Transportation Engineering Commons^™

The Effect Of Community Connectivity On Water And Sanitation Systems In Rural Panama, M.C. Moritz

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The world has yet to realize universal access to water and sanitation. Various academic and professional fields provide frameworks for understanding water and sanitation access, but none directly consider the impact of community connectivity. Community connectivity refers to the infrastructures linking rural communities with urban centers. These infrastructures fall under the broad categories of transportation, energy, and telecommunication. This paper examines 23 rural Panamanian communities and compares connectivity measures with the functionality of the communities’ rural water and sanitation systems (RWSS). Community connectivity was evaluated with the Community Connectivity Analysis Tool (CCAT), while the water and sanitation systems were evaluated …

Expedient Airfield Runway Repair Using Folded Fiberglass Mat, Christopher Y. Tuan, Willaim C. Dass

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

For expedient airfield runway repair, the US Air Force has developed a folded fiberglass mat to cover craters repaired with a well-compacted granular base material. The objective of this study was to evaluate the adequacy of using polymer plugs to anchor the mat to a repaired asphalt pavement for heavy aircraft operations. The effort consisted of materials testing, field experiments and analytical modeling. An 89,800-kg (198,000-pound) load cart having the footprint of a single C-5 main gear was pulled on a mat with wheels locked to simulate full braking forces. Anchor bushings were instrumented to measure anchor loads. A simplified …

Field-Scale Testing And Numerical Investigation Of Soil-Boulder Interaction Under Vehicular Impact Using Fem And Coupled Fem-Sph Formulations, Lynsey Reese, Tong Qiu, Daniel Linzell, Zoltan Rado

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

A computational approach that couples the Finite Element Method and the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method may be advantageous for simulating the response of complex, physical systems involving large deformations. However, comparisons of this modeling technique against field-scale test data are remarkably sparse in literature. This study presents three field-scale tests involving vehicular impact into three landscape vehicular anti-ram barriers. Each barrier consisted of a single boulder embedded in compacted American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials soil and physical testing resulted in one of the following outcomes: minimal boulder/soil movement (Test 1), moderate boulder/soil movement (Test 2), and severe …

Utilizing High Resolution Bus Gps Data To Visualize And Identify Congestion Hot-Spots In Urban, Nicholas B. Stoll, Travis B. Glick, Miguel Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Congestion and travel delay on urban roadways can influence the roadways’ operating costs and service attractiveness. This research used high-resolution bus data to examine sources of delay on urban arterials. A set of tools was created to help visualize trends in bus behavior and movement; these tools allowed larger traffic trends to be visualized along urban corridors and streets. With buses as probes and examining aggregated bus behavior, contoured speed plots were used to understand the behavior of roadways outside the zone of influence of bus stops. Speed plots were used to discover trends and travel patterns with only a …

An Investigation To Evaluate The Feasibility Of An Intermodal Freight Transport System., Raja Maitra

Doctoral

The threat of greenhouse gases and the resulting climate change have been causing concern at international levels. This has led towards new sustainable policies towards reducing the anthropogenic effects on the environment and the population through promoting sustainable solutions for the freight industry. The research was prompted by the growing concerns that were no mode-choice tool to select as an alternative to road freight transport. There were growing concerns that a large percentage of transport related negativities, related various costs and pollution costs, losses arising from traffic accidents, delay costs from congestion and abatement costs due to climate impacts of …

Modeling Older Driver Behavior On Freeway Merging Ramps, Lina Lwambagaza

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Merging from on-ramps to mainline traffic is one of the most challenging driving maneuvers on freeways. The challenges are further heightened for older drivers, as they are known to have longer perception-reaction times, larger acceptance gaps, and slower acceleration rates. In this research, VISSIM, a microscopic traffic simulation software, was used to evaluate the influence of the aging drivers on the operations of a typical diamond interchange. First, drivers were recorded on video cameras as they negotiated joining the mainline traffic from an on-ramp acceleration lane at two sites along I-75 in Southwest Florida. Several measures of effectiveness were collected …

Age-Related Differences In Vehicle Control And Eye Movement Patterns At Intersections: Older And Middle-Aged Drivers, Yusuke Yamani, William J. Horrey, Yulan Liang, Donald L. Fisher

Psychology Faculty Publications

Older drivers are at increased risk of intersection crashes. Previous work found that older drivers execute less frequent glances for detecting potential threats at intersections than middle-aged drivers. Yet, earlier work has also shown that an active training program doubled the frequency of these glances among older drivers, suggesting that these effects are not necessarily due to age-related functional declines. In light of findings, the current study sought to explore the ability of older drivers to coordinate their head and eye movements while simultaneously steering the vehicle as well as their glance behavior at intersections. In a driving simulator, older …

Java Based Visualization And Animation For Teaching The Dijkstra Shortest Path Algorithm In Transportation Networks, Ivan Makohon, Duc T. Nguyen, Masha Sosonkina, Yuzhong Shen, Manwo Ng

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Shortest path (SP) algorithms, such as the popular Dijkstra algorithm has been considered as the "basic building blocks" for many advanced transportation network models. Dijkstra algorithm will find the shortest time (ST) and the corresponding SP to travel from a source node to a destination node. Applications of SP algorithms include real-time GPS and the Frank-Wolfe network equilibrium.

For transportation engineering students, the Dijkstra algorithm is not easily understood. This paper discusses the design and development of a software that will help the students to fully understand the key components involved in the Dijkstra SP algorithm. The software presents an …

14-08 Big Data Analytics To Aid Developing Livable Communities, Li Yang, Hyunkeun Cho, Jun-Seok Oh

Transportation Research Center Reports

In transportation, ubiquitous deployment of low-cost sensors combined with powerful computer hardware and high-speed network makes big data available. USDOT defines big data research in transportation as a number of advanced techniques applied to the capture, management and analysis of very large and diverse volumes of data. Data in transportation are usually well organized into tables and are characterized by relatively low dimensionality and yet huge numbers of records. Therefore, big data research in transportation has unique challenges on how to effectively process huge amounts of data records and data streams. The purpose of this study is to conduct research …

Development Of Pre-Stressed Cfrp Fatigue Retrofits For Common Steel Bridge Connections, Korey Albert Pough

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Aging or deterioration of the nation’s bridge infrastructure is a significant issue that requires attention. Causes for much of this deterioration can be attributed to two main factors, 1) corrosion, and 2) metallic fatigue, both of which work together to reduce the strength and serviceability of bridge components over time. In many instances, strengthening of bridge components using localized retrofits offers an economical and fast solution for increasing the longevity of existing steel bridges; however, such retrofits must be resilient to further corrosion and fatigue damage. In this study, a localized retrofit is developed using pre-stressed Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer …

Application Of Polyacrylamide-Based Floc Logs For Turbidity Control At Highway Construction Sites, Kien Ngo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Runoff waters generated on highway construction sites can have turbidities in excess of the proposed EPA regulatory standard of 280 NTU due to large areas of exposed soil. The objective of this research was to develop best management practices (BMPs) for the use of anionic polyacrylamide (PAM) based Floc Logs, for turbidity control. Five commercially available types of PAM-based Floc Logs were evaluated in jar tests, using soil excavated from Cato Springs Research Center (CSRC, Fayetteville AR) and six types of clay from the Clay Minerals Society (Chantilly, VA). These results show that no single Floc Log type was suitable …

Mitigating Pavement Edge Drop Off, Wayne Jensen, Niles Uerling

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The objective of this research was to investigate and document practices currently being used by the Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) districts and other State DOTs to mitigate pavement edge drop off. The NDOR has developed (or borrowed) and is currently incorporating into its standard practices several procedures that significantly decrease the incidence and magnitude of pavement edge-drop off. As these practices become more fully integrated into highway reconstruction projects, pavement edge drop off is expected to decrease dramatically. Localized areas of pavement edge drop off along paved lanes with bare or vegetated shoulders were noted as posing particular problems …

Creating A Highway Information System For Safety Roadway Features, Brian K. Howell, Kenneth R. Agent, Eric Green

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Roadway departures are the leading cause of roadside fatalities. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has undertaken a number of roadside safety measures to reduce roadway departures. Specifically, KYTC has installed several low-cost, systemic roadway safety treatments to Kentucky’s roadways in recent years. These treatments include cable barriers, high friction surface treatments, rumble stripes, and Safety Edges. KYTC has installed approximately 44 cable barrier systems over 265 miles of roadway,112 HFST applications over 20 miles of roadway, 750 rumble stripe installations over 2,500 miles of roadway, and 147 Safety Edge treatments on 580 miles of roadway. The project team developed a …

Fiscal Year 2015 Fhwa-536 Report For The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Steven Douglas Kreis, Candice Y. Wallace, Bryan Gibson, Sarah M. Mccormack

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requires state transportation agencies to submit a biennial report on local highway finances. The purpose of these reports is to provide FHWA with the data it needs to capture the financing of highway activities at the local level. Based on this information, it can identify trends in revenue, expenditures, investments, and program development, and in turn make decisions about future investments. The report, FHWA-536, asks agencies to report on four areas of local highway finance: 1) disposition of highway-user revenues; 2) revenues used for roads and streets identified by source and funding type; 3) road …

Evaluation Of Thermal Imaging Technology For Commercial Vehicle Screening, Jennifer R. Walton, Mark S. Spellman, Joseph D. Crabtree

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Brake and tire violations are common problems identified through commercial vehicle inspections. Identifying and correcting these types of problems before a crash occurs can produce significant safety benefits. Thermal imaging technology can be used by commercial vehicle enforcement to screen vehicles as they approach a weigh station to determine if they may have flat tires and inoperable brakes. The vehicles do not have to be stopped at a weigh station to be screened. Kentucky currently has three stations outfitted with thermal imaging technology. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the benefits of using the thermal imaging cameras to …

Methodology Update For Estimating Volume To Service Flow Ratio, Mei Chen, Xu Zhang

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Volume/service flow ratio (VSF) is calculated by the Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) software as an indicator of peak hour congestion. It is an essential input to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s (KYTC) key planning applications, such as highway adequacy rating. After the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reassessed the HPMS, the standalone HPMS software was no longer supported. This conclusion was based on the 2000 Highway Capacity Manual (HCM2000). As a result, the peak capacity and VSF estimates based on the submittal file are no longer available to KYTC. The calculation of VSF ratios requires AADT, K factor, directional factor, and …

Update Of Data For Estimating Esals, Jerry G. Pigman, R. Clark Graves, Brad W. Rister, David H. Cain, Neil Tollner

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This project involved updating processing traffic characteristics data using a series of quality control and analytical programs to produce an estimate of the following parameters of interest; 1) average daily traffic, 2) percent trucks, 3) percent trucks classified as heavy/coal, 4) axles per truck, 5) axles per heavy/coal truck, 6) ESALs per truck axle, 7) ESALs per heavy/coal truck axle, and 8) total ESALs. ESAL estimation parameters used WIM data collected during 2007, 2011, and 2012–2013 (representing 41 stations); and classification data collected in 2010, 2011 and 2012 (representing 1,669 stations).

Computer programs used to process classification data, process weight …

Nebraska Data Collection, Keyvan Zare Rami, Yong-Rak Kim

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Automated pavement performance data collection is a method that uses advanced technology to collect detailed road surface distress information at traffic speed. Agencies are driven to use automated survey techniques to enhance or replace their current manual distress survey because of the advantages of objective measurements, safety benefits, and reduced measurement time. As agencies move toward the transition to fully automated data collection methods, there are common concerns regarding how the output of the new method will match the current manual survey ratings and how they will be adopted into the existing Pavement Management System (PMS). This study evaluates the …

Development Of A Semicircular Bend (Scb) Test Method For Performance Testing Of Nebraska Asphalt Mixtures, Gabriel Nsengiyumva, Yong-Rak Kim, Taesun You

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Integrating Freight Into Livable Communities, Kristine M. Williams, Alexandria Carroll

TREC Final Reports

Where livability is a goal of the planning process, freight runs the risk of not being considered except as an afterthought or as something to be excluded. Yet, freight is an integral part of local economic development. Because economic prosperity is a key characteristic of livable communities, freight must be incorporated into the planning process. This study explores the relationship between freight and livability through a comprehensive literature review and case study research. The final report includes a menu of strategies and case study perspectives that highlight the importance of transportation and land use integration, interagency coordination, and context-sensitivity in …