PacTrans News
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September 28, 2022
UAF’s Billy Connor Travels to Point Lay to Explore Effects of Thawing Permafrost
PacTrans has funded a handful of different projects from the University of Alaska Fairbanks that look at various aspects of permafrost over the past several years. Most recently PacTrans’ Associate Director from UAF set out to Synthesize a best practice manual on Designing and Construction of Roadways and Airports over Permafrost. As average global temperatures continue to rise, permafrost is thawing at a fast rate, wreaking havoc on the infrastructure that is built up in and around it.
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September 22, 2022
OSU Hosts Third Annual National Summer Transportation Institute
This summer, PacTrans consortium partner, Oregon State University, hosted their third annual National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI). In all, twenty-one, high-school age students had the opportunity to spend a week on the OSU campus, learning about a variety of transportation related disciplines, free of charge.
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September 22, 2022
A PacTrans Student Research from WSU Publishes new Work on Highway Animal Crossings
A PacTrans student researcher from Washington State University’s School of Economics, Wisnu Sugiarto, recently had some research published in the Transportation Research Record on highway animal crossings. This work intended to quantify whether the addition of these structures had an added financial benefit, beyond the benefit to animal populations and migratory health. The paper found that these crossings appear to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions in Washington state, saving roughly $235,000 to $443,000 every year per structure. Sugiarto said, “Wildlife crossing structures not only benefit the ecosystem but may also improve road safety.”
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September 22, 2022
PacTrans PI John Gambatese from OSU Elected to National Academy of Construction
PacTrans PI and Oregon State University Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering was recently elected to the National Academy of Construction. The induction ceremony will take place on October 6 in Scottsdale, AZ.
President and CEO of the Academy, Wayne Crew, speaking about Professor Gambatese, said, “Our 2022 class represents dedication to the industry and significant contributions to improving the built environment. John Gambatese is one of our industry’s most important contributors to construction safety and safety in design. We welcome him.”
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September 21, 2022
PacTrans WDI Partners with UW Youth & Teen Program to Deliver Two-Week Course on Autonomous Cars
This summer, the PacTrans Workforce Development Institute worked with the UW Continuum College’s Youth and Teen Program to develop and offer a two-week course to middle school students called, Introduction to Autonomous Cars. In this course, students learned principles of automation using LEGO Education Spike kits. To better connect what they were learning through these hands-on activities, the course also featured a series of guest speakers and UW lab visits where professionals presented on a variety of transportation related topics.
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