Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating Michigan’S Skilled Construction Laborer Shortage Within The Great Lakes Region, Jennifer E. Russell

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The construction industry has been facing a decline in skilled trade labor for decades. This study asks three overarching questions: (a) What are the causes and influencing factors of Michigan’s skilled construction laborer shortage? (b) How are Michigan stakeholders in the Great Lakes Region remedying the shortage? (c) What new solutions can be implemented to remedy Michigan’s skilled construction laborer shortage? A literature review was conducted to identify causes, influencing factors, and research gaps. Closed surveys questioning 69 construction project managers and 101 skilled trade laborers in Michigan were conducted online and on construction sites. A quantitative analysis of the …

Modelling Cross-Border Rail Intermodality In The Windsor-Essex Context, Christopher Aspila

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shipment by truck dominates the cross-border flow of commodities in both directions between Canada and the United States (Anderson and Coates, 2010; Anderson, 2012; Anderson and Brown, 2012; and Aspila and Maoh, 2014). An individual truck typically pulling one or two trailers is an inefficient way to move goods over long distances (Eom et al., 2012) when freight trains with three or more 4400 horsepower diesel-electric locomotives pull over two-hundred intermodal containers loaded on rail cars throughout North America every day.

Windsor, Ontario is an example of a border community in Canada and hosts the busiest border crossing between Canada …

Local Watershed Analysis For Hubbell And Lake Linden, Michigan, Brittany Hubbard

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This report analyzes flood frequency risk, examines drainage, and delineates local level watershed characteristics for the Site located in western HUC 12-040201 030304 Torch Lake Subwatershed. Specifically, unnamed catchments in need of HUC-14 or HUC-16 local level delineation are evaluated to determine the effects of excess runoff on the cities of Hubbell and Lake Linden, Michigan. Further, this report aims to identify the location of known or suspected historical and current drainage infrastructure, and to prioritize locations for low-impact sustainable designs that reduce excess runoff and provide flood protection for these lakeshore communities.

Mapping Michigan's Historic Coastlines, Ryan A. Williams

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This five-year project, sponsored by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, is working to map how Michigan’s Great Lakes shorelines have changed over the past 80+ years. Products of this project include publicly available digital, georeferenced, historic aerial photography datasets, as well as map layers depicting the locations of historic shorelines and bluff lines from 1938, 1980, 2009, 2016, 2018, and 2020. Additional products include bluff retreat risk areas, shoreline rate of change map layers, and tools to assist in the development of future Coastal Vulnerability Index projects for the Great Lakes. All products are available as …

Impact Of Highway Work Zones On Traffic Crashes: A Case Study In Michigan, Qadri Hafez Shaheen

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Infrastructure in the US is severely aged and outdated. This presents a seemingly paradoxical problem in the field of construction management: In order to fix and make roads and highways more safe, construction zones must become inherently less safe in the process. There is a high cost to taxpayers and drivers, as work zones experience a significant amount of crashes and fatalities each year. To mitigate some of the factors that contribute to these crashes, this paper attempts to deliver guidelines on how to update relevant crash data, identify relevant factors, and create recommendations accordingly. The research focused particularly on …

Assessing The Impacts Of Climate Change On The Surface Temperature Of Inland Lakes In Michigan, Kaitlin Reinl

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The aim of this study was to validate and apply a lake model for predicting the susceptibility of small inland lakes in Michigan to changes in thermal regime and increased cyanobacteria growth as a result of future climate conditions. The Freshwater Lake Model was selected, tested for sensitivity to various inputs, and validated through comparison to observed conditions. The sensitivity analysis showed that the lake model was most sensitive to solar radiation, air temperature, and air humidity. Comparison of predicted climate data with observed conditions revealed highly variable climate model error. The lake model validation was conducted using 10 lakes …

Overtime Traffic Enforcement Evaluation: A Methodology For Selecting Agencies And Enforcement Periods, Dario Enrique Romero Santana

Masters Theses

Multiple studies have stated the advantages of police traffic enforcement on crash reduction (Zaidel, February 2002). It is very important to identify locations and time periods where police enforcement produces the greatest crash reductions. The objectives of this study were to: (1) determine the impact of overtime traffic enforcement on crash occurrence; (2) develop procedures to identify police agencies with potential to reduce targeted crashes; and (3) develop procedures to identify additional time periods in which enforcement activities should be conducted. In order to accomplish these objectives, many methodologies were explored. The study used crash and enforcement data collected by …