KINGSTON, R.I. — June 20, 2018 — The University of Rhode Island will partner with five other New England universities to form a regional transportation research center, named the Transportation Infrastructure Durability Center.
With the University of Maine as the lead institution, the center will receive up to $14.2 million over the next five years from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The other consortium members are the University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Western New England University and the University of Vermont.
In the first year of the grant, the federal transportation department will provide $2.6 million. The Rhode Island Transportation Research Center at URI will receive at least $250,000, with an opportunity to seek additional funding.
Some of the research areas in which URI professors are likely to request funding are:
- Recycling and infrastructure asset management
- Reduction of transportation system greenhouse gas emissions
- Energy harvesting and advanced technologies
- New materials that are environmentally-friendly
- Planning and construction, with consideration given to longevity and the environment.
According to K. Wayne Lee, who is the Rhode Island center’s director and a professor in URI’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UMaine will receive $1 million in the first year as the lead institution, Western New England will receive $62,500, the other four schools $250,000 each, and the remaining money will be allocated to any of the six universities based on proposed research projects.
Besides Lee, other URI professors listed in the award as principal investigators or co-principal investigators are Chris Hunter and Natacha Thomas in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Michael Greenfield in the Department of Chemical Engineering; Farhad Atash in the Department of Landscape Architecture; and Sze Cheng Yang in the Department of Chemistry.
“We have researchers at URI with significant experience when it comes to extending the life of transportation infrastructure,” Lee said. “We intend to examine the means for enhancing pavement sustainability by addressing its core dimensions of mobility, longevity, environmental preservation and energy sustainability.”
“This regional center will provide a new opportunity to expand the imaginative work that has already been conducted by our groups at URI,” Greenfield said.
The federal program began in 1987 with the purpose of advancing transportation research and technology. Every five or six years, academic institutions nationwide compete to form their region’s center. This is the first time since 1992, that an institution other than the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been chosen as the Center for Region 1, which encompasses the New England states.