The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) was well represented at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 86th Annual Meeting January 21-25 in Washington, D.C. TTI researchers presented papers on numerous topics, and chaired and participated in committee meetings and other activities.

Richardson receives CUTC award

Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) Director Emeritus Herb Richardson received the 2007 Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) Award for Distinguished Contribution to University Transportation Education and Research during a ceremony preceding the TRB annual meeting.

Awarded annually by CUTC, the honor recognizes individuals with a long history of outstanding contributions to university education and research, resulting in a lasting impact on the transportation field. Richardson was selected by the CUTC executive committee from a list of nominees submitted by council members.

“The CUTC Award for Distinguished Contribution to University Transportation Education and Research is a premier award, reserved for those whose service has been at the highest levels for an extended period, and whose accomplishments have made a significant difference,” says Dan Turner, University of Alabama, President, Council of UTC. “In simple terms, past winners are icons of our profession, and Herb Richardson certainly falls in that category.”

TTI Director Emeritus Herb Richardson is presented the Roy W. Crum Distinguished Service Award from Linda Watson, executive director of the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority and the 2007 Chair of the TRB Executive Committee. Photo courtesy of Cable Risdon, TRB

Herb Richardson Honored

Director Emeritus Herb Richardson received the Roy W. Crum Distinguished Service Award January 24 during the Chairman’s Luncheon. The prestigious Crum Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of transportation research.

Richardson retired from TTI last fall after 22 years of service to the Texas A&M University System, which included 13 years as TTI director.

Bligh Team Wins Award

Four TTI coauthors were recipients of the K.B. Woods Award for their paper entitled “Low-Deflection Portable Concrete Barrier.” The award was presented January 22.

Roger Bligh, Nauman Mansoor Sheikh, Dean Alberson and Akram Abu-Odeh were recognized for best paper in the area of design and construction of transportation facilities. The paper describes a new barrier system developed for use in a highway work zone.

Bligh was also the recipient of last year’s K.B. Woods Award.

(L-R) Neil Pedersen, Maryland State Highway Administration and Chair of the TRB Technical Activities Council; TTI Research Engineer Roger Bligh; TTI Assistant Agency Director Dean Alberson; TRB Executive Director Robert Skinner. Photo courtesy of Cable Risdon, TRB

Other Notable Events

• Ginger Goodin was named incoming chair of the High Occupancy Vehicle Systems Committee.
• Jerry Ullman was named incoming chair of the Work Zone Committee.
• Gene Hawkins was honored for his six years of service as chair of the Traffic Control Devices Committee.
• A paper by Dominique Lord and Ravi Agrawal, a former student, was selected as the best paper by young researchers by the Statistical Methodology and Statistical Computer Software in Transportation Research Committee.

Deer-Vehicle Research Set to Begin after Inaugural Meeting

Members of the eight-state Deer-Vehicle Crash Information and Research Center (DVCIR Center) Pooled Fund Project, operated through the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), held their inaugural meeting January 30-31 at the Minnesota Department of Transportation training facility in Shoreview, Minnesota. The group discussed the project organization and status and recent and ongoing deer-vehicle crash projects. They identified and prioritized potential research ideas for project funding. The Pooled Fund Project members decided to pursue four research projects that focus on defining and reducing the number of deer-vehicle crashes.

The members of the Pooled Fund Project are department of transportation employees from Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin. Those states, along with the Federal Highway Administration, have pooled their funds and have assembled more than $300,000. The Southwest Region University Transportation Center and Center for Transportation Safety at TTI are supporting sponsors of the project.

TTI Associate Research Scientist Keith Knapp, who is the director of the DVCIR Center, says the group started with more than 40 ideas and ultimately voted on nearly 20 potential projects. “This list of the top four projects will get us all moving in the right direction. Now, we have to develop the structure and focus for the projects and conduct the studies,” Knapp said.

The potential projects are:

• roadside management and policies including vegetation choices, mowing, and other factors,
• evaluation of crash data to pinpoint and prioritize trouble spots for countermeasures,
• assessment of public opinion and development of effective outreach methods and messages, and
• quantitative methodologies for the placement of existing or redesigned warning signs.

“The problem of deer-vehicle crashes is in almost each state and has been around a long time, so I’m happy that we will soon be moving forward with a plan of action,” Knapp said. Deer-vehicle crashes kill about 200 people a year and cost the traveling public more than $1 billion.

Second Annual Texas Transportation Forum

An efficient transportation network is the lifeblood of economies and communities across Texas and the nation. Join us at the second annual Texas Transportation Forum as local, regional and state leaders join national experts to discuss ways to “Keep Texas Moving.”

Proudly serving as your co-hosts are the Texas Department of Transportation, the Associated General Contractors of Texas, the Texas Good Roads Transportation Association and the Texas Transportation Institute.

(L-R) TTI Assistant Agency Directors Gene Buth and Dean Alberson, Texas A&M University System Chancellor Mike McKinney and TTI Associate Director Katie Turnbull inspect a guard rail prior to a off-road crash test.

Chancellor McKinney Tours TTI

Newly appointed Texas A&M University System Chancellor Michael McKinney toured the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) on March 6. TTI Director Dennis Christiansen kicked off the meeting with an overview presentation, which was followed by summaries of TTI’s work in areas including ground-penetrating radar, teen driving safety and congestion research.

“Through the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), we are doing great work in developing materials and safety devices for the transportation industry. This work is more far-reaching than most of the general public knows,” said McKinney.

McKinney heard about the Institute’s reputation and working relationships during presentations from Civil Engineering Department Head David Rosowsky, Texas Department of Transportation Research Engineer Rick Collins and TTI Council Chair David Cain.

McKinney’s visit concluded with a full-scale crash test at TTI’s Riverside Campus facility, where researchers are developing a new guardrail system.

“TTI’s contribution to the state’s economy through improving the transport of goods and materials across our roads and through our pipelines is tremendous,” McKinney said.

Jim Carvell and Lisa Palmer get ready to serve his retirement cake.

Jim Carvell Retires

After 26 years with the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), Senior Research Engineer Jim Carvell now has more time to fish, visit with grandchildren and play guitar with fellow engineers who make up a group of “musicians” known as Tonedef.

At his retirement reception on December 14 in Dallas, Carvell reflected on his many friends at the Institute. “I had friends and colleagues who came from Nevada, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, Houston and College Station to wish me well,” Carvell said. “This is absolutely the best place in the world to work. There is a certain camaraderie here that you can’t find anywhere else.”

Among the speakers for his reception were TTI Director Dennis Christiansen, TTI Director Emeritus Herbert Richardson, Carvell’s former boss and TTI Houston Office head Dick McCasland, TTI Associate Director Ed Seymour and Robert Wunderlich, international director of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), who presented Carvell with a citation from the International Board. Also on hand was TTI Associate Research Engineer Jason Crawford who presented Carville with a resolution from TexITE. Carvell’s family presented TexITE with an endowed fund which will generate funds for an ITE student member to attend the annual ITE meeting.

“I am most proud of the work that has been done on freeway management projects and the relationship with TxDOT,” Carvell said.

TTI Dallas Office Staff (Back Row L-R): Bryan Miller, Jack Antebi, Ed Seymour, Jim Carvell, Chris Poe. (Front Row L-R): Lisa Palmer, Kathy Montemayor, Brandon Mosley. Not pictured: Kathy Tran

Carvell Family Members (L-R): Jay Carvell, Jim Carvell, Nell Carvell, Wade Carvell.

Briaud

TTI Research Engineer Receives ASCE’s Kapp Award

TTI Research Engineer and Buchanan Chair Professor of Civil Engineering Jean-Louis Briaud received the prestigious Martin S. Kapp Foundation Engineering Award during ceremonies at the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Geo-Institute conference in Denver.

The Kapp Award is given on the basis of the best example of innovative or outstanding design or construction of foundations, earthworks, retaining structures, or underground construction. Emphasis is placed on constructed works where serious difficulties were overcome or where substantial economies were achieved.

Briaud’s plaque reads “for his many contributions to innovative foundation engineering through his work in academia and private consulting practice, and for his efforts leading to numerous practical innovations which have permitted difficult foundation problems to be overcome.”

Lytton

TTI’s Robert Lytton Receives NOVA Award

Robert Lytton, TTI research engineer and Benson Chair Professor in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, received the 2006 NOVA Award from the Construction Innovation Forum for his Pavement Composition Analysis (PCA) research.

Lytton’s award-winning research uses an air-launched, ground-penetrating radar to aid highway construction quality control. The radar is swept over a completed section of pavement to analyze its properties, including its composition, number of layers and the thickness of each layer. Engineers can then plot lane-width maps with contours of each composition element, helping them pinpoint flaws in the construction process and ultimately resulting in safer, longer-lasting roadways. This method is equivalent to analyzing 18,000 core samples in a given lane-mile of a project, while only two cores every four lane-miles is required for calibration with Lytton’s PCA method, saving both time and money.

TTI's Dean Alberson and Lance Bullard (center) were honored for their development of the Heart Crash Cushion. Also pictured are (L) Vice Chancellor for Technology Commercialization Guy Diedrich and (R) Texas A&M University System Chancellor Mike McKinney.

HEART Crash Cushion wins award

The HEART Crash Cushion is much easier to say than the Hybrid Energy Absorbing Reusable Terminal. But that’s what it is. The crash cushion, developed by Texas Transportation Institute researchers Dean Alberson and Lance Bullard, is designed to be reusable after most crashes and therefore, a money saving product for taxpayers.

Alberson and Bullard were honored February 23 by the Texas A&M University System Office of Technology Commercialization during its 2007 Patent and Innovation Awards Luncheon. In all, 21 Texas A&M researchers were recognized for their ideas.

“It was a five-year project to get the HEART Crash Cushion developed, tested and patented,” Alberson said. “We came up with the idea on a notion that we could improve what was on the road at the time.”

Alberson says the Federal Highway Administration has given its acceptance to the crash cushion.

TTI helped organize this managed lanes open house in Austin.

Managed Lanes Open House

With several managed lanes proposed in the Austin region in coming years, the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) helped the Austin District of the Texas Department of Transportation organize an open house February 20 at The University of Texas Thompson Conference Center to explain how this relatively new concept offers options for commuters.

“We answered a lot of questions,” says TTI Research Engineer Ginger Goodin. “The open house was well attended and it prompted plenty of media attention.”

Managed lanes are a cousin to the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes that have been in operation for decades around the county. The most common type is one where lower-occupant vehicles are allowed into HOV lanes by paying a toll, providing the driver with the option of a less-congested trip on a one-time or regular basis. These vehicles are charged a varying toll based on traffic conditions in the lanes in order to keep the lanes flowing.

Currently, managed lanes with this kind of variable pricing are in operation in Denver, Colorado; San Diego and Orange County, California; and Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a new facility under construction in Houston on the Katy Freeway.

During the open house, displays representing several projects were on hand for public viewing, experts were available for one-on-one Q&A, and a brief presentation was provided to the public every 30 minutes explaining how managed lanes operate.

Briaud Recognized for Engineering Innovations

Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) Research Engineer and Buchanan Chair Professor of Civil Engineering Jean-Louis Briaud has been awarded the 2007 Ralph B. Peck Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The awards ceremony was February 19 at the National Congress of the Geo-Institute in Denver.

In a letter notifying Briaud of the award, the Executive Director of ASCE, Patrick Natale told him “the selection committee particularly noted your development of a new method for prediction of bridge scour depth which was applied to the design of the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge.”

In addition, Briaud received the Martin Knapp Lecture Award after his presentation to the ASCE in New York City on December 14. The lecture included details of three major research projects over the last 15 years that led to advances in foundation engineering.

Tolling is an important issue not only in Texas, but throughout America and abroad. For this reason, it is important to disseminate the most current research and information available to transportation professionals. The “Freeway and Tolling Operations in the Americas” conference seeks to accomplish this goal by bringing together professionals throughout the world during a two-day conference in Houston, Texas, on May 20-23.

“This conference will bring together professionals from across the Americas representing a number of transportation specialty areas including freeway operations, tollway operations, emergency management and highway finance to share experiences, identify research requirements and develop solutions where possible,” says Phil Masters, chair of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Freeway Operations Committee. “The focus of the conference is on the impacts of pricing and public-private partnerships on the operations of freeways and tollways.”

The event is sponsored by the following TRB Committees: Freeway Operations, Congestion Pricing, High-Occupancy Vehicle Systems and Emergency Evacuation. Hosted by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), other supporting agencies include the United States Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Transportation.

Conference planners hope to build upon the success of the 1st International Symposium on Freeway and Tollway Operations, which was held June 4-7, 2006, in Athens, Greece. The symposium was attended by 500 participants and included nearly 120 speakers over a 3-day period.

“That symposium, which was also spearheaded by the TRB Freeway Operations Committee, identified that the differences between freeway and tollway operations were rapidly disappearing, and these two groups had much they could share and learn from each other,” says Masters.

On Monday afternoon, conference attendees are invited to travel around Houston on a technical bus tour to view the IH-10 Katy Freeway & Tollway (Managed Lanes), Westpark Tollway and Houston TranStar Transportation Management Center.

“The Center on Tolling Research at TTI is pleased to have the opportunity to help host this event. The conference represents our goal of sharing research and best practices on toll road operation,” says Christopher Poe, center director and TTI assistant agency director.

For more information on the program, please contact Christopher Poe at (972) 994-0433.

For registration information, please contact TTI Event Management and Planning at (979) 862-1219, e-mail events@tamu.edu.

Morgan (1877-1963) was an African American inventor who patented a type of traffic light signal.

One of the goals of the newly established University Center for Mobility is to reduce congestion.

Two groups—the Southwest Border Security Consortium (SBSC) and the Texas Homeland Security Group (THSG)—are striving to improve security in their respective regions. A leading member of both teams is Texas A&M Engineering.

Some in the private sector might charge that anything academia can do, they could do as well or better. In terms of providing practical solutions to real-world problems, TTI Associate Director Bill Stockton disagrees.

“Sometimes academia gets a bad rap for being exclusionary, elitist and too research oriented,” explains Stockton, who is also Texas A&M’s representative to the SBSC. “The reality is that we offer world-class staff, faculty and research facilities aimed at applied problem-solving. 9/11 reminded us that, research efforts conducted to solve one problem can be readily adapted to homeland security challenges. Furthermore, the universities in the southwest have been conducting a wide variety of significant research at the border for many years—we know the region.”

The SBSC focuses on advancing the security of the U.S. southwestern border by sharing resources and maintaining open communication among constituent universities. The consortium seeks to apply its unique assortment of world-class research, development, testing and evaluation assets to solve national security problems. Though focused on homeland security, this partnership has already produced real-world applications through other joint ventures among the partners, leading to successful teaming on non-security research opportunities. Over the long term, the partnership will also help border states overcome localized security challenges, as well as broaden and expand the research portfolios of participating universities.

The THSG—composed of Texas A&M and University of Texas institutions—evolved from the cooperative model established by Don Phillips, Chevron Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M. As academic institutions, the schools offer objective academic research and practical application. In short, they’re not vendors selling something; they’re public institutions acting in the public good. And because each component offers unique capabilities, the whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts.

Some habits die hard, but the spirit of cooperation encouraged by these groups enables member colleges to overcome old rivalries and work together to improve the country’s capability to predict, prevent and respond to security threats, for example: adapting expertise applied to disaster response, truck inspections and illegal drug interdiction. Each institution has learned to shed its individual school colors to join a bigger team with a vital mission.

“Throughout our history, American ingenuity has proven essential to the success and welfare of this nation,” notes Phillips. “There is no greater source of that kind of innovative thinking than in our higher institutions of learning.”

It’s sobering to think that stopping in at the neighborhood coffee shop could cost us our life. Yet dig into media coverage in communities everywhere, and you will discover that an alarming number of errant vehicles are crashing into sidewalk cafes, daycare centers and banks. Most of the crashes are unintentional, but what if they were not?

In a post-9/11 era it’s better to be safe than sorry and prepare for both. Thanks to a new standard under development by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) and ASTM International (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials), pedestrians may be able to enjoy their mocha latte’ without fear of a close encounter with a few tons of glass, steel and wheels—regardless of the driver’s intent.

“The problem we’re addressing with this new standard isn’t getting a lot of media attention,” says Dean Alberson, assistant agency director and research engineer at TTI. “But a lot of people are getting hurt nonetheless, and we’re developing a standard to test safety and security devices—bollards, for example—for low-speed areas like parking lots.”

Alberson, who is spearheading TTI’s contribution toward the new standard, says that contemporary designs of sidewalk cafes, convenience stores, malls and bus stops often put pedestrians in close contact with vehicles.

“Pedestrian traffic is concentrated around store entrances, so that’s where we’re focusing this new standard,” says Alberson. “Ten years ago we would have just geared the standard toward protecting pedestrians against errant vehicles. But today our awareness has been raised because of terrorist attacks, and we have to account for that.”

Alberson says that while the new standard doesn’t cover the design of parking lots, designers can boost the safety of their parking lots by not allowing drivers a straight shot through the parking lot and into the front of a building.

Rob Reiter, national sales manager for Cal Pipe Security Bollards, helped spur development of the new standard with the ASTM International Committee F12 on Security Systems and Equipment.

“Separating pedestrians from traffic and protecting storefronts from the impacts of cars that jump curbs as a result of operator error are compelling issues of public safety and building design,” says Reiter. “Research from news sources and the insurance industry indicates that cars slam through doors, windows and walls of schools, public areas and commercial buildings at the rate of more than 100 per month around the country. Property damage, business interruption losses, personal injuries and fatalities are common.”

Reiter says the testing protocols being pioneered at TTI help create ways to evaluate products and materials that provide simple security, pedestrian protection or the ability to stop vehicles less than 5,500 pounds, traveling at normal speeds.

“We at Cal Pipe Security Bollards look forward to working with TTI in the formulation of ASTM testing standards and to conducting our impact testing program at the premier testing facility in the United States,” says Reiter.

Ed Conrath, a structural engineer with the Protective Design Center of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is an ASTM committee member who recently echoed the importance of developing the new standard for protecting pedestrians.

“This is a necessary standard that, if implemented, will save lives and property,” says Conrath.

Once crafted by the ASTM committee, the standard will be binding when a governing agency adopts it. Meaning, if the U.S. Departments of State, Homeland Security, or any other agency require the standard, then builders will have to install proven, tested materials outside the building for maximum safety.

“The standard will give municipalities and others a means to evaluate competing safety and security products,” says Alberson. “Right now there is no testing standard, so if a vendor says, ‘I have a bollard to put in front of your café,’ there’s really no way to know its resistance to impact. This should be a boon to the public and private sector because they’ll have a means to compare the safety devices they’re buying for their facilities—and that’s a really valuable part of the standard.”

Alberson expects to conduct testing on protective bollards and other devices using a low-speed, wheeled bogie type test vehicle or pendulum bogie test apparatus.

A law enforcement first responder uses a search camera to look under a vehicle for simulated explosive devices. Photo courtesy Texas A&M Engineering.

A recent study for the Southwest Region University Transportation Center (SWUTC) examined the effects of new security measures on port infrastructure development and finances. Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers examined nine Texas public ports, which accounted for 88 percent of the foreign cargo moving through Texas ports in 2003. From this analysis, the team identified several policy issues at the federal level that ports face:

• how best to allocate limited funds to maximize security,
• how to distribute funds fairly so as to prevent a competitive imbalance,
• how to ensure that all ports meet a minimum level of security,
• how much financial responsibility the federal government should assume for security infrastructure,
• how the federal government and ports will deal with ever-increasing costs as more security projects are completed, and
• who will pay to replace worn-out or obsolete equipment.

“The federal government gives the ports grants to fund security infrastructure,” says Jim Kruse, the director of the Center for Ports and Waterways at TTI. “It also sets general goals for security and leaves it up to the ports to decide how they achieve those goals.”

For example, one goal may be to secure the perimeter of the port. The port may choose cameras, fences, boats, intelligent motion detectors and/or even underwater sensors. Port officials at many ports in the state express concern that the federal investment in security is not great enough to address the need. While the Port Security Grant Program pays for security equipment, it also stipulates that the ports must pay for maintenance and operation. “Anywhere from 3 to 16 percent of ports’ operating revenues go to maintenance of security measures, like normal wear and tear,” says Kruse.

The research team identified alternate security financing measures. Among the variations currently being debated and implemented are:

• Various port charges – Ports on the East and Gulf Coast have begun adding security surcharges as high as 10 percent on dockage and wharfage.
• Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations – Thus far, most of the federal government’s financial participation has been through appropriations for DHS.
• Earmark customs fees – A certain percentage of duties collected on articles transported by vessel and unloaded for purposes of entering the customs territory of the U.S. could be set aside for security improvements.
• Federal security fees – Several bills have been introduced that would establish federal user fees to help offset the costs of security at the national level.

Ultimately, continuing to find ways to keep ports secure and operating efficiently can only strengthen Texas’ homeland security efforts.