<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="https://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <channel>
    <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
    <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
    <atom:link href="https://rip.trb.org/Record/RSS?s=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" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
    <description></description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
    <image>
      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
      <url>https://rip.trb.org/Images/PageHeader-wTitle-RIP.jpg</url>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
    </image>
    <item>
      <title>The Effects of Curb Extensions and Stormwater Infrastructure on Traffic Safety in Philadelphia</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2778224</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In order to meet the goals set out in the City's landmark stormwater management plan, and to satisfy state and federal regulations, the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) is planning, designing, and constructing a portfolio of stormwater infrastructure systems.  These systems capture, filter, and store stormwater run-off utilizing sub-surface trenches, and vegetated features, from raingardens to street trees, mimicking natural processes where possible.  As part of this program PWD has developed 156 stormwater management bumpouts, and anticipates bringing 342 more online within the next 5 years. These bumpouts have vegetated curb extensions that protrude into the street at mid-block or intersection locations. When located at crosswalks, curb extensions are thought to improve traffic safety by reducing the crossing time of pedestrians, improving visibility at intersections, and slowing drivers by reducing the turning radii at intersections. 

This proposed project will examine the effects of these curb extensions over time on traffic collisions, injuries and fatalities relative to similar roadways where curb extensions will but have not yet been installed. Although pre-existing crash data featured in the selection of treated locations, the focus on stormwater management and long list of treated and untreated intersections provide unique, quasi-experimental conditions under which to examine the effects of curb extensions. Although curb extensions are widely accepted roadway design interventions in the fields of traffic calming and traffic safety, little is known about their effects on crashes or how these effects may vary by roadway conditions, location, or other features. 

While data processing is in progress, the City and Water Department have geocoded the locations of the existing and proposed curb extensions. Crashes from Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's (PennDOT’s) crash reporting system will be to the nearest intersection nodes of the eligible bump-outs. From here, the number of crashes, fatal and serious injury crashes, and injury crashes within each buffer can be counted and aggregated by year, with results associated with their corresponding intersection nodes and curb extensions.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 17 Sep 2026 14:57:48 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2778224</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Impact of Flooding on Pavement Drawdown Structures</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2767321</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Upon completion, this study will provide Iowa counties and the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) with a robust framework to assess and manage flood risks across Iowa's transportation infrastructure used as drawdown structures, offering several key benefits: enhanced flood risk management, cost savings, improved resilience, and strategic planning tools.
The framework will enable precise evaluations of infrastructure (drawdown structures) vulnerability, allowing Iowa Counties and Iowa DOT to prioritize maintenance and allocate resources efficiently. By predicting the loss of service life under various flood scenarios,Iowa counties and Iowa DOT can implement targeted countermeasures, reducing emergency repairs.
The ability to predict and mitigate flood-induced damage will result in cost savings, extend infrastructure service life, and minimize maintenance costs. The study’s focus on practical, cost-effective solutions will help optimize counties investments and enhance network resilience.
Adopting recommended countermeasures will improve infrastructure’s capacity to withstand increasingly frequent and severe floods, safeguarding roads while ensuring public safety and reliability.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2026 13:11:53 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2767321</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Identifying Precipitation Variability in Georgia 
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2719329</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The primary objectives of this research project are to provide scientific evidence to support Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) in choosing the correct scenario for each of the regions to reduce the risk of constructing drainage structures and a case study that explores how future rainfall conditions might impact construction costs if increases in precipitation are identified.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2026 11:52:56 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2719329</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SPR-5041: SPR-4517 Implementation: Wireless Data Collection and Model Development</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2709427</link>
      <description><![CDATA[SPR-4517 deployed an edge-enabled, solar-powered wireless monitoring system at the I-69 instrumentation section to evaluate pavement drainage and related performance indicators. This implementation study will sustain field hardware, formalize an automated data pipeline with quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) protocols, develop and validate performance indicators and predictive models, and package the complete workflow for the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). Outcomes include continued wireless monitoring, versioned data products with monthly health reports, validated drainage performance models, and a transferable implementation package enabling INDOT to maintain long-term field data collection and adopt similar capabilities at additional sites.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:23:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2709427</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Quantifying the Flood Resilience Value of Water Quality Best Management Practices on Vermont Roads</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2689762</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Transportation networks have been recognized as contributors to water quality impairment by discharging stormwater, sediment, and nutrients to receiving waters. These contributions can occur through chronic inputs of water and pollutants washed from the road surface during storm events or through episodic and often catastrophic road failure by mass wasting or fluvial erosion at structure crossings during extreme storms. Research studies in forested areas of the eastern United States, and elsewhere, including those conducted by members of this project team, have documented rates of erosion and mass wasting from low volume roads and impacts on water quality. Our previous research has also documented the importance of unpaved roads on water quality impairment and quantified the effectiveness of best management practices (BMPs) in reducing sediment and phosphorus contributions.
The Phosphorus Total Maximum Daily Load for Vermont Segments of Lake Champlain (a.k.a. TMDL) called for reductions in phosphorus contributions from developed lands, motivating a need to address stormwater runoff from the state’s transportation network. Statewide efforts to achieve the reductions required by the TMDL led to the development of the Municipal Roads General Permit (MRGP) in 2018 and subsequent revisions. Recent extreme flooding events across the state, in particular the July 10-11, 2023 North Country Storm event and associated Great Vermont Flood which will be the focus of this project, in addition to subsequent flood events in December 2023 and July 2024, have resulted in the need for emergency repairs of damaged transportation infrastructure, and revealed the need to clearly communicate the cost benefit of improved stormwater management on the transportation network. In past research projects funded by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation and the Vermont Agency of Transportation, we conducted retrospective analyses (i.e. a review of project planning documents and site visits to assess existing conditions) of transportation stormwater upgrades funded by the state’s Better Roads and Grants in Aid programs and found that the BMPs installed through these grants were highly robust to extreme flood events. This project therefore aims to expand on the research teams’ prior work to assess the life cycle cost-benefit of BMP adoption with a focus on the BMPs required by the Municipal General Roads Permit (MRGP), Sections 1 and 2 of the VT Road and Bridge Standards for municipal roads, and VTrans Drainage Management Standards for State roads. The data and results of this project may be used to update VT AOT’s Transportation Resilience Planning Tool or other mitigation practices.
To facilitate this work, we will form a technical advisory committee (TAC) composed of VTrans project champions (Todd Eaton), Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (VT DEC) staff engaged in the implementation of the Municipal Roads General Permit, members of at least one Regional Planning Commission, and others identified by VTtrans. The role of the TAC will be to help guide study design, facilitate the use of existing data, leverage on-going implementation of erosion control projects, and provide context for agency needs.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 09:46:01 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2689762</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Innovative Materials for Improved Roadway Mobility and Drainage Efficiency</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2677558</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Flood-related roadway closures and drainage failures cause major travel delays, increase congestion, and pose risks to public health and safety. Conventional stormwater culverts or highway drainage made from plastic, such as Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) or High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), are vulnerable to deformation, cracking, and chemical degradation, particularly in high-temperature or chemically aggressive soils. This project develops and evaluates advanced recycled HDPE composites reinforced with carbon nanotubes for use in drainage pipes and highway culvert systems, designed to maintain roadway mobility and performance during extreme rainfall, with an emphasis on public health and safety benefits and long-term roadway performance.  

Laboratory-scale fabrication and mechanical testing will optimize the composition of carbon nanotube-reinforced recycled HDPE blends for improved fracture strength, chemical resistance, and physical properties. Past research by the PI has previously produced and evaluated nanoclay-reinforced recycled plastic, demonstrating established expertise in composite preparation and testing.   

The research team will collaborate with Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), El Paso Water Utilities, and El Paso County to validate the material in representative stormwater applications and to assess long-term material performance under demanding exposure conditions such as ultraviolet radiation and high temperatures. By utilizing recycled HDPE, the project reduces material waste while improving performance and supporting long-term infrastructure reliability. The project will also conduct performance analysis and compare lifecycle costs against conventional PVC or HDPE systems, providing guidelines for integrating innovative polymer composites into transportation drainage infrastructure that support efficient roadway operation and reduced flood-related mobility disruptions. This project undertakes breakthrough research by applying carbon nanotubes to strengthen recycled thermoplastics for stormwater drainage systems. It is an innovative effort combining material science, hydraulic engineering, and laboratory-scale testing.    

  ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 13:53:43 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2677558</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Hydraulic Conductivity of Base Course Material, Pavement Drainage, and Relation to Pavement Buckling</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2671989</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This research project aims to study the effects of excessive moisture in base courses, focusing on the potential contributions of base course drain ability and water retention to pavement buckling and investigate adjustments to base course gradations and drainage details and strategies to improve drain ability, control sensitivity to moisture changes, and reduce buckling potential while maintaining adequate pavement support. The proposed project will include sampling and testing of base courses around the state to characterize the index properties, hydraulic conductivity, water retention curves, drainage properties, and resilient modulus. Base course samples from pavement buckling occurrences will also be collected to assess if commonalities exist in the base courses where pavement buckling occurs. Current pavement drainage strategies employed in Wisconsin will also be reviewed. Base course gradations, water retention properties, and pavement drainage strategies of surrounding states will also be reviewed. The culmination of reviewing current 
Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) base course gradations and drainage details and those of surrounding states will be the development of updated base course gradations and drainage strategies to improve moisture management while maintaining adequate pavement support.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 18 Feb 2026 11:35:36 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2671989</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Developing Advanced Technologies for Field Performance Monitoring of Polypropylene Pipe</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2655578</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Kansas Department of Transportation (KSDOT) has recently adopted polypropylene (PP) plastic pipes for highway drainage. Different from concrete and metal pipes, plastic pipes are expected to have large deformations under loading due to their lower stiffness. It is well known that plastic materials have creep behavior, i.e., deformations increase with time under constant loads. PP materials have more creep deformations than other polymer materials. However, when pipes are buried in the ground, they are subjected to lateral confinement from surrounding soils, which may reduce vertical deformations of pipes. This research team monitored two steel-reinforced high-density polyethylene (SRHDPE) pipes in the ground in the past K-TRAN projects using strain gauges, displacement transducers, and earth pressure cells. This field monitoring demonstrated that SRHDPE pipes performed well with small creep deformations at a slowly increasing rate. This good performance may be attributed to steel strip reinforcement embedded in the ribs around the pipe. So far, limited data is available on the deformations of PP plastic pipes in the ground; therefore, there is a great need for field monitoring of this type of pipe in the ground to ensure their long-term performance. Strain gauges and displacement transducers have been proved effective for field monitoring of pipes; however, they have major limitations: (1) they are placed at sparse locations along the pipe, (2) strain gauges do not last long, and (3) temperature effect is hard to consider for displacement transducers. To overcome these problems, distributed fiber optic sensors (DFOS) have been increasingly used to monitor infrastructures including pipes. One or multiple fibers are included a cable to be fixed on an object for measurements. Different from resistance types of gauges that measure resistance changes, DFOS measure the changes of light energy or frequency. The major advantages of DFOS are (1) they are suitable for long distance measurements (up to miles), (2) they provide almost continuous measurements along one fiber, (3) they significantly reduce the number of individual cables, (4) they can measure strains and temperatures so that the temperature effect can be corrected, (5) fibers can be placed not only along the longitudinal direction of the pipe but also around the cross-section of the pipe, and (6) fibers are relatively inexpensive. However, this technology has not been well implemented in field monitoring of plastic pipes; therefore, it requires research, confirmation, and development. For example, how measured strains are converted into deformations of pipes. To overcome the limitation of displacement transducers, photogrammetry has been used to capture deformed objects, such as pipes. Photogrammetry is also suitable for field monitoring of existing pipes. To take advantage of both technologies, the research team proposes to conduct a laboratory study to verify these two technologies and develop procedures for implementing them in future field monitoring of plastic pipes.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 12:31:15 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2655578</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Synthesis of Information Related to Highway Practices. Topic 57-02. Application and Selection of the Rational Method for Hydrologic Analysis of Watersheds</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2630483</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Background

State departments of transportation (DOTs) must accurately estimate stormwater drainage to design infrastructure that minimizes risks such as roadway flooding, overtopping and embankment failures. A range of hydrologic methods are available, and method selection influences infrastructure performance and safety.  For small watersheds draining to highway rights-of-way, the Rational Method remains widely used due to its simplicity and long-standing application.

There is no uniform agreement on the maximum drainage area for which the Rational Method is appropriate. Federal and state guidance, academic literature, and engineering texts present differing limits, leading to inconsistent application. The method’s underlying assumptions also diminish in validity as watershed size and complexity increase, and many state DOTs do not specify when more advanced hydrologic methods should be applied.  Complexities may include the presence of tributaries, nonuniform and longer duration rainfall, soil and land use variability, and storage within the watershed. 

Objective

The objective of this synthesis is to document state DOT policies, practices, and guidance in the application of the Rational Method for hydrologic analysis of watersheds.

Information to be gathered includes (but is not limited to):

State DOT written policies and guidance on the applicability of the Rational Method, including: Thresholds or limits for drainage area; When the Rational Method is explicitly not used or is not the preferred approach, the alternative methods used, and related guidance; Common practices for determining key input parameters such as basin area, runoff coefficient, time of concentration, and rainfall intensity – duration - frequency data;     
The use of comparative analyses to determine the appropriate hydrologic method, and criteria to determine the selected method; How the presence of tributaries, nonuniform and longer duration rainfall, soil and land use variability, storage within the watershed, or other factors influence the selection of the Rational Method; Resource considerations, including relative effort, staff time, data, tools, and costs when selecting and designing with the Rational Method compared with other hydrologic methods; Variations in practice across state DOTs and the implications of these differences for project design and cost.
Typical applications of the Rational Method, including project types, infrastructure categories, and required outputs (e.g., peak flow estimates vs. full hydrographs); Use of the Modified Rational Method, including how it is used;

Information will be gathered through a literature review, a survey of state DOTs, and follow-up interviews with selected DOTs for the development of case examples. Information gaps and suggestions for research to address those gaps will be identified.

Information sources (partial): Butler, David, et al. Urban Drainage. 4th edition. CRC Press: Boca Raton, 2018. Crobeddu, E., et al. “Improved Rational Hydrograph Method.” Journal of Hydrology, Vol. 338, pgs. 63–72, 2007. Guo, James. Urban Flood Mitigation and Stormwater Management. CRC Press: Boca Raton, 2019. Jain, Sharad and Vijay Singh. Engineering Hydrology: An Introduction to Processes, Analysis, and Modeling. McGraw-Hill Education: New York, 2019.  Karamouz, M., et al. Hydrology and Hydroclimatology: Principles and Applications. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2013.  Mile High Flood District. Urban Storm Drainage Criteria Manual. Vol. 1 – Management, Hydrology, and Hydraulics. Denver, 2018.  State DOT drainage design manuals. U.S. FHWA. Highway Hydrology. Hydraulic Design Series No. 2 (HDS-2). Washington, DC, 2002. United States Geological Survey. Comparison of Peak-Flow Estimation Methods for Small Drainage Basins in Maine. USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2007-5170. Prepared in cooperation with the Maine Department of Transportation. Reston, VA, 2007. THE DEVELOPMENT OF HYDROLOGICAL CONCEPTS IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND BETWEEN 1674 AND 1874.
https://ocw.camins.upc.edu/materials_guia/250144/2015/MetRacio1.pdf “Sizing of Highway Culverts and Bridges: A Historical Review of Methods and Criteria”,  Bruce M. McEnroe, The University of Kansas, Report No. K-TRAN: KU-05-4.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 26 Nov 2025 17:54:27 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2630483</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Selecting Appropriate Mitigation Methods for Soil Slope Failures: A Safety and Equity-Centric Approach
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2628205</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Soil slope failures pose significant risks to both human lives and infrastructure, necessitating effective mitigation strategies. This research proposal aims to investigate the selection of appropriate mitigation methods for soil slope failures, with a dual focus on safety and equity considerations.
The proposed study will employ a multidisciplinary approach, integrating geological, climatic, geotechnical engineering, and socioeconomic perspectives. It will begin with comprehensive review of existing mitigation methods, including slope flattening, stabilization, lightweight fill, and drainage. Subsequently, a systematic evaluation framework will be developed to assess the efficacy of these methods in terms of safety enhancement and equitable distribution of benefits.
Safety considerations will encompass factors such as slope stability and resilience to extreme weather events. Equity considerations will involve analyzing the distribution of risks and benefits among different socioeconomic groups, with a particular emphasis on vulnerable communities disproportionately affected by soil slope failures.
Taking advantage of the collected field slope data for the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) geotechnical asset management system, computational modeling techniques will be employed to quantify the performance of various mitigation strategies under different scenarios. Additionally, stakeholder consultations will be conducted to incorporate local knowledge and community perspectives into the decision-making process.
The anticipated outcomes of this research include a set of guidelines for selecting optimal mitigation methods tailored to specific soil slope failure scenarios, taking into account both safety and equity. By integrating technical expertise with social equity principles, this study seeks to contribute to the development of more resilient and equitable disaster risk reduction strategies for soil slopes. This research will contribute to the knowledge and procedure for selecting optimal mitigation methods of soil slopes to address their safety and community equity. 
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2025 14:23:07 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2628205</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Are Current Rigid Pavement Roundabout Designs Working in Minnesota?</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2487311</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Rigid pavement roundabouts were initially designed with the expectation that they would experience distress similar to rigid pavements designed and built on motorways. However, distresses will occur differently due to the way traffic loads interact with them, the shape of panels, and drainage. The objective of this research is to provide guidance documentation for both the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and local agencies to improve roundabout designs for better long-term performance and reduced future costs in the maintenance and rehabilitation of these assets.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 11:57:15 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2487311</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Protection of Precious Waters from Road Salt: Mitigation Through Roadside Ditch Capture</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2577115</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Roadway deicers are essential to the functioning of daily life in northern states in winter. After plowing, roadway salting is currently the most practical way of making safe transportation possible in winter. However, road deicer chloride (salt) has a severe negative effect on surrounding watersheds. Yet, currently no methods or procedures
have been developed to capture the chloride. The situation is particularly dire where highways cross small receiving streams that are the habitat of endangered and threatened species, such as the Topeka Shiner, because the high concentration of chloride in the highway runoff does not dilute sufficiently to prevent toxicity in the
hatching and juvenal rearing areas of the streams. This project developed in-ditch salt capture techniques based on mitigation of chloride migration through absorption and capture in a manufactured backfill media. Chloride mass in drainage water was observed and monitored at a range of concentrations before and after percolation through granular soil mixtures “manufactured” to capture chloride and deployed in flow-through sandbags.
Absorbance of chloride was quantified by manufactured soil sandbags in ditch-deployed configurations, allowing optimization of the deployed geometry. Field test installation approaches were designed and tested for chloride capture from actual winter maintenance operations.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Jul 2025 11:30:15 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2577115</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SPR-5032: Moisture Damage Control and Mitigation in Pavement Foundations Using Innovative Geosynthetics</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2577102</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project is primarily about controlling water in pavement foundation layers for increased pavement performance. This study proposes to remove water out of the pavement systems via use of geotextile fabric (moisture management geotextile) as a separation layer in pavement foundation systems to mitigate the damage that occurs due to high moisture contents. The workplan consists of constructing sites with these innovative geosynthetics and conducting field tests and analyses. The field tests will include lightweight deflectometer, falling weight deflectometer, moisture and temperature monitoring through depth.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 17 Jul 2025 15:57:29 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2577102</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Pavement Conditions Assessment and Prediction (PCAP): A geospatial machine learning approach to inform decision-making</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2570737</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) continues to observe an increased rate of pavement deterioration on its 8,800 mile roadway network, which is the largest and most heavily used component of the transportation system under the MaineDOT’s jurisdiction. Pavement deterioration is governed by a variety of factors, including traffic load, quality and design of the pavement structure, increased frequency of climatic events like freeze-thaw cycles, topographic influences and drainage, and geologic considerations like the native subgrade soils. While these factors have been identified individually as potential attributes to pavement degradation and distress, it is likely the confluence of several attributes that impute the greatest rate of degradation on pavement systems. However, the combination(s) of attributes linked to varying degrees of the pavement degradation rate remain poorly understood and must be identified to make informed decisions regarding resource allocation. 
This project seeks to identify and link the combination(s) of attributes described in the preceding section (e.g. pavement design/structure/quality, traffic loading, environmental stressors) to temporal and spatial differences in the rate of pavement degradation on MaineDOT’s highway network; i.e. to understand the relative influence of attributes imputing pavement distress. By working with the MaineDOT, UMaine will use existing and/or collect new pavement quality data (geo-located cracking index values) using the Automatic Road Analyzer (ARAN) to quantify the degree of pavement distress. ARAN data surveyed across the state will allow an assessment of variations in pavement quality across pavement types (e.g. new construction, rehabilitation, spot improvements, LCP, preservation paving), regions/space (i.e. for consideration of climate, geology, drainage, wetness, soil, and traffic loading) and epochs (time since last paving or improvement). 
The project is expected to consist of three components:
Phase 1a (3-6 months): A literature review of existing studies and methods that incorporate data-driven analyses of spatial and/or temporal differences in the rate of pavement degradation. 
Phase 1b (18-21 months): Data-collection and integration, mapping & visualization, and predictor selection and attribution of factors influencing pavement degradation rates via machine learning. 
Phase 2: (18 months): Extension and refinement of Phase 1b to develop a tractable forecasting model to predict the degradation rate of pavement systems.



]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2025 11:39:48 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2570737</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Michigan (One Point) Cone Test Evaluation</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2562261</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Recent use of Open Graded Drainage Course (OGDC) has drawn the attention of Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to the current practice of using One-
Point Michigan Cone tests to determine Maximum Density for such soils. The material is relatively new to MDOT, and the research team desires to discover if current field tests involving the Michigan cone correlate with other industry standard tests.
Studies from the 1960's, 70's and early 2000's indicate that for many applications, Michigan Cone Maximum density
values exceed those garnered by other acceptable testing methods. The department would like to explore if Michigan
Cone testing practices as written are an effective determination of Maximum density for OGDC, or if modifications to
this current process are more appropriate for determining this maximum density. MDOT would prefer to keep its current equipment for field testing without investing in ovens for oven dry moisture, generators, new volumetric
molds or hammers, so a preference exists to manipulate our current processes to give a representative sample of the
maximum density.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 06 Jun 2025 14:35:48 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2562261</guid>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>