Category: Research

Guy Meadows (GLRC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $99,999 research and development grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

The project is entitled, “Advancing Coastal Hazard Knowledge on Resiliency Alternatives.” Pengfei Xue (CEE/GLRC) is the Co-PI on this one-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Tim Colling (CEE/CTT) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $1,300,080.64 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. The project is entitled, “Bridge Design System Ongoing Modernization and Support – Phase 3.” Chris Gilbertson (CEE) and Gary Schlaff (CEE) are Co-PI’s on this potential five-year project.

Colling is also the principal investigator on a project that has received a $518,050 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. The project is entitled, “2019 Michigan Local Technical Assistance Program.” Chris Codere (CEE) and Pete Torola (CEE) are Co-PI’s on this potential 15-month project.

Colling is the principal investigator on another project that has received a $115,012 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. The project is entitled, “2020 Transportation Asset Management Council Technical Assistance Activities Program.” Mary Crane (CEE) is the Co-PI on this one-year project.

Chris Gilbertson (CEE/CTT) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $491,229.52 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. Zack Fredin (CEE) and Tim Colling (CEE) are Co-PI’s on this 23-month project entitled, “Michigan Local Bridge Load Rating & Inspection Support and Technology Transfer FY 2019-2022.”

Tim Colling (CEE/CTT) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $224,280.94 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. The project is entitled, “2020 Transportation Asset Management Council Education Program Work Plan.” Pete Torola (CEE) and Chris Gilbertson (CEE) are Co-PI’s on this one-year project.

Tim Colling (CEE/CTT) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $896,267.05 other sponsored activities contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. The project is entitled, “2020 Roadsoft Asset Management Development & Support.” Gary Schlaff (CEE/CTT), Nick Koszykowski (CEE/CTT) and Luke Peterson (CEE/CTT) are Co-PI’s on this one year project.

Pengfei Xue (CEE/GLRC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $109,790 research and development cooperative agreement with the University of Michigan.

The project is entitled, “The Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR): Long-Term Data Assimilative, Temperature and Currents Database for the Great Lakes (Year 2: Lake Michigan).

This is a one year project.

Xue is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $125,199 research and development cooperative agreement with the University of Michigan. The project is entitled, “Coastal Coupling in Large Lakes for Total Water Prediction.” This is a potential two-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Michigan Rail Conference 2019

The Michigan Tech Rail Transportation and Michigan State University Railway Management programs recently collaborated to execute the seventh annual Michigan Rail Conference.

The event was held at the Henry Center on the MSU campus Aug.7-9, and featured speakers from across the country and across the many disciplines that make up the rail industry.

Ron Batory, the administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration was the keynote speaker, and more than 140 people from all aspects of the rail industry participated.

Pasi Lautala, director of Tech’s Rail Transportation Program (RTP) was a speaker for the Local Impacts and Opportunities panel, and David Nelson, senior research engineer from RTP, spoke as part of the Crossing Safety session. Details about the conference including a selection of conference photos are available on the RTP web site.

By the Rail Transportation Program.

National Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Conference

Pasi Lautala (CEE) director of Michigan Tech’s Rail Transportation Program gave an invited presentation entitled “Survey of Railway Crossing Research at Michigan Tech” at the National Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Conference. The conference had almost 300 participants and took place in Pittsburgh, Aug. 19-22.

Michigan Economic Developers Association Annual Meeting

Lautala was one of three panelists discussing Mobility in Michigan as part of the Michigan Economic Developers Association annual meeting Aug. 16 in Marquette. Lautala also provided testimony as part of the public hearing on “Rail service in Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan”, organized by State Senator Ed McBroom and Wisconsin State Senator Tom Tiffany in Marquette Aug. 26.

New Funding

Kuilin Zhang (CEE/MTTI) is the primary investigator on a project that has received a $567,230 contract with the Federal Railroad Administration. This project is entitled, “Developing Safe and Efficient Driving and Routing Strategies at Railroad Grade Crossings Based on Highway-Railway Connectivity.” Pasi Lautala (CEE) is the Co-PI on this potential two-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

SPOTLIGHT – Road Commission of Kalamazoo County

2018 Scrap Tire Market Development Grantee

Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy sent this bulletin at 08/20/2019 10:00 AM EDT

The Road Commission of Kalamazoo County (RCKC) was awarded a Department of Environmental, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) Scrap Tire Market Development Grant in partnership with Michigan Technological University (MTU) for scrap tire innovation. An estimated 13,672 scrap tires were recycled on the project, which took a significant amount of coordination with the partners due to its experimental nature.

The project includes the use of new rubber technology never before used in the United States. The project utilized hot rubber chip seal (HRCS) and hot rubber thin overlay (HRTO) on two different segments of W Avenue from the Schoolcraft Village Limits to Portage Road. There were also two conventional chip seal application segments installed as control sections. Each of the four project sections spanned 4,000 feet of West W Avenue.

“The purpose of the project is to evaluate the new reacted and activated rubber and to investigate the applicability of such rubber mainly composed of finely grinded scrap tires. The aim is to create a more cost-effective, long-lasting, safe and environmentally friendly, mixes and surface treatments,” Dr. [Zhanping] You said.

Read more at the EGLE bulletin.

Pasi Lautala (CEE), director of Rail Transportation Program, participated in the Summerail 2019 in St. Louis, MO on July 24-26. Dr. Lautala gave the presentation “Moving Forest Products in Upper Midwest—are there benefits from increased rail movements?” He also chaired the “TRB AR040—Freight Rail Transportation” committee meeting.

The conference is designed to bring together railroad professionals, government officials, and academics to discuss the past, present and future of the U.S. railroad industry.

Alex Mayer (Civil-Environ Eng / GLRC) is Principal Investigator on a project that has received a $319,950 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation. The project is titled “CBET-EPSRC Efficient Surrogate Modeling for Sustainable Management of Complex Seawater Intrusion-Impacted Aquifers.” This is a potential three-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Extract

Water management in densely populated coastal regions is one of the most pressing sustainability challenges worldwide. Coastal groundwater is especially vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise due to the potential for seawater intrusion into groundwater aquifers. Seawater intrusion has reduced water supply in all coastal regions of the US. This has resulted in high costs to society.

We propose to address this challenge by developing models that are orders of magnitude faster than current models.

These modeling advances will be made in collaboration with water supply agencies, with the goal of increasing the utility of groundwater modeling for coastal communities. Successful development and adoption of these approaches will help agencies tasked with the protection of coastal aquifers devise sustainable management strategies to protect scarce water resources.

Read more at the National Science Foundation.