TRB Research in Progress

The Center for Transportation and the Environment

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:39:21 GMT

The objective of this cooperative agreement is to support the efforts of The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) to maintain and promote the Southern Fuel Cell Coalition (SFCC). The SFCC brings together public and private entities to address a broad range of issues and challenges associated with transportation fuel cell applications and flywheel technology and the infrastructure needed for the continued advancement of these technologies. The primary focus of the SFCC is on medium-and heavy-duty vehicle applications as well as the infrastructure necessary to support these vehicles.

Travel Management Coordination Center

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:04:19 GMT

The objective of this amendment is to continue to support the effort of Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority (Portage Area RTA) to advance development of a travel management coordination center (TMCC) as part of the Mobility Services for All Americans (MSAA) initiative. Portage Area RTA is one of the four TMCC Phased Implementation project sites. The expected result of this phase of the initiative is twofold: (1) development of a TMCC module to coordinate transportation solutions within the context of all participating agencies, and (2) development of a TMCC interface that will interconnect existing scheduling software packages. The MSAA Initiative aims to improve transportation services and simplify access to employment, healthcare, education, and other community activities by application of advanced ITS technologies.

Advanced Technology Bus Rapid Transit

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:40:53 GMT

This third amendment provides for the purchase of the first of two advanced technology vehicles for the Southeast Area Transit Authority advanced technology bus rapid transit (BRT) project. The advanced technology BRT project team will collect, analyze, and compare performance data of the new vehicles alongside data on existing vehicles to obtain information on operating cost, performance and reliability comparisons of advanced vehicles operating under a range of seasonal conditions. This data will aid transit planners and operators in making better vehicle selections and in finding the best use of these vehicles.

Legal Aspects of Airport Programs. Topic 3-03. Survey of Minimum Standards Commercial Aeronautical Activities at Airports

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Sponsors of airports that have received Federal Airport Improvement Program grants are under a federal obligation to operate their airport in a safe and efficient manner, while allowing access to all categories of aeronautical users on reasonable terms without unjust discrimination. The FAA encourages airport sponsors to adopt appropriate minimum standards for commercial use of the airport to help meet these potentially conflicting obligations. A compendium of comparative minimum standards would assist airport management and airport lawyers in developing appropriate standards that comply with their federal obligations. Currently, there is no comprehensive source of information to which airport lawyers can turn for minimum standards on commercial aeronautical activities at airports. The objective of the research is to identify commercial aeronautical activities (e.g., full service FBO or avionics repair) that are customary at airports, and rank them according to frequency of occurrence. The research should also identify minimum standards typically applied to these activities, and categorize minimum standards by type of commercial activity and by subject area, e.g., minimum insurance requirements or minimum square footage.

Legal Aspects of Airport Programs. Topic 3-06. An Index and Digest of Decisions in LRD 1

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The nation's airports need to have access to a program that can provide authoritatively researched, specific, limited-scope studies of legal issues and problems having national significance and application to their business. A program meeting the need for dealing with legal problems arising from highway programs was inaugurated in 1969 under the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. It has been maintained with continuation funding since that time with strong support and approval from the constituency it serves. Similarly, a transit legal research program was implemented in 1992 under the Transit Cooperative Research Program and has been continually funded since its inception. Such a legal research program would be beneficial to the Airport Cooperative Research Program. The objective of this project is to provide legal research on topics of interest to the airport legal community based on periodic solicitations of potential topics. The project would produce an ACRP Legal Research Digest series of reports on legal issues associated with airport-related law. Each document would be intended to provide airport attorneys with authoritative, well-researched, specific information that is limited in scope. The studies would focus on legal issues and problems having national significance to the airport industry. Each year, numerous attorneys nationwide are involved in airport-related work; yet, there is no centralized collection of information on which they can depend. The ACRP Legal Research Digest series will provide airport-related legal research on a wide variety of legal topics.

Legal Aspects of Airport Programs. Topic 3-01. Fair Disclosure of Airport Impacts in Real Estate Transfers

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The purpose of fair disclosure laws is to provide prospective home buyers with sufficient information to make informed decisions about the purchase of property. Airport operators are particularly interested that home buyers obtain information about the noise and flight paths associated with airport operations before prospective buyers make decisions about purchasing property located near an airport. In too many cases property is purchased near airports without full disclosure of the nature of airport operations and thus the potential for purchaser remorse based on the lack of disclosure of airport noise and operations. In some cases, the adoption of fair disclosure laws that include the disclosure of the potential impacts of aviation operations has been impeded by the fear of some homeowners, local officials, and representatives of the real estate industry that such disclosure may provide an exaggerated impression of the significance of aviation related impacts and thereby impair property values. Proponents of such disclosure laws maintain that the real estate market takes account of any aviation related impacts regardless of fair disclosure laws. Still others argue that existing fair disclosure laws are adequate to address issues that arise regarding the disclosure of airport noise and operations in the area where a home is purchased. The intent of this ACRP Legal Topic is to survey existing fair disclosure laws among the states, determine if and how existing fair disclosure laws are meeting the need for a disclosure to prospective purchasers of airport-related conditions and operations, and to develop an annotated model fair disclosure law. The model fair disclosure law developed for this topic should be in a form that is appropriate for consideration by state legislatures and local governments. The Consultant shall survey existing literature, research state laws, case law, and survey airport proprietors, trade associations, and other knowledgeable persons in order to identify circumstances and occurrences involving the issues described above. Of particular interest should be legislation or case law which specifically requires the disclosure of airport noise and operations in the area where a home is located. The report should synthesize the literature, statutes, regulations, and case law gathered by the Consultant’s research efforts. The primary data collected through surveys and interviews should be tabulated and presented to supplement the legal synthesis. The report shall include an analysis of the essential features required for effective fair disclosure of aviation related impacts. The report should also develop a model fair disclosure law and a set of best practices for use by airport operators and local government land use regulatory agencies in implementing fair disclosure laws and ordinances in a manner that requires the full disclosure to prospective home buyers of airport-related conditions and operations.

Legal Aspects of Airport Programs. Topic 3-04. Airport Rates and Charges: Law and Policy

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

No summary provided.

Legal Aspects of Airport Programs. Topic 3-05. Analyses of State and Federal Regulations that May Impede State Initiatives to Reduce an Airport's Carbon Footprint

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

There is a growing movement among State and Federal agencies to focus on transportation systems, including airports, in the ongoing efforts to reduce carbon emissions. In California, for example, the Governor signed Assembly Bill 32 (AB32), the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. AB 32 calls for a reduction by 2020, of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG emissions) in the State of California to levels recorded in 1990. The San Diego Airport's Master Plan became the subject of focus by the California Attorney General who sought to have the Airport's Master Plan environmental review address the impact of the expansion plan on GHG emissions, pursuant to its obligations under AB32. The Attorney General and the San Diego Airport entered into an MOU that specifies the measures the Airport will take to reduce GHG emissions. However, under federal law, only the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration have authority to regulate aircraft emissions. It can be expected that ongoing state and federal mandates to reduce GHG emissions will have an impact on Airports nationwide as the EPA and States seek ways to accomplish GHG reductions. It would be helpful to airport lawyers to have a digest of airport initiatives and state and federal laws and regulations that govern an airport's ability to implement GHG reduction efforts consistent with their concurrent obligation to permit aviation activity as mandated by federal statutes, regulations, and the FAA. The intent of this ACRP Legal Topic is to survey and categorize airport efforts to reduce GHG emissions and to summarize state and federal laws that affect an airport's ability to implement GHG reductions. A compilation of carbon reduction initiatives at airports which categorize the efforts in terms of distinguishing between green building requirements and other building code directives (for example, enegy efficiency initiatives, lighting and HVAC efficiency improvements, and use of solar energy), and efforts directed at reducing aircraft GHG emissions (for example by use of preconditioned air units and aircraft tugs, or limits on engine idling). The Consultant shall survey existing literature, research state and federal statutes, case law, and survey airport proprietors, and other knowledgeable persons in order to identify initiatives and GHG reduction trends as described above. Of particular interest should be state legislation which specifically requires airport GHG impacts to be addressed in any expansion plan environmental reviews. The report should synthesize the literature, statutes, regulations, and case law gathered by the Consultant’s research efforts. The primary data collected through surveys and interviews should be tabulated and presented to supplement the legal synthesis.

Retrofit Monitoring and Continuous Monitoring of the Northwest Bearing Assembly on the I-64 Ohio River Bridge (JFK) at Louisville, Kentucky

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:56:42 GMT

The John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge carries I-65 over the Ohio River into Louisville Kentucky. It is a major interstate river crossing carrying seven lanes. The steel truss bridge is 2498 feet long and was built in 1963. In 2007, Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI) was asked to develop instrumentation and monitoring plan for the four main bearings after one of the 16 anchor bolts was found to be completely failed. We installed and monitored a total of 30 strain gages, four 3-axis displacement sensors, and four 3-axis accelerometers in August 2007 as part of an initial evaluation. On the bearing assembly with the failed bolt, we measured unexpected bending strains in the remaining bolts. Also, we measured 0.8 inch peak-to-peak motion in the bearing assembly base plate relative to the pier. Based on their interpretation of our data, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has retrofitted the bearing with the failed anchor bolt twice and contracted with ITI for additional testing and to install a permanent monitoring system. 4 The first retrofit involved drilling and tapping the remainder of the broken anchor bolt, then inserting a new, smaller diameter threaded rod in place of the failed bolt. This work was performed in fall of 2007 and was monitored by ITI as the nuts were tightened using a suite of sensors we applied to the replacement anchor bolt prior to installation. The second retrofit was the addition of “keepers” to restrain movement of the bearing assembly. In June of 2008 ITI was invited to install sensors on the retrofit with the intent of including them as part of the continuous monitoring system. That monitoring system was successfully constructed and installed during August of 2008. The research is currently creating the website for display of collected data and managing the automated alert system. A second concern with the JFK Bridge arose during Year 1. A pre-existing crack in an upper chord of the truss was not well documented and inspectors recommended advanced nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of the site. The Cabinet engineers decided to bring several NDE techniques to bear in order to resolve the issue. ITI was asked to use our acoustic emission testing methods alongside ultrasonic, magnetic particle, dye penetrant, and radiographic testing. Our data indicated low activity at the crack and also located a previously unknown internal weld defect nearby which was confirmed by the radiographic testing. Based on all testing, the Cabinet has chosen not to take any action at this time beyond more frequent inspection of the detail.

Interpretation of Event Response Through Web-Based Archival of TDR Signals

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:23:32 GMT

This project provides experimental assistance to Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). ODOT has requested that the Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI) developed health monitoring technology be installed as the first phase of sealing shallow, abandoned coal mines to prevent sink hole development in the pavement of I70. Its simple installation process allows the project to begin this summer (thus quickly advancing the economic stimulus) and will improve the safety of a major interstate route. Thus, this project is responsive to two of Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) Chief Administrator Appel’s articulation of Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary La Hood’s four goals for USDOT: accelerate economic recovery, provide a sustainable mobility system, improve quality of life by fostering livable communities, and advance transportation safety. Matching funds for this project are those provided by Ohio DOT for the installation of the cables and ITI supplied instrumentation. See the last 7 pages of this proposal for the letter of agreement for interaction and in-kind match expenditure by Ohio DOT for the installation of the cables and Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) instruments. New funds are requested to further commercialize ITI developedTDR technology and the research developed internet data display technology. ITI will provide and evaluate the efficacy of a web-based signature database for TDR cables installed beneath I70 in an area of shallow coal mining. This work will involve display of TDR signatures over the internet for reference during normal operation as well as upon event notification. Event notification is supplied by GeoTDR. ITI will supply an archive of TDR signatures for comparison with that associated with the incident alarm. The project leverages ITI’s past 8 years of experience operating a similar site for ODOT. This project supports three principal activities of ITI: (1) adoption by State DOT’s of ITI developed technology, (2) display of ITI’s national span of activity, and (3) proof of usefulness of ITI developed technology. A summary of past ITI sponsored TDR installations can be found at http://iti.northwestern.edu/publications/utc/FR-1-5-Dowding.pdf. TDR theory and applications can be found in the book GeoMeasurements by Pulsing TDR Cables and Probes, by O’Connor and Dowding (1999).

Condition Monitoring of Urban Infrastructure: Evaluation of Top-Down Construction Methods

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:18:54 GMT

This proposal describes the second year of a two year evaluation and monitoring of the ground movements and structural responses of the support system associated with the excavation for the One Museum Park West project in Chicago. The project involves construction of a 53-story reinforced concrete tower with four basement levels that extend approximately to 50 feet below existing grade. The basement is to be constructed with load bearing reinforced concrete slurry walls and steel beam reinforced concrete secant pile walls using top-down construction procedures. The proximity of important infrastructure to the excavation support system imposes strict movement limits associated with the construction of the deep basement. Approximately six feet north of the north property line, the West Roosevelt Road bridge embankment is encountered. The west property line of the site is bounded by South Indiana Avenue. Public utilities and an abandoned water tunnel parallel Indiana Avenue. Consequently, the Board of Underground of the City of Chicago has dictated that surface settlement points be established and monitored around the site to monitor the ground response close to these utilities, and that inclinometers be placed along the north and west side of the property line to measure lateral movements within the subsurface to evaluate the effects of the excavation on the embankment and utilities. The existing ground surface elevation varies across the site from Elev. +14.5 to +22 ft Chicago City Datum (CCD). After leveling the site to Elev. +15 ft CCD, caisson foundations were installed and excavation began. The central core was excavated using a circular cofferdam, consisting of a sheet-pile wall and horizontal ring beams for internal bracing. The construction of the tower core is being performed in a conventional “bottom-up” manner. After the installation of the central core cofferdam, the perimeter earth retention system was installed, and the excavation of the remainder of the site is being made with “top-down” construction methods. The excavation is supported by a combination of structural slurry and secant pile walls. The perimeter wall is utilized as a permanent load bearing wall. Lateral bracing is provided by 4 or 5 levels of permanent floor slabs, depending on the location within the structure. After constructing the slurry wall, the ground level slab was cast integrally with the slurry wall. Thereafter, excavation proceed top-down by excavating to the bottom of the second level floor slab, casting that slab integrally to the slurry wall, and repeating the process until the final excavation depth will be reached 50 ft below ground surface. While top down construction techniques generally are thought to provide a stiffer support system, and hence smaller excavation-induced ground movements, as a result of using the permanent floor slabs as lateral support, recent experience in Chicago and elsewhere has indicated that lateral movements associated with these types of support systems are similar to more conventional bottom-up excavations that employ temporary lateral support in the form of cross-lot bracing or tied-back ground anchors. This observation is surprising given that the floor slabs are in theory much stiffer than either cross-lot braces or ground anchors, and that it is not possible to over-excavate the soil – i.e., make a deeper cut than planned so that the support system is essentially much less stiff than planned in design - during construction since one must cast each floor on the ground. One possible source of movement that is not considered when making predictions is shrinkage of the concrete in the floor slabs that act as temporary and permanent support. These slabs are structurally tied into the perimeter walls and as they shrink during curing, they may “pull” the wall towards the building and thus cause ground deformations adjacent to the excavation that otherwise would not occur. While this mechanism has been suggested a number of times, it has never been shown by performance data, and thus remains a matter of conjecture. Measuring these effects requires instrumentation that is not normally installed to verify design assumptions or movement limits. It also requires obtaining performance data much more often than normal practice. STS/AECOM, the geotechnical designers for the project, used advances in modeling recently-developed by the PI and his coworkers to design a support system that was within the budget needed to make the project economically feasible. They allayed concerns of regulatory agencies related to the potential damaging effects of construction-related ground movements by committing to the use of intelligent updating procedures so that performance at early stages of excavation could be used to accurately predict the responses at later, more critical stages of the work. This intelligent updating procedure was developed by the PI and his coworkers with partial support from ITI. Currently, the procedure does not consider the floor slab shrinkage when making movement predictions. Therefore, we installed in the first year of the project a real time monitoring system to evaluate the stresses in the floor slab and the ground deformations adjacent to the wall, so that we can quantify the effects of the shrinkage caused by curing of the slab on the excavation-induced ground deformations. Using the data collected at the site, we are developing a methodology that can be used to predict these effects. The data collected by the real time monitoring system is supplemented by results of conventional optical surveys and inclinometers. The matching funds for this project are derived from the excavation support system for the project, the conventional instrumentation installed at the site, and STS/AECOM’s efforts to collect the conventional performance data. Objective of Proposed Research The objectives of the proposed work are to collect sufficient field performance data so as to define the relation between shrinkage of the concrete floor slabs used as temporary and permanent lateral support and ground deformations adjacent to the excavation. To this end, we propose to automate the data collection, data transmission and interpretation of strains in the floor slabs and ground deformations associated with the excavation operations. We further propose to evaluate the effects of ground deformations on the impacted infrastructure at this site. Successful completion of this research will improve the state-of-the-art and practice of predicting and controlling ground movements associated with supported excavations and tunneling operations. Analyses of the results of the observations will help develop design procedures to minimize the effects of the consequent deformations of adjacent structures and utilities, particularly related to the relation between concrete slab shrinkage and ground movements. We propose to combine our results with the field information and numerical results obtained at four other excavations in the Chicago area with the aim of developing design recommendations for protecting impacted infrastructure.

Developing Louisiana Crash Reduction Factors

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:32:10 GMT

The primary goal of this research is to develop and document a list of Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs) to be used by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LaDOTD). Particularly, this research will document the state-of-the-practice in CFR development, determine the CFRs to be developed for Louisiana, Develop some CFRs with available information under the budgetary constraint, develop a web based tool listing the published CFRs and their development information.

A Process Control System for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:59:41 GMT

During a routine inspection in 2006 of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge (a cantilever through-truss bridge which carries I-65 across the Ohio River at Louisville, KY), a failed anchor bolt was identified in an uplift bearing assembly. A retrofit consisting of a replacement anchor bolt and clamp-down anchors ("keepers") was installed in the fall of 2007. Since this installation, the Infrastructure Technology Institute at Northwestern University has monitored the following quantities in the retrofit system: 1. Axial strain in replacement anchor bolt 2. Bending strain in replacement anchor bolt (two orthogonal directions) 3. Torsional strain in replacement anchor bolt 4. Axial strain in existing intact anchor bolts 5. Force on keepers (four total) 6. Displacement and acceleration of bearing assembly relative to pier (three directions) 7. Ambient temperature and relative humidity This system has continuously monitored the condition of the repaired bearing assembly, and was able to detect an abrupt failure in one of the components of the retrofit in the fall of 2008. This failure resulted in immediate and obvious changes to the stream of data collected by the system. However, there is a need for techniques to monitor long-term trends in condition, which may be subtle and not immediately obvious upon reviewing the raw data. The work proposed herein is, therefore, to develop and implement an automatic system to process and analyze the data that are collected. The objectives are to: (1) allow engineers to make inferences about the structural integrity, i.e., the condition, of the elements, and how they evolve over time in response to normal operating factors such as weather, traffic loading, etc; and (2) detect external events that may have either a transitory or permanent effect on the structural integrity of the bridge elements and how the evolve over time. In both cases the goal is to support decisions to inspect the components when structural deficiencies are either anticipated due to regular deterioration, or directly related to external events. In terms of connections to the United States Department of Transportation's (USDOT’s) research goals, the proposed work involves development and implementation of cutting-edge, transformative research tools to support information management, and decisions related to the management/renewal of surface transportation infrastructure. We also point out that the work is complementary to ITI’s work/expertise in developing advanced remote monitoring systems.

Steel Pipe Pile/Concrete Pile Cap Bridge Support Systems: Confirmation of Connection Performance

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:30:37 GMT

The objective of this project is to conduct physical testing of the Montana Department of Transportation's (MDT’s) new steel pipe pile to concrete pile cap connection design method.

Legal Aspects of Airport Programs. Topic 2-04. Analysis of Federal Laws, Regulations and Case Law Regarding Airport Proprietary Rights

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Airport owners and operators have certain proprietary rights to manage and control access to their facilities under the Airline Deregulation Act and federal case law. The owner's proprietary rights are circumscribed by federal laws and regulations such as federal grant assurances, ANCA and other federal statutes. The scope of airport proprietary rights are difficult to ascertain and it would be useful to have an analysis of the rights currently recognized by the courts as being within the purview of airport owners and those that have been determined to exceed that authority. This project would analyze the relevant federal statutes, regulation and case law with regard to airport proprietary rights including regulation of noise and other environmental matters, safety restrictions, leasing practices, congestion management, and other airport access limitations. The analysis should result in a compilation of relevant statutes, regulations, and case decisions determining the scope of airport proprietary rights and a discussion of the rights within the owner's purview and those which have been determined to exceed the owner's authority. The final report is due in January 2010.