Author: College of Engineering

YubaNet.com quoted Veronica Webster (CEE) on the hydraulic structural problems underlying the erosion of the Oroville Dam spillway in California.

In for the Long Haul at Oroville Dam Says Water Resources Expert

February 15, 2017 – Civil engineer Veronica Webster studies long-term trends for assessing flood risk at Michigan Technological University. She says that for the Oroville Dam, the immediacy of the problem is related to longer running issues.

Many of our hydraulic structures are likely under designed. —Veronica Webster

Webster is an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Michigan Tech and is a recent recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award to study flood frequency and risk analysis.

Read more at YubaNet.com, by Michigan Technological University.

Daniel M. Dowden, Patricia Clayton, Chao-Hsien Li, Jeffrey Berman, Michael Bruneau, Laura Lowes and Keh-Chyuan Tsai have been selected by the Structural Engineering Institute to receive the 2017 Moisseiff Award “For the paper, “Full-Scale Pseudodynamic Testing of Self-Centering Steel Plate Shear Walls,” Journal of Structural Engineering, January 2016.”

The award ceremony will take place during the Structures Congress 2017 in Denver, CO, April 7, 2017.

The award recognizes important papers dealing with the broad field of structural design, including applied mechanics as well as the theoretical analysis, or constructive improvement, of engineering structures such as bridges and frames, of any structural material.

The Structural Engineering Institute is part of ASCE, the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The Michigan Tech Transportation Institute (MTTI) held its annual general membership meeting on Jan. 5. Thirty members attended the working luncheon.

An overview of 2016 with institute highlights was presented by MTTI Director Pasi Lautala. Researchers provided updates on initiatives funded with the meeting ending in an open, general discussion. Slides used in the meeting are available along with a general summary of the meeting here.

For more information on MTTI, see our website or contact Lautala at 7-3547 or Pam Hannon at 7-3065.

By Pam Hannon/MTTI.

The 96th Transportation Research Board (TRB) annual meeting was held in Washington, D.C. Jan. 8-12 focusing on the theme “Transportation Innovation: Leading the Way in an Era of Rapid Change.” Joining the 13,000 attendees were 24 members and students of the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute (MTTI).

Read more on the MTTI webpage.

Researchers at The Center for Technology and Training, which is part of the civil and environmental engineering department, have developed a new system for assessing the conditions of gravel roads. This system and its use by Michigan road agencies was the subject of an article in the winter 2016 Journal of the County Road Association of Michigan.

CTT staff, John Kiefer, Melanie Kueber-Watkins, Pete Torola and Tim Colling all worked to develop and test the new system which will be widely collected in Michigan starting this year with full implementation in 2018. Data collected with the system will be reported on a state-wide basis to the Michigan Legislature on an annual basis.

By Tim Colling.

New Inventory-Based Rating System Pilot Tested in 2016

Unpaved road rating system developed by Michigan Tech brings asset management principles to unpaved Michigan roads

Finally—The Tools to Rate an Unpaved Road

Gravel and unpaved roads make up half of Michigan’s non-federal aid network, and there are 22,000 miles of them in Michigan.

As a result of a project funded by the Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council (TAMC), CTT has pioneered a new rating system for unpaved roads, called the inventory-based ratings (IBR) system.

Read more at The Quarterly Journal of the County Road Association of Michigan.