All posts by trac

Snow and Ice Treatment Products Evaluation

This study aims to provide a comprehensive and quantitative evaluation of the liquid and solid snow and ice control chemicals that various districts within the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) use for highway maintenance. WSU researchers will assist in thorough and targeted reviews of published materials and ongoing research, as well as a comprehensive survey of state DOT personnel. They will also conduct laboratory trials of currently utilized products and product combinations to evaluate suitability, performance, and impacts on infrastructure. Tests to be conducted will include those that assess the performance characteristics of deicers (such as friction of anti-iced pavement), the corrosion risks deicers pose to carbon steel and aluminum, and the water quality risks of deicers (such as biochemical oxygen demand). Finally, they will evaluate the cost effectiveness of tested products, taking into account any potential impacts to infrastructure and the natural environment.

Principal Investigator: Xianming Shi, Civil and Environmental Engineering, WSU

Sponsors:
Missouri Department of Transportation
Missouri University of Science and Technology

Scheduled completion: September 2021

Utility and Limitations of Using Recycled Asphalt Pavement (RAP) as Roadway Embankment and Structural Backfill

Recycled asphalt pavements (RAP) consist of unprocessed (milled) or processed (crushed) asphalt mixtures from roadways or other resources. While RAP is often used in hot/warm mix asphalt inside asphalt plants, on-site use of RAP presents great advantages in lowering costs and expediting construction without the need for hauling. The recycling of RAP is a sustainable practice that could potentially help reduce costs, preserve the environment, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, provided that the engineering performance of the roadways constructed with RAP is not compromised. Currently, the Illinois Tollway allows RAP to be used in roadway embankments and as structural backfill, as well as for aggregate surfacing. However, the use of RAP in roadway embankments and as structural backfill is loosely specified in terms of maximum size, gradation, engineering properties, and acceptance. On the basis of a literature review, survey, forensic investigation, and laboratory experiments, this project will develop a draft specification that will define the allowable RAP materials to be placed, appropriate construction practices, and field acceptance criteria. The specification will ensure that the RAP embankment or fill will perform as well as other well-performing conventional soils/aggregates, if not better.

Project Investigators:
Haifang Wen
Balasingam Muhunthan
Idil Akin
Civil and Environmental Engineering, WSU

Sponsor: Illinois Tollway
Scheduled completion: June 2021

Evaluation of On-Site and In-situ Treatment Alternatives for Contaminated Soils

Construction activities in highway right of ways (ROWs) can result in the release of toxic and persistent contaminants. Highway construction may lead to the discovery of inorganic (lead, mercury, asbestos) and organic (petroleum hydrocarbons) hazardous wastes that have been spilled, illegally or improperly disposed, or leaked. The responsibility then often falls to the transportation agency to clean the contaminated property. Treating contaminated ROW soils for beneficial reuse as construction fill is a proactive strategy for dealing with contaminated property. However, the best cost-effective decontamination treatments that do not cause significant construction delays have yet to be identified. Cost-effective, usable solutions customized for the Illinois Department of Transportation’s (IDOT) time, space, and soil volume constraints are needed. The objectives of this project are to 1) characterize the nature and extent of IDOT ROW soil contamination; 2) evaluate feasible treatment alternatives for IDOT soils; and 3) develop a customized, rapid, on-site treatment approach that will allow IDOT to repurpose contaminated construction soils for on-site use as fill. Using this rapid treatment approach will allow IDOT to divert volumes of waste from Illinois landfills, reduce carbon footprints, lower environmental risks, and achieve substantial cost-savings.

Project Investigators:
Amanda Hohner
Idil Akin
Xianming Shi
Indranil Chowdhury
Richard Watts
Adam Phillips
Civil and Environmental Engineering, WSU

Sponsor: Illinois Center for Transportation
Scheduled completion:  January 2021

Performance of Steel Jacket Retrofitted Reinforced Concrete Bridge Columns in Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquakes

In 1991 WSDOT began a seismic retrofit program for state bridges that continues today. WSDOT’s primary method for retrofitting concrete bridge columns is steel jackets. The USGS recently released updated hazard maps that require structural design in Western Washington to plan for increased levels of seismicity, reflecting the potential for the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) to generate large magnitude, long duration earthquakes. The ability of WSDOT’s bridge columns retrofitted with steel jackets to resist this increased earthquake hazard level is not well understood, and questions remain regarding the level of damage that would be sustained in a CSZ earthquake. If the level of retrofit is not sufficient to prevent collapse, the millions of dollars expended by WSDOT on retrofit will not deliver the intended results. This project will characterize the expected performance, ductility capacity, and collapse probability of steel jacket retrofitted bridge columns in CSZ earthquakes and will develop a simple tool that WSDOT can use to assess whether a standard steel jacket retrofit is adequate to resist a design level earthquake for each bridge column in its inventory.

Project Investigators:
Christopher Motter, Civil and Environmental Engineering, WSU
Adam Phillips, Civil and Environmental Engineering, WSU

Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Bijan Khaleghi
WSDOT Project Manager: Mustafa Mohamedali
Scheduled completion:  September 2021

Long-Term Bond Characteristics of the Interface between the Substrate and Overlays in Shotcrete Applications, Phase III

Shotcrete is increasingly used for fascia walls and soil nail retaining walls. Properly placed shotcrete is structurally sound and durable. It is particularly well adapted to vertical and overhead work where conventional formwork and repairs are difficult to make, costly, and often short-lived. However, use of shotcrete could also possibly reduce the life expectancy of structures if the bond between the overlay and substrate is not well developed. In addition, long-term freeze-thaw weathering can degrade bond strength and result in debonding from the existing structures and rebar corrosion. In close consultation with the shotcrete industry and WSDOT, the goal of this phase three project is to investigate short-term and long-term debonding issues between the substrate and overlays. The study will develop specification recommendations for best practices and test methods to assure the effective bonding and monolithic behavior of shotcrete structures for wall fascia, slope stabilization, and other applications.

Project Investigator: Haifang Wen, Civil and Environmental Engineering, WSU
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitors: Patrick Glassford, Marco Foster
WSDOT Project Manager: Mustafa Mohamedali
Scheduled completion:  June 2021

Development of a Protocol to Maintain the Winter Mobility of Different Classes of Pervious Concrete Pavement Based on Porosity

Municipalities in the Pacific Northwest are increasingly using pervious concrete pavements (PCP). While this class of pavements offers significant ecological advantages, transportation departments must ensure that the pavements are safe for drivers and pedestrians in the region’s typical adverse winter conditions. To assist transportation departments in implementing more effective winter operations, this study aimed to develop a simple, image-based method to characterize the porosity of PCP.

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A Construction Project Classification Framework: Mapping the Dimensions for Classification of Pacific Northwest Highway Project Types

Although construction projects differ in terms of size, materials, location, construction methods, and complexity, a proper classification system for project types does not exist. To help administrators of highway projects find consistency in data gathering and reporting, and validity in their analyses of contract performance, this project developed a framework for classifying project types.

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Dynamic Metering in Connected Urban Street Networks: Improving Mobility

As traffic congestion increases on urban street networks, a network’s ability to process vehicles decreases because of queue spillovers and gridlock. Traffic metering can help regulate the flow of vehicles entering congested areas to allow the network to operate at its optimum level. This study sought to develop a traffic metering method for urban street networks and to study the effects of metering on traffic operations.

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Deployment of the Washington State Virtual Environment for Multimodal Integrated Corridor Management

A UW Human Centered Design and Engineering team is building the Virtual Coordination Center (VCC), a cloud-based platform for real-time data sharing and coordinated response to quickly clear roadway incidents—while preparing Seattle-area agencies for a collaborative response to major incidents. In summer 2023 the Washington state legislature approved approximately $2 million to maintain the VCC and expand it to up to five additional jurisdictions in King County. Work on the VCC began several years ago when regional public agency executives signed a charter establishing the Seattle Area Joint Operations Group and committing to “collectively design and implement a regional strategy for enhancing mobility and reducing impact when a major incident drastically reduces capacity along the Seattle I-5 corridor.” This integrated transportation community—including WSDOT, Seattle DOT, Seattle Police, Seattle Fire, Washington State Patrol, King County Metro, and Sound Transit—jointly participated in a process to design the cloud‐based VCC. A $3 million federal award has allowed the VCC regional partners to focus on deployment of the VCC and to develop a virtual collaborative working environment that includes integrated computer-aided dispatch, map-based situation awareness, a real-time incident alerting system, and coordinated interagency congestion management and public communication. When deployed, the VCC will dramatically reduce the time and increase the effectiveness of incident operations. It will provide a framework within which regional transportation, transit, and law enforcement agencies will be able to coordinate traffic management strategies using real‐time data.

Principal Investigator: Mark Haselkorn, Human Centered Design and Engineering, UW
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Travis Phelps
WSDOT Project Manager: Doug Brodin
Scheduled completion: December 2023