Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering News

The Center for Technology and Training (CTT) hosted its third annual Roadsoft User Conference of the United States (RUCUS) Sept. 26, 2018, in Grand Rapids. RUCUS was attended by more than 70 persons representing road agencies in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania.

Conference topics included roadway asset inventory, inspection and maintenance; using the Roadsoft culvert, drainage structure and sidewalk modules; and safety, pavement management strategies and project planning. The event also provided attendees with networking opportunities with other agencies and with CTT staff.

Those CTT staff attending the conference were Research Engineer Pete Torola, PE and Dale Lighthizer, PhD, PE; Senior Project Manager Gary Schlaff; Training and Operations Senior Project Manager Christine Codere; Technical Specialist Scott Bershing; Customer Service and Data Support Specialist Allison Berryman; Principal Programmers Nick Koszykowski and Luke Peterson; Senior Software Engineers Mary Crane, Nancy Moore and Mike Pionke and Software Engineer Sean Thorpe.

A one-day “Introduction to Roadsoft” training was conducted at the conference venue on Sept. 25. The training provided an overview and instructions on using the following Roadsoft features: map interface, legends, filters and reports; road, sign and culvert modules; data collection using the laptop data collector; safety analysis using crash data; data management and numerous tips and tricks.

Roadsoft is a roadway asset management system for collecting, storing and analyzing data associated with transportation infrastructure. Roadsoft is developed and supported by the CTT with principal funding from the Michigan Department of Transportation.

CTT Roadsoft on the Road Site Visits

Center for Technology and Training (CTT) staff Allison Berryman, Mary Crane and Mike Pionke traveled to lower Michigan providing Roadsoft on-site technical assistance in the cities of Detroit, Ann Arbor, Manchester and Pinckney, and at the Newaygo County Road Commission during the week of Oct. 22, 2018.

This is the fifth year of the semi-annual “Roadsoft On The Road” visits, which are hands-on sessions with agency-specific topics. Besides helping Roadsoft customers, the sessions provide CTT software engineers with valuable information about client workflow and challenges; this helps guide further software development to provide improved capability and usability of the Roadsoft program.

The Center for Technology and Training is a research center housed at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Roadsoft is a roadway asset management software suite for collecting, storing, and analyzing data associated with transportation infrastructure. Roadsoft is developed and supported by the CTT with principal funding from the Michigan Department of Transportation.

The Office of Environmental Health and Safety announced the first of two inaugural Excellence in Safety awards for the 2019 academic year.

This year’s academic recipient is the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. CEE is being recognized for the efforts of its Laboratory Safety and Chemical Hygiene Committee. The committee, comprised of Stan Vitton, Chris Wojick, Dave Perram, Lisa Cunard, Kiko de Melo e Silva, Jake Hiller and Noel Urban, worked to become campus leaders in both online training and self-inspection. The committee developed a training matrix that matches specific lab hazards to training titles in the PureSafety system, and was one of the first departments to adopt the SafetyStratus system for department-level lab inspections.

CEE thanks Chair Audra Morse for her support of the committee’s excellent work, and all of the employees of CEE for their ongoing commitment to safety.

By Environmental Health and Safety.

Tim Colling (CEE/CTT) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $219,311 contract from the Michigan Department of Transportation. Pete Torola (CEE) and Chris Gilbertson (CTT/CEE) are the Co-PIs on the project “2019 Transportation Asset Management Council Education Program Work Plan.” This is a one-year project.

Tim Colling (CEE/CTT) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $118,203 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation. Mary Crane (CEE) is the Co-PI on the project, “2019 Transportation Asset Management Council Technical Assistance Activities Program.” This is a one-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

The Center for Technology and Training (CTT), part of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), assisted the Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council (TAMC) with a local road agency culvert data collection pilot funded under House Appropriation Bill 4320 (S-3) which provided $2,000,000 toward the effort of estimating the quantity and condition of local road agency-owned culvert assets in the state.

The CTT worked with the TAMC Bridge Committee to develop a work plan that would establish the number of local road agency-owned culverts in the state, estimate the overall condition of culverts, estimate the cost to replace culvert assets, benchmark agency labor required for establishing a culvert inventory and estimate the agency labor associated with periodic condition evaluation of culverts.

The CTT worked with 49 local road agencies that collected data on nearly 50,000 culverts over a 13-week period. They also provided technical assistance and training on the Roadsoft Culvert Module and a modified Federal Highway Administration Condition Evaluation rating system. The CTT final report was recently submitted to the Governor’s office and is available on the TAMC website.

Read the Report

By the Center for Technology & Training.