CAIT Update, May 2019

New Jersey's conference observing National Work Zone Safety Week celebrated its 20th year in 2019 and drew more than 250 transportation professionals from construction, public works, maintenance operations, engineering, utilities, and public safety.

David Orr from the Cornell University Local Roads Program is working on a tool to help towns with low-volume rural/local roads plan and build them in keeping with the traffic loads they carry.

At 62 years and counting, the region’s longest-running asphalt pavement conference was attended by nearly 320 pros from research, transportation agencies, and private industry.

The USDOT Region 2 UTC Consortium spreads knowledge through published works, conference presentations, and other opportunities. Here are some examples of the recent activities and accomplishments of our researchers.

Civil engineering associate professor Dr. Hao Wang was named 2019 Educator of the Year by the ASCE New Jersey Section. He was selected for his research promoting sustainable transportation infrastructure and for his dedication to engineering education.

Dr. Xiang Liu was picked as one of Progressive Railroading magazine’s elite group of rising stars under 40 years old. Liu is the founder and director of the rail program at Rutgers School of Engineering, one of the few such programs in the country.

Rutgers researchers detail a potential system that can turn roads and bridges into sustainable “power plants” by harvesting the kinetic energy of vehicles using piezoelectric materials in pavement.

A study on managing risk associated with broken rails by Dr. Xiang Liu was chosen for a special issue of Transportation Research Record that collects papers from 2016–2017 that were most frequently cited and mentioned in journal articles, federal reports, and policy publications.