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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

Regional Calibration Center at UC Davis and Update of HVS's and Laboratory Equipment

The Advanced Transportation Infrastructure Research Center (ATIRC) on land provided by University of California (UC) Davis includes a facility certified by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for calibration of Falling Weight Deflectometers (FWD), which will eliminate the current need to annually send the Department's equipment to Texas or Colorado, currently the nearest facilities. The FWD calibration center will also be used by other state DOTs, local government, and consultants operating FWDs in the western states. The FHWA agreement to provide the calibration equipment is a state department of transportation ( DOT) pooled-fund study that the Department is participating in. Users of the facility other than the Department and other state DOTs will need to pay to cover the costs of the services provided, unless some other arrangement is made by them with the Department. The two Heavy Vehicle Simulators owned by the Department and operated by the UC Contract Team to perform accelerated pavement testing were originally purchased in 1994 and delivered in 1995. Their mechanical systems were reconditioned when they were purchased by the Department from the previous owner, who had used them for nearly 20 years. The last major upgrade to the electrical system was in 2000. The testing completed using the HVSs in the 13 years since 1995 has used heavier wheel loads and has placed many more repetitions on each machine than were placed by the previous owner in nearly 20 years of operation. To perform its laboratory work for the Department, the UC Davis and UC Berkeley parts of the UC Contract Team have been primarily using laboratory equipment purchased between 1998 and 2002 through contracts with the Department, and other laboratory equipment purchased through contracts with the federal Strategic Highway Research Program between 1991 and 1993 and left with UC. Some additional laboratory equipment, such as the triaxial machine, has been assembled from parts left over from university research in the 1970s and 1980s or donated in the 1990s by private industry.