Digital Commons Network^™

Project Management Training, Bob Mccullouch, Walter Land

JTRP Technical Reports

In 2005 the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) went through a complete reorganization of its operations going from centralized to decentralized (District) management. This reorganization gave Districts autonomy to manage construction projects with one exception all added capacity projects are managed in the central office by the office of project management. Following in 2006 INDOT initiated a program named “Major Moves.” This is a ten year major road building program that was funded partially through a $4 billion lease of the Indiana Toll Road. Through Major Moves annual new construction will go from $213 million in FY 2006 to $1.2 …

Subsidizing The Press, David M. Schizer

Faculty Scholarship

Through beat reporting and investigative journalism, reporters monitor the foundational institutions of our society. This reporting has value even to those who never buy a newspaper or read a website. For example, subscribers and nonsubscribers alike benefit when government officials respond to a critical news story by eliminating an abusive practice. Yet unfortunately, the professional press is experiencing a severe economic crisis. Layoffs are pervasive, and news organizations across the nation are on the brink of insolvency. As a result, a number of commentators have proposed government subsidies for the press. Yet if the press becomes financially dependent on the …

Minimalism And Experimentalism In The Administrative State, Charles F. Sabel, William H. Simon

Faculty Scholarship

This Article identifies and appraises the two most promising alternatives to the "command-and-control" style of public administration that was dominant from the New Deal to the 1980s but is now in disfavor The first – minimalism – emphasizes public interventions that incorporate market concepts and practices while also centralizing and minimizing administrative discretion. The second – experimentalism – emphasizes interventions in which the central government affords broad discretion to local administrative units but measures and assesses their performance in ways designed to induce continuous learning and revision of standards. Minimalism has been prominent in legal scholarship and in the policy …

Design Mentoring Tool, Bob Mccullouch, Walter Land

JTRP Technical Reports

In 2004 a design engineer on-line mentoring tool was developed and implemented The purpose of the tool was to assist senior engineers mentoring new engineers to the INDOT design process and improve their technical competency. This approach saves senior engineers time while developing a consistent mentoring approach and standardizing technical knowledge in road and bridge design. It is a self-guided tool that utilizes multi-media and web-based technologies, trains engineers in the design process and provides resources to use for developing plans and specifications. Available resources include INDOT design practices, design standards, design memos, specification and construction standards, procedures, and check …

Benefits And Assessment Of Annual Budget Requirements For Pavement Preservation, Hiral K. Shah, Yoojung Yoon, Makarand Hastak, Jusang Lee

JTRP Technical Reports

This research identifies methods and best practices that can be used by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) in performing various strategies for pavement preservation. It also identifies various methods of calculating benefits of pavement preservation and a methodology for allocation of funds for pavement preservation, which are the two main objectives of this research. In order to achieve these objectives, several tasks were performed: literature review, data collection through Surveys and telephone interviews, data analysis and recommendations. For the data collection process, all the DOTs across the US and three Canadian provinces were sent a Survey. A total of …

Dynamic Real-Time Routing For Evacuation Response Planning And Execution, Srinivas Peeta, Sushant Sharma, Yu-Ting Hsu

JTRP Technical Reports

This study addresses the problem of dynamic routing operations in the emergency response context, primarily in terms of the routing of response vehicles and evacuees. The study focuses on identifying the paths used for routing response vehicles and the evacuees in disaster situations. In this context, two application modules are developed: module for K-shortest paths routing and module for multiple-stop routing. The K-shortest paths module allows more flexible options for routing response vehicles under the dynamic network conditions due to a disaster. It provides multiple routes for evacuation and response operations. The multiple-stop routing module enables the delivery of relief …

Improving Safety In High-Speed Work Zones: A Super 70 Study, Andrew P. Tarko, Mouyid Bin Islam, Jose E. Thomaz

JTRP Technical Reports

Super 70 was an urban reconstruction project (March-November 2007) along I-70 in the central part of Indianapolis. INDOT applied in that project several innovative and traditional solutions. This study investigates the safety effect of the solutions. Advanced econometric models were applied to study both the spatial differences in the risk of crash on different roads inside and outside of the construction zone and short-term fluctuations in response to changes in traffic, weather, and traffic management. The single most successful management strategy was rerouting heavy vehicles (13+ tons) on alternative interstate routes. The second significant source of safety benefit was jointly …

Variability Analysis Of The Bulk Resistivity Measured Using Concrete Cylinders, Robert P. Spragg, J. Castro, Tommy E. Nantung, M. Paredes, W. Jason Weiss

JTRP Technical Reports

Many agencies are interested in using a rapid test method for measuring the electrical properties of concrete (i.e., the resistivity or conductivity) since the electrical properties can be related to fluid transport (e.g., ion diffusion). The advantage of electrical testing is that it is relatively easy to perform and the test method is relatively fast (less than a minute). Over the last century, many studies have investigated different approaches for measuring electrical properties. This paper describes the variability associated with measuring the bulk resistivity along the longitudinal axis of a cylinder after placing electrodes on either end. A multi-laboratory evaluation …

Performance Evaluation Of Seal Coat Materials And Designs, Jusang Lee, Todd Shields, Hyung Jun Ahn

JTRP Technical Reports

This project presents an evaluation of seal coat materials and design method. The primary objectives of this research are 1) to evaluate seal coat performance from various combinations of aggregates and emulsions in terms of aggregate loss; 2) to evaluate how the properties of aggregates and emulsions affect seal coat performance; 3) to evaluate current seal coat design methods based on INDOT seal coat practice; and 4) to develop seal coat design software incorporating Indiana practice.

To evaluate the effects of aggregate and emulsion types on aggregate loss performance of seal coat, three emulsions and eight aggregates including CRS-2P, RS-2P, …

Development Of Load And Resistance Factor Design For Ultimate And Serviceability Limit States Of Transportation Structure Foundations, Rodrigo Salgado, Sang Inn Woo, Dongwook Kim

JTRP Technical Reports

Most foundation solutions for transportation structures rely on deep foundations, often on pile foundations configured in a way most suitable to the problem at hand. Design of pile foundation solutions can best be pursued by clearly defining limit states and then configuring the piles in such a way as to prevent the attainment of these limit states. The present report develops methods for load and resistance factor design (LRFD) of piles, both nondisplacement and displacement piles, in sand and clay. With the exception of the method for design of displacement piles in sand, all the methods are based on rigorous …

Analysis Of Indot Current Hydraulic Policies, Venkatesh Merwade, Sanjiv Kumar

JTRP Technical Reports

Hydraulic design often tends to be on a conservative side for safety reasons. Hydraulic structures are typically oversized with the goal being reduced future maintenance costs, and to reduce the risk of property owner complaints. This approach leads to a conservative design with higher construction costs. Therefore, there is a need to quantify the cost-benefit aspect of this conservative approach. Accordingly, the overall objective of this project is to compare hydraulic design policies of Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) with that of other states, and perform cost-benefit analysis of large versus smaller hydraulic structures in terms of capital and maintenance …

Analysis Of Change Orders In Geotechnical Engineering Work At Indot, Varenya Kumar Duvvuru Mohan, Monica Prezzi, Bob Mccullouch

JTRP Technical Reports

Change orders represent a cost to the State and to tax payers that often extremely large because contractors tend to charge very large amounts to any additional work that deviates from the work that was originally planned. Therefore, efforts must be made to reduce the occurrence of change orders in order to provide significant cost savings to the state of Indiana and save taxpayer dollars. The proposed research, in this context, developed a set of guidelines to allow the geotechnical office of the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to minimize the probability of having geotechnical change orders, based on analysis …

Procurement Procedures And Specifications For Performance Measure Capable Traffic Infrastructure Data Collection Systems, Christopher M. Day, Thomas M. Brennan Jr., Joseph M. Ernst, Jim Sturdevant, Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Technical Reports

Traffic signal systems represent a substantial component of the highway transportation network in the United States. It is challenging for most agencies to find engineering resources to properly update signal policies and timing plans to accommodate changing traffic demands. Upgrading existing systems can achieve incremental benefits, but do not address the fundamental problem that information about system performance is not communicated to the agency in a meaningful or systematic way. This project developed a collaborative pilot deployment partnership between a large public agency, university, and commercial equipment manufacturers to define an architecture for a centralized traffic signal management system that …

Recovering Full Repair Costs Of Indot Infrastructure Damaged By Motor Vehicle Crashes, Grant D. Farnsworth, Thomas M. Brennan Jr., Darcy M. Bullock

JTRP Technical Reports

There are approximately 4,000 instances per year where state property located along Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) maintained right-of-way needs to be replaced or repaired due to motor vehicle crashes. INDOT incurs significant financial losses to repair state property damage that is not recovered from the responsible driver because responsible parties can not be identified and invoices do not reflect the fully-loaded cost of the repair. This study’s objective is to identify enhanced management procedures to decrease the financial burden of the state by identifying best practices supporting the following four goals: 1) increasing the percent of invoices collected, 2) …

Identification And Behavior Of Collapsible Soils, Alain El Howayek, Pao-Tsung Huang, Rachael Bisnett, Maria C. Santagata

JTRP Technical Reports

Loess is a soil that can exhibit large deformations upon wetting. Cases of wetting induced collapse in loess have been documented for natural deposits and man-made fills. These issues are of concern to the Indiana DOT due to the growth of the state’s infrastructure in regions with significant loess deposits.

The research reviewed the existing literature on loess, focusing on index properties, structure, mineralogy, criteria used for quantifying collapsibility, methods for measuring collapse potential, and, in particular, the collapsibility of compacted loess. Additionally, available documentation on loess deposits in Indiana was reviewed and summarized.

This research also included experimental work …

Truck Travel Characteristics As An Indicator Of System Condition And Performance, Anwaar Ahmed, Mathew Volovski, Daniel Van Boxel, Samuel Labi, Kumares C. Sinha

JTRP Technical Reports

The effect of trucks on the level of service is determined by considering passenger car equivalents (PCE) of trucks. The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) uses a single PCE value for all tucks combined. However, the composition of truck traffic varies from location to location; therefore a single PCE-value for all trucks may not correctly represent the impact of truck traffic at specific locations. Consequently, the Indiana Department of Transportation wanted to develop separate PCE values for single-unit and combination trucks to replace the single value provided in the HCM. Traditionally, equivalent delay and microscopic simulations have been used to estimate …

Post-Processing Techniques To Enhance Reliability Of Assignment Algorithm Based Performance Measures, Srinivas Peeta, Amit Kumar, Sushant Sharma

JTRP Technical Reports

This study develops an enhanced transportation planning framework by augmenting the sequential four-step planning process with post-processing techniques. The post-processing techniques are incorporated through a feedback mechanism and aim to improve the stability and convergence properties of the solution, thereby improving the reliability of the planning process. There are three building blocks of the proposed post-processing module: slope-based multi-path algorithm or SMPA, perturbation assignment, and O-D prioritization technique. SMPA is the most important part of the module and it can be used as both a post-processing algorithm and an independent static traffic assignment algorithm. In addition to SMPA, the post-processing …

High Performance Concrete Pavement In Indiana, Tommy E. Nantung

JTRP Technical Reports

Until the early 1990s, curling and warping of Portland cement concrete pavement did not concern pavement engineers in many transportation agencies. Since beginning construction of the interstate system in the United States in the late 1950s through the late 1980s, the performance of Portland cement concrete pavement has been associated with properties of concrete as a pavement material. In those years developed standards and design guidelines emphasized better concrete materials and construction control. At the time, combining curling and loading stresses was quite controversial due to the nature of the load-carrying capacity of concrete pavement and the occurrence of types …

Long-Term Behavior Of Integral Abutment Bridges, Robert J. Frosch, Matthew D. Lovell

JTRP Technical Reports

Integral abutment (IA) construction has become the preferred method over conventional construction for use with typical highway bridges. However, the use of these structures is limited due to state mandated length and skew limitations. To expand their applicability, studies were implemented to define limitations supported by rational analysis rather than simply engineering judgment. Previous research investigations have resulted in larger length limits and an overall better understanding of these structures. However, questions still remain regarding IA behavior; specifically questions regarding long-term behavior and effects of skew. To better define the behavior of these structures, a study was implemented to specifically …

The Genesis Of The Gats (General Agreement On Trade In Services), Juan A. Marchetti, Petros C. Mavroidis

Faculty Scholarship

The Uruguay Round services negotiations saw the light of day amidst pressures from lobbies in developed countries, unilateral retaliatory actions, and ideological struggle in the developing world. The final outcome, the GATS, certainly characterized by a complex structure and awkward drafting here and there, is not optimal but is an important first step towards the liberalization of trade in services. This article traces the GATS negotiating history, from its very beginning in the late 1970s, paying particular attention to the main forces that brought the services dossier to the multilateral trading system (governments, industries, and academics), and the interaction between …

The I Of The Beholder, Grady B. Manus

Theses

The essay that follows is an overview of some of the writers and schools of poetics that have influenced my poetry and writing process. A writer's voice echoes their philosophy about the art and the voices of those whose work they most appreciate. I have tried to credit those influences and describe, in brief, my approach to poetry.

My belief is that all art should be exercises in experimentation. Stretching strengthens a poet's work and the art. Poetry is a living thing and it must move and breathe and grow or it will simply cease to be a viable force. …

Using A Flow-Chart To Reduce Juror's Pre-Existing Biases In Cases Utilizing The Insanity Defense, Lauren M. Schlumper

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Many people believe that the insanity defense is used to avoid responsibility for committing a crime and that it returns dangerous individuals back to the streets. Due to the fact that it is difficult to separate such pre-existing attitudes from evidence presented throughout the trial, many jurors use their attitudes to assist them when deciding a verdict and punishment. For example, Steblay, Hosch, Culhane & McWethy (2006) found that not only is it difficult for jurors to disregard information that is not relevant or presented during trial, but that pre-trial information and attitudes can actually influence their verdict. The present …

Overcoming The Odds: The Success Story Of An African American Gifted Male Student, Jhondra Anderson Barnes

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to identify how and why some African American students included in gifted programs maintain academic and social success. Data from semi-structured interview responses, behavioral checklists, and personality traits rating scales were coded and themed as a means to tell Elijah's story. Currently a 20 year old African American college student, Elijah was initially overlooked by his elementary school teachers for a potential gifted placement and subsequently referred himself. Participants of this study include Elijah and eleven of his former teachers, administrators, coaches, and mentors. Emerging themes from the research as sources of qualities to …

Full-Newton-Step Interior-Point Method For The Linear Complementarity Problems, H.K. Pubudu Kaluarachchi

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, we present a new Interior-Point Method (IPM) for monotone Linear Complementarity Problem (LPC). The advantage of the method is that it uses full Newton-steps, thus, avoiding the calculation of the step size at each iteration. However, by suitable choice of parameters the iterates are forced to stay in the neighborhood of the central path, hence, still guaranteeing the global convergence of the method under strict feasibility assumption. The number of iterations necessary to find 2-approximate solution of the problem matches the best known iteration bounds for these types of methods. The preliminary implementation of the method and …

Time Series Analysis Of Stock Prices Using The Box-Jenkins Approach, Shakira Green

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

A time series is a sequence of data points, typically measured at uniform time intervals. Examples occur in a variety of fields ranging from economics to engineering, and methods of analyzing time series constitute an important part of Statistics. Time series analysis comprises methods for analyzing time series data in order to extract meaningful characteristics of the data and forecast future values. The Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models, or Box-Jenkins methodology, are a class of linear models that are capable of representing stationary as well as nonstationary time series. ARIMA models rely heavily on autocorrelation patterns. This paper will …

The Prevalence Of Impaired Type 2 Fasting Blood Glucose Concentrations Among College-Aged Individuals, Elizabeth Graham

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Impaired fasting glucose (IFG) is a condition where fasting blood glucose (FBG) is above normal but not high enough to be considered diabetic. IFG is linked with many comorbid diseases such as obesity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. The purpose of this study was to observe anthropometric values including weight, height, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference and assesses the prevalence of IFG concentration in college-aged students. One hundred and ninety-eight students participated in a one-time assessment. The subjects completed a physical activity questionnaire, current medical history, FBG, and anthropometric values following an overnight fast. The prevalence of IFG was low …

Analysis Of The Performance Of Peanut Fame In A Single Cylinder Idi Engine And Investigations Of Neat Methyl Ester Influence On Fuel Quality, Jeffery Lewis

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Author's abstract: To meet evolving standards set forth by the U.S. EPA and U.S. Energy Policy it is necessary to consider a variety of feedstock for biofuels synthesis and to understand the role individual fatty acids contribute to the overall performance. It is the belief of the authors that excess peanut production would provide an excellent source for high quality biodiesel feedstock, and the complete property and combustion analysis of the fatty acid components will provide insight for future biofuel developments. The preliminary investigations of the project focused on the combustion performance and thermal efficiency of peanut FAME and its …

Drift And The Risk-Free Rate, Anda Gadidov, M. C. Spruill

Faculty Articles

It is proven, under a set of assumptions differing from the usual ones in the unboundedness of the time interval, that, in an economy in equilibrium consisting of a risk-free cash account and an equity whose price process is a geometric Brownian motion on [0,∞), the drift rate must be close to the risk-free rate; if the drift rate μ and the risk-free rate r are constants, then r = μ and the price process is the same under both empirical and risk neutral measures. Contributing in some degree perhaps to interest in this mathematical curiosity is the fact, based …

Long-Term Performance Of Buried Pipes Under Flowable Fill And Granular Stone Backfill, Sai Bharath Kumar Varre

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Underground conduits have been used to improve living standards of people since the development of civilization. Buried pipes are used in various applications such as highway drainage, sewerage and conveyance systems. Time dependent properties such as creep associated with thermoplastic (HDPE and PVC) and concrete materials may reduce the expected design life of pipes under field conditions. The objective of this research work was to examine the long term performance of buried pipes used in highway applications by using the finite element method. The variables investigated in this research include types of pipe material, pipe diameter, fill height, pipe backfill …

An Investigation Of Diesel Pm Particle Morphology Using Tem And Sem, Ganesh Vedula

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research investigates the effect of engine load and combustion mode on the size, shape and microstructure of PM particles of two diesel engines using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS), and electron microscopes including scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The effect of engine load on the morphology of PM particle was investigated using a 2004 MACK MP7-355E heavy-duty diesel engine. The effect of combustion mode on the morphology of the PM particles was preliminarily examined using 2005 Opel 1.9 L light-duty diesel engine. The SEM images were processed using ImageJ V: 1.44o software to obtain …