Pollution is certainly a problem in the real world, and especially in our nation’s waterways. Everything from household cleaners to industrial waste can end up in our reservoirs and lakes.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) fund TTI‘s Hydraulics, Sedimentation, and Erosion Control Laboratory (HSECL), a state-of-the-art facility focused on our nation’s water quality. Other states use the facility through the HSECL Pooled Fund Project, an effort supported nationally by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). This project maximizes the lab’s capabilities and gives the participating states priority in using the facility and receiving test results.

“The HSECL provides the transportation industry a uniform and timely testing and research program,” states Associate Research Scientist Beverly Storey, who also heads TTI‘s Environmental Management Program. “Products, materials, devices and methods used for storm water quality improvement, erosion and sediment control, and the design and management of sustainable roadsides all fall under research done at the facility, that is then shared with other state transportation agencies.”

Sediment runoff is the number one pollutant of our waterways, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Contaminants, such as oil and gasoline, can attach to the sediment particles and be carried into water supplies by storm water runoff. During road construction, sediment retention is particularly difficult to manage, but TTI Assistant Research Scientist Jett McFalls says it is imperative that appropriate measures be taken to ensure regulatory compliance.

TTI‘s facility is recognized as one of the premiere facilities of its type in the world. Since 1990, the HSECL has regularly updated the Approved Products List (APL) for erosion control materials it created in 1990. Many states, and even some municipalities such as Austin, Texas, not only utilize the APL, but also require manufacturers to have their materials tested at the facility prior to approving its use.

“For the first time, runoff at construction sites will have to meet EPA restrictions called Effluent Limitation Guidelines,” says McFalls. “Although we don’t expect the new guidelines to come out for a few years, we’ll already know which products meet those restrictions due to the new Sediment Retention Device [SRD] testing program.” The SRD test flume is the first full-scale testing program and will soon lead to an APL being developed for such devices.

“The HSECL is a valuable tool for TxDOT and TTI in testing erosion control products,” explains Dennis Markwardt, director of vegetation management in TxDOT‘s Maintenance Division. “The lab has proven itself over time by producing reliable, meaningful data. Expanding into the sedimentation arena will continue to provide benefits for Texas and the rest of the nation.”

It was Representative Oberstar’s first visit to TTI but not his first experience with the agency. Indeed, the congressman often cites TTI research findings during transportation committee hearings and public speeches.

The April 14 visit was arranged by Representative Chet Edwards, who referred to the Minnesota congressman as “Mr. Transportation” when introducing him at the event. Edwards represents the 17th Congressional District of Texas, which includes Bryan/College Station, TTI‘s hometown.

“When Chet asked if I would like to come to College Station and meet with the Texas Transportation Institute, I said that’s like going to a birthday party for me,” says Oberstar. “This is where they do all of the great research.”

Both congressmen met privately with senior TTI leadership and Bob Johns, director of the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota. Oberstar outlined his “future of transportation,” which focuses on transforming surface transportation programs, increasing multimodalism, enhancing livable communities, and developing new methods to fund and approve infrastructure projects.

“It was an honor to get to know Congressman Oberstar,” says TTI Agency Director Dennis Christiansen. “He has dedicated his life to mobility in the United States. He knows the way things work, he knows the issues, and he knows how important transportation is for our economy. He is also keenly aware of the vital role of transportation research.”

Oberstar was given an overview of TTI, which included details of the Universal Freight Shuttle (a zero-emission freight-movement system developed at the Institute), a “sneak peak” of the updated Urban Mobility Report (a widely publicized examination of congestion across the country) and a briefing on the Transportation Performance Measurement Program (a collaborative effort between TTI and the University of Minnesota in Oberstar’s home state).

“I salute you for your vision,” the 17-term congressman told participants. “A big problem facing America is the cost of logistics [the movement of people and goods]. TTI for years has been the nationally acknowledged leader and authority on metropolitan mobility and cost of congestion.”

During a news conference and gathering of Bryan/College Station elected officials and area leaders also hosted by TTI, Oberstar detailed his committee’s proposed $450 billion transportation bill that calls for streamlining federal funding mechanisms.

“We’re at a point where the current formula is not working very well,” he said. “We need to attack the major congestion choke points in America.” Oberstar blamed some of our congestion problems on the amount of time it takes to approve infrastructure projects. If approved, the new transportation bill would go into effect this fall.

Oberstar and Edwards spent part of their visit hearing from the mayors of Bryan and College Station and the Brazos County judge. The elected officials outlined their local road project priorities and detailed their concerns about future congestion problems.

“We are indebted to Congressman Chet Edwards for initiating the visit to TTI by Congressman Oberstar,” Christiansen said. “In our business, it is important that Chairman Oberstar knows who we are and what we do.”

Chairman James Oberstar addresses local elected leaders and transportation officials in TTI's TransLink® Research Laboratory while Congressman Chet Edwards looks on.

Chairman Oberstar (far right) is welcomed to TTI by (left to right) Chancellor Mike McKinney, Congressman Edwards and Agency Director Dennis Christiansen.

Chairman Oberstar answers a question from the audience.

Congressman Edwards addresses the group in the TransLink® Research Laboratory.

As a thank-you gift, Congressman Edwards presents Chairman Oberstar, an avid cyclist, with a Texas A&M Cycling Team jersey.

Guests joining Dr. Christiansen (third from left) and other TTI staff during the visit were (left to right): College Station Mayor Ben White; Congressman Edwards; Congressman Oberstar; Bryan Mayor Mark Conlee; Bob Johns, director of the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota; and Brazos County Commissioner Kenny Mallard.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) originally aimed its Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) at ensuring that signs and markings were uniform in their design and placement. This promoted consistent recognition on the driver’s part, which reinforced learning and guided driving behavior. More recently, FHWA expanded the role of the MUTCD to include specific maintenance performance levels.

“Under its original mandate, the MUTCD mentioned maintaining signs and markings for ‘adequate visibility’ but didn’t really define what that was,” explains Paul Carlson, head of TTI‘s Operations and Design Division. “Over the past decade, TTI has been working with FHWA to help create those minimum maintenance performance standards for properly assessing the nighttime visibility of signs and markings.”

Helping Local Agencies Improve Sign Retroreflectivity

Since nighttime crashes occur at nearly three times the rate of daytime crashes, improving visibility at night has become a national priority. To increase their visibility during nighttime conditions, signs are covered by retroreflective sheeting materials. So, how well a sign reflects light — it’s retroreflectivity value — is especially important to traffic safety at night.

“Signs typically have a lifespan of 7 to 15 years. Over time, their retroreflectivity suffers death by natural causes, so to speak,” explains Carlson.

Their number one killer? Ultraviolet light.

As retroreflectivity degrades, the ability of signs and markings to help drivers navigate safely fails as well. So FHWA recently established a sequential set of deadlines by which all agencies must comply with new retroreflectivity standards for warning, regulatory and guide signs. But this could prove challenging for some since sign maintenance usually occurs at the local level — and not every community has a traffic engineer on staff.

Carlson and his team recently partnered with FHWA to determine what maintenance methods were most effective in assessing signs for replacement. Taking the needs of small cities, counties, townships, and Tribal and federal land management agencies into account, Carlson’s team created the Retroreflectivity Toolkit. It’s a step-by-step, how-to guide that empowers agencies to choose a method that best suits them and even helps them create a sample budget as they begin their maintenance planning. The toolkit, containing a guidebook and interactive CD-ROM, should be available this summer.

“The toolkit puts the procedures necessary for meeting the new maintenance standards in the hands of every small agency nationwide,” explains Matt Lupes, highway engineer with FHWA‘s Office of Safety. “Lives will be saved as a result.”

But Carlson and his team haven’t stopped there. They’re currently working on a project to improve the way agencies test how effective road markings are on rainy nights.

(Re)creating the Standard for Testing Wet-Weather Pavement Markings

In 2005, Carlson’s team completed a study for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to evaluate the testing of wet-weather pavement markings. More specifically, they evaluated the testing method recommended under ASTM International’s E 2176-01 standard. What they found was disturbing.

“When a standard test method comes out, departments of transportation around the country begin adapting their specifications based on the test method results,” says Carlson. “What we discovered was that the E 2176-01 standard test method for taking retroreflectivity measurements on rainy nights wasn’t valid for the vast majority of pavement marking materials.”

As a result, anyone using that method to test their wet pavement markings at night is likely generating data that don’t accurately reflect true nighttime wet performance. Often markings rated as “bad” using the method are actually fine. If agencies base their decision on these data, they could end up replacing markings before their time, unnecessarily increasing overall maintenance costs.

“Currently, there is no reliable standard test method for conventional pavement markings,” Carlson notes. “It’s extremely important to get a standard in place because it’s not uncommon for reflective materials to work extremely well during dry periods but poorly during rainy conditions.”

On March 24, Carlson invited his fellow ASTM International Technical Committee members to Bryan/College Station to gather data using a new standard test method created by TTI. The method is specifically designed to provide accurate measures of pavement marking performance under continuous wetting conditions. The test results have been documented and were discussed during June’s ASTM International meeting. If all goes as planned, a standard could be in place by the end of the year.

“This is a great example of how the entire nation benefits from excellent research at the state level,” explains Carl Andersen, Roadway Team Leader in the FHWA Office of Safety Research and Development. “While Paul’s TxDOT project was aimed at improving nighttime driving safety for Texans, citizens all across the country — all around the world, in fact — will benefit from the findings.”

When he discusses his work and its global impact in improving safety, Carlson is somewhat philosophical.

“That’s why I do this job. Research is interesting in its own right, but making a difference in people’s lives based on that research — now, that’s what we’re here for.”

This story first appeared in the May 2009 issue of The Road Beacon.

According to the Motorcycle Industry Council, a trade association, 1.1 million motorcycles were sold in the United States last year — 30 percent more over 2001, when 850,000 motorcycles were sold. But the increase in motorcycle sales and registrations has coincided with a marked increase in motorcycle-related deaths, which jumped 50 percent nationally over the same period.

“These increases cancel out any benefits we’ve realized from reducing the number of passenger car deaths,” says Associate Research Scientist Patricia Turner with the Center for Transportation Safety (CTS) at the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI). Turner leads the Center’s motorcycle safety efforts.

In 2007 — the last year for which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has figures — car occupant fatalities declined by 5 percent, while motorcyclist fatalities increased by 7 percent over the previous year. Motorcyclists alone account for 13 percent of all deaths related to traffic crashes in the United States.

Last year, Texas had 431,571 registered motorcyclists. Of those, 526 were killed, according to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) preliminary crash data. While motorcycle registrations in Texas rose 13 percent between 2007 and 2008, motorcycle fatalities increased 31 percent.

“Because there are a lot more motorcycles out there, we’re seeing more motorcycle crashes,” Turner said. Due to their size, motorcycles can easily be overlooked in traffic, and crashes often result in injury or even death.

To reduce these crashes, TTI partnered with TxDOT and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Over the past three years the team has worked to develop educational materials for drivers and riders to improve safety for motorcyclists. The Look.Learn.Live campaign — first launched in 2007 — is a three-tiered approach to increase motorist awareness of motorcycles (Look), rider training (Learn) and rider awareness (Live). TTI launched a website — http://www.looklearnlive.org/ — to provide a centralized location for campaign messages, public service announcements (PSAs) and safety information for drivers and motorcyclists.

In conjunction with the International Ride to Work Day (http://www.ridetowork.org/) in June, TTI launched the Look Twice for Motorcycles campaign message to remind drivers to be more aware of motorcycles on the roadway and to share the road safely.

The message speaks straight to the issue since 50 percent of all fatal motorcycle crashes involve another vehicle. More often a vehicle turns left in front of a motorcycle or hits the motorcycle while the rider is passing or overtaking the vehicle. “I never saw the rider” is one of the most common responses the driver says after he or she has struck a motorcyclist.

The Look Twice for Motorcycles campaign message will reach residents via billboards, transit bus wraps, and radio and television PSAs. The message also incorporates the “Share the Road” decal displayed on TxDOT roadway signs across the state.

“We want to reach as many people as we can,” explains TxDOT Motorcycle Program Manager Gonzalo Ponce. “Registered motorcycles are at an all-time high in Texas. A motorcycle may not have been there when you looked before.”

The campaign runs throughout the summer and includes messages directed at motorists and motorcyclists. “We’re reminding drivers to be on the lookout for the nearly 400,000 motorcyclists on Texas roadways, especially at intersections where many crashes happen,” says Ponce.

TxDOT and TTI have these safety tips for motorists who share the road with motorcyclists:

• Look twice for motorcyclists — at intersections, when entering highways and whenever turning or changing lanes. The small size of motorcycles often makes them hard to see, and motorcyclists can get lost in blind spots.
• Always maintain a safe following distance. Motorcycles can stop more quickly than passenger vehicles.
• When passing a motorcyclist, move to the other lane and allow a full lane for the motorcycle. After doing so, avoid re-entering the lane too quickly.

Adobe PDF version

Inside This Issue:

Editorial

• An institute by any other name…

Research in Action

• Share the road: Look twice for motorcycles
• U.S. benefitting from TTI’s research abroad
• New TRENDS in projecting transportation funding

U.S. Rep. Oberstar Visits TTI

• Oberstar outlines “future of transportation” during visit with TTI

Safety and Security

• A wall in the water: TTI researchers work to standardize water barriers
• Gate keeping in the 21st century: New Anti-Ram Standard Enhances Safety, Security
• Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night:TTI research improves nighttime driving safety
• If you build it…TTI lab is testing facility of choice for many

Institute News

• Awards and more

TTI Publications

• Available reports and products

Dennis Christiansen

A similar change has occurred following terrorist attacks of the last 15 years, where the preferred weapon of terrorists worldwide has become the car bomb.

“Anti-ram barriers are typically used around government buildings, infrastructure facilities, military installations or any other location where terrorist activity is a threat,” explains Dean Alberson, program manager and assistant director at the Texas Transportation Institute. “These barriers keep vehicles away from buildings to minimize damage should a car bomb explode.”

In 1985, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) created an anti-ram standard for protecting its embassies. The standard was designed to stop a medium-duty, single-unit truck and accounted for three levels of blast penetration.

Consular facilities are often squeezed into high-traffic urban areas on small lots. So as the new millennium approached, embassy bombings, like those in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, demonstrated the need for a new standard. In 2003, DOS revised its standard to meet this new threat.

The 2003 standard limited penetration concerns to 3 feet and reconstituted the standard from a gasoline to a diesel truck. Other agencies — like the Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of Energy (DOE) — found the new standard useful…but incomplete.

DOD, for example, kept the original penetration ratings from the 1985 standard, which acknowledged the potential for bombings outside a 3-foot range. (Military bases are typically surrounded by wide open spaces, which create a much greater stopping distance for enemy vehicles.)

“Other concerns cropped up as well,” says Alberson. “The 2003 standard assumed a terrorist would use a 2.5-ton diesel truck to carry out an attack. But recent realities in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries make it clear that practically any vehicle will do.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wanted a more flexible standard, so ASTM created a team in fall 2003 to address their need. Led by Alberson, the team developed ASTM F2656-07, Standard Test Method for Vehicle Crash Testing of Perimeter Barriers, that reintroduces more penetration ratings, adds design flexibility to cover a wide range of vehicles and specifies different impact velocities for some vehicle categories.

To meet the standard, vendor barriers must be tested by an accredited laboratory like TTI‘s Proving Ground Research Facility. The facility then issues a mandatory report on how the equipment performed. DOS adopted ASTM F2656-07 in October 2008 and activated it Feb. 1, 2009.

“The leadership role that TTI had in the development of this consensus test standard will ultimately help ensure the protection of American lives at home and abroad,” acknowledges Ed Conrath, a senior principal with Protection Engineering Consultants. Conrath oversaw ASTM F2656-07 development.

Floating water barriers are gaining acceptance for their ability to provide positive protection to a facility and its personnel. These portable barriers form a protective perimeter around a ship or landside object for the purpose of keeping boats from entering the protective area. However, the performance of these barriers varies from manufacturer to manufacturer as much as the performance requirements vary among user agencies and facilities.

Responding to a request from ASTM International, the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) is partnering with other industry agencies to develop uniform standards for physically testing and evaluating the dynamic performance of waterfront barriers.

“Currently we are working to publish a set of standards, because there are about half a dozen companies producing boat barriers or channelizing devices used waterside, and there’s no standard by which to evaluate and test them all,” says TTI Division Head and Research Engineer Lance Bullard. “A standard is important because when a company is evaluating their site and trying to decide what type of barrier to purchase, they can use the standard to compare the performance of different barriers and make an informed decision about what will meet their need.”

The standard will (1) address the performance of full-scale dynamic impact tests by testing laboratories and (2) establish evaluation and performance criteria for various types of waterside barriers. The purpose of the standard is to establish (1) a definitive test methodology for establishing the crash performance of a boat barrier and (2) specify data collection and evaluation criteria for those tests that are performed. The result will be the development of a uniform standard for the performance evaluation and testing of waterfront boat barrier perimeter security devices.

“There are other waterside assets that boat barriers can be used for such as liquid natural gas terminals, cruise ship terminals and ports that receive various types of containers,” says Bullard. “It is our hope that the standards the research team develops will help to make these areas as safe as possible by allowing specifying agencies to make the correct barrier choice.”

Boat barriers like the ones shown above are essential protection for many water-accessible terrorist targets because these barriers provide both deterrence and physical protection against unauthorized surface vessel intrusion. The ASTM Boat Barrier Standard will bring universal guidelines benefitting both users and producers of boat barriers.

“We are regularly asked by elected officials about the funding impact of a particular measure they are considering, like an increase in the fuel tax for example,” says Jessica Castiglione, the TRENDS project director and mobility engineer for TxDOT. “Unfortunately, it’s a time-consuming process. TRENDS will be able to answer the question in a matter of seconds, thanks to the data that have been uploaded.”

The TRENDS website will not only examine transportation revenue information for the state as a whole, but will be extremely useful on a regional basis as well. TRENDS will have 25 separate revenue sub-models for each of the state’s metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs).

“Regional planners will be able to access information about the transportation funds that are specific to their areas,” says TTI Research Scientist Dave Ellis. “TRENDS will calculate the revenue potential for the various local funding options, including fuel taxes, fuel tax indexing, vehicle registration fees and VMT [vehicle miles traveled] fees.”

TRENDS will allow users to predict future revenue needs through the year 2035 based on a multitude of scenarios including population projections and the changing fuel efficiencies of automobiles, all of which impact transportation funding.

“We all know of the financial constraints facing transportation in Texas,” says Castiglione. “The TRENDS model will put us all on the same page. Hopefully, it will remove any questions about transportation funding shortfalls and the things we can do to fill the gaps.”

All of the various components of TRENDS are scheduled for completion by September of this year. However, as changes occur to variables such as cash flow forecasts, construction cost inflation and debt service, the model will be updated. Future legislative changes in revenue, expenditures and fund transfers will also be incorporated.

“TRENDS has the potential of being a great tool for not only experts in the transportation field, but for anyone who wants to know the challenges facing TxDOT during these economically stressful times,” says Ellis. “Getting the model up and going with all the complicated and detailed variables has been extremely challenging, but the transparency it will provide is well worth the effort.”