Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Evaluation Of Manual Thermal Brake Screening Systems, Jeeyen Koo, David Leddy, Jennifer Walton

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

In 2021, manual thermal brake screening systems were installed at Lyon EB and Rowan County weigh stations. Two additional units were installed at Laurel SB and Scott County weigh stations the following year. Although this system is called a thermal brake screening system, its thermal camera images are used to find both brake and tire-related violations. At the time of this project, Lyon (EB), Rowan, and Scott County inspection locations also had tire pressure detection systems in addition to manual thermal brake screening systems. Both systems can be used to identify tire-related violations, but inspectors prefer to use the tire …

Developing A Cross-Asset Allocation Mechanism, Jon Wilcoxson, Bryan Gibson, Bethany Paris

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has developed several tools and methods to compare the value of proposed projects within specific programs and asset classes, including the Enhanced Bridge Prioritization Index, Enhanced Pavement Prioritization Index, and the Strategic Highway Investment Formula for Tomorrow (SHIFT). Although immensely valuable, these methods and tools do not offer a convenient way of comparing the contributions of individual projects to meeting overall KYTC performance goals. As such, the Cabinet needs a robust mechanism for comparing the impact of projects across its capital, safety, and asset management programs. Following a review of cross-asset allocation frameworks described in …

Best Practices For Maintenance Of Traffic On Interstate Pavement Rehabilitation Projects, Catherine Keathley, Ryan Griffith, Rachel Catchings

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Across the United States, aging roadway infrastructure has led state departments of transportation (DOTs) to increase their focus on pavement rehabilitation projects. These projects upgrade existing infrastructure to meet the needs of current levels of vehicle use. On interstate rehabilitation projects, maintenance of traffic (MOT) is an especially important consideration. Having a good MOT plan for completing construction work is critical for maintaining facility capacity while ensuring the safety of the traveling public and roadway construction staff. This study explores on behalf of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) best practices for MOT on interstate pavement rehabilitation projects. Based on a …

Accommodating Innovative Uses Of Public Right Of Way, Travis Thompson, David Moses, Candice Wallace, Pam Clay-Young, Arlen Sandlin

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

State departments of transportation (DOTs) are embracing the use of clean energy and connectivity (CEC) applications along publicly owned right of way (ROW). Applications such as wind and solar power installations, broadband lines, small cell wireless equipment, electric vehicle charging stations, and technologies related to connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) hold considerable promise for conferring environmental benefits, energy savings, and generating much-needed revenue for DOTs. This report explores innovative uses of state-owned ROW that the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) could implement. Although Kentucky may not be currently situated for all clean energy applications, opportunities in solar do currently exist and …

Development Of A Sms Rollout Plan And Evaluation, Gabriel Dadi, Hala Nassereddine, Farshid Taherpour, Salena Pham

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Many state transportation agencies have introduced safety management systems (SMSs) to improve employee safety and health programs. These systems let employees quickly access safety and health policies, procedures, training, responsibilities, resources, and incident reporting tools, often electronically. Instituting a SMS is a critical step in adopting a proactive, data-driven approach to organizational safety. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Secretary’s Office of Safety (SOS) worked with Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) to acquire, adapt, and rollout the Boosting Occupational Outcomes in Transportation Safety (BOOTS) system, a new SMS. Researchers assisted KYTC by conducting pre-rollout focus groups, helping to bring the system online, providing …

Using Knowledge Of Human Factors To Strengthen Highway Design, Chris Van Dyke, Jeff Jasper, Jill Asher, Steve Waddle

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Transportation practitioners recognize that leveraging knowledge of human factors in road design is critical for delivering safe mobility to the full spectrum of multimodal road users (motorists, pedestrians, micromobility users, transit users). Understanding how psychology, cognition, and behavioral tendencies shape the ways in which different road users interact with one another and the road environment itself is critical for creating design solutions that promote safe and efficient movement. NCHRP Report 600 (Human Factors Guidelines for Road Systems) provides guidance on integrating knowledge of human factors into design practice. While the report is a valuable resource, it appears to …

Developing Guidelines For The Use Of Lightweight Materials In Culvert Preservation, Charlie Sun, Kean H. Ashurst Jr.

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This study addresses challenges that arise during highway embankment construction on road widening projects when additional fill is placed above existing culverts. Researchers conducted reduced-scale model laboratory tests to simulate culvert behavior under different loading conditions and to determine how well lightweight materials (LWMs) perform when subjected to changing loads. Testing showed that proximity of LWM to the culvert’s top surface strongly influences the magnitude of strain reductions or increases. Placing LWMs with relatively low elastic modulus closer to the culvert’s top surface led to reduced culvert ceiling strain and increased culvert wall strain. LWMs with relatively high elastic modulus …

Addressing Multimodal Transportation Needs Through Complete Streets Implementation, Eirini Stavropoulou, Nikiforos Stamatiadis, William Staats, Teng Wang, Reginald Souleyrette

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Since the early 2000s, over 1,600 transportation agencies in the United States have adopted Complete Streets policies. Recently, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) published its Complete Streets, Roads, and Highways Manual, which aims to implement a safe and equitable transportation system throughout the state, as well as a Complete Streets policy. The manual and policy offer guidance on integrating Complete Streets principles into road design, however, KYTC currently lacks tools or methods to evaluate how well specific projects address Complete Streets goals. This is problematic because systematic assessments are needed to effectively prioritize projects and allocate scarce funding. Based …

Estimation Of Benefits From Pedestrian And Bicycle Improvements, Dionysios Tzamakos, Nikiforos Stamatiadis, William Staats, Teng Wang, Reginald Souleyrette

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Delivering safe mobility for all users of the transportation system is a key priority of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC). Because many system users rely on pedestrian and bicycle facilities, it is critical for KYTC to balance pedestrian and bicycle facility accommodations with those for motorized users. Currently, the Strategic Highway Investment Formula for Tomorrow (SHIFT) — the Cabinet’s systematic approach to scoring and prioritizing proposed roadway projects — awards up to five points (out of a possible total of 100) for pedestrian and bicycle projects. But the agency lacks a robust method for estimating the benefits of pedestrian and …

Balancing Environmental Clearances With Construction Work Zone Needs, Chris Van Dyke, Steve Waddle, Ying Li

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

On small, single-span bridge projects (< 100 feet), the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) during project development works to establish an environmentally clear area (ECA) large enough to accommodate contractor operations. An adequately sized ECA gives contractors sufficient room to have materials delivered, park vehicles, store materials, and maneuver equipment around the project site (e.g., cranes, drill rig). If a contractor finds an ECA is too small to support their operations, they are responsible for obtaining additional environmental clearances. Clearing additional areas following the project award can slow down project delivery. To reduce the likelihood of contractors needing to enlarge an ECA, this report includes four documents KYTC can implement immediately to streamline and clarify the environmental clearances process. They include a checklist that project managers can use to coordinate the work of project team members and verify environmental clearances are on track, a combined environmental clearances workflow and best practices document for use by environmental subject-matter experts (SMEs), proposed language that can be inserted into project proposals that describes the environmental clearance process and specifies materials the Cabinet will hand off to contractors showing the location of the ECA, and a one-page explainer for contractors describing the environmental clearances process. Taken together, these deliverables emphasize the importance of early and ongoing coordination among project team members, clearing as much area as practical in and around bridges, and being transparent with contractors about their responsibilities.

Guidebook For Project Management, Jill Asher, Keith Caudill, Travis Thompson, Jeff Jasper, Chris Van Dyke, Samantha Wright, Bryan Gibson, Pam Clay-Young, Candice Wallace

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

For the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s (KYTC) Department of Highways, project development encompasses all the work activities needed to move a transportation project from concept and project initiation to construction letting. Developing projects efficiently requires the adoption of sound project management practices. Although KYTC has a long track record of executing complex projects, doing so is increasingly challenging due to staff attrition and the attendant loss of institutional knowledge. Today’s entry- and mid-level project managers have more responsibilities than ever but lack a trusted source of guidance to help them manage projects from development through completion. The objective of this study …

Reducing Vehicle Licensing And Titling Fraud, Mallory Brown, Andrew Martin, Jeeyen Koo, Jennifer Walton

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This study reviews Kentucky’s vehicle licensing and registration program, evaluates methods of motor vehicle title fraud, examines current anti-fraud mechanisms in Kentucky, reports on vehicle titling and anti-fraud efforts in other states, assesses Ohio’s vehicle inspection program, and develops a proposal for a new Kentucky rebuilt title inspection program. Researchers developed the proposal based on historical Kentucky vehicle registration and titling data, a survey of other states, and other information provided by Kentucky’s Division of Motor Vehicle Licensing and other agency partners. Kentucky historical data revealed consistently high numbers of salvage title applications as well as spatial concentration in rebuilt …

Online Instructional Tools For Motor Carriers, Brian Howell, Jennifer Walton, Paul Ross, Andrew Martin

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Commercial motor carrier customers on Kentucky highways must register and pay taxes for licensing and credentialing requirements. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) provides an online Motor Carrier Portal that offers information and instructions on meeting these requirements, but customers have increasingly resorted to calling into KYTC’s motor carrier help desk, thereby straining limited personnel resources. The Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) coordinated with KYTC to develop a series of online instructional videos that can better assist customers with applying for and meeting credentialing requirements.

KTC researchers used a three-phase approach to determine the feasibility and requirements for instructional videos. First, they …

Impact Of The New Context Functional Classifications For Kytc, Arlen Sandlin, Jill Asher, Nikiforos Stamatiadis, Jeff Jasper, Rachel Catchings, Chris Van Dyke

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

State transportation agencies are adopting an expanded context classification system to inform project development and delivery. This system classifies roadways into one of five categories based on factors such as level of development, building densities and setbacks, multimodal user patterns and requirements, network permeability, and speed. Compared to functional classification, context classification better captures the types of mobility, travel patterns, and user mixes observed in specific contexts. The expanded context classification system is found in AASHTO’s A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets (7^th Edition). The forthcoming 8^th edition will deepen integration of context classification throughout …

Pl 43 Traffic Forecasting Report 2023, Mei Chen, Xu Zhang, Eugene Antwi

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This document is the seventh edition of the Traffic Forecasting Report (TFR) for the state of Kentucky. TFR data are important for multiple engineering applications that involve analyzing temporal and spatial variability in traffic distributions and volumes. Most of the metrics discussed in the report were computed using data from 2019, 2021, and 2022 — excluded from consideration were 2020 data because they exhibited anomalous traffic patterns tied to shutdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Data summarized in this report include average daily traffic, annual average daily truck traffic, travel activity by vehicle type, weekday and weekend hourly volume percentages, …

Strengthening The Deployment Of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (Uas) At Kytc, Rachel Catchings, Suzanne Smith, Gayle Marks, Candice Wallace, Christopher Van Dyke

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) and transportation agencies around the United States increasingly depends on uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS — also commonly known as drones) to collect data and accelerate project development and delivery. Drones let transportation practitioners safely and efficiently perform many activities, including bridge and highway inspection, construction monitoring, surveying, emergency response, and measuring stockpiles. KYTC’s implementation of UAS has expanded rapidly over the past 10 years, however, the agency lacks well-coordinated procedures for connecting pilots with end data users, scheduling and conducting flights, developing and documenting best practices, and processing and storing data. Based on a review …

Best Practices For Recruitment And Retention Of Transportation Professionals, Chris Van Dyke, Bryan Gibson, Sarah Mccormack, Merl Hackbart, Doug Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Many public sector agencies, including state departments of transportation (DOTs), have long found recruiting and retaining staff a daunting challenge. Lured by the promise of higher salaries in the private sector, many people are reluctant to sacrifice their long-term earnings potential to pursue public service. And with the quality of fringe benefits (e.g., retirement plans, health insurance) offered by public agencies having declined gradually, it is even more difficult to persuade prospective employees to accept a lower salary. Many studies over the past 15—20 years have looked at methods for solving the problem of recruitment and retention within the context …

Simple Sars-Cov-2 Concentration Methods For Wastewater Surveillance In Low Resource Settings, Mohammad Dehghan Banadaki, Soroosh Torabi, Alexus Lori Rockward, William Strike, Ann Noble, James W. Keck, Scott M. Berry

UK CARES Faculty Publications

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) measures pathogens in wastewater to monitor infectious disease prevalence in communities. Due to the high dilution of pathogens in sewage, a concentration method is often required to achieve reliable biomarker signals. However, most of the current concentration methods rely on expensive equipment and labor-intensive processes, which limits the application of WBE in low-resource settings. Here, we compared the performance of four inexpensive and simple concentration methods to detect SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater samples: Solid Fraction, Porcine Gastric Mucin-conjugated Magnetic Beads, Calcium Flocculation- Citrate Dissolution (CFCD), and Nanotrap® Magnetic Beads (NMBs). The NMBs and CFCD methods yielded the highest …

Pilot Study On Improving Crash Data Accuracy In Kentucky Through University Collaboration, Michael A. Fields, Eric Green, Robert Kluger, Xu Zhang, Kirolos Haleem

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Without high-quality crash data and robust interpretive/analytical tools to analyze these data, transportation agencies will struggle to develop evidence-based strategies for improving road safety. Crash narratives are one element of crash reports that pose especially acute interpretive challenges. These narratives supplement coded data and give an account of incidents authored by responding law enforcement officers. Despite their value, conducting manual reviews of the 150,000+ crash reports and narratives issued in Kentucky each year is not feasible. To address this challenge, reviewers examined approximately 8,000 crash narratives from calendar year 2020 using a proprietary web-based quality control tool to identify discrepancies …

Advancing Universal Id Through Demonstration Of Enabling Technologies, Joseph Crabtree, Andrew Martin, Jeeyen Koo, Brian Beaven

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The purpose of this project was to install, demonstrate, and evaluate two candidate technologies that could be used to achieve “Universal ID” (i.e., having a unique, electronically readable identifier on every commercial motor vehicle in the United States). The two technologies selected for this demonstration represent (1) a potential low-cost near-term solution (simple RFID tags and roadside readers) and (2) a potential future solution that leverages technology that is anticipated to be installed on all future vehicles to support a variety of connected-vehicle (CV) applications. For this demonstration project, both types of roadside reader technology were installed at three existing …

Geodatabase And Modeling Code Used For Dynamic Landslide Hazard Maps In Eastern Kentucky, Nathaniel O'Leary, L. Sebastian Bryson

Earth and Environmental Sciences Research Data

We developed spatiotemporal landslide hazard maps (LHMs) using soil, hydrologic, and geomorphic parameters from the subaerial infinite slope factor of safety (FS) equation under unsaturated conditions. Soil properties were extracted from the NRCS WSS, while geomorphic variables were derived from a 1.5 m LiDAR-based DEM and ArcGIS Online. Soil moisture from Hydrus-1D, driven by precipitation and evapotranspiration (ET) data from Irrigation Manager, introduced temporal variability. Validation against known landslide sites showed spatial and temporal FS accuracy despite some false positives. We also developed a landslide susceptibility maps (LSM) after comparing three machine learning algorithms, with bagged trees achieving the highest …

Effects Of Psycho-Attitudinal Characteristics On Drivers’ Behavior: A Driving Simulator Study, Francesco Galante, Filomena Mauriello, Simone Fucito, Mariano Pernetti, Alfonso Montella

Kentucky Transportation Center Presentations

Human factors are crucial in causing traffic crashes and researchers try to identify and understand these factors to explore patterns of risky driving behavior and its consequences. It is clear that human factors play a crucial role in the causation of traffic accidents, and researchers are trying to identify and understand these factors. That is why it is important to explore the patterns that identify drivers prone to risky driving behavior and the possible negative consequences of that behavior At this aim, an experiment was conducted using the VERA dynamic driving simulator at the Road Safety Laboratory of the University …

A Recruited Participant Study Of Pedestrian Infrastructure, Amy Wyman, Hisham Jashami, David S. Hurwitz

Kentucky Transportation Center Presentations

No abstract provided.

Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of Pedestrian-Vehicle Conflicts In Urban Intersections Based On Trajectory Data, Qinyi Hu, Jaeyoung Jay Lee

Kentucky Transportation Center Presentations

No abstract provided.

Drivers’ Education Through Elearning And Exposure: An Opportunity To Increase Acceptance Of Connected And Automated Vehicles, Sarah El-Dabaja, Bhaven Naik, Bernard Ndeogo Issifu, Deborah S. Mcavoy, Deogratias Eustace

Kentucky Transportation Center Presentations

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Potential Safety Benefits Resulting From Different Automation Levels And Penetration Rates Of Automated Vehicles: A Case Study In The Netherlands, Dimitra Michalaka, Amna Chaudhry, Eleonora Papadimitriou, Joshua Wetmore

Kentucky Transportation Center Presentations

No abstract provided.

Discrepancies In Av Work Zone Mapping: Analyzing Design Vs. As-Built Coordinates And Their Impact On Safety, Vaishnavi Wagh, Sean Brennan

Kentucky Transportation Center Presentations

No abstract provided.

Virtual Reality Simulation Of Pedestrian Crossings At Channelized Right-Turn Lanes In Urban Unsignalized Intersections, Alberto Figueroa-Medina, Didier Valdés-Díaz, Andrés Chamorro-Parejo, Natacha Cardona-Rodríguez

Kentucky Transportation Center Presentations

No abstract provided.

Proactive Assessment Of The Crash Potential Of Signalized Intersection, Vedant Bhamare, Ishant Bonde, Suvin P. Venthuruthiyil

Kentucky Transportation Center Presentations

No abstract provided.

Unveiling Safety Inequity: A Location-Based Crash Prediction Approach, Olin Green, Davis Chacon-Hurtado, Alexandra Paxton, John N. Ivan, Kerry L. Marsh, P. Adrian Frazier

Kentucky Transportation Center Presentations

No abstract provided.