Category: News

The Georgia Department of Transportation has released the list of projects selected from the Fall 2022 RTAG submittals. Congratulations to the selected projects! Thanks to everyone who submitted a Research Needs Statement (RNS). The research community was highly engaged, with approximately 96 submitted needs statements. GDOT research staff is currently contacting the project PIs and setting up the next steps in the process.

The opening of the Fall 2023 RTAG RNS call will be announced later this year. Announcements will be distributed through the GTI mailing list and GTI website.

Please feel free to contact Supriya Kamatkar(skamatkar@dot.ga.gov) if you have any questions regarding the project selection process or Michael Hunter (michael.hunter@ce.gatech.edu) if you have any questions regarding GTI.

#	Project Title (Abbreviated)	Research Team
1	Ensuring Fair and Equitable Funding of Rural Transit in Georgia after the 2020 Census	Georgia Institute of Technology
2	Developing sight distance guidelines for U-turn maneuvers	Georgia Institute of Technology
3	Development of an ML-based Georgia Pavement Structural Condition Evaluation System	Georgia Institute of Technology
4	A Decision-Making Guide to Explore the Benefits of Design-Build-Maintain (DBM) and Design-Build-Operate-Maintain (DBOM) Alternative Delivery Systems to Assist GDOT in Anticipation of Emerging Technologies Deployed in GDOT’s Network	Georgia Institute of Technology
5	A Decision-Making Guide to Consider the Implementation of Progressive Public-Private Partnership (Progressive P3) for Delivering GDOT’s Major Projects	Georgia Institute of Technology
6	Investigate the impact of rumble strips on motorcyclists	Georgia Institute of Technology
7	Geotechnical asset management program in the State of Georgia – Phase I	Georgia Institute of Technology
8	Updating the GDOT’s Risk-based Programmed Contingencies Through Development of a Data-Driven Decision Tree Model	Georgia Institute of Technology & Kennesaw State University
9	Repair Guidelines for Impact-damaged Bridges	Georgia Institute of Technology & Kennesaw State University
10	Roadway Runoff Impacts to Trout Streams Studies for MS4 Permit	Georgia Southern University
11	Evaluation and Monitoring of an Appropriate and Context-Sensitive Warning System for Bridge Overhead Clearance Detection	Georgia Southern University
12	Develop Localized LRFD Procedure for Driven Piles with Dynamic Analysis for Georgia Bridge Foundations	Georgia Southern University
13	Fast and Efficient Welding Inspection of Structural Steel Using Adaptive Phased Array Ultrasonic NDT	Georgia Southern University
14	Effectiveness of Automated Speed Enforcement in School Zones and Guidance for Continuous Usage in Georgia	Kennesaw State University
15	Advanced 5.9GHz Interference Resiliency for Connected Vehicle Infrastructure	Kennesaw State University
16	Sustainable Application of Quarry By-Products in Georgia	Savannah State University & Kennesaw State University
17	Coastal Flood Roadway Vulnerability Assessment	University of Georgia
18	Develop an Off-System Bridge Managers Training Program to Increase Collaboration and Access to GDOT’s Resources Including LIBP and Promote Best Practices	University of Georgia
19	Investigation of heavier-than-expected vehicle weights observed in the vicinity of the Savannah port area and their impact on Georgia’s pavements and bridges	University of Georgia
20	Measurement of cement content and layer thickness variation of cement stabilized base and subgrade using ground penetrating radar	University of Georgia & Texas A&M University
21	Safety Effectiveness of Inside Shoulder Widths on Freeways in Georgia	University of Georgia & University of Alabama

The Georgia Department of Transportation has released the list of projects selected from the Fall 2021 RTAG submittals. Congratulations to the selected projects! Thanks to everyone who submitted a Research Needs Statement (RNS). The research community was highly engaged, with approximately 78 submitted needs statements. GDOT research staff is currently contacting the project PIs and setting up the next steps in the process.

The opening of the Fall 2022 RTAG RNS call will be announced later this year. Announcements will be distributed through the GTI mailing list and GTI website.

Please feel free to contact Supriya Kamatkar(skamatkar@dot.ga.gov) if you have any questions regarding the project selection process or Michael Hunter (michael.hunter@ce.gatech.edu) if you have any questions regarding GTI.

The Georgia Department of Transportation has released the list of projects selected from the Fall 2020 RTAG submittals. Congratulations to the selected projects! Thanks to everyone who submitted a Research Needs Statement (RNS). The research community was highly engaged, with approximately 95 submitted needs statements. GDOT research staff is currently contacting the project PIs and setting up the next steps in the process.

The opening of the Fall 2021 RTAG RNS call will be announced later this year. Announcements will be distributed through the GTI mailing list and GTI website.

Please feel free to contact Supriya Kamatkar(skamatkar@dot.ga.gov) if you have any questions regarding the project selection process or Michael Hunter (michael.hunter@ce.gatech.edu) if you have any questions regarding GTI.

	Project Title (Abbreviated)	Research Team
1	Strategic Prioritization in Bridge Asset Maintenance Through Data-Driven Long-Term Asset Valuation with Additional Emphasis on Promoting GDOT’s Partnerships with Counties	University of Georgia
2	Enhancing the GDOT’s Maintenance Decision Trees Considering the Effectiveness of Various Treatment Options in Different Geographical Locations and Over Time	Kennesaw State University and Georgia Institute of Technology
3	Pragmatic Precast/Prestressed Girder Acceptance Criteria	Georgia Institute of Technology and Kennesaw State University
4	Practical Assessment of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) Techniques for on-site Application on GDOT Construction Projects	Georgia Southern University
5	Effective Management and Emerging Best Practices of Geotechnical and Utilities Risks in Alternative Delivery	Georgia Institute of Technology
6	Improving sales tax forecasting for the Georgia Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST)	Georgia State University
7	Study on Spectrum Options for GDOT’s Connected Vehicle Infrastructure	Georgia Southern University
8	Non-Motorized Count Program and Risk Factors Assessment	Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University

The Georgia Department of Transportation has released the list of projects selected from the Fall 2019 RTAG submittals. Congratulations to the selected projects! Thanks to everyone who submitted a Research Needs Statement (RNS). The research community was highly engaged, with approximately 89 submitted needs statements.  GDOT research staff is currently contacting the project PIs and setting up the next steps in the process.

The opening of the Fall 2020 RTAG RNS call will be announced later this year.  Announcements will be distributed through the GTI mailing list and GTI website.   

Please feel free to contact Supriya Kamatkar (skamatkar@dot.ga.gov) if you have any questions regarding the project selection process or Michael Hunter (michael.hunter@ce.gatech.edu) if you have any questions regarding GTI.

	Project Title (Abbreviated)	Research Team
1	Development of Drone-Assisted Highway Mowing Operations Planning, Monitoring, and Verification Capabilities	Georgia Institute of Technology
2	Development of Drone-Assisted Pavement Profile Mapping: Near-Surface Void Detection Application	Georgia Institute of Technology
3	Towards the Implementation of a Geotechnical Asset Management Program in the State of Georgia	Georgia Institute of Technology
4	Incorporating Resilience Considerations in Transportation Planning, TSMO and Asset Management	Georgia Institute of Technology
5	Community-Augmented Rapid-response to Events (CARE) Integrated Crisis Communication System	Georgia Institute of Technology
6	Guidelines for Incorporation of Cement Stabilized Reclaimed Base (CSRB) in Pavement Design	Kennesaw State University
7	Recommendations for Nondestructive Testing (NDT) of Concrete Components for Performance-Based Specifications	Georgia Institute of Technology
8	Development of Training Modules to Increase Usage and Understanding of Agency-Wide Software Programs	University of Georgia and Georgia Institute of Technology
9	Enhancing the Accuracy of Construction Cost Estimates for Major Lump Sum (LS) Pay Items and Generating a More-Accurate List of Pay Items Throughout the Design Development Process	Georgia Institute of Technology
10	Recommendations for Extension in Service Life of ASR-Affected Concrete	Georgia Institute of Technology
11	Recommendations for Future Specifications to Ensure Durable Next Generation Concrete	Georgia Institute of Technology
12	Tacit Knowledge Model to Support Knowledge Capture and Transfer in GDOT	Kennesaw State University
13	A Forecast of State Motor Fuel Revenues: The Effect of New Technologies and the State Vehicle Fleet Mix on Georgia Motor Fuel Receipts	Georgia State University

The Georgia Transportation Institute welcomes Dr. Andrew L. Dannenberg to speak at the Spring 2020 Transportation Speaker series webinar. He is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, and in the Department of Urban Design and Planning, College of Built Environments, at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he teaches courses on healthy community design and on health impact assessment. Among other activities, he serves as a member of the Health and Transportation Subcommittee of the Transportation Research Board and as a member of the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board. Previously, he served as Team Leader of the Healthy Community Design Initiative at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. For the past two decades, his research and teaching has focused on examining the health and equity aspects of community design including land use, transportation, urban planning, architecture, and other issues related to the built environment. He has a particular interest in the use of a health impact assessment as a tool to inform community planners about the health consequences of their decisions. He has worked in public health for over 35 years, including conducting research in cardiovascular epidemiology at the National Institutes of Health and in injury prevention at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Dr. Dannenberg is the lead author, with Howard Frumkin and Richard Jackson, of the book Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-being, and Sustainability (http://www.makinghealthyplaces.com).

Title: Emerging Issues in Transportation and Health Research: Highlights of the New NCHRP Research Roadmap for Transportation and Public Health

Abstract:

Dr. Andrew Dannenberg of the University of Washington will present highlights of the recently published TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program’s NCHRP Research Report 932: A Research Roadmap for Transportation and Public Health (http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/179959.aspx). Written by a team at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, this report was developed to support the increasing interest in the links between transportation and health both in state and local transportation agencies and in the academic transportation community. Dr. Dannenberg served on the TRB NCHRP oversight panel for this report which describes key opportunities and challenges associated with transportation and health, indicates why they are important to transportation agencies, identifies gaps in knowledge and practice, and outlines specific research projects needed to address these gaps.

The Georgia Transportation Institute welcomes Commissioner Josh Rowan to speak at the Spring 2020 Transportation Speaker series. He is the Commissioner of Atlanta’s Department of Transportation (ATLDOT) formed to significantly accelerate and diversify projects with better options for getting around Atlanta safely, affordably and equitably.
Born Texan, raised New Mexican, and lived his adult life as a Georgian, Josh attended Covenant College (Lookout Mountain, GA) as a basketball walk-on, earning a scholarship before transferring to the Georgia Institution of Technology (Georgia Tech).
Graduating with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, Josh remained in Atlanta and spent the first five years of his career working with a local highway contractor. There, he learned the road-building business from multiple perspectives – laborer, foreman, estimator, and project manager. Later, as a consultant in Cobb County, Josh was introduced to the management of large capital construction programs. For nearly two decades, Josh has worked in the public sector as a program manager for transportation, transit, education, healthcare, and law enforcement capital construction programs throughout the eastern United States, as well as Mozambique and Tanzania. Most recently, he served as General Manager for the City of Atlanta’s Renew | TSPLOST Program.
Josh is a member of Leadership Atlanta Class of 2012, Leadership Cobb Class of 2013, and Regional Leadership Institute Class of 2018. Of all his achievements, knowledge, and experience, these are, without a doubt, the classes that mattered most.
Throughout his career, Josh has been actively engaged in the Atlanta community, serving for a decade as a reserve deputy in Cobb County. He is currently a board member for Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta and the Construction Infrastructure Systems Engineering Board at Georgia Tech. In addition, he is an emeritus member for Georgia Tech’s External Advisory Board for the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He also mentors for the 100 Men to Mentors Challenge and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta.
Josh is a member of the Alliance Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu team, where he is a purple belt and trains under professor Leonardo Nogueira. He serves on the vestry at Village Church, a local Anglican congregation. He and his wife, Nancy Ladson Rowan, have four children – John, Dorothy, Ed, and Josie, who range in age from 2 to 18.

Title: Delivering Atlanta’s Transportation Future

Abstract:

Our vision for the newly created Atlanta Department of Transportation includes 4 key components. First, we are the path to a safe, welcoming, and inclusive City that is committed to ending traffic fatalities through an improved understanding of our streets. We will continue to develop thriving neighborhoods, communities, and businesses that everyone can reach with a 21st-century transit network. This will include well-maintained roads to keep both people and goods moving efficiently on our streets. City of Atlanta has world-class employees, infrastructure, and services that reflect a diverse and talented workforce, making ATLDOT a great place to work and ensuring that our infrastructure – from signals to street lights – are always in good repair. Lastly, an ethical, transparent, and fiscally responsible government that articulates clear policy priorities for our region; communicates early and often with residents, and delivers projects as effectively and efficiently as possible.

The Georgia Transportation Institute welcomes Dr. Yafeng Yin to speak at the Spring 2020 Transportation Speaker series. He is a Professor at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He works in the area of transportation systems analysis and modeling, and has published more than 100 refereed papers in leading academic journals. Dr. Yin is the Editor-in-Chief of Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, Department Editor of Service Science, and Associate Editor of Transportation Science. He also serves on the International Advisory Committee of the International Symposium of Transportation and Traffic Theory (ISTTT). Dr. Yin received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, Japan in 2002, his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 1996 and 1994 respectively. Prior to his current appointment at the University of Michigan, he was a faculty member at University of Florida between 2005 and 2016, a postdoctoral researcher and then assistant research engineer at University of California at Berkeley between 2002 and 2005. Between 1996 and 1999, he was a lecturer at Tsinghua University. Dr. Yin has received recognition from different institutions, including a Doctoral Mentoring Award from University of Florida, Outstanding Leadership Award by the Chinese Overseas Transportation Association (COTA), and the Stella Dafermos Best Paper Award and the Ryuichi Kitamura Paper Award from Transportation Research Board.

Title: On the Empty Miles in Ride-hailing Systems

Abstract:

Ride-hailing services provided by companies like Uber, Lyft and Didi Chuxing are playing an increasingly important role in meeting mobility needs in many metropolitan areas. Other than delivering passengers from their origin to destination, ride-hailing vehicles generate massive vacant or empty trips from the end of one passenger trip to the start of the next. These vacant trips represent unproductive use of labor supply. They also contribute additional traffic demand and may worsen the traffic conditions in urban networks. In this talk, we will discuss the causes of empty miles in the ride-hailing systems, and introduce the modeling of ride-hailing services to estimate empty miles and capture their impacts on traffic congestion, and then explore countermeasures to reduce empty miles in the systems.

The Georgia Transportation Institute welcomes Dr. Laurie Garrow to speak at the Spring 2020 Transportation Speaker series. She is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Associate Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Air Mobility (CURAM) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Garrow has published articles on airline passengers’ behavior, discrete choice methods, and travel demand modeling. She is the author of a text entitled Discrete Choice Models of Air Travel Demand: Theory and Application. Among her leadership Dr. Garrow currently serves on the Board of Directors for two organizations: INFORMS and AGIFORS. She has previously served as President of the Transportation Science and Logistics Society of INFORMS and as Chair of the Aviation Applications Section of INFORMS. Dr. Garrow is the recipient of the ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Prize, the CUTC-ARTBA New Faculty Member Award, and an NSF CAREER award. Dr. Garrow has five years of industry experience, including four years as an analyst in the Research and Development Revenue Management Group of United Airlines and one year as an analyst in the Customer Science Unit of Mercer Management Consulting.

If you missed the presentation or want to rewatch or share it, the YouTube link is provided below. You can also review the final report.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/5tf6BtwA2z0

Final Report: http://garrowlab.ce.gatech.edu

Title: How National Urbanization Trends Will Affect Rural Transit Funding and “Trending Urban” Transit Systems in Georgia and the Nation after the 2020 Census

Abstract:

In the U.S., there are two main sources of transit funding administered by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). The amount of FTA funding a transit agency receives depends, in part, on whether the agency serves an area that is designated as rural, small urban, or large urban. These designations are defined using the most recent decennial census. Between 2000 and 2010, the percentage of the U.S. population residing in urban areas increased by over 12%. Population forecasts suggest these trends will continue and will be reflected in the 2020 decennial census. In this presentation, we examine how spatial and temporal changes in the U.S. population will impact funding for transit systems in the U.S. after the 2020 decennial census. We use binary logic models and geographic information system (GIS) methods to predict spatial and temporal population changes between 2010 and 2020 and identify which areas of the U.S. will be classified as rural, small urban, or large urban after 2020. We then use this information to forecast funding requirements for the FTA § 5311 and FTA § 5307 programs after the 2020 decennial census and to identify rural areas that could become enveloped into large areas after the 2020 decennial census. The latter is important because rural transit agencies that shift to large urban areas after the 2020 decennial census will lose their ability to use federal funding for operating expenses for two years due to the “100 bus rule.” Results show that amount of additional funding needed for the FTA § 5307 small urban will be $344M–$411M, representing a 28%–33% increase over current levels.

The Georgia Transportation Institute welcomes Dr. Laurie Garrow to speak at the Fall 2019 Transportation Speaker series. She is currently a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Associate Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Air Mobility (CURAM) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Garrow has published articles on airline passengers’ behavior, discrete choice methods, and travel demand modeling. She is the author of a text entitled Discrete Choice Models of Air Travel Demand: Theory and Application. Among her leadership Dr. Garrow currently serves on the Board of Directors for two organizations: INFORMS and AGIFORS. She has previously served as President of the Transportation Science and Logistics Society of INFORMS and as Chair of the Aviation Applications Section of INFORMS. Dr. Garrow is the recipient of the ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Prize, the CUTC-ARTBA New Faculty Member Award, and an NSF CAREER award. Dr. Garrow has five years of industry experience, including four years as an analyst in the Research and Development Revenue Management Group of United Airlines and one year as an analyst in the Customer Science Unit of Mercer Management Consulting.

The Georgia Transportation Institute welcomes Liz York to speak at the Fall 2019 Transportation Speaker series. She currently serves as Senior Advisor for Buildings and Facilities for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is a registered architect, and holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Architecture, both from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In her 20 years at CDC, she has been a link between public health scientists and facility management experts and has facilitated cross-sector collaborations that improve the health of our food system, our communities and our building by developing cross sector tools like FITWEL. Liz has received two White House awards for Sustainability, been named to the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Sustainability Who’s Who, and has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects as a Fellow for her work to impact health and well-being by empowering architects to build better environments.