Restricted Research - Award List, Note/Discussion Page
Fiscal Year: 2023
1512 The University of Texas at Arlington (143400)
Principal Investigator: Maria Konsta Gdoutos,maria.konsta@uta.edu,(817) 272-2704
Total Amount of Contract, Award, or Gift (Annual before 2011): $ 2,000,000
Exceeds $250,000 (Is it flagged?): Yes
Start and End Dates: 6/1/23 - 5/31/29
Restricted Research: YES
Academic Discipline: Department of Civil Engineering
Department, Center, School, or Institute: none
Title of Contract, Award, or Gift: UTC Tier 1 "Center for Durable and Resilient Transportation Infrastructure (DuRe-Transp)"
Name of Granting or Contracting Agency/Entity:
United States Department of Transportation (USDOT)
CFDA: 20.701
Program Title: Universirty Transportation Centers
Note:
(SAM Category 1.1.1.) Deterioration of transportation infrastructure due to aging, degradation, and usage exceeding design loads and lifetimes has led to serious socio-economic setbacks associated with repair and reconstruction efforts. Portland cement concrete (PCC) is the backbone of our nation’s transportation infrastructure, thus any strategy for fixing it must intimately involve PCC. Although PCC can have a service life of more than 100 years, in practice this is atypical for a variety of reasons (e.g., material degradation and delayed repair). Extending the service life of PCC is the single-most effective mechanism for reducing life-cycle costs and other socio-economic impact on the transportation built environment. The Tier-1 UTC, Center for Durable and Resilient Transportation Infrastructure (DuRe-Trans), will focus on “Improving the durability and extending the life of transportation infrastructure”. The consortium driving the Center’s mission is comprised of a multidisciplinary team of leading researchers from five universities from across the nation who will carry out an ambitious program to revitalize the nation’s transportation infrastructure, including highways, roads, airfields, bridges, tunnels, and railways. The consortium is well-qualified to address the following strategic topics: I) Durability; II) Construction; and III) Finance. The project is divided into the following Themes: I) Inspection, Maintenance and Preservation, II) Sustainability and Longevity, III) Health Monitoring, IV) Sustainable Materials and Structures for Climate Change Mitigation, V) Advanced Materials and Technologies for Construction and Retrofit, VI) Construction Methods and Management (CMM), and VII) Innovative Revenue and Finance. The Center will lead the nation’s efforts to develop and deploy the next generation of durable concrete-based materials. The performance of these materials will be rigorously tested in both laboratory and field conditions, evaluating the materials’ exposure to various environments (e.g., marine and frost). This research will support the development of standard guidelines for formulation and deployment of the next generation of durable materials. The Center will also dedicate resources for comprehensive research on advanced structural retrofitting and repair solutions for existing infrastructure. Further, the Center will develop and implement cutting-edge, in-place and remote-sensing technologies for structural health monitoring (SHM). SHM tools will provide the ability to sense and signal damage in infrastructure elements, with suitable spatial and temporal resolution with a high degree of accuracy. Such tools will be supplemented with advanced data-driven models to perform life-cycle cost analysis, asset management, and performance characterization. These data-driven models will employ state-of-the-art artificial intelligence techniques, including those based on deep learning methods for data inference, prediction, and optimization. The DuRe-Trans Center will contribute to the development of a workforce trained in interdisciplinary scholarship in order to address the nation’s complex transportation needs. The Center will fast-track the adoption of novel and durable construction materials, the development of standards for reconstruction and retrofitting of aging infrastructure, and the improvement of infrastructure safety, economic efficiency, and service life. Such efforts will help achieve the extended service life of infrastructure, which will create quality jobs, improve communities’ resilience to natural disasters, and provide sustainable industrialization and social good.
Discussion: No discussion notes