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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
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    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Assessment of hydroplaning potential in coastal regions using roadway characteristics and related datasets</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2663101</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Hydroplaning is a critical pavement safety concern that occurs when a layer of water builds up between the vehicle's tires and the pavement surface, leading to a loss of traction and vehicle control. It is a significant contributor to wet-weather crashes and thereby poses a serious challenge to highway safety, especially for coastal regions where rainfall is more abundant and more frequent. Hydroplaning risk assessment fundamentally depends on the integration of multiple diverse datasets that reflect the interaction among crash occurrences, pavement conditions, and vehicle dynamics. These data items are typically recorded in different datasets maintained by various owners or agencies, each with their unique collection methods and standards. This research will develop data-driven likelihood models based on a verification check of the reliability of the important data variables, and a fusion of the available history data from diverse data sources to assess hydroplaning risks for coastal highways. The proposed research will also develop recommendations to be considered for roadway design and construction in association with wet-weather accident reduction procedures for transportation agencies.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 17:13:08 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2663101</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Role of emerging transportation technologies and safety initiatives in mitigating crashes in coastal communities</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2661744</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Coastal communities face heightened crash risks due to hazards such as hurricanes, flooding, and roadway degradation. Traditional safety countermeasures often fail to address these compounded risks, especially where evacuation routes are limited. This project will investigate how emerging transportation technologies (e.g., connected vehicle systems, advanced driver assistance systems, smart corridors) and safety initiatives (e.g., hazard-responsive traffic management, roadway design measures) can mitigate crash risks in coastal regions. Using literature review, geospatial screening of coastal corridors, and expert validation, the team will develop a prototype decision-support tool linking crash scenarios common in coastal environments with candidate technologies and initiatives. The outcome will provide agencies with a concise, practical framework to assess and prioritize safety solutions that improve infrastructure durability and resilience under coastal hazards.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:13:26 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2661744</guid>
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      <title>Coastal pavement maintenance and rehabilitation decision making based on both surface and subsurface conditions</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2662938</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Texas has approximately 3,359 miles of coastline spanning five geographically distinct districts. Pavements in these regions are exposed to highly variable subgrade soils, diverse traffic loading levels, and unique climatic challenges, including hurricanes, storm surges, and recurrent flooding. Effective decision-making for pavement Maintenance and Rehabilitation (M&R) is therefore critical to ensuring resilient infrastructure, optimizing project selection, and allocating limited resources efficiently. Current M&R selection practices primarily rely on surface-level indicators—such as distress manifestations (cracking, rutting, etc.) and ride quality. While these measures are useful, they fail to provide a comprehensive understanding of the pavement’s structural health. To address this limitation, this study will propose an integrated framework that combines both surface and subsurface information for M&R decision-making. In particular, subsurface conditions derived from non-destructive testing will be emphasized as a means to bridge the existing knowledge gap, enabling a more holistic and data-driven approach to pavement management.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:57:56 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2662938</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Dynamics, Drivers and Mitigation of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) and Shoreline Change: Data Needs Associated with the Mid-Currituck Bridge</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2604610</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Recent research (S.A.V.E. Currituck, 2020) has shown that in Currituck Sound, the primary factor limiting submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) distribution is water clarity. SAV in the sound will likely be impacted by construction and shading post construction of the Mid-Currituck Bridge. In addition, studies have shown that shorelines near the Mid-Currituck Bridge terminus on the east and west side are experiencing significant erosion rates. Bridge design and ultimate construction may change local dynamics (i.e., wave field, water clarity) that can influence SAV distribution and shoreline position. This project has three primary objectives relevant to understanding water quality, SAV and shoreline mitigation strategies: (1) Quantify temporal and spatial changes in water quality, specifically CDOM abundance in surface waters of northern Currituck Sound; (2) evaluate shoreline change rates on multiple timescales, including influence of storms, near bridge landing; and (3) synthesize remote sensing and field data to provide information to limit impacts to water quality, SAV and shorelines during bridge construction and maintenance and to prioritize mitigation for maximum benefit. It is critical to have more information on the current local water quality, shoreline change and SAV dynamics to better predict and limit damage associated with bridge construction and to prioritize required mitigation activities for maximum benefit. This research will focus on expanding data collection near the bridge corridor and broadening understanding of water clarity/quality dynamics and its potential role in changing SAV distribution.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2025 14:53:37 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2604610</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Community Resilience in Emergency Advanced Transport Education- The Next Frontier</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2536173</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Community Resilience in Emergency Advanced Transport Education -The Next Frontier project’s goal is to assist the State of Mississippi create education, training, and preparedness for transportation emergency response for professionals and communities regarding weather considerations. Moreover, the Community Resilience in Emergency Advanced Transport Education -The Next Frontier project will help local Emergency Management professionals, educators, public and private organizations, and the community increase preparedness and response initiatives through advanced disaster simulation technology training and mobile app development. This will enhance discussion-making and critical thinking and help to decrease response time when weather is a major factor during an emergency transportation event.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 10 Apr 2025 14:45:59 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2536173</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Automated knowledge graphs for life-cycle management of coastal bridge networks</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2260009</link>
      <description><![CDATA[With the advancement of computational resources and the emergence of big data, digital twins have become increasingly popular as tools to enable the digital transformation of our cities. In terms of managing coastal bridge networks, digital twins show the potential to better monitor the life-cycle risk of the bridge networks by fusing the big data from disparate sources with the traditional life-cycle risk assessment models. To construct such a digital twin, a prerequisite and a main challenge are to establish a knowledge graph. The objective of this project is hence to generate a city-scale knowledge graph to represent the relationships between the needed variables related to data-driven life-cycle risk analysis of a coastal bridge network. In contrast to existing knowledge graphs developed for digital twins, the knowledge graph in this project will consider statistical correlations within a system (e.g., spatially correlated climate-related hazards) and across different systems (e.g., correlations between flooding and bridge failure).

]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 03 Oct 2023 21:50:50 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2260009</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>AI-supported Monitoring and Resiliency Analysis for the Coastal Area of the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in Puerto Rico</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2012462</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport and its coastal area in Puerto Rico, an overseas US territory that needs resources to recover from Hurricane Irma and Maria and to face future devastating coastal hazards in the economic crisis, has been facing the challenge of coastal flooding, erosion, and storm damage. Field observation is needed to support the potential vulnerability assessment. The primary goal of this proposal is to develop a surveillance camera-based coastal monitoring system for the San Juan International Airport and surrounding areas to support a resiliency study. The intended outcome of the project is to produce a resiliency report with recommendations for the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport and the surrounding area. This report will help the administrators to understand the current situation and adapt to improve the durability and extend the life of infrastructure. In a larger scale, the monitoring system will be useful to analyze the regional natural hazards to the transportation system that link to the airport safety and functionality.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 25 Aug 2022 15:53:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2012462</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Green InfrastructureTechniques for Coastal Highway Resilience</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1478728</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The objective of this task order is to produce research and technical assistance that will enable transportation agencies to use green infrastructure approaches to improve the resilience of coastal roads and bridges. This project will investigate green infrastructure techniques that could be implemented as part of highway and bridge planning, maintenance and construction to preserve and/or improve natural infrastructure function, thereby increasing the resilience of highways to
the effects of storm surges and sea level rise. The project will provide information and analysis on green infrastructure techniques, benefits, costs, feasibility, and implementation considerations that transportation professionals need to make decisions on infrastructure projects. The contractor will develop a white paper, facilitate peer exchanges, and produce an implementation guide for transportation agencies based on the research and analysis conducted.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 31 Jul 2017 16:00:55 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1478728</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Understanding the Consequences and Cost of Climate Change to the Texas Transportation System</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1359041</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The consequences of climate change have the ability to create significant damage to the state's existing transportation infrastructure on a scale that will grow over time. The potential consequences include: damage to highway pavements due to increased temperatures and more severe and frequent droughts; the inundation of roadways, bridges, and ferry infrastructure in low lying coastal areas, due to sea level rise; stronger storm surges along the Texas Coast and the subsequent damage to bridges and roadways. The Receiving Agency (hereafter referred to as Texas Department of Transportation or (TxDOT) risks the possibility of spending hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of state funds to maintain or replace damaged infrastructure, due to climate change. TxDOT (needs to determine the scale of the potential problem and its potential costs and the disruptions that may result from future climate change and is the focus of this study. The Performing Agency shall develop a framework to assist with avoiding any significant, unanticipated costs that would be imposed upon Texas taxpayers and industry, due to damage or loss of the State's transportation infrastructure as a result of climate change.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2015 01:00:46 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1359041</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Vulnerability of Transportation System and Evacuation Plan for Coastal</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1235092</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Global warming and climate change are reshaping our world in many ways. Recent studies show that global warming will cause the sea level along the northeastern U.S. coast to rise almost twice as fast as global sea levels during this century, putting metro New York City at greater risk for catastrophic events under hurricanes and winter storms. Combined coastal surge flooding and land runoff flooding along coastlines in climate change perspectives is such an event. There is an increasing awareness that the coastal flooding may affect the resilience of the transportation infrastructure and services. However, it is currently difficult for transportation agencies to incorporate information about potential flooding into transportation planning and investment processes. The capability to predict coastal region flooding considering climate change becomes extremely valuable to develop plans reacting foreseeable disasters, which will save lives and make our transportation infrastructure more sustainable. The project proposes to predict flooding nearby coastal regions considering various scenarios due to climate change, such as sea level rise, precipitation increase, and its impact on transportation network and reaction plans, utilizing available techniques and recently developed tools. In particular, the tasks to be conducted include: (1) establishing a hybrid hydrologic and hydrodynamic flood modeling system to predict coastal flooding due to storm surge flooding and inland runoff flooding under projected global warming effects. Research will be made to achieve high resolution and high accuracy desired to resolve streets, traffic roads, and related transportation infrastructures. (2) Developing with analytical/numerical approaches to evaluate evacuation plans and to estimate minimum evacuation time based on forecasted demand under various levels of flooding conditions. (3) Application of the proposed methods and models to a selected region along the Tri-State coastline as a showcase to demonstrate their capabilities in forecasting coastal flooding and impact on transportation systems and optimizing evacuation plans. The expected deliverables are: (1) A showcase with an executable computer code and result movie/animation for a selected flood location at the Tri-State region to predict coastal flooding evolution under climate change circumstances such as sea level rise, heavy rainfall, and tide and its impact on transportation network, and to estimate evacuation related issues. (2). Reports and refereed journal and conference articles to describe concepts, theories, and schemes developed in this project. This proposal addresses coastal flooding and transportation issues due to global warming, its approach is based on the PIs' expertise and recent developed capabilities, and its team consists of junior and senior faculty and students from multiple areas and schools.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:24:21 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1235092</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SEISMIC: OSU: Vulneralbility of California's Bridges to Tsunami: Phases I and II</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1234219</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The vulnerability of California's approximately 200 highway bridges along the coast due to large tsunami wave has been a concern to Caltrans for many decades. With increasing population along the coastline, protecting human lives and preserving infrastructure on the coasts are a very high priority. This research is needed to answer how vulnerable coastal bridges are when using Caltrans tsunami design criteria. This proposal will fund Phase I &amp; II that involves 2-D and 3-D numerical model simulations. The deliverable is a detailed budget and research plan for Phase III.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:08:42 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1234219</guid>
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