Sustainable and Resilient Multimodal Transport Systems via Container-on-Barge

Recent events like the crack in the I-40 bridge, California wildfires, and the Dolton, Illinois landslide have revealed vulnerabilities in transportation systems, causing closures, delays, freight rerouting, and congestion. Traditional resilience measures such as redundancy and infrastructure strengthening help mitigate some disruptions but often fall short against natural disasters and lack long-term sustainability. Container on barge (CoB) transport, although currently underutilized in the nation and less explored in academic research, can alleviate the pressure on the existing system during disruptions and offer a more flexible, cost effective and sustainable solution. Therefore, in this project, the research team proposes to conduct a holistic study examining the integration of CoB into intermodal freight transportation systems, focusing on system resilience. Specifically, the team will first develop a context-aware approach for uncertain disruption quantification, and then design reliable CoBbased strategies to further mitigate disruptions. Additionally, the team will perform numerical experiments to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $125,514.00
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348331

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Maritime Transportation Research and Education Center (MarTREC)

  University of Arkansas
  4190 Bell Engineering Center
  Fayetteville, AR  United States  72701
• Performing Organizations:

  University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

  4190 Bell Engineering
  Civil Engineering
  Fayetteville, Arkansas  United States  72701
• Principal Investigators:

  Shen, Haoming

• Start Date: 20250801
• Expected Completion Date: 20270401
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Barges; Containers; Disaster resilience; Freight transportation; Intermodal transportation; Sustainable transportation
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Marine Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01970156
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Maritime Transportation Research and Education Center (MarTREC)
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348331
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Oct 30 2025 2:37PM