Planning level assessment of greenhouse gas emissions for alternative transportation construction projects funded by the region 2 University Transportation Research Center
Principal Investigator: Robert B. Noland, Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick. The Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University has developed, in collaboration with NJ DOT and NJ Transit, a tool that allows engineers to estimate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with specific transportation construction practices for both highway and rail projects. This includes estimating emissions from material inputs, construction equipment activity, life-cycle maintenance, project staging inputs (including emissions due to road closures during construction) over the lifetime of a project. The product is a spreadsheet tool, the Greenhouse Gas Assessment Spreadsheet for Transportation Capital Projects (GASCAP) that will allow NJDOT personnel and contractors to input project data from bid sheets and specify a maintenance plan for the life of the facility. Greenhouse gases are estimated on a life cycle basis using a cradle to grave approach that accounts for upstream emissions. At present the GASCAP tool has the ability to estimate upstream, and construction emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), black carbon particulate matter, air conditioning coolants, sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and total global warming potential. This provides a comprehensive estimate that allows project engineers to compare how different project construction decisions may affect overall life-cycle GHG emissions.
This project will develop planning level emissions factors as opposed to analyzing single project emissions. This will allow the GASCAP tool to be applied to a wider range of alternative transportation construction projects to provide policy-makers with estimates that can inform higher-level decision making. Ultimately our goal is to provide a technique whereby estimates of GHG emissions can be estimated from basic information such as lane-miles or track-miles constructed, or rehabilitated, and to compare the GHG emissions associated with alternative construction and maintenance materials, practices, and techniques that are typically used in projects.
Dissertation on the Politics of Large Infrastructure Investment Decision-Making
Principal Investigators: Patrizia Nobbe, Graduate Center, CUNY
To explore the politics of decision-making in multi-billion dollar transportation projects, this dissertation uses both statistical and case-study methods. First, to test common hypotheses pertaining to megaproject decision-making and related politics, a comprehensive dataset of 60 world-wide transportation projects has been built. It contains about 70 variables on each project that pertain to political elements of decision-making. Examples include decision-makers, opposition, planning and construction times, funding types and sources, cost-overrun data, etc., and macro-political and economic context variables like electoral systems and GDPs. The statistical methods of analysis entail correlation, linear regression and path analysis where appropriate.
Second, two American transportation megaprojects have been selected as case studies to add to and explore in more detail some of the results of the quantitative analysis . The particular focus will be on the role of transportation agencies for the politics of decision-making. The two cases selected are the Second Avenue Subway in New York, and the Alameda Corridor, a freight rail project in the Southern California. I argue that the success of transportation agencies to implement transportation megaprojects depends on their ability to channel and bring together a variety of political interests, and on their ability to stay independent from external political control.
The dissertation is done at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, under the supervision of Professors Joseph Berechman (economics) and Christa Altenstetter (political science). Various parts of the dissertation have been supported by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the University Transportation Research Center, Region 2, and the OMEGA Centre for Megaprojects in Transport and Development at the University College in London. The expected completion time of the analysis is summer 2013.
Contact: Patrizia Nobbe pnobbe@gc.cuny.edu
Database of Large Infrastructure Investment Projects
Principal Investigators: Joseph Berechman, Patrizia Nobbe
In order to test common hypotheses pertaining to megaproject investment decision-making, we are in the process of building and analyzing a comprehensive dataset of 60 transportation mega-projects, world-wide. Each project is characterized by about 70 variables related to the transportation, economics and political elements of decision-making. Examples include type of project and size, costs, opposition and interest groups, planning and construction times, and funding types. Macro-political and economic context variables like electoral systems and GDPs are also included. The statistical methods of analysis include correlation, linear and non-linear regression models and path analysis. The expected completion time of the analysis is summer 2013. The study is sponsored by a grant from the University Transportation Research Center, Region 2.
Contact: Prof. Joseph Berechman jberechman@ccny.cuny.edu; Patrizia Nobbe pnobbe@gc.cuny.edu
Second Avenue Subway Study
Principal Investigators: Joseph Berechman, Patrizia Nobbe
We are conducting an in-depth study on the politics of large infrastructure decision-making by using the Second Avenue Subway in New York as a case study. In the paper we will focus on the role of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) throughout the rocky and controversial decision process that led up to final construction. Past research shows that the particular structure of transportation agencies, e.g. whether they are “special purpose” or “line agencies,” carries the potential to influence policy and infrastructure decisions by channeling politics, e.g. by overcoming decision-gridlock, or blocking or promoting certain types of policies. For instance, a special purpose agency like the MTA has the capacity to get things done and act as a facilitator of infrastructure decisions in a politically complex region. However, implementing the Second Avenue Subway took a very long time. In this paper we will analyze how the MTA finally succeeded in building the Second Avenue Subway. The expected completion time of the analysis is June 2013. The study is sponsored by a grant from the University Transportation Research Center, Region 2.
Contact: Prof. Joseph Berechman jberechman@ccny.cuny.edu; Patrizia Nobbe pnobbe@gc.cuny.edu
RPI leads the NYDSOT funded project on Determining Remaining Fatigue Life of In-Situ Mast-Arm Traffic Signal Supports
In New York State, recently designed and installed mast-arm traffic signal structures longer than 14 m do not meet the fatigue provisions of the updated AASHTO code. There is concern that these relatively new structures will not provide long-term reliable and safe service. For this reason, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) commissioned Research Project No. C-10-07, ``Determining Remaining Fatigue Life of In-Situ Mast-Arm Traffic Signal Supports". This project is a collaborative effort between Rensselaer and NYSDOT to conduct a thorough investigation (through full-scale experiment) of the response of a given, in-situ mast-arm traffic signal structure to actual, observed wind conditions. Harry White is the NYSDOT project manager, Professors Christopher Letchford and Michael O’Rourke are Co-Principal Investigators and Michelle Riedman is the Graduate Student Researcher. The results from this full-scale experiment will allow for a projected `safe life' of this given structure to be calculated and will form the bases for the development of a general methodology that can be used to assess the remaining fatigue life of cantilevered mast-arm traffic signal structures throughout New York State.
Lighting Research Center at the TRB Annual Meeting
Senior Research Scientist and Adjunct Assistant Professor John Bullough of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute presented two papers at the 92nd Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting held in Washington, DC in January. Bullough presented the results of a study with the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) on work zone lighting entitled “Work Zone Lighting and Visual Performance: Analysis and Demonstration,” demonstrating that with proper glare control, light levels in work zones do not need to be especially high to ensure adequate visual performance by workers and by drivers navigating through them. Bullough also presented a paper entitled "Development of a Guide for Replacement of Roadway Lighting with New Lighting Technologies," describing a guide to new lighting technologies such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) for roadway lighting in New York State, focusing on parkways, residential streets and rural intersections, as part of a project jointly funded by NYSDOT and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Both of these papers will be published in the Transportation Research Record journal later in 2013. Bullough also co-authored a paper with Sloane Bullough of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, entitled "Historic Streetscape Lighting: Integration of Aesthetic Concerns with Modern Technology," which was named a Practice-Ready Paper by TRB.
To learn more about the LRC’s transportation lighting and safety research, visit www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/transportation/index.asp.
Social Media in Disaster Preparation, Response and Recovery – Presented at TRB 2013
Sarah M. Kaufman, NYU Rudin Center for Transportation
The NYU Rudin Center is exploring the importance of social media in disasters; this research was presented by Research Associate Sarah Kaufman at the Transportation Research Board’s Annual Meeting in January, 2013.
The advantages of instantaneous, far-reaching and interactive tools like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr were proven during Superstorm Sandy; a survey conducted by the NYU Rudin Center found that social media was the second-highest-rated source of information, ranking higher than other popular sources like news television and radio, news websites, and community groups, as shown in the chart below:
The most essential step an agency can take leading up to a disaster is to build an audience of social media followers by combining service and marketing messages to inform and engage the audience.
To access the full presentation, please visit the rudin center’s website at: http://wagner.nyu.edu/blog/rudincenter/social-media-in-disasters-trb-pr…