Katie Johnson

Performing maintenance activities at night offers a number of advantages, such as cooler air temperatures, less traffic and fewer overall crashes. However, sufficiently lighting a work zone without distracting or impairing passing drivers can be a challenge.

To determine the appropriate amount of lighting and other strategies for a work zone, the Indiana Department of Transportation and Purdue University conducted a glare assessment using a variety of lighting types, intensities and configurations.

Read the report and its recommendations: Workzone Lighting and Glare on Nighttime Construction and Maintenance Activities, June 2022

Image source: Joint Transportation Research Program

Granular and unpaved road maintenance can require a significant investment in both time and resources.

In search of an economical and environmentally friendly way to keep the aggregates on its unpaved roads in place, the Iowa Department of Transportation sought to learn whether locally produced quarry fines – typically considered a waste product of the quarrying process – could be a viable option.

The agency constructed test sections and compared five types of fines over several seasonal freeze-thaw cycles. The results will give local road managers greater options as they consider a road’s needs and their agency’s maintenance budget.

Read the two-page brief: Recycled Quarry Byproducts May Help Iowa’s Unpaved Roads Last Longer and Perform Better, August 2022

Image source: Iowa DOT  

While roads and bridges often receive the greater part of an agency’s maintenance budget, other assets – like culverts, guardrails, impact attenuators and pavement stripes – also need routine maintenance that can benefit from data-backed decisions.

To better understand the costs and benefits of collecting and maintaining data for any asset it owns, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development initiated a research project to develop a methodology and tool to make tracking costs and quantifying benefits easier.

Read the two-page technical summary: Determining the True Cost and Benefit for Collecting and Maintaining Non-Road and Non-Bridge Asset Data, April 2022

Image source: Ohio Department of Transportation

As rising sea levels and extreme weather events increase the likelihood and severity of storms, coastal highways and other infrastructure are at increased risk of landslides and erosion.

To improve its coastal asset management program, the Oregon Department of Transportation developed a data-driven framework to measure and analyze key indicators associated with slope and cliff failure. The results will help the agency identify short- and long-term maintenance needs and prioritize its resources more effectively.

Read the interim report: Coastal Landslide and Sea Cliff Retreat Monitoring for Climate Change Adaptation and Targeted Risk Assessment, June 2022.

Transportation agencies routinely monitor and inspect bridges to respond to immediate needs and to prioritize maintenance activities. For critical infrastructure or bridges in earthquake-prone locations, structural health monitoring (SHM) systems can be installed at key locations to measure a variety of indicators and alert authorities of potential problems in real time.

The Nevada Department of Transportation recently installed two SHMs on the largest bridge in the state. Sensors on and around the structure, combined with smart software, will provide a comprehensive report in the event of an earthquake. For maintenance staff, an extra benefit of the system may be the ability to more cost-effectively schedule and target routine maintenance on the bridge.

Read the final report: Galena Creek Bridge Health Monitoring Instrumentation, June 2022.

Image source: Nevada Department of Transportation