JTRP and LTAP Receive 2015 CoE Faculty Award of Excellence

Back Row Patrick Conner, Bob McCullouch, John Haddock, Darcy Bullock, Ken Bossingham, Howell Li, Steve Remias, Richard Domonkos
Front Row Celina Osborn, Debbie Horton, Bridget Brunton, Kym Pelfree, Teresa Morris, Kelley Kimm, Dean Leah Jamieson, Chris Day (not pictured, Sam Taylor, Laura Slusher, Tino Atisso)

The JTRP and LTAP team’s multidisciplinary approach is built upon strong engagement with a) the public sector transportation agencies, b) the private sector, and c) university colleagues beyond the traditional academic ranks.  Examples of activities that demonstrate initiative and innovation above and beyond the assigned duties of the team members are listed below.

Purdue Road School

• Purdue Road School attracts ~2300 attendees who choose from 150 hours of technical sessions in a wide variety of areas related to transportation.  JTRP and LTAP collaborate to plan and organize Road School and provide CEU credits to transportation professionals for these sessions. (Read More about Purdue Road School)
• Since 2011, JTRP and LTAP have collaborated with Purdue Libraries to archive Road School presentations on Purdue e-Pubs (http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/roadschool/ ).  These presentations have been downloaded over 45,000 times.

Active Traffic Signal Management

• JTRP and LTAP have collaborated on traffic signal research for the past several years with the goal of sharing information and best practices between state agencies, local agencies and industry.  Specifications developed in that joint effort were used in the procurement of over $2.1M in traffic signal systems infrastructure in Elkhart County, IN and Lafayette, IN.  These specifications have been used by many other agencies outside of Indiana.
• JTRP and LTAP collaboration on traffic signal research projects led to the development of a $550,000 Traffic Signal Systems Operation and Management Pooled Fund Study that has facilitated collaboration between state and local agencies.  Current members of that pooled fund study included: California, Chicago, Georgia, Minnesota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, FHWA, and Indiana.
• JTRP and LTAP conducted an Active Traffic Signal Management Workshop to provide a venue for federal, state and local agencies as well as manufacturers and researchers to discuss industry needs and implementation ready technologies.  Presentations from the initial workshop are archived on e-Pubs:  http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/atsmw/  This collaboration is on-going, with more outreach planned for 2015.

Mobile Concrete Laboratory

• JTRP and LTAP have collaborated with Professor Jason Weiss to develop a Mobile Concrete Laboratory.  The mobile lab is a shared facility supported jointly by industry, JTRP, and LTAP. This shared facility is being used by both INDOT and local agencies to obtain data from internal curing and high early strength patching projects.

Local Public Agency

• JTRP initiated a project entitled “Local Public Agency (LPA) Process Improvement” to review the program’s existing training, standards, process, and other practices with the objective of accelerating the project development and delivery time of local road improvement projects.  At the request of JTRP, LTAP has provided input to the project.

Chip Seal Curing

• JTRP has funded a project aimed at improving chip seal technology used on lower volume roads. The results of the research will be applicable to both INDOT and local public agencies. Professor Haddock, LTAP Director is directing the research in cooperation with Professor Jason Weiss.