UW WSU WSDOT




Current Projects

Seismic Retrofit of Hollow Piles

The overall goal of the proposed research is to design, and prove experimentally, methods to seismically retrofit prestressed concrete hollow pile-columns used in bridges.  WSDOT maintains approximately 25 bridges that are supported on hollow precast, prestressed concrete pile-columns. Most were constructed in the 1960s. The seismic performance of these bridges is in now question because the hollow sections have been shown to have little flexural ductility, which may cause them to fail prematurely. This project will determine the flexural strength and deformation capacity of a typical as-built, hollow, precast, pre-tensioned pile-column before retrofitting. Researchers will then develop a retrofit method, including design procedures, for the potential plastic hinge at the cap beam connection, and they will develop implementation procedures for the retrofit method. In addition, this project will create a simple numerical modeling tool that will allow WSDOT to rank existing bridges according to the risk that they pose to help it prioritize bridge retrofitting.

Principal Investigators:
John Stanton, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW
Paolo Calvi, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW

Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Bijan Khaleghi
WSDOT Project Manager: Doug Brodin
Scheduled completion: December 2019

Moving to Health: How Changing the Built Environment Impacts Weight and Glycemic Control

Where people live affects their health, weight, and well-being. Studies have pointed to multiple links between residential location, aspects of the surrounding built environment, and the neighborhood prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Among the physical built environment features that have been proposed to lower obesity and T2D risk are neighborhood walkability to support daily activity, access to healthy food sources such as supermarkets and farmers’ markets, fewer neighborhood fast foods or convenience stores, and more parks and trails. This study is using data from Kaiser Permanente Washington (KPWA), a large, integrated health insurance and care delivery system. By attaching a geographic context to anonymized KPWA electronic medical records in King County, Wash., researchers are examining the impacts of individual-level neighborhood built environment factors on body weight and glycemic control over a 12-year period. As a subcontract to the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, the UW Urban Form Lab is providing necessary data on land-use and mix, transportation infrastructure, neighborhood composition, and traffic conditions. Armed with the study’s findings, urban planners and policymakers will be able to target different built environment features for intervention and help to create demand for those neighborhood features that are most likely to support health.

Principal Investigators:
Anne Vernez Moudon, Urban Design and Planning, UW
Philip Hurvitz, Urban Design and Planning, UW

Sponsors:
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute

Scheduled completion: June 2022

Design of Coarse Bands and Channel Shape for Stream Simulation Culverts

This project is working to establish guidelines for placing coarse bands in streambed simulation culverts to maintain the form of the stream channel and enhance fish passage. At road crossings, restoring fish passage is recognized as a key priority. Stream simulation is one of the design methods that are allowed, and one kind of stream simulation utilizes coarse bands, which are relatively thin regions of sediment that are coarser than the natural streambed material and are placed horizontal to the flow to enhance stream channel stability. They are intended to simulate the natural stream in terms of both bed material and geometry. Of the 3,175 fish passage structures that WSDOT owns, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has determined that 60 percent are barriers to fish passage. More than 800 of these structures must be fixed by 2030, and many will be replaced with stream simulation culverts. Results of this project will include recommendations for the layout, dimensions, and composition of the coarse bands to maximize longevity of the simulated streambed. A key component of this project will also be a standardized procedure for quantifying the performance of a simulated streambed.

Principal Investigator: Nicholas Engdahl, Civil and Environmental Engineering, WSU
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Julie Heilman
WSDOT Project Manager: Jon Peterson
Scheduled completion: December 2020

Field Analysis of Wood Guardrail Post Decay

This project is investigating the integrity of wood guardrail posts in strategic locations of Washington state. Guardrail systems protect motorists involved in a crash by dissipating energy and keeping them from leaving the roadway. The guardrail post is an important part of the system. Unfortunately, wood guardrail posts are susceptible to failing during a crash event because of a loss of strength from wood decay.  Wood decay may be due to fungal growth or insect intrusion and is difficult to detect by visual inspection alone because decay commonly occurs inside the post.  Phase I of this research proposed utilizing a stress wave timing (SWT) device for non-destructive field testing of wood posts.  This Phase II study is focusing on quantifying the factors that affect wood post service life in the Northwest, including the post’s age, location, and physical properties such as wood species, treatment method, and lumber grade.  WSDOT will be able to use the information provided to consider the need to revise wood treatment specifications and/or design guidance for wood guardrail posts.

Principal Investigator: Adam Phillips, Civil and Environmental Engineering, WSU
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical M0nitor: Brad Manchas
WSDOT Project Monitor: Doug Brodin
Scheduled completion: June 2018

Update to WSliq Software for Soil Liquefaction Hazard Evaluation

This project is updating and extending the capabilities of a computer program, WSliq, for evaluating soil liquefaction hazards.  Probabilistic liquefaction hazard analysis (PLHA), developed previously for WSDOT and implemented in WSliq, has been recognized as an improved procedure for evaluating potential hazards from liquefaction.  PLHA considers all peak ground surface acceleration and magnitude levels based on site-specific ground motion hazard data and weights the contributions of all according to their joint probability of occurrence.  In doing so, it considers all possible earthquake scenarios and allows designs based on consistent likelihoods of triggering at all locations within the state. Because a number of changes have occurred in the geotechnical profession’s understanding and treatment of liquefaction since the development of WSliq, this project is developing, implementing, and testing new PLHA procedures and updating the WSliq program to incorporate the resulting improvements.

Principal Investigator: Steven Kramer, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Tony Allen
WSDOT Project Manager: Jon Peterson
Scheduled completion: December 2023

TWIN Study of Environment, Lifestyle Behaviors, and Health

This project builds on the Washington State Twin Registry, which includes some 8,000 twin pairs participating in a range of medical studies. The use of twins allows researchers to control for genetic and childhood social and environmental factors in ways that are not possible in studies based on singletons. This project is using a twin design and cutting edge measurement tools and spatial data to examine how the built environment is associated with physical activity and eating habits, and how aspects of the built environment affect physical activity and nutrition in its association with body mass index. Researchers at the UW Urban Form Lab are providing and analyzing data on development densities, land uses, transportation systems, and socio-demographics characteristics of areas of interest in Washington state, as well as processing data from accelerometers, GPS, and travel diaries to produce detailed, time-stamped Life Logs. From the Life Logs, physical activity and walking bouts will be identified, as will eating and food shopping episodes. Further processing of these data will include the identification of mobility patterns and activity spaces over the course of 7-day assessment periods.  As twins living in the same locations are compared to those living separately, it will be possible to isolate the effects of the built environment on physical activity

Principal Investigators:
Glen E. Duncan, College of Medicine, WSU
Anne Vernez Moudon, Urban Design and Planning, UW

Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
Scheduled completion: March 2024

RAP Reset: Responsibly Optimizing Recycled Materials Use in HMA and Pavement Performance Life

Concerns with the performance of hot mix asphalt (HMA) that contains recycled materials have recently become the focal point of the asphalt industry. Recycled materials used in HMA in Washington may include reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), reclaimed asphalt shingles (RAS), and recycled engine oil bottoms (REOB). In the late 2000’s recycled materials use increased as the economy crashed, market competition increased and margins decreased, and virgin asphalt binder cost increased significantly. However, the impacts of that increased usage are beginning to be better understood, and transportation agencies are determining that the durability of HMA may have been compromised as a result. The primary objective of this project is to increase the understanding of the effects of recycled materials on HMA performance and durability to enhance WSDOT’s HMA materials selection, mix design process, and standard specifications. The results are intended to help WSDOT modify its overall recycled materials strategy so that it is informed by current national best practices, takes into account observable local issues and test results, and leads to more durable HMA pavements.

Principal Investigator: Steve Muench, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Joe DeVol
WSDOT Project Manager: Jon Peterson
Scheduled Completion: March 2021

Update for Steel Bridges

The last official release of a steel version of the bridge rating software that WSDOT uses was Bridg97. That software offers WSDOT’s and FHWA’s standard rating systems, both based on Load Factor Rating (LFR). Unfortunately, it depends on software packages that have become obsolete. WSDOT has also adapted a concrete version of Bridg (last official release was Bridg10), whose updated interface is platform independent.  Steel Bridg shares large portions of the user interface with concrete Bridg, and so parallel development has been dedicated to porting the steel-­specific user interface into a new, platform-independent steel Bridg version, although it still has technical limitations related to WSDOT and FHWA standard rating, as well as graphics capabilities. This project is working to further upgrade the new steel Bridg by porting the load module and LRFR-specific extensions from the concrete Bridg to the improved steel Bridg software and otherwise utilizing the existing features of Bridg97.

Principal Investigator: Peter Mackenzie-Helnwein, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Mohamad Al-Salman
WSDOT Project Manager: Jon Peterson
Scheduled completion: June 2024

Freight Policy Transportation Institute at WSU

The purpose of the Freight Policy Transportation Institute at WSU is to undertake research on a variety of topics and issues that will improve our understanding of the importance of efficient and effective freight transportation, both to the national economy and to regions, states, and international trade.  Research topics address the need for improved intermodal freight transportation policies and implementable actions that would increase the effectiveness of intermodal transportation in lowering operating costs while also increasing the safety and decreasing the environmental impacts of freight transportation nationwide. Distributing the benefits of improved freight transportation performance to specific industries and sectors of the economy are important objectives of the Institute. The continuing focus of research projects falls generally under five themes: infrastructure investment and alternative financing/pricing, transportation security and freight efficiency, transportation and economic development, alternative energy sourcing and transportation systems, and freight transportation and international trade.

Principal Investigators:
Eric Jessup, School of Economic Sciences, WSU

Sponsor: FHWA
Scheduled completion: September 2021

TRAC