT revised the asphalt specification in 2019 based on the concept of Superpave 5—that higher in-place density yields improved performance disability. This session will provide insight into the science of how Superpave 5 works while giving designers an understanding of how it affects design and construction specifications.

Railway Bridges Up-To-Date, Stephen Dick

Purdue Road School

Railroad bridges are not foremost on people’s minds, but they are still a critical item in our nation’s infrastructure. The railroads have a major investment in their bridges, and with many beyond 100 years old, maintenance and replacement of them is still a major cost item. This presentation describes the current state of railroad bridges, discusses older and new bridges, and addresses the current regulatory environment.

Travel Time Data Using Google, Xinbo Mi

Purdue Road School

When we need travel time information between an origin and destination, we used to drive the corridor and record the travel time data. Now we have a much easier way to obtain travel time data along a corridor: Google API (application programming interfaces). This is a very easy tool to use. All you need is a browser, a text editor, and perhaps my presentation, which is not highly technical. Everyone is welcome!

Nurturing Diversity In The Workplace, Julian Hayes, Sarah Baty

Purdue Road School

A workplace with people of varying genders, ages, religions, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and cultural backgrounds leads to greater innovation, reduced employee turnover, and other competitive advantages. Learn more about the benefits of workplace diversity and tips for nurturing diversity and inclusion where you work. In addition to sharing the latest research and best practices, this session will also include the speakers’ personal experiences with building positive change at HNTB Indiana.

Highway Safety 2020 - Catch The Vision: Saving Lives (And Preventing Serious Injuries), Rick Drumm

Purdue Road School

This session presents a view of highway safety up to this point in the 21st century, across the country and in Indiana. We will look back at notable initiatives that have shaped today’s highway safety landscape and assess where we stand now. Then, as we look into the future, learn how you can help make Indiana’s roads and highways safer.

The Future State Of Mobility, Jerome Quandt

Purdue Road School

Formed in 2018, the Illinois Autonomous Vehicles Association (ILAVA) is a privately funded non-for-profit organization focused on establishing thought leadership in the state of Illinois, by identifying and addressing the current and emerging opportunities related to the inevitable growth of CAV technologies throughout the transportation network. Through the deployment of scalable and sustainable business solutions, facilitating industry education and establishing thought leadership, ILAVA is creating an ecosystem that defines Illinois as #TheFutureStateofMobility.

All You Need To Know About Cybersecurity Ever! In 45 Minutes, Joe Beckman

Purdue Road School

This session will cover the information every local government official needs to know to keep their data safe from hackers.