Research

The primary goal of this proposal is to use non-contact 3D scanning technology and AI for assisting in the inspection and maintenance procedures for deck timbers and rails on open-deck bridges.

The proposed research is a pilot project targeting a virtual open-deck bridge. Upon successful implementation, NJT will b…

The primary goal of this proposal is to develop a bio-mediated technique that would enable enzyme induced calcite precipitation (EICP) under varying temperatures to improve the physical properties of soil embankment and mitigate coastal erosion in the State of New Jersey.

The intended outcome of the project is a f…

The primary goal of this proposal is to investigate the use of steel wool in concrete to increase its crack resistance (fracture toughness and flexural strength) and enable durable, crack-free bridges. Unlike the majority of research efforts that have focused on higher compressive strength (common ultra-high performance …

The primary goal of this proposal is to develop modeling approaches for the beneficial use of raw and stabilized sediments in engineering applications. First, a robust material characterization and strength laboratory testing program will be performed on specimens of raw and stabilized dredged sediments. These results wi…

The primary goal of this proposal is to evaluate the potential release and detection of micro-plastics from hot mix asphalt modified with recycled plastic modifiers.

The intended outcome of the project is to provide a testing method that can help the asphalt industry identify when a potential for the release of mi…

Transportation agencies have been rapidly deploying emerging concrete materials to improve the sustainability and durability of reinforced concrete infrastructure. This project will focus on the chloride penetration behavior of several novel concrete materials in comparison to baseline ordinary portland cement concrete m…

Concrete is responsible for about 8.6% of the world’s CO2 emissions, despite the production of concrete having a relatively low carbon intensity compared to other building materials. The excessive release of CO2 from concrete is due to the vast quantities of the material produced each year. The goal of the proposed wor…

The primary goal of this proposal is to evaluate the compatibility of different plastics within asphalt and evaluate the resultant asphalt binder and mixture performance of the plastic-modified material.

The intended outcome of the project is to develop a new material that would provide both a structural material …

The primary goal of this proposal is to develop a simple to use tool that would allow local agencies to develop a mechanistic-empirical design for lower volume (<1,000 vpd) highways. The primary focus would be on pavement overlays and rehabilitation. The current tools available use older empirical-only meth…

The overall goal of this study is to determine the most optimal time to apply pavement preservation treatments. Researchers will conduct full-scale accelerated pavement testing and performance evaluation. They also will examine different pavement alternatives, conducting comprehensive performance evaluations i…

Major tunnel fires can lead to catastrophic events potentially resulting in the loss of lives, property damage, long service disruptions, and major socioeconomic impacts. A number of previous historical events confirm that tunnel fires may not necessarily cause collapse, but significant damage to the tunnel lining and lo…

The primary goal of this proposal is to analyze pedestrian bridges that were damaged or collapsed during Hurricane Maria. The specific objectives of the project are:

• Develop an inventory of pedestrian bridges that were damaged or collapsed due to the hurricane and document the type of failures exp…
  

The primary goal of this project is to analyze motor vehicle bridges that were damaged or collapsed during Hurricane Maria. The specific objectives of the project are:

• develop an inventory of bridges that experienced damages or collapsed
• determine the causes of failu…
  

Current asphalt design procedures are solely based on volumetric principles and lack a valid methodology to ensure performance of the asphalt mixture considered during design.  This research focuses on a state of the art practice called Balanced Mixture Design (BMD), where the gradation and optimum asphalt content are n…

The use of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) in new concrete can help to reduce landfilling, improve economics of concrete, and supplement dwindling aggregate supplies in urban areas. The NYCDOT has calculated that they spend $1.45 million/year to dispose of demolished concrete, and has invested in crushing units to pro…

The NYSDOT Seismic Vulnerability Manual provides the procedures for assessing and rating the seismic vulnerability of bridges in NYS to facilitate timely corrective actions. However, these procedures rely on prescriptive vulnerability scores based on as-built conditions and do not systematically account for the bridge de…

Rapid-repair cements are important to extending the life of infrastructure. Damage occurs to concrete systems because of poor construction quality, accidents, severe environmental conditions, and general wear and tear. Using rapid-repair materials allows agencies to repair the infrastructure without causing un…

The primary goal of this project is to understand the combined impact of corrosion and earthquake hazards on existing bridges, and the impact of repairs using cementitious composites on the vulnerability of bridges to these hazards. This will be achieved by establishing a probabilistic framework that can then be used to …

Recent issues regarding lead in urban drinking water system have arisen. Specifically, the water distribution system in Newark, NJ has attracted a great deal of attention prompting the City and State DEP to conduct widespread testing and even distribution of water treatment devices and bottled water. The water distributi…

This project seeks to determine if Solidification and Stabilization (S/S) is a viable remedial strategy for PFAS contaminated sediment. If the process is effective at the sequestration and elimination of contaminant pathways out of the stabilized matrix, then this previously harmful material can be beneficially used as g…

Robots are emerging force in some of the most challenging working environments. Whether they are flying drones or climbing robots, rigid machinery systems or soft robots made from flexible organic materials, their mix of mobility, strength, and configurability poises them to revolutionize the field of infrastructure main…

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the long-term performance of projects in which stabilized dredged materials have been used to augment and/or replace borrowed materials – “beneficial-use applications”. The study focuses on the performance of a limited number of signature projects in NJ,…

The goal of this research project is to validate and provide a basis to improve and refine a novel de-icing system for stay-cables. This autonomous de-icing system shows significant potential to cost-effectively remove ice build-up without damaging the protective system of the underlying stay-cable. However, currently th…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Overlay Tester using field cores from a recently completed FHWA accelerated loading facility (ALF) fatigue cracking study. The study comprised of 10 different lanes, each produced to the same target volumetrics, but with varied recycled asphalt contents, base asphal…

The public desires less disruption to highway services in addition to cheaper and more aesthetically pleasing structures. To meet these needs, engineers are continuously pushing the limits of current designs. One way to decrease the costs of an expensive structure is to limit the number of supports, provide longer span l…

Pervious concrete has been increasing in popularity as a potential solution to reduce the amount of impermeable surface area associated with sidewalks, reduce puddling, and potentially slow storm water surface high-flow rates. As important as these benefits are to surface runoff mitigation, there are concerns with the ab…

The goal of this proposed research is to test the hypothesis that biochar is a rechargeable “geo-battery” that can promote microbial nitrate removal from stormwater.  This hypothesis is based on our recent laboratory and field results, as outlined below.

In a recently completed CAIT-fund…

The geosynthetic reinforced soil integrated bridge system (GRS-IBS) is an innovative alternative to conventional bridge technology that utilizes closely spaced layers of geosynthetic reinforcement and compacted granular fill material to provide direct bearing support for structural bridge members. Using this technology, …

This study demonstrated that epoxy coated and galvanized WWR affects mechanical properties along with the known enhanced corrosion resistance.

Tensile tests were performed on a total of 108 wire samples and 18 hot rolled reinforcement samples. These samples consisted of black (non-coated), epoxy coated, and galvan…

The current specifications encourage the use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and as much as possible recycled materials in portland cement concrete. The use of SCMs, especially along with low water-to-cementitious material ratio, low total cementitious material content and cements with a low C3A content an…

Reports indicate that humanity discharges 43 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide annually. This discharge is 25% greater than just a decade ago (Lehmann & Joseph 2015). Studies indicate that converting forestry and agricultural waste into biochar could remove 4 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide each year (Lehmann & Joseph 20…

The goal of this research is to develop useful geotextiles from a sustainable, cheap input source — waste stream apparel and textiles. The anticipated outcomes of this research are identification of transit applications for geotextiles that have lower installation and removal costs and hence reduced life cycle cost…

Through funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), we recently constructed and instrumented a section of highway roadway soils at the intersection of state route 896 and Bethel Church Road in Summit Bridge, DE. One stretch of roadway soils was amended with biochar, while an adjacent control section wa…

Resilience: “The ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events” Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative

While there are many definitions of resilience and almost as many measures of resilience, operationalizing the concept to be useful in decision makin…

The main goal of this study is to evaluate the behavior of the base materials with different gradations (percentages of fines) and moisture contents for the construction of pavements. In order to understand the effects of variation of gradation on the performance of the pavement systems, and hence, to achieve the main go…

A 48 year old prestressed double tee girder bridge located on Icy Springs road in Coalville, Utah, was tested for live load. The test measured strains, deflections and rotations. The instruments used for measuring the respective measurements were strain gages, deflectometers (“twangers”) and…

CAIT anticipates completion of an innovative, full scale load testing laboratory for evaluation of new and advanced materials and devices. This instrument will allow, for the first time, the scientific study of deterioration processes on full-scale bridges. While the merits of the equipment are well documented, until rec…

The primary objectives are two develop two formulations, one suitable for casting slabs with least amount of creep and shrinkage and eliminate cracking due to restrained time-dependent strains and the second for specialized uses in grouting and gluing for pre-cast construction. The first part of the research will utilize…

Harvesting energy from pavements by piezoelectricity is a new research field with opportunities and challenges. Although the harvested energy could be at small-scale, it can be used for a wide range of applications in transportation system such as lighting, snow melting, and traffic signal control in addition to direct e…

This study is an initial forecast into the potential impact that 3D printing will have, and as such, it will mainly consist of an extensive literature review and business survey.

The literature review will examine:

1) Variety of the applications of 3D printing that currently are underway, and

2) The …

Collisions between over height vehicles and bridges occur about 1,000 times per year in the United States. Collision damage to bridges can range from minor to catastrophic, potentially requiring repair or replacement of a bridge beam. For prestressed concrete beams, the traditional repair methods are strand splices and F…

This research will determine the relative merits and design philosophy of several carbon fiber shear reinforcement schemes for pretensioned, prestressed concrete girders. The primary use of carbon fiber shear reinforcement would be in bridge girders prestressed with carbon fiber prestressing strands. This is done to prov…

The primary focus of this report is to demonstrate the suitability of an inorganic polymer composite coating for transportation-related structures. This report presents the results of three field applications and evaluation of graffiti resistance including removal techniques, self-cleaning, and depollution properties.

Given the importance of overcoming the challenges associated with aging and deteriorating bridges, and the need for a full-scale proving ground for evaluation of new and advanced materials and devices, CAIT has procured full-scale load testing equipment. The Heavy Vehicle Load Simulator for Bridge Deck Testing…

Given the importance of overcoming the challenges associated with aging and deteriorating bridges, and the need for a full-scale proving ground for evaluation of new and advanced materials and devices, CAIT has procured full-scale load testing equipment. The Heavy Vehicle Load Simulator for Bridge Deck Testing…

The scope of the study is to evaluate the laboratory performance of two asphalt mixtures; one modified with SBS polymer and the second modified with a polymer from Honeywell. Both asphalt binder and mixture properties are proposed to be evaluated in the study. Laboratory asphalt mixture tests are proposed to evaluate the…

The main focus of the All States Massachusetts study will be to look at the noise levels that result from the different materials All States has designed and produced over the last ten years. Initially, the goal is to simply quantify the noise properties of the pavements in Massachusetts. Then a secondary goal after find…

The project will encompass forensic testing on extracted cores of the stone matrix asphalt rubber (SMAR) material placed on I-295. Cores were provided to the Rutgers Asphalt/Pavement Laboratory (RAPL) at CAIT via Advanced Infrastructure and Design (AID).

Performance testing on cores will determine the following vo…

The scope of the work encompassed evaluating the affect of Vestoplast on the performance of hot mix asphalt. The Vestoplast was added to a PANYNJ FAA #3 asphalt mixture with a PG64-22 asphalt binder. Two baseline mixes were also evaluated for comparisons; 1) FAA #3 with a PG64-22 and 2) FAA #3 with a PG76-22. The FAA #3 …

The objectives of this project were:

• To analyze scope of work currently performed by the NJDOT Bureau of Materials,
• To understand, based on facts available, current mission of the Bureau of Materials,
• To understand past and current  tasks performed by CAIT for NJDOT and to establish future…
  

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is currently using Waterproofing Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) to overlay their concrete bridge deck systems. The waterproofing characteristics of the mix provide a protective coating on the concrete bridge deck to protect it from future exposure to environmental condition…

The main objective of the conducted research was to evaluate 3D-Radar GPR in bridge deck condition assessment and imaging, with an emphasis on detection and characterization of corrosion induced bridge deck delamination. A broader objective of the study was to provide data for comparative evaluation of the performance of…

Center for Advanced Transportation Infrastructure (CAIT) of Rutgers University is mandated to conduct ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys to update NJDOT’s pavement management system with GPR-measured pavement layer thicknesses.

Based on the review of the GPR data currently in the pavement management system, …

Composite materials are widely used in all types industries. The requirements depend on the type of application. Ceramic composites are popular in applications where materials are expected to encounter high temperatures; such as engine components, exhaust systems and fire barriers. The low density as compared to metals m…

The objective for this study was to investigate and to perform a detailed survey of available sensors for quantification of relative humidity. The importance of relative humidity measurements becomes apparent in geotechnical applications, including in hydrogeologic characterization of contaminated sites, and creation of …

Reinforced and unreinforced elastometric bearing pads have been used for bridges in NJ for about five years. The shape of these bearings is square or rectangular and their orientation is generally in the direction of thermal movements. Although the direction of thermal movement for straight bridges can be reasonably pred…

Corrosion of reinforcement is a global problem that has been studied extensively. The use of good quality concrete and corrosion inhibitors seems to be an economical, effective, and logical solution, especially for new structures. A number of laboratory studies are available on the performance of various corrosion inhibi…