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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>Feasibility of Waterborne Distribution at Hunts Point Terminal Market</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1395735</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, also referred to as Hunts Point Terminal Market (HPTM), is the center or hub for food distribution for the New York Metropolitan area. Hunts Point Peninsula, located in the South Bronx, is also home to over 40,000 residents. HPTM is a cooperative owned by stockholders. The cooperative has a long-term lease with the City of New York for its cooperation and tenants.

The HPTM distribution center is a vital part of the food supply chain in the New York metropolitan area. Firms’ agents arrive at the food distribution center to select and pick up food. Some food is ordered in advance; therefore, it is only picked up. The food is hauled away by truck, van or other commercial vehicles many of which are refrigerated. Two types of truck trips are made to HPTM:

     (1) The inbound truck trip is for delivering food products to the distribution center (56% west of the Hudson
      River and 44% east of the Hudson River).
 
     (2) The outbound truck trip is for hauling food products from the distribution center to grocery stores,
      restaurants, and other food venues (17% west of the Hudson River and 79% east of the Hudson River).
The demand for the distribution center’s services generates 15,000 truck trips per day, including some from large distances away. Traffic flow is constant, occurring 24 hours a day, especially during the very early morning hours. There are times during the daily operating cycle when congestion is formed on the roads leading to and from the distribution center and congestion is formed in the terminal itself. Congestion implies air pollution, noise pollution, additional road wear-and-tear, an increase of public spending on health and infrastructure maintenance and other negative externalities.

The large HPTM distribution center does not have simple and quick access. The geographical layout of the New York Metropolitan area of highways, bridges and tunnels along rivers and creeks complicates the surface transportation delivery. Delivery takes more miles to drive and more time to deliver. As a result, at times of peak demand, vehicles spend excessive time waiting and idling and on the road wasting fuel and emitting CO₂ and other gases.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 20 Jan 2016 17:39:21 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>Use of Adsorption Mechanism to Decrease Heavy Metal Mobility in Soil</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1301305</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been involved in the recent food safety and beverage discussion about elevated levels of arsenic and other heavy metals in foods such as apple juice, honey and rice.  Some forms of arsenic have been determined a human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), making it imperative that food quality and the associated threat to human health be studied further.  Some highway construction materials such coal fly ash could be a source of these toxic elements.  The environmental engineering approach to this topic is not limited to, but focuses on heavy metal (i.e. arsenic, selenium) mobility and transport in the environment, exposure and corresponding human health impacts.  Missouri Science and Technology (S&amp;T) is part of a small number of engineering institutions that are currently researching these topics.  If current research trends indicate impending roles of environmental engineering, one forthcoming role will be food quality assurance.  The assurance methods explored in this research includes the modification of soil chemistry and competitive adsorption states.  This chemistry is based on testing the ability adsorption material (i.e. iron oxide) to fixate arsenic and other heavy metals to effectively decrease mobility and transport into the environment.  This application will be tested under varying adsorbent applications to optimize adsorbent added per decreased heavy metal mobility and improve the role of environmental engineering in food quality assurance. This research is related to the Northwest University Transportation Center (NUTC) Theme #1: Advanced materials. Fly ash and other recycled construction materials could be used as novel construction materials for highway, to reduce cost, improve structure stability, and reduce carbon emission. However, heavy metals could be leached from these materials. Ultimately these heavy metals will be accumulated by crops and impact human health. While this proposed research does not directly address the strength of the construction material, it does evaluate the resulted environmental and health impact related to the application of these materials, which is part of the NUTC theme #1.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 07 Mar 2014 01:01:41 GMT</pubDate>
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