Transportation Engineering Commons^™

Estimation Of Annual Average Daily Traffic On Local Roads In Kentucky, William Nicholas Staats

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Annual average daily traffic (AADT) is used to estimate intersection performance across Kentucky. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) currently collects AADTs for state maintained roads, but lacks this information on local roads. A method is needed to estimate local road AADTs in a cost-effective and reasonable manner. A literature review was conducted on AADT models and found no models suitable to Kentucky. Therefore an AADT model using non-linear regression was developed for local roads in Kentucky

This model divided the state into three regions utilizing Kentucky’s highway districts. This partitioning accounted for geographic and socioeconomic variability across the state. Each …

Bridge End Settlement Evaluation And Prediction, Jiwen Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

A bridge approach is usually built to provide a smooth and safe transition for vehicles from the roadway pavement to the bridge structure. However, differential settlement between the roadway pavement resting on embankment fill and the bridge abutment built on more rigid foundation often creates a bump in the roadway. Previous work examined this issue at a microscopic level and presented new methods for eliminating or minimizing the effects at specific locations.

This research studies the problem at a macroscopic level by determining methods to predict settlement severity to assist designers in developing remediation plans during project development to minimize …

Estimating A Freight Mode Choice Model: A Case Study Of Commodity Flow Survey 2012, Nowreen Keya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research effort develops a national freight mode choice model employing data from the 2012 Commodity Flow Survey (CFS). While several research efforts have developed mode choice model with multiple modes in the passenger travel context, the literature is sparse in the freight context. The primary reasons being unavailability and/or the high cost associated with the acquisition of mode choice and level of service (LOS) measures – such as travel time and travel cost. The first contribution of the research effort is to develop travel time and cost measures for various modes reported in the CFS. The study considers five …

Traser: A Traffic Signal Event-Based Recorder, Chenhui Liu, Anuj Sharma, Edward Smaglik, Sirisha Kothuri

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the past decades, the demand for high-resolution event-based traffic signal indication and detector data has increased due to the need for the collection and reporting of performance measures. This paper will first lay a groundwork for why this type of data acquisition is important, followed by the introduction of a new low-cost, user-friendly, high-resolution traffic signal event-based recorder—TraSER, with integrated video. This paper describes TraSER’s structure, operating principles, and field applications. TraSER allows researchers to be able to collect high-resolution event-based controller data at signalized intersections easily and conveniently. The paper concludes with a discussion on future expansion of …

Phase I Inspection Of The Stay Cable System On The Us 231 William H. Natcher Bridge Over The Ohio River, Theodore Hopwood Ii, Sudhir Palle, Danny Wells, Bobby W. Meade, Jared Fairchild, Christopher Goff

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The US 231 Natcher Bridge was opened in 2002. By 2006 cracking was observed in the plastic piping that protected the stay cable strands from the environment at both the deck and tower anchorages. Over time the extent of cracking increased and an investigation was initiated to assess the types of deterioration impacting the cables, their causes and their impacts on the integrity of the stay cables.

From 2012-2015, a series of in-depth field inspections were performed using visual and nondestructive testing. Most of this work focused on the piping at the deck anchorages. The inspections disclosed voids in cable …

Precast Full-Depth Deck Panels Supported On Inverted Bulb-Tee Bridge Girders, Michael James Mingo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) currently uses precast double-tee bridge deck systems for many of its county bridges because they are economical and fast in construction. Current bridges are designed for a service life of 75 years. However, many double-tee girder bridges are deteriorating and some need total replacement after 40 years in service. Furthermore, the double-tee bridge system only has one supplier in South Dakota. Alternative durable precast or prefabricated bridge systems are needed to provide more options to local governments when designing a new bridge. Different alternatives will also give local governments more flexibility to select …

Reuse Of Aqueous Waste Streams For Transportation-Related Applications, Gregory L. Hansen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aqueous waste streams produced from commercial, industrial, and municipal processes may be potentially reused for transportation applications. The objectives of this project were to identify potential transportation-related applications for aqueous waste streams available in South Dakota, develop guidance for the beneficial reuse of aqueous waste streams, and evaluate the reuse of MIEX® brine generated by the Watertown Municipal Water Treatment Plant (WMWTP). This study identified many aqueous wastes from municipal water and wastewater treatment facilities, industrial and agricultural processes in South Dakota that can be potentially used for ice and dust control. Beneficial reuse of these waste streams requires a …

Experimental Rapid Renewal Project (Bridge Construction), Bobby W. Meade, Sudhir Palle, Theodore Hopwood Ii

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The objectives of this study were to develop specifications and contract language and to monitor the implementation them to effectively use rapid reconstruction and extended service life concepts in new bridge construction. Through the use of A + B bidding, a duplex protective coating system using Hot Dipped Galvanizing (HDG) and paint, and preservation techniques such as concrete sealers and stains the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet attained those goals.

An Intermodal Network Model Of Coal Distribution In The United States And Its Economic Implications For The Inland Waterway System, Benjamin L. Blandford, Ted H. Grossardt, Michael Shouse, John Ripy

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This paper describes a GIS-based intermodal network model for the shipment of coal in the United States. The purpose of this research was to investigate the role played by railways, waterways, and highways in the movement of coal from its source area to point of use, and to highlight the implications these movements have for the U.S. economy. The project team modeled coal movements across the U.S. intermodal transportation network using the Energy Information Administration’s 2010 data, which provided detailed origin, destination, primary mode, and volume information for coal shipments. The model identifies the optimum routes for coal shipments based …

Kentucky Traffic Collision Facts 2015, Kentucky Transportation Center, Kentucky State Police

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

KENTUCKY’S TRAFFIC COLLISION FACTS report for 2015 is based on collision reports submitted to the Kentucky State Police Records Branch. As required by Kentucky Revised Statutes 189.635, “every law enforcement agency whose officers investigate a vehicle accident of which a report must be made...shall file a report of the accident...within ten days after investigation of the accident upon forms supplied by the bureau.” The stated purpose of this requirement is to utilize data on traffic collisions for such purposes as will improve the traffic safety program in the Commonwealth. Data contained in this report are based solely on the observations …

Integrating Cobots In Engineering Technology Education, Ana M. Djuric, Vukica Jovanovic, Tatiana V. Goris, Otilia Popescu

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Collaborative robots or CoBots, unlike traditional robots, are safe and flexible enough to work harmoniously with humans. Exploiting the efficiency of automated operations and the flexibility of manual operations in one process can improve productivity and worker job satisfaction. CoBots technology has been experiencing strong growth in different areas such as ground transportation, food-processing industry, car manufacturing, and naval or aeronautical engineering. Current CoBots education and training opportunities are rare or non-existent in university environments. In response to this need, we developed several CoBots modules which will be integrated in the current robotics and mechatronics courses. In this paper we …

Evaluating Arterial Congestion And Travel Time Reliability Performance, Galen T. Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

This thesis presents an investigation of arterial travel time and reliability. Specifically an examination of the proposed arterial travel time reliability performance measures detailed in Federal Highway Administration’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on national performance management measures are performed. These measures, including level of travel time reliability and peak hour travel time ratio, are computed and compared to those currently used to quantify congestion and travel time reliability. Within this process several commonly used data sources are evaluated to determine the effects of data quality and data source on performance measure evaluation. The newly created Urban Streets Reliability tool is …

A Data Driven Approach To Quantify The Impact Of Crashes, Obaidur Rahman Kazi

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

The growth of data has begun to transform the transportation research and policy, and open a new window for analyzing the impact of crashes. Currently for the crash impact analysis, researchers tend to rely on reported incident duration, which may not always be accurate. Further, impact of the crashes could linger a much longer time at upstream, even if the records are correct for the crash spot and it is a challenge to quantify the impact of a crash from the complex dynamics of the recurrent and non-recurrent congested condition. Therefore, a difference-in-speed approach is developed in this research to …

Risk And Protective Factors Associated With Motorcycle Injury Severity In The United States, Deogratias Eustace, Sunanda Dissanayake

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Faculty Publications

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, road crashes are one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States. The Healthy People 2020 has indicated that accidents are a major public health issue. Most motor-vehicle related events resulting in injury, disability, or death are predictable and preventable. Injuries are the leading cause of death for Americans aged 1 to 44 years and a leading cause of disability for all ages, regardless of sex, race/ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. Although motorcycles represent approximately 3% of all registered vehicles in the United States, motorcycling accounts for more …

Evaluation Of Real World Toll Plazas Using Driving Simulation, Kali Carroll

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Toll plazas are becoming an essential part of the highway system, especially within the state of Florida. Many crashes reported on highways occur at toll plazas. A primary reason for many vehicle collisions happening at these facilities is the fact that each toll plaza agency has different design, signage and marking criteria. This, in turn, causes driver confusion and possible last minute weaving maneuvers. Even though the varying design of toll plazas is a clear highway safety factor, research in the field is very limited but expanding. This study focuses on one toll plaza, in particular the Dean Mainline Toll …

Impact Of The Longer Change And Clearance Intervals On Signalized Intersections And Corridors, Mohammed Alfawzan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Evaluating the impact of longer change and clearance intervals on signalized intersections and corridors is the main goal of this study. In fact, the Florida department of Transportation (FDOT) has adopted a new signal retiming effort in a number of signalized intersections along several corridors. The Orange County started implementing the new signal timing from December, 2013 and completed it in June, 2015. The other objective of this new signal timing is to minimize the red light running rate. This study is dedicated to investigate the signal retiming effort adopted by the FDOT and how the new signal timing might …

Determining The Feasibility Of Using Micro Simulation To Asses Safety Of Pedestrian Crossings, Jenner Darius

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For the past several decades, pedestrian safety has been an oncoming issue that has thrown the area of transportation engineering into a frenzy. Pedestrian safety has become predominantly one of the leading causes of fatalities in traffic accidents. Florida has been reported as one of the leading states in pedestrian fatalities with 2.56 fatality rate per 100,000 population and about 20 percent of all traffic fatalities in the state of Florida. Nonetheless, as research is being done and hypotheses are being calibrated and produced, there has to be a way of measuring and determining the number of pedestrian-to-vehicle conflicts without …

Panic That Spreads Sociobehavioral Contagion In Pedestrian Evacuations, Terra Elzie, Erika Frydenlund, Andrew J. Collins, R. Michael Robinson

VMASC Publications

Crowds are a part of everyday public life, from stadiums and arenas to school hallways. Occasionally, pushing within the crowd spontaneously escalates to crushing behavior, resulting in injuries and even death. The rarity and unpredictability of these incidents provides few options to collect data for research on the prediction and prevention of hazardous emergent behaviors in crowds. This study takes a close look at the way states of agitation, such as panic, can spread through crowds. Group composition—mainly family groups composed of members with differing mobility levels—plays an important role in the spread of agitation through the crowd, ultimately affecting …

Integrating A Simple Traffic Incident Model For Rapid Evacuation Analysis, Andrew J. Collins, R. Michael Robinson, Peter Foytik, Craig Jordan, Barry C. Ezell

VMASC Publications

Road transportation networks are a segment of society's critical infrastructure particularly susceptible to service disruptions. Traffic incidents disrupt road networks by producing blockages and increasing travel times, creating significant impacts during emergency events such as evacuations. For this reason, it is extremely important to incorporate traffic incidents in evacuation planning models. Emergency managers and decision makers need tools that enable rapid assessment of multiple, varied scenarios. Many evacuation simulations require high-fidelity data input making them impractical for rapid deployment by practitioners. Since there is such variation in evacuation types and the method of disruption, evacuation models do not require the …

Impact Of Optimally Minimizing Delay Times On Safety At Signalized Intersections In Urban Areas, Case Study: The City Of Virginia Beach, Eugene Vida Maina, Albert Forde, R. Michael Robinson

VMASC Publications

Optimally minimizing delay times at signalized intersections can significantly improve both traffic flow and safety. However, most traffic flow optimizing tools do not measure the effect on safety. This study uses nonlinear programming (NLP) algorithms to optimally minimize delay times and employs both Safety performance functions (SPFs) and empirical Bayes (EB) before-after methodology to measure the impact on safety presented as a Crash Modification Factor (CMF). A crash modification factor (CMF) is a multiplicative factor used by transportation practitioners to compute the expected number of crashes at specific study site(s) after a countermeasure has been proposed or is implemented. Using …