Catalog of Services

General Information

The Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC) is a cooperative transportation research agency.

Its members, the University of Washington, Washington State University, and the Washington State Department of Transportation, support TRAC to coordinate both state and commercial transportation research efforts and to develop research opportunities both nationally and locally.

TRAC investigators conduct research on numerous transportation-related topics. TRAC management and engineers are available to help with proposal and research development.

TRAC employs professional staff to provide support services, including the production of proposals, reports, other documents and presentation materials, as well as budget preparation and tracking, requests for travel, requests for equipment, and other administrative tasks.

Contractual Language: Basic Agreement and Interagency Agreement

TRAC's work is governed by two contracts: basic agreement (PDF) and an interagency agreement (PDF).

Proposal Production

Contacts:

Proposal information, submittal, and production: Amy O’Brien

Proposal budget information: Bev Green

Proposal tracking: Judy Felch

Information about TRAC, contracting agencies, RFPs and upcoming research possibilities: Mark Hallenbeck, Leni Oman

The easiest way to produce a TRAC proposal is to talk to the TRAC staff for preparation, write the proposal, and then let the TRAC staff take the production work off your hands. We have extensive experience in proposal production and have implemented systems for producing them consistently and efficiently.

Basic procedure:

The proposal coordinator accepts and tracks your proposal text, graphics, budget information and other necessary material.
The budget analyst helps you create your budget or reviews your estimate to ensure that it meets the contracting agency, university, and TRAC’s requirements.
A word processing technician may format your text to the contracting agency’s specifications.
An editor checks for compliance with the contracting agency’s requirements and edits for clarity, conciseness, grammar, and punctuation.
Illustrators are available to draw additional figures and graphs for your proposal.
The coordinator returns the proposal materials to you for revision and approval.
TRAC prepares the signature pages and GC-1 for final proposals.
TRAC makes the necessary copies and distributes the proposal around campus for signatures.
Important for WSDOT proposals:
WSDOT requires that TRAC review and process all university proposals to the DOT.

WSDOT requires a draft proposal to review before it will sign off on a final proposal.

These documents are available from this Web page:

Guide to Proposal Preparation Services *

Research Proposal Preparation Guide, including WSDOT proposal checklist (MS Word)*

*Windows users: right-click to save the file to your computer

Report Production

Contacts:

Report production information, submittal, and editing: Amy O’Brien

Report graphics: Mary Marrah

Report reproduction and tracking: Judy Felch

WSDOT requires that all university reports be submitted through TRAC. It also requires that TRAC reports be edited and formatted in consistent TRAC/WSDOT style, with professional looking graphics.

All WSDOT projects require a 35-page Research Report (draft for review and final) and a 1-page summary. Many projects also require a larger Technical Report.

WSDOT also requires Progress Reports, which the TRAC office helps produce.

Basic procedure (for WSDOT report):

Submit a draft report to the TRAC editor.
Work with TRAC’s graphic crew as necessary.
The editor reviews the report for compliance with the contracting agency’s requirements and edits for clarity, conciseness, grammar, and punctuation.
The author reviews, changes, and approves the edits.
TRAC formats the report in the appropriate style and seeks final approval from the author.
A draft is submitted to WSDOT under TRAC cover letter. Copies are distributed as appropriate.
WSDOT contacts the author with comments.
The author submits the comments (if minimal) or a changed draft to TRAC for final production.
TRAC obtains final approval from the author, then submits the final report to WSDOT under TRAC cover. Copies are distributed as appropriate.
The web pages Producing a Report with TRAC and Report and Thesis Guidelines for Graduate Students are available. WSDOT’s Research Report Guidelines can also be obtained through TRAC.

Research and Proposal Development

Contacts:

Information about TRAC, contracting agencies, RFPs or upcoming research possibilities:

Mark Hallenbeck, Leni Oman

TRAC investigators conduct research in the areas of bridges, construction management, environment, ferry systems, freeway and arterial management, freight travel, geotechnical engineering, highway design, intelligent transportation systems, multimodal travel, pavements, technology transfer, traffic engineering, transportation planning, and vehicle design and operation, among others.

Nationally, TRAC has prepared proposals for and conducted research with the USDOT, the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, the National Science Foundation, the National Highway Institute, the National Traffic Safety Administration, the Transportation Research Board IDEA program, the Strategic Highway Research Program, and the US Forest Service.

Within Washington state, we have worked with the Puget Sound Regional Council, the Washington State Energy Office, the Washington State Patrol, the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, the King County Department of Transportation (Metro), Snohomish County Public Works, and the City of Seattle.

TRAC has received private support and cooperation from numerous consultants, including Chaparral Systems Corp., ERES Consultants, Urban Systems, Inc., Cambridge Systematics, and PACCAR and has also worked with a number of public agencies from outside of Washington state.

TRAC’s Biennial Report describes our most recent two years of research. You can request a printed copy of the report from the TRAC Office.

Research Topic Areas

TRAC investigators conduct research in the areas of bridges, construction management, environmental engineering, ferry systems, freeway and arterial management, freight travel, geotechnical engineering, highway design, intelligent transportation systems, multimodal travel, pavements, technology transfer, traffic engineering, transportation planning, and vehicle design and operation, among others.

Some TRAC research is performed by TRAC’s small engineering staff, but most is conducted by a long list of UW and WSU faculty from numerous university departments and specialties. All UW and WSU faculty may participate in TRAC research. Specific information on faculty may be viewed through their respective department Web sites.

TRAC Staff Researchers

Leni Oman. Executive Director of TRAC. Initial point of contact for many state and federal agency staff. Helps identify work appropriate for TRAC researchers at both WSU and the UW. Directs that work to the respective researchers and/or TRAC Directors. Provides information about TRAC activities to the state legislature and state Transportation Commission.

Mark E. Hallenbeck. Director of TRAC, UW. Initial point of contact for work with TRAC, helps connect researchers with contracting agencies by monitoring requests for proposals and upcoming research possibilities, offers intermediary services between researchers and contractors, directs TRAC-UW administration.

Principal research interests include data collection, storage, and reporting (emphasis on traffic and pavement loading); intelligent transportation systems (ITS), with emphasis on institutional and organizational studies (ITS subject areas include ATIS, ATMS, CVO, and APTS); incident management; project and program evaluation.

David McLean. Director of TRAC, WSU. Initial point of contact for work with TRAC, helps connect researchers with contracting agencies by monitoring requests for proposals and upcoming research possibilities, offers intermediary services between researchers and contractors, directs TRAC-WSU administration.

John Ishimaru. Research Engineer. Principal research interests include transportation system performance analysis and evaluation, computer graphics applications in transportation planning, and software tools for transportation systems research and engineering education, as well as analyses of emerging and innovative technologies, strategies, and policies that support long-range state transportation program development.

Edward McCormack. Research Engineer. Principal research interests include transportation planning and research. More specific areas of involvement include ITS, transportation systems modeling, transportation application of geographic information systems (GIS), and safety studies.

Jaime Kopf. Research Engineer. Principal research interests include applications of intelligent transportation systems, analysis of transportation system performance, and evaluation of pedestrian behaviors.

Budgeting and Payroll

Contacts:

Bev Green

TRAC monitors all WSDOT budgets unless the contract agreement states otherwise.

Requests for budget extensions (with or without an increase in funds), supplements, and revisions must go through TRAC for WSDOT approval. The request for approval must be signed by a university official.

TRAC requires copies of requisitions for purchases charged to its projects unless otherwise agreed upon.

If a researcher is in a UW department other than Civil Engineering and Electrical Engineering, the budget coordinator will request electronic access to the project’s financial information (including payroll) to monitor it.

TRAC requires a copy of all payroll appointments made to its budgets.

Copies of hourly time sheets for TRAC budgets must be sent to TRAC.

Tuition Payments may be charged to WSDOT projects.

A Guide to TRAC Procedures for Project Managers is available.

Equipment

Contacts:

Bev Green

Equipment acquired on a WSDOT project belongs to WSDOT, which will assign it to another WSDOT project (either at the university or elsewhere) after the project has closed.

All requests for equipment must go through TRAC. Equipment purchases must be approved by WSDOT, either as a line item in the contract budget or through a subsequent letter requesting approval. The request for approval must be signed by Leni Oman, WSDOT, and a university official.

A Guide to TRAC Procedures for Project Managers is available.

Travel

Contacts:

Bev Green

Requests for approval for travel must go through TRAC. WSDOT requires an email requesting approval for all out-of-state travel before the travel occurs and in addition to the project contract, unless the trip is specifically stated in the contract with dates, destination and cost per trip. All approvals must be signed by Leni Oman, WSDOT, and a university official.TRAC requires copies of requisitions for travel charged to its projects.

A Guide to TRAC Procedures for Project Managers is available.

Graphics

Contacts:

Mary Marrah

TRAC does all its illustration and most word processing on the Macintosh. Microsoft Word (Macintosh OS or Windows) is the preferred word processing application.

Graphic Services Offered

Document layout, design and publishing

Geographic Information Services

Maps and Illustrations

Poster session design and development

Web design, development and graphics

Gallery of Work
Click here to view samples of our work.

Software
We utilize the following software: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, MacroMedia FreeHand, ClarisDraw, Power Point.

The web pages Producing a Report with TRAC and Report and Thesis Guidelines for Graduate Students are available.

Report Library

Contacts:

Judy Felch

TRAC maintains a library of all reports and other documents produced through TRAC. The reports for which electronic copies exist are located at http://depts.washington.edu/trac/ (look under the heading: "Research Results and Reports"). All other reports can be obtained from their sponsoring agency. Paper copies of all TRAC reports can be obtained from the WSDOT Research Office (contact Sarah Smith at: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Research/staff.htm#staff) or may be viewed in person at the TRAC Office.

Computer Processes

Contacts:

Ron Porter, Adam Sanderson, Duane Wright

TRAC offers expertise in database construction and Web site design and construction. We’ve worked with many database programs and have constructed several Web sites. We can offer advice or contract for specific project work.

Help with Accessing Project Information

Contacts:

Ron Porter, Adam Sanderson, Bev Green

Bev Green, Fiscal Specialist Supervisor : 206.543.6522
Ron Porter, Computer Support Analyst : 206.543.3341
Adam Sanderson, Software Engineer: 206.616.1270

Revised June 14, 2006

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