Texas A&M University Professor and Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Senior Research Engineer Amy Epps Martin was recently elected president of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT). Epps Martin will serve as president for one-year effective Oct. 1. AAPT is a leading world-wide community dedicated to excellence and advancement of asphalt technology since 1924. […]
infrastructure
Communication Is Key — TTI Mobility Coordinator Eases the Burden of Construction in Waco
Since 2012, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has conducted the My35 Construction Project along I-35 in Central Texas. Called “Main Street Texas” for the vital role the corridor plays in international commerce, I-35 is host to hundreds of thousands of cars and trucks each day. Comprising 17 separate construction projects, the 96-mile stretch between […]
Texas Needs to Consider New Ways to Fund Its Highways
By Brianne Glover Relying on gas tax is outdated as travel, vehicles become more diversified. Amid all the news of record-breaking inflation, it’s hard to think of anything that doesn’t cost more than it did a year ago — much less 30 years ago. To find one example, though, just think of your vehicle’s fuel. […]
Traffic Signal Technologies Improve Pedestrian, Bicyclist Safety in Texas
The Lone Star State has experienced an increase in the number of pedestrians and bicyclists who have lost their lives in roadway crashes. Within the last decade, pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities rose by 69 percent in Texas. These statistics — but, even more so, the real people behind the numbers — present a safety concern […]
Evaluating Road Types Improves Safety, Mobility in Rural Areas
Rural roadways often have a high number of crashes, especially severe crashes. To help decrease that number, researchers have focused safety and mobility studies on rural areas that experience increased truck traffic and road usage during certain economic booms — like oil booms. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Odessa District experienced an oil boom […]
Car Makers Join Researchers to Aid Flow through Traffic Signals
In theory, the best way to maximize traffic flow along busy urban streets is to coordinate the series of traffic signals that drivers encounter. In practice, that’s far easier said than done. But with the completion of recent research supported by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), traffic engineers are a big step closer to […]
Preventing Roadway Crashes before They Occur
Roadway departure crashes make up a significant number of the crashes on Texas roadways each year. In 2016 alone, Texas roads experienced 61,973 roadway departure crashes, most of which occurred on two-way two-lane (TWTL) highways (92 percent). These numbers — especially in a state that just saw its second-deadliest year on record for road fatalities […]
Proper Friction Equals Safer Roads
The correct amount of pavement friction is critical for motorist safety, especially during wet weather. The Wet Surface Crash Reduction Program guidelines from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Traffic Safety Division provide engineers with a framework for identifying existing pavement friction and the tools for specifying new pavement surfaces that will meet project-specific friction […]
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Impact on the Texas Environment
Tribune Article: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/11/09/biden-infrastructure-bill-texas/ White House: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/TEXAS_Infrastructure-Investment-and-Jobs-Act-State-Fact-Sheet.pdf
Joint Effort by TTI, Texas A&M AgriLife Helps to Protect Endangered Species From Road Projects
Unintended encounters with cars and trucks are nearly always bad news for animals. But not only do creatures face dangers on existing roads, they’re often imperiled from the moment that road construction begins. Animals of all types and sizes need to move about their habitats to forage, breed and simply exist, and that movement can […]
TTI, CARTEEH Supporting Transportation Electrification Efforts
The rapid appeal and growth of electric vehicles (EVs) over the last few decades are part of a fundamental shift in the constantly evolving transportation system. Stakeholders with interests in transportation, energy and emissions are finding they need to come together to plan for the future of the nation’s transportation system, including considering the idea […]
TTI’s Mukhopadhyay Develops Test Methods for Cracking-Resistant Concrete
Alkali–silica reactions (ASRs) cause cracking issues in precast concrete bridge structures. In collaboration with Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Assistant Research Scientist Kai-Wei Liu, TTI Senior Research Scientist Anol Mukhopadhyay developed two ASR test methods now accepted as American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) standards, as well as a four-step process for […]
Wunderlich Quoted in USA Today on the Need to Improve Rural Road Safety
Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Senior Research Engineer Robert Wunderlich is featured in a USA Today story (source: Pew/Stateline), “Deadly crashes on rural roads prompt new safety efforts,” wherein he discusses building safety into road projects from the get-go to help prevent traffic crashes. Simple engineering changes at the design stage — such as rumble […]
Transportation and Public Health at the Crossroads: SMART Infrastructure to Improve Health Equity
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the world, including how we view our transportation system. But that interruption in “the way we’ve always done things” has also provided us an unprecedented opportunity to take a step back and reassess our habits, systems and interactions to achieve healthier outcomes. One strategy to do so demands that transportation […]
U.S. Roads Meant to Last Decades – But Not Forever
By: Gregory Winfree and Zachary Grasley The subject of our nation’s infrastructure is once again prominent, both in the wake of the recent release of the American Society of Civil Engineers quadrennial report card on the state of America’s infrastructure and among our policymakers in Washington, D.C. The ASCE report card presents one of those […]
Video Summary Report — Synthesis for Quantification of Binder Availability in Recycled Materials
Increasing recycled materials content in asphalt mixtures has numerous economic and environmental benefits, but ensuring good performance has always been a challenge. That’s because stiff, brittle, heavily aged materials can result in premature cracking. This synthesis project sets the course for revising TxDOT’s Standard and/or Special Specifications to recognize this challenge. The TTI video production […]
New Episode of Thinking Transportation Podcast Released
Episode 5. Good News, Bad News. A better grade for America’s infrastructure, but still no bragging rights. FEATURING: Charles Gurganus, Edith Arámbula Mercado American roads and bridges get us to where we live, learn, work, shop, and play. And that network has needed repair for a while, now. TTI experts Edith Arámbula Mercado and Charles Gurganus […]
TTI’s Villa Publishes Book on North American and European Trade and Transportation
Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Research Scientist Juan Carlos Villa published International Trade and Transportation Infrastructure Development: Experiences in North America and Europe (1st edition) Apr. 24, 2020, on Elsevier’s publisher platform. Villa is a co-author with Maria Boile, director of the Hellenic Institute of Transport, part of the Center for Research and Technology Hellas, […]
America’s Infrastructure Score* in 2021: C–
*Statistics taken from ASCE’s 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. “It’s vital — especially now, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when our economy needs all the help it can get — that Congress pass a bill aimed at rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure. Doing so will create many new jobs and continue to improve […]
Just Scratching the Surface: Electrical Resistivity Tomography Offers Nondestructive Solution to Drilling, Trenching
With roadway construction projects such as bridge construction, time and money are both at a premium. Mistakes may not only set the timeline back but stretch already strained budgets as well. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is becoming a popular method to study the subsurface of a construction project area in a nondestructive way. ERT scans […]
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