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    <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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    <atom:link href="https://rip.trb.org/Record/RSS?s=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" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
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    <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>
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      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
      <url>https://rip.trb.org/Images/PageHeader-wTitle-RIP.jpg</url>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Development of Bridge Preventive Maintenance Training</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2768416</link>
      <description><![CDATA[On suburban and urban roadways, recurring traffic congestion increases delays, makes travel times unreliable, and results in more crashes. Traditional capacity improvement projects involving roadway widening or bypasses may take several years to design, fund, and build, and in the long?term may increase travel demand for the corridor. The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has begun a highly successful Operational Improvement Program to rapidly identify and address these needs. The program looks for quick fix solutions with lower costs (typically less than $1 million), such as turn lane extensions, minor ITS deployments, and restriping. Projects are sought which have near?term implementation schedules of less than one year.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 17:04:24 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2768416</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Communicating the Benefits of a Maintenance Budget Overhaul to Legislators: The Shock Factor of Inaction</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2768406</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Budget overruns can force the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) to delay routine maintenance like guardrail repair, pothole patching, and mowing, particularly if the agency has to dedicate more funding than expected to winter and emergency responses. Although deferred maintenance does not immediately take assets out of service, repeated delays degrade infrastructure condition. How delays affect user safety is not well understood, easily quantified, nor grasped by the public. Identifying preservation needs, calculating maintenance returns on investment, and developing objective measures that can underpin maintenance budget allocations will all help to close these knowledge gaps. However, they must be complemented by the use of proven communications strategies that vividly convey to legislators and the public the long-term risks and costs of deferring routine maintenance.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 17:04:19 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2768406</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Full Closure Versus Lane Closures for Freeway Maintenance
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2763062</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Freeway maintenance projects are essential but challenging operations that often entail significant safety risks, high costs, and traffic disruptions. In North Carolina, most freeway maintenance is performed using the lane closure option, where one or more lanes are closed and traffic is routed through remaining lanes or shoulders. A second option is a full closure, which shuts down the entire roadway (in one direction or both) and detours traffic via alternate routes. Each option has trade-offs: full closures can accelerate construction and enhance worker safety by removing traffic from the work zone, but they inconvenience motorists with detours; partial closures allow some traffic through, reducing detour impacts, but prolong the work and expose workers and drivers to work zone hazards. Currently, guidance on when to choose full closure versus lane closures is limited, leaving engineers to make case-by-case judgments without a consistent framework. Given the stakes, a data-driven approach is needed to optimize closure decisions.
This proposal outlines a two-year, research project to investigate the safety, construction cost, and operational impacts of full closures versus lane closures for freeway maintenance. The primary focus is traffic safety: understanding how full closures (with detoured traffic) compare to partial closures (with live traffic in a work zone) in terms of crash risk for motorists and workers. Secondary objectives include quantifying construction cost and time differences and assessing operational impacts such as traffic delay and rerouting effects, using practical analysis methods (avoiding the need for full regional traffic modeling). The ultimate goal is to develop guidance for North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to use when determining whether to use full closure or lane closures. This guidance will directly help NCDOT staff (both at the Division level and central offices) plan maintenance projects that minimize total harm (safety and mobility impacts) while maximizing efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
To achieve these objectives, the research team will: (1) review national and international literature and practices on work zone closure strategies, with emphasis on safety outcomes; (2) collect and analyze relevant data from past projects (in North Carolina and other states) to compare crash rates, work durations, and costs under different closure approaches; and (3) perform targeted operational analyses (e.g. using deterministic models or simplified traffic analysis tools) to estimate delays and diversion impacts without full-scale regional simulation.
Significance: By focusing first on safety, this research will fill a critical gap. For example, while it is intuitively safer for workers to have no traffic in the work zone (full closure), questions remain about the overall safety impact once detour routes are considered. Preliminary evidence from other states is mixed but informative: some full closure implementations have been associated with improved safety for both workers and travelers (and even lower overall crash rates on alternate routes), while others note the importance of careful detour planning to mitigate increased exposure of local roads to additional traffic and associated safety risks. By systematically studying these impacts and also evaluating cost and mobility outcomes, this project will produce actionable guidance. The products will include a final report and a concise guideline document that NCDOT can circulate among engineers and project managers. An implementation plan is built into the project to ensure the guidelines are effectively communicated (through workshops or webinars) and pilot-tested on a real project scenario. The outcome will empower NCDOT to make well-informed decisions that improve work zone safety, minimize traveler inconvenience, save money, and expedite project delivery.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:20:57 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2763062</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Maintenance Decision Support System Refinement</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2705945</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The objectives of the Maintenance Decision Support System are to: (1) Assess current road and weather conditions using observations and reasonable inferences based upon observations and physical laws. (2) Provide time- and location-specific weather forecasts along transportation routes. (3) Predict how road conditions would change due to the combined effects of the forecast weather and the application of several candidate road maintenance treatments. (4) Notify state agencies of approaching adverse conditions and suggest optimal maintenance treatments that can be achieved with resources available to the transportation agencies. (5) Evaluate the reliability of predictions and the effectiveness of applied maintenance treatments for specific road and weather conditions so that the decision support logic can be improved. Continuing the efforts of the previous phases of work, the member agencies voted on the future direction and tasks of the Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) pooled fund study (PFS). Some of these tasks represent continuation of previous phases of work and others are new endeavors for the project. The primary research areas selected by members of the MDSS project panel include: (1) Investigate methods to improve the MDSS model for better support of frost, freezing rain and other weather conditions; (2) Assess recommendations based on user feedback in real-time with post-recommendation analysis to improve MDSS modeling; (3) Analyze the use of Level of Service in DOT operations and understand how this functionality can be improved within MDSS; (4) Focus on Liquids as a priority treatment recommendation and develop processes that facilitate specialty liquids within MDSS; (5) Conduct a discovery process on Performance Measurement methods that would be applicable for MDSS with the goal of implementing these methods to demonstrate MDSS value; and (6) Improve the Route Configuration Process by implementing automated functionality, clear guidance for users, and preparing for the future of MDSS.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2026 22:52:21 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2705945</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Assessment of Litter Hot Spot Areas for Targeted Reduction in Prince George's County</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2701237</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The frequency and volume of litter and illegal dumping on state and county roadways in Prince George’s County are increasing, despite efforts like scheduled litter blitzes, which have shown limited long-term success. Over the past five years, the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) spent approximately $42 million removing litter and debris, with last year’s costs alone reaching $15 million—the equivalent of 45 new dump trucks or nearly 60 miles of resurfaced roads (Source WBAL News: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/drivers-watch-out-for-operation-clean-sweep-maryland/ar-BB1jY1rr). These expenditures are unsustainable, especially given recent fiscal shortfalls. This joint research proposal, submitted by District 3 and Prince George’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPW&T), aims to evaluate litter hot spots at the census tract level, as current efforts have not addressed the root causes of the issue. Prince George’s County, a well-resourced and educated area, presents unique challenges, suggesting the problem extends beyond awareness or resource deficits. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 May 2026 09:15:15 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2701237</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Hydrologic and Hydraulic Software Enhancements 2 (SMS, WMS, Hydraulic Toolbox, and HY-8)</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2640674</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This Transportation Pooled Fund (TPF) project will: (1) Enhance the capabilities of the four Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsored software programs and ensure they remain consistent with the latest FHWA technical reference documents; (2) Update the software user manual documentation; (3) Make new software versions publicly available; (4) Develop and deploy technology transfer materials and workshops to test and demonstrate new software content and features; (5) Inform users of the availability of new software versions and features through website postings, email notifications, newsletter articles, conference presentations, and other avenues.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2025 15:42:55 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2640674</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Synthesis of Information Related to Highway Practices. Topic 57-09. Practices for Using Crowdsourced Data for Asset Inventory and Condition Assessment</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2630489</link>
      <description><![CDATA[State departments of transportation (DOTs) are increasingly incorporating crowdsourced data into their asset management, maintenance planning, data collection for condition assessment, and analysis activities. Once considered experimental, crowdsourced information is gradually becoming accessible as a data source for many applications. These crowdsourcing examples may include navigation application user reports, social media, state DOT data portals, and third-party probe services. Federal initiatives have encouraged this shift by providing frameworks for institutionalizing the practice and demonstrating cost savings. Crowdsourced data offers the potential to augment traditional data sources, expand coverage, improve safety and reliability, and reduce costs.
State DOTs are transitioning from reactive maintenance tracking to more proactive systemic asset condition assessments, and they may leverage crowdsourced data to help identify specific infrastructure deficiencies. This may include detection of pavement distresses like potholes, the presence of roadway hazards or debris, and localized damage to roadside infrastructure.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this synthesis is to document state DOT practices for using crowdsourced data pertaining to asset inventory and condition assessments for maintenance, operations, and planning.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 26 Nov 2025 15:58:45 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2630489</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Highway Research and Technology -- International Information Sharing</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2617648</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Highway authorities world-wide share many common concerns in the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of highway systems. Most developed nations also support programs of research and development (R&D) on highway issues. The potential for information sharing and technology transfer is great. Coordination of research in the United States has focused primarily on technology transfer and information dissemination among the large and diverse community of state and local highway agencies within this country. There is a need to utilize a systematic exchange mechanism to learn from counterparts abroad, where many new developments have been tested and successfully used for highways. OBJECTIVE: The National Cooperative Research Program (NCHRP) 20-36 Project provides a coordinated approach to international information sharing and technology exchange. The project activities have a much broader scope than the typical NCHRP project in encompassing exchanges on all facets of highway technology, policy and management with our international partners. The project’s overall objective is to improve highway safety, development, maintenance and operations through dissemination of innovative technology and successful practices from around the globe. Such process enhances the roles of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in providing coordinated leadership for the exchange of international highway research and development, and provides state departments of transportation with information on practices and technologies that could help accrue technical and economic benefits. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2025 16:52:25 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2617648</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Synthesis of Information Related to Highway Practices</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2617649</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Administrators, practicing engineers, and researchers continually face highway problems on which much information already exists, either in documented form or in terms of undocumented experience and practice. Unfortunately, this information is often fragmented, scattered, and under evaluated. Often it is unknown to the person normally responsible for initiating changes related to the topic (changes in specifications, procedures, etc.). As a consequence, full information on what has been learned about a valuable experience may be overlooked, and due consideration may not be given to recommended practices for solving or alleviating the problem.

OBJECTIVE: In this project, particular highway problems, or sets of closely related problems, are designated as topics for information synthesis. For each topic the project objectives are as follows: (1) locate and assemble documented information; (2) learn what engineering practice has been used for solving or alleviating the problem; (3) identify all ongoing research; (4) learn what problems remain largely unsolved; (5) organize, evaluate, and document the useful information that is acquired; and (6) evaluate the effectiveness of the synthesis after it has been in the hands of its users for a period of time.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 05 Nov 2025 15:56:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2617649</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Location-Based Technology for Construction Project Record and Activity Efficiency</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2607968</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project will fund a pilot project using the collaborative digital stationing program, OnStation, to complement existing New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) e-Construction technologies. The digital stationing software will be deployed in two districts for use on multiple construction projects for two years. The software will be deployed on mobile electronic devices for use by field inspectors, supervisors, and project managers. Software users will receive training before usage. Users will have the ability to access digital stationing and software features in the field and the project offices. The software deployment and usage will be a complete project. By piloting this software in two of the six Districts in New Mexico, the NMDOT can ensure that the software will be fully functional and a good fit for use in the state of New Mexico. In the future, if the deployment is successful, the software will be used in all six NMDOT Districts. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 2025 13:31:17 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2607968</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Debris Removal System</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2607965</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) is responsible for maintaining safe roadways for the motoring public. 67-3-16 requires the State Highway Commission, the governing body of the NMDOT, to construct, repair, and maintain highways within the state, as in their judgment will best serve the interest of the general public. Part of maintaining the roadways in good operation is to clear debris that can be hazardous to the public. Currently, NMDOT personnel are required to close traffic lanes as well as leave the safety of their vehicle, putting themselves in harm's way,  to remove roadway debris. A safer and more effective way for the Department to meet this statutory requirement would be to use devices to clear the roadway. 
 
The Department is currently conducting a Debris Removal System pilot study with vendors J-Tech (Lane Blade) and IC Innovations (Incident Clear). The units selected are equipped on the front of the vehicles and are truck-mounted hydraulic-actuated blade attachments to collect litter. This will allow the NMDOT personnel to remove hazardous road debris without leaving the safety of their vehicle. At the end of the pilot study, the Department will select the best Debris Removal System to ultimately provide safer roadways and reduce delays for the Department and the motoring public of New Mexico. 
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 2025 12:17:13 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2607965</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Innovative Stormwater Solutions for Linear Projects</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2486932</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Managing stormwater is a critical part of any transportation infrastructure project, both during construction and long term. Meeting water quality requirements during long linear projects is challenging given limited right of way and resources; this is especially true in tight urban areas. The increase in impervious surfaces has increased the amount of water that must be managed (as opposed to being absorbed into the ground). There are different types of challenges managing stormwater within urban and rural areas, each require different approaches and techniques. For each, the creation and maintenance of stormwater infrastructure have different implications for roadside infrastructure and vegetation. Finally, there are multiple different challenges that occur at different timeframes, from short term construction challenges to longer term infrastructure and maintenance concerns.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 10:14:01 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2486932</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Dust Mitigation Monitoring Project, Phase II</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2582909</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Since 2015, the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) has programmed $2.5 million in Highway Safety Improvement Program {HSIP) funds for dust mitigation activities at the Lordsburg Playa on both sides of I-10. In 2018, dust mitigation efforts in the Southern Playa (Road Forks) area were initiated including livestock exclusion, keyline plowing, printing, seeding, tackifier, and fencing. In 2020 and 2021, dust mitigation efforts in the Northern Playa area were initiated including livestock exclusion, channel/erosion control, keyline plowing, printing, seeding, tackifier and fencing. OBJECTIVE: The objective of Phase II study is to determine the effectiveness of land use interventions on mitigating blowing dust and the frequency of dust-related traffic crashes. The primary goal for future implementation is to determine land use interventions that will be effective in future instances of localized blowing dust to prevent crashes due to visibility loss caused by
blowing dust]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2025 11:25:03 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2582909</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Autonomous Maintenance Technologies - Phase 2</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2578846</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Road maintenance activities are crucial for ensuring safe and efficient delivery of goods and people. Well-maintained roads not only extend their lifespan but also significantly reduce the risk of accidents and improve fuel efficiency. In recent years, with the development of vehicle automation, wireless communication, and robotic technologies, some road maintenance activities can be partially or fully replaced by machines, which bring significant benefits in improving road maintenance workers’ safety and productivity and alleviating the growing workforce shortage in state DOTs.

The existing pooled fund project titled “Autonomous Maintenance Technology (AMT)” started in 2018 and the main focus so far has been the Autonomous Truck Mounted Attenuator (ATMA) technology. Current research in ATMA has led to broader interest in other AMTs such as autonomous cracking sealing, autonomous mowing, and autonomous snow plowing, among others. This motivates to expand the scope of the current pooled fund project and develop a cooperative agreement to conduct further research on other available ATMs and their supported road maintenance activities. The Indiana DOT (INDOT) will serve as the lead state for the execution of the continuing pooled fund project. INDOT, through the Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP) at Purdue University, will handle all administrative duties associated with the project. Purdue University will also serve as the lead research institution for the project.

The overall objective of this study is to support and promote collaborative research efforts in the field of Autonomous Maintenance Technologies (AMTs) for road maintenance activities. Specific objectives include (1) Identify needed research priorities from participating state DOTs; (2) Provide a platform for technology, experience, and lessons learned exchange among participants; (3) Fund research related to AMT development, testing, evaluation, and deployment in various DOT maintenance activities; (4) Foster collaboration among state agencies, industry, and academia; and (5) Provide technical leadership in AMT to advance the state-of-the-art road maintenance practices. It is expected that this consortium will become a national leader in AMT-related research and applications.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2025 20:49:48 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2578846</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Characterizing and Mitigating Community-level Compound Algorithmic Biases for Data-driven Road Infrastructure Decision-making</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2556691</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Efficient road infrastructure maintenance, ranging from fixing cracks/potholes to repairing traffic signs, is critical to increasing ride comfort and traffic safety and reducing operation costs. In recent years, government agencies increasingly rely on the open e-government systems to acquire real-time data of road infrastructure conditions from community residents, due to their low-cost, timely, and transparent natures, for optimizing maintenance strategies. These data are often multi-modal and shared by people in active or passive manner: (1) in active e-government platforms, community residents can directly call in or send request via websites to report observed road infrastructure problems (e.g., 311 or City Connect programs), or (2) people can install mobile software on individual smart devices that automatically collect and share data in the back end while moving around the neighborhood. Such multi-modal human-centric crowdsensing data are further analyzed and utilized to train statistical or machine learning models for estimating road infrastructure conditions and commonly used to help the government agencies optimize allocations of maintenance resources. 
However, a major challenge is the sensing biases in the data that can cause inefficient maintenance decision-making. Previous studies indicate that community status would significantly impact the levels of civic engagement in multi-modal e-government systems. The disparities in community status may lead to distinct qualities of crowdsensed data and thus introduce sensing biases to the data (e.g., under-reporting and over-reporting). These sensing biases further activate and amplify the inherent algorithmic bias in data-driven infrastructure modeling, leading to under-estimation of the urgency and severity of maintenance demands. The biased estimations of road infrastructure conditions will finally lead to inefficient road maintenance service.  Existing studies mainly focus on understanding the engagement in single-mode e-government system or addressing algorithmic biases regardless of sensing biases, but none of them have yet to quantitatively reason the generation and propagation of the coupled social-algorithmic biases in multi-modal e-government systems and mitigate them jointly. 
This project aims to reason and mitigate community-level compound social-algorithmic biases generation and propagation in human-centric e-government systems for promoting efficient road infrastructure maintenance decision-making.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 21 May 2025 12:51:12 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2556691</guid>
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