Engineering Commons^™

The Relationship Between Vmt And Economic Activity, B. Starr Mcmullen, Nathan Eckstein

TREC Final Reports

Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the U.S. have exhibited an upward trend over time similar to that observed for gross domestic product (GDP) and personal income (PI). While conventional wisdom suggests that economic growth leads to more driving and thus higher VMT, it is theoretically possible that the causation could also be the other way around. If causation is from VMT to GDP, then legislation such as the Federal Surface Transportation Policy and Planning Act of 2009’s directive to annually reduce national per capita VMT could potentially have an adverse impact on overall economic activity.

This study uses times series …

Large–Scale Laboratory Observations Of Wave Forces On A Highway Bridge Superstructure, Chris Bradner, Thomas Schumacher, Daniel Cox, Christopher Higgins

TREC Final Reports

A. Objectives The objectives of this study are to: (1) conduct the first, large-scale physical model study of wave loads on a highway bridge superstructure under realistic wave conditions and bridge geometries, and (2) evaluate the application of existing design formulas developed for deep water, wave-in-deck loading of offshore structures to shallow water, highway bridge geometries. This will aid in our understanding of the dynamic loads by hurricane waves on highway bridge superstructures and assess the accuracy of present methods for safer design of new bridges or retrofit of existing bridges. B. Scope In their 2006 report titled "Wave Forces …

Bridge Damage Models For Seismic Risk Assessment Of Oregon Highway Network, Peter Dusicka, Jeffery Roberts

TREC Final Reports

The highway transportation network of the United States relies on the health and integrity of major infrastructure elements such as bridges. Frequently traveled parts of Oregon are within the seismically active Pacific Northwest and many of the bridges were designed and built to lateral demands that were assumed to be less than the current expectation, a deficiency caused by our growing awareness of seismic hazard and our enhanced understanding of the non-linear response of bridges. This vulnerability to damage from earthquakes can result in not only immediate damage, but also in potentially lingering economic impact caused by the disruption to …

Evaluation Of Safe Routes To School Programs: Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Of Parental Decision-Making, Lynn Weigand, Noreen Mcdonald

TREC Final Reports

In the United States, walking to school declined from 42% of 5-18 year olds in 1969 to 16% in 20011. The US Department of Transportation has responded to this dramatic decrease by funding the Safe Routes to School program for $612 million in SAFETEA-LU. The program’s funding emphasize infrastructure improvements such as completing sidewalks and adding crosswalks by requiring between 70% and 90% of funding be allocated toward infrastructure. However, recent research shows that 2 of 3 children who currently are driven to school, but live close enough to walk, do so because it is more convenient for parents. Currently, …

Factors For Improved Fish Passage Waterway Construction, David N. Sillars, Hamid Moradkhani, Nicholas Tymvios, Trevor D. Smith

TREC Final Reports

Streambeds are important fish passageways in Oregon; they provide for the necessary habitats and spawning cycles of a healthy fish population. Oregon state law requires that hydraulic structures located in water properly provide fish passage. Increasingly stringent state and federal regulations apply to these fish passageways, and designers must become more cognizant of conditions over a range of flows to accommodate fish movement and avoid expensive structural failure of these passageways. Fish passage structures are built when roads cross streambeds and may include culverts, or bridges. When these structures are built, the streambeds are re-created using a technique called “roughened …

Assessment Of Statewide Intersection Safety Performance, Christopher M. Monsere, Todd Johnson, Karen Dixon, Jianfei Zheng, Ida Schalkwyk

TREC Final Reports

This report summarizes the results of an analysis of the safety performance of Oregon’s intersections. Following a pilot study, a database of 500 intersections randomly sampled from around the state of Oregon in both urban and rural environments was assembled. These intersections were categorized into eight types based on number of legs (3 and 4), land use (urban or rural) and traffic control (signalized or minor stop-control). These categories were chosen to align with the intersection types in AASHTO’s recently released Highway Safety Manual (HSM). Geometric and traffic control elements were supplemented by compiling crash data and volumes on the …

Exploratory Methods For Truck Re-Identification In A Statewide Network Based On Axle Weight And Axle Spacing Data To Enhance Freight Metrics, Christopher M. Monsere, Mecit Cetin, Andrew Nichols

TREC Final Reports

The main objective of this project is to evaluate the feasibility of re-identifying commercial trucks based on vehicle-attribute data automatically collected by sensors installed at traffic data collection stations. To support this work, archived data from weigh-in-motion (WIM) stations in Oregon are used for developing, calibrating, and testing vehicle re-identification algorithms. The vehicle re-identification methods developed in this research consist of two main stages. In the first stage, each vehicle from the downstream station is matched to the most “similar” upstream vehicle by using a Bayesian model. In the second stage, several methods are introduced to screen out those vehicles …

Development Of An Open Source Bridge Management System, Michael H. Scott

TREC Final Reports

A bridge management system is developed using the Tcl scripting language in conjunction with the OpenSees finite element software framework. Fully programmable and string-based, Tcl is ideal for implementing live load analysis through scripts and experimenting with emergent bridge rating methodologies. Since Tcl is an interpreted language, the application also has the important advantage that new bridge capacity models and rating factor calculations can be implemented on multiple platforms without compiling source code. The network programming features of Tcl give the system access to databases for conducting internet-based bridge rating. The system is demonstrated for rating a conventionally reinforced concrete …

Assessment And Refinement Of Real-Time Travel Time Algorithms For Use In Practice, Phase Ii, Kristin A. Tufte, Soyoung Ahn, Sirisha Murthy Kothuri

TREC Final Reports

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has put a high priority on the use of existing dynamic message signs (DMS) to provide travel time estimates to the public. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has three DMS in the Portland metropolitan area configured to display travel time information. In the near future, ODOT would like to make travel time estimates available on additional DMS, over the Internet on tripcheck.com and via 511. Travel time estimates are valuable to the traveling public; however, the estimates must be accurate to be useful. The purpose of this study is to extend prior travel time …