NDSU-led Transportation Research Center Aims to Employ Technology to Preserve Infrastructure
Posted: Dec 2, 2024
A new set of research projects aimed at transforming the way rural roads and other transportation infrastructure will be preserved and maintained into the future was recently launched by a research consortium led by the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI) at North Dakota State University.
Funding for the Center for Transformative Infrastructure Preservation and Sustainability (CTIPS) was awarded $3 million late last year by the U.S. Department of Transportation's University Transportation Centers program. In addition to NDSU, the center includes transportation researchers at Colorado State University, the University of Denver, Fort Lewis College, the University of Colorado Denver, South Dakota State University, United Tribes Technical College, University of North Dakota, University of Utah, University of Wyoming, and Utah State University.
"The mission of CTIPS research is to revolutionize the preservation of existing transportation systems through the integration of advanced sensing technologies and automation in data collection and analysis," noted Denver Tolliver, CTIPS director and UGPTI director. "The center's research will also address systemic equity issues in the region, especially those stemming from the relatively poor quality of Tribal and rural roads."
In a competitive selection process over the past several months, research projects that support the CTIPS mission have been selected for funding at each of the collaborating universities. Examples include:
- Advanced Air Mobility to Enhance Freight Logistics and Preserve Road Condition—NDSU
- Assessing Condition of Rehabilitated Concrete Pavement with Slab Fracturing and Asphalt Overlay Using Distributed Fiber Optic Sensors—NDSU
- Rapid and Low-Cost Monitoring of Bridge Scour Using an Unmanned Underwater Drone—Fort Lewis College
- Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Phone-Based Pavement Marking Condition Assessment and Litter Identification—University of Utah
- Application of Multispectral Sensing for Detection of Corrosion in Steel Infrastructure—University of North Dakota
- Leveraging Rideshare Electric Vehicle Data for Road Condition Monitoring: A Crowdsourcing and Machine Learning Approach—Colorado State University
- Improving Compatibility of Truck Platooning with Existing Infrastructure via Development of Dynamic Operational Rules on Highway Networks—University of Wyoming
- Computer Vision Tools for Bridge Inspections and Reporting—South Dakota State University
- Development of an Advanced Snow-Melting Geopolymer Concrete Utilizing Graphene Nanoplatelets and Landfilled Fly Ash—Colorado State University and North Dakota State University.
A full list of research projects, descriptions of those projects, and more information about CTIPS and its universities can be found at www.ctips.org. CTIPS is the University Transportation Center for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Region 8, which includes the Upper Great Plains and Intermountain West. The University Transportation Centers Program is administered by the USDOT Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology.