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    <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>
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      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Novel Surge Barriers for Coastal Protection</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2665445</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Surge barriers are large hydraulic structures designed to protect vulnerable infrastructure from coastal storm surges and high tides. Preventing surges from moving into bays and estuaries minimizes the need for other expensive elements of a flood control system, such as levees and floodwalls. Surge barriers can provide cost-effective protection critical transportation infrastructure, such as ports, roads, and bridges. Conventional surge barriers comprise a fixed structure with movable vertically or horizontally opening gates that can be closed during extreme storms and tidal events. Disadvantages of fixed barriers include high cost, sensitivity to waste and silt, vulnerability to blockage by debris, constraints to marine traffic, and environmental impacts. Temporary surge barriers can avoid these disadvantages. This research evaluates three novel temporary barrier concepts: flexible membrane barriers, sinkable floating barriers, and shade curtain barriers. Flexible membrane barriers are self-deploying and permanently located on shore. Buried when not deployed, they rise with rising water due to their buoyancy. Sinkable floating barriers rest on the seabed when not deployed and, when needed, are raised to the surface by pumping air into a tube. Shade curtains are fabric barriers attached to an existing bridge. When not deployed, it is secured to the underside of the bridge deck. In advance of a surge, the fabric curtain is lowered using a sinker-cable system to provide a vertical barrier extending from the bridge deck to the seabed. Hydraulic loads are transmitted from the barrier to the bridge and its foundations, which must be capable of resisting the added loads. This project addresses three key issues related to temporary surge barrier deployment: site and environmental conditions for which temporary surge barriers are appropriate, hydraulic loading on the barriers, and structural/geotechnical design considerations for the barriers.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 04 Feb 2026 15:18:48 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2665445</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Novel surge barriers for coastal protection (TAMU)</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2663229</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Surge barriers are large hydraulic structures designed to protect infrastructure from coastal storm surges and high tides. Preventing surges from moving into bays and estuaries minimizes the need for other expensive elements of a flood control system, such as levees and floodwalls. Surge barriers can provide cost-effective protection critical transportation infrastructure, such as ports, roads, and bridges. Conventional surge barriers comprise a fixed structure with movable vertically or horizontally opening gates that can be closed during extreme storms and tidal events. Disadvantages of fixed barriers include high cost, sensitivity to waste and silt, potential debris blockage, and constraints to marine traffic. Temporary surge barriers can avoid these disadvantages. This research evaluates three novel temporary barrier concepts: flexible membrane barriers, sinkable floating barriers, and shade curtain barriers. Flexible membrane barriers are self-deploying and permanently located on shore. Buried when not deployed, they rise with rising water due to their buoyancy. Sinkable floating barriers rest on the seabed when not deployed and, when needed, are raised to the surface by pumping air into a tube. Shade curtains are fabric barriers attached to an existing bridge. When not deployed, it is secured to the underside of the bridge deck. In advance of a surge, the fabric curtain is lowered using a sinker-cable system to provide a vertical barrier extending from the bridge deck to the seabed. Hydraulic loads are transmitted from the barrier to the bridge and its foundations, which must be capable of resisting the added loads. This project addresses three key issues related to temporary surge barrier deployment: site conditions for which temporary surge barriers are appropriate, hydraulic loading on the barriers, and structural/geotechnical design considerations for the barriers.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2026 11:29:01 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2663229</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Soil and Erosion Testing Services for Bridge Scour Evaluations</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2521885</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The objective of these pooled funds is to provide and/or support soil and erosion testing services for bridge projects over water crossings managed or coordinated by state departments of transportation (DOTs), to provide technical assistance to design, fabricate, and install erosion testing devices to support and seek to broaden the use of erosion testing devices among state DOTs, and to compile and analyze the collected soil and erosion testing data in a broader research effort to more accurately estimate reliable scour design depths given the soil conditions and hydraulic load during a given storm event.

]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 12 Mar 2025 20:09:24 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2521885</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Resiliency of MSE Walls to Surge and Wave Loading</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2389222</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The project objectives are to identify the mode of failure that mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls have exhibited as a result of hydrodynamic storm surge and wave loading and study effective remediation measures to improve their reliability. The research team will conduct model tests of different MSE wall cases subjected to representative tropical storm hydrodynamics using finite element modeling and centrifuge tests. The parameters of the walls will be the same as those that failed during Hurricane Ian’s landfall near Fort Myers, Florida in September 2022. The parameters of the hydrodynamics will be based on observations and data available through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USGA and other agencies and in the literature. Measurements of pore pressures in the MSE wall backfill and bearing soil will be made in order to assess the stability changes associated with excess pore pressures driven by the hydrodynamics. The surge water levels and velocities will also be measured through each test. Remediation measures that will be tested include larger mean particle size of the backfill improve permeability and reduce residual excess pore pressure and external porous façade elements as a hydrodynamic energy dissipative boundary. A study of influential parameters will be made using calibrated finite element models of the tested MSE walls.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2024 07:33:41 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2389222</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Coastal Flood Roadway Vulnerability Assessment</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2265647</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The primary goal of this research is to create a vulnerability assessment of Georgia’s coastal roadways to storm surge flooding and sea level rise (SLR).
Objectives are as follows:
(1) Derive roadway crown elevations using the newly released coastal Georgia lidar elevation dataset. This is an improvement to projects in other regions, where the roadway is incorrectly assumed to be the same elevation as the surrounding land (Davis and Dow 2019). 
(2) Perform hydrodynamic simulations for each storm and SLR scenario using a newly updated, high-resolution (20 m resolution in the horizontal) ADCIRC+SWAN model of coastal Georgia. This is an improvement from existing roadway vulnerability assessments. 
(3) Overlay the results from Task 1 and 2 and determine overtopped road sections for each flooding scenario.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 10 Oct 2023 11:28:54 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2265647</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Enhancing the Resilience of Coastal Box Girder Bridges through Geometric Modifications</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2012468</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The primary goal of this proposal is to enhance the resilience of coastal box girder bridges subject to storm and/or tsunami wave loading through an evaluation of their design geometry.  Specifically, the geometry to be studied is the angle of inclination of the web plates, the width of the bottom flange (where a width of zero implies a triangular form), and the integration of the rail/parapet as a structural element. The desired outcome would be to equip coastal bridge designers with resilient strategies for new coastal bridge designs as well as retrofit strategies of existing T-type and box type decks.

The intended outcome of the project is to equip coastal bridge designers with resilient strategies for new designs and retrofits of existing bridges.  This outcome will be disseminated in reports, papers, and oral presentations as described previously.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov 2022 14:23:08 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2012468</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>Infrastructure Resilience and Adaptation for Hurricanes in Coastal Areas</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1357224</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Sea level rise (SLR) is expected to have a significant impact on future coastal flooding in the greater Norfolk/Hampton Roads area, where global SLR estimates are on the order of 0.3 m by the 2050s and 1 m by the end of this century.  SLR is a concern for normal transportation activities but is particularly important under evacuation conditions when part of the network may be unavailable due to storm surge. The goals of this project are to: (1) understand how SLR impacts flooding, and in turn how this flooding impacts evacuation demand and performance and network connectivity, capacity, and vulnerability; (2) develop and apply a resilience assessment methodology for coastal areas; and (3) identify appropriate climate change adaptation strategies, evaluate their impacts on resilience and evacuation performance, and evaluate trade-offs among different strategies. Dr. Irish and her team provide critical inputs to the other investigators. They will use the well-known ADCIRC hydrodynamic model to simulate surge at high resolution and accuracy for three synthetic hurricanes under three SLR scenarios: present-day, 0.3 m, and 1.0 m. The synthetic storms (track, intensity, size, etc.) will be selected to (1) represent plausible hurricane conditions in the study area and (2) produce either large localized or moderate widespread flooding in the study area. Peak surge arrival will be assumed to coincide with high spring tide (worst case). Model outputs will include time series of flood elevation and wind speed at high spatial resolution throughout the study area. Taking flood elevations, Drs. Rakha and El-Shawarby will conduct microscopic simulation to identify the impacts on capacities of individual links.  These capacity changes will be inputs to network performance measures used in Dr. Murray-Tuite's and Dr. Smith's analyses. These capacity reductions also affect the multi-day evacuation demand, which Dr. Murray-Tuite will modify based on her existing datasets.  This demand will be used by both Dr. Murray-Tuite and Dr. Rakha's teams.  Drs. Murray-Tuite and Rakha will work together to identify appropriate evacuation models and tie their respective mesoscopic and microscopic models together to provide higher resolution modeling at critical points as well as "bigger picture" performance measures.  For example, one could evaluate a large number of scenarios using a mesoscopic approach and reduce them to a more limited number of scenarios. A microscopic approach can then be used to select the optimum strategy from this subset. Evacuation demand will also be modified based on climate change adaptation strategies identified by Dr. Smith.  In previously completed research, Dr. Smith's team has applied an FHWA developed conceptual model for understanding the ramifications of climate change on the transportation infrastructure.  Based on the identification and prioritization of risks, this research will investigate necessary adaptation to address high priority risks.  These adaptations will affect the future network configuration and capacity, which will provide "alternative futures" that can be evaluated in the analyses by Dr. Murray-Tuite's and Dr. Rakha's teams. The potential implementation of project outcomes and guidance on adaptation strategies can be used by departments of transportation (DOTs) and planning agencies methods can be transferred to other areas. Dr. Murray-Tuite will also lead the development of vulnerability and resilience analysis methods with significant collaboration from Drs. Irish, Rakha, El-Shawarby, and Smith as well as the PIs of competitive research projects under this general topic. Many of the benefits listed below could result in better evacuation plans, which help mitigate the risk to human lives during hurricanes. Improved understanding of the effects of sea level rise and storm surge on network availability during hurricane scenarios and the understanding of how sea level rise and storm surge will affect hurricane evacuations are presented. Understanding of potential adaptation strategies and their impacts on resilience, network vulnerability, and evacuation metrics and the understanding of the trade-offs among climate change adaptation strategies are also presented. Webinars will be held where each group spends about 30 minutes on research progress and findings.  DOT representatives will be invited and the webinars will be recorded for later viewing.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2015 01:01:39 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1357224</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Port Resilience: Overcoming Threats to Maritime Infrastructure and Operations from Climate Change</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1356624</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Ports are a critical element in the global supply chain and any disruption in that transportation system can have significant impacts on the U.S. economy. Climate change and associated sea level rise have the potential to cause significant and frequent damage to the coastal environment if precautions are not taken. The location and nature of a port makes it susceptible to both natural and human-made disasters. Ports will inherently have some level of vulnerability to disruptions because of their location (adjacent to waterways) and their interdependencies (industrial and societal) with their associated communities. Hurricane Sandy and other recent storms on the Eastern seaboard, combined with future trends of sea-level rise and storm severity, have demonstrated that reducing the impact of port damages is an economic necessity. Actions can be taken in coastal communities and along the working waterfront include protective infrastructure as well as social infrastructure that will increase resilience. This project desires to identify the best linkages of physical and social infrastructure that will provide for full and rapid recovery in the coastal zone following a major disruption. Research will include the review of the physical and social infrastructure that existed following Hurricane Sandy and identify through structured stakeholder interviews the circumstances that led to the port's storm related impacts, subsequent closure for a week, and recovery of the waterside before the landside facilities. Findings from literature reviews and local agency and industry stakeholders involved will be identified, mitigation activities undertaken will be described, vulnerabilities and resiliency gaps sought and described, and a conceptual framework developed to describe the processes and approaches used to mitigate the problems of sea level rise and coastal flooding during storms. Guidelines and engineering tools to aid decision making to reduce the impact of a significant event will be developed using findings from Hurricane Sandy and other port disruptions as well as the output from a scenario-based work to be conducted as part of a national conference on innovative technologies and practices in the marine transportation system. The guidelines and the tools will be formulated to help facilitate the recovery of coastal communities and port and intermodal connections following flood impacts and storm damage across a region. The overriding objective is to make the New York and New Jersey port facilities and associated supply chain transportation operations more resilient in the future to disruptions of all types.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2015 01:00:47 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1356624</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Prediction of Impact on Transport System due to Coastal Flooding under Climate Change</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236088</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Global warming and climate change are reshaping our world in many ways. One of their most obvious evidences is sea level rise due to melting of polar glaciers and arctic ice. It is estimated that global sea level rise is at an alarming rate of 0.18cm/yr during 1961-2003, it is even higher at 0.3cm/yr during 1993-2003, and research estimates that sea level could range from 0.8 to 2 m by 2100 under glaciological conditions. Another important consequence of global warming is pattern change and increased variance of precipitation around the world; precipitation increasing and hurricanes becoming stronger and more frequent in high latitudes (Northern Hemisphere). The Northeast region is projected to see an increase in winter precipitation on the order of 20 to 30 percent. Combined effects from sea level rise and increase of variance of precipitation could result in catastrophic coastal flooding under hurricanes and winter storms, putting many major transportation infrastructures, including highways, bridges, and railroads at great risk. The Executive Committee of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) initiated a national study on potential impacts of climate change on U.S. transportation infrastructures. Coastal flood evolution involves multi-physics/multi-scale phenomena and currently there is no appropriate modeling tool to predict impact of coastal flooding on transportation systems. In prediction of flooding at transportation systems, two crucial issues have to be addressed: 1) desired accuracy and resolution in time and space for flooding at transportation systems, 2) modeling of storm surges with sharp fronts (such as the Tsunami in Japan on March, 2011). In view of current status of conditions, the most promising and feasible approach is hybrid method that couples different well-tested models designed for individual water flows. Recently developed were brand new hybrid methods implemented into a framework that couples different models and also applied it to coastal flooding at Cape May, NJ under projected climate change conditions. The framework provides attention to actual transportation systems that  will also be examined. It is expected that the results will be published in a prestigious journal. unprecedented platform to predict and resolve flooding at transportation systems. This project is to study the hybrid methods and validate the developed modeling framework previously proposed in [6-9] on rigorous foundations. In particular, theoretical analysis such as order of accuracy and stability of the framework and systematical numerical experiments on its performance in aspect of solution quality will be made. Feasibility and strategies for its application to actual transportation systems will also be examined. It is expected that the results will be published in a prestigious journal.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:40:51 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1236088</guid>
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