Capital Investment, Financing, Flood Risk, and Transportation Safety in the MidAmerica Region

Transportation agencies in the MidAmerica region face increasing pressure to manage aging infrastructure under fiscal constraints while improving transportation safety. Rural highways, freight-intensive corridors, and aging bridges experience elevated crash severity, yet capital investment timing and financing decisions are rarely evaluated through a safety-risk lens. This project develops an integrated empirical and probabilistic framework to quantify how capital investment timing, financing mechanisms, and flood-related hazards influence lifecycle transportation safety outcomes. The study constructs project- and asset-level datasets linking capital programming records, delivery timelines, financing mechanisms, infrastructure characteristics, crash outcomes, and flood risk indicators. Econometric models estimate statistical relationships between investment timing and safety performance. Monte Carlo simulation propagates uncertainty in delivery delays, cost escalation, traffic growth, and flood exposure to produce distributions of lifecycle safety risk and cost. Results will support safety-oriented capital planning and risk-informed decision-making for transportation agencies in the MidAmerica region.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $148,158.00
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348307

• 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:

  Mid-America Transportation Center

  University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  2200 Vine Street, PO Box 830851
  Lincoln, NE  United States  68583-0851
• Project Managers:

  Bruner, Britain

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Iowa, Iowa City

  National Advanced Driving Simulator, 2401 Oakdale Blvd
  Iowa City, IA  United States  52242-5003
• Principal Investigators:

  Hanley, Paul

• Start Date: 20260601
• Expected Completion Date: 20270531
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asset management; Bridge engineering; Capital investments; Decision making; Econometric models; Financing; Flood damage; Infrastructure; Risk assessment; Rural highways
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Economics; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01989954
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Mid-America Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348307
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: May 23 2026 5:36PM