“SEISMIC EVALUATION AND RETROFIT OF DETERIORATED CONCRETE BRIDGE COMPONENTS”

UTRC has released a final report for the research titled: “Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Deteriorated Concrete Bridge Components”, funded by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration/USDOT (RITA). The principal investigator was Dr. Riyad Aboutaha, an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Syracuse University.

Corrosion of steel bars in reinforced concrete structures is a major durability problem for bridges constructed in New York State (NYS). The heavy use of deicing salt compounds this problem. Corrosion of steel bars results in loss of steel cross section, deterioration of bond between concrete and reinforcing bars, and results in unsymmetrical concrete section that is susceptible to shear stresses produced by torsion. Though earthquake frequency of occurrence and the expected ground accelerations in NYS is less than in western states, the potential for earthquake damage in or around NYS is still very real. Given the level of deterioration in many reinforced concrete bridges in NYS, they are considered vulnerable to major damage during a moderate seismic event. The findings of this investigation suggest the need for seismic retrofit of deteriorated reinforced concrete bridge columns, particularly, those with corroded lap splice in the longitudinal reinforcement. The study also suggests the need for retrofit of corroded pedestal over piers and abutments, as they may cause sudden unseating of girders.

The full report is available for a free download at the UTRC website:
http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/seismic-evaluation-of-concrete-br...

COMPRESSING AND QUERYING MULTIPLE GPS TRACES FOR TRANSPORTATION PLANNING

UTRC has released a final report for the research titled: “Compressing and Querying Multiple GPS Traces for Transportation Planning”, funded by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration/USDOT (RITA). The principal investigator was Catherine T. Lawson, an associate professor of Geography and Planning at the University at Albany (SUNY).

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of vehicles equipped with GPS devices. These devices generate huge volumes of trace data, and information extracted from these traces could significantly help transportation planners with routine tasks and special studies. However, extracting information from trace data is a challenging problem because of the proliferation of GPS devices and the rate at which trace data is generated. One approach for handling this problem is to compress the GPS data in such a way that the amount of information lost due to compression is as small as possible. During the period of this project, our focus was on the design, implementation and evaluation of GPS trajectory compression algorithms that can achieve specified compression rates while minimizing the information loss due to compression. Our work has led to new algorithms for compressing single and multiple GPS traces.\

The full report is available for a free download at the UTRC website:
http://www.utrc2.org/publications/compressing-and-querying-multiple-gps-...

“FINANCING RAIL CAPITAL PROJECTS: HISTORICAL LESSONS; CONTEMPORARY CASES”

UTRC has released a final report for the research titled: “Financing Rail Capital Projects: Historical Lessons; Contemporary Cases”, funded by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration/USDOT (RITA). The principal investigator was Dr. James K. Cohen, Professor Emeritus at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY).

Two questions informed the research for this article: first, how and why did the mid‐20th century shift from private to public ownership? Second, does high speed rail create opportunities for the return of the private sector to a significant role in passenger rail transport, such as financing and operating new lines? To answer these questions, we adopted a historical, cross‐national approach. While a number of articles have been written about general lessons that can be learned from foreign experience with high speed rail, our approach analyzes the specific reasons why the U.S. has lagged behind other countries. France was selected as a comparison case because of its history of moving from private to public provision of passenger rail services closely paralleled American rail history up to the Great Depression; and, because the divergence between the two countries at the end of the Great Depression provides powerful evidence for analyzing the causes of the decline of U.S. passenger railways in the post‐World War 2 period.

The full report is available for a free download at the UTRC website:
http://www.utrc2.org/publications/financing-rail-capital-projects-histor...