University of Washington

YEAR ONE RESEARCH PROJECTS: Multi-Institution Projects for 2012-13 • Project: Developing a Performance Measurement Approach to Benefit/Cost Freight Project Prioritization • PI: Ken Casavant (WSU) • Co-Investigators: Starr McMullen (OSU), Anne Goodchild (UW), Edward McCormack (UW), Eric Jessup (WSU) Current project prioritization methodologies used by DOTs often do not specifically include freight benefits of projects and they have not taken advantage of new data made available by GPS technology (instead they depend on modeled data). This project will investigate the use of performance data for the emerging freight project prioritization methodology, primarily through the investigation of minimum performance standards and ongoing performance evaluation to develop a prioritization methodology that recognizes the impact of investments on overall freight system performance. The Washington State Department of Transportation has a well-developed benefit/cost methodology for long-standing programs supporting the Legislature's policy goals for safety, preservation, environmental issues, and mobility. This project will finalize and test important methodological elements to improve freight project prioritization. It will also exploit new data sources for performance measurement, therefore addressing key weaknesses of the current approaches. GPS data will be used to evaluate current network performance (travel time and travel time reliability) against minimum performance standards. We will also investigate methods to estimate future performance using current performance data, blending it into the benefit/cost methodology currently being developed by several project team members. The project will result in cost-benefit analysis framework tool, supported by truck travel data collected from GPS devices, designed to be used by public transportation agencies in the Pacific Northwest. The project will also result in a final recommendation for a benefit/cost methodology and a set of recommendations for how WSDOT can integrate performance management (primarily GPS data based), with project prioritization process (including benefit/cost analysis) for freight projects. • Project: Inspection, Assessment, Monitoring, and Renewal Strategies for Structures on Critical Lifeline Corridors • PI: David Trejo (OSU) • Co-Investigators: Marc Eberhard (UW), Dawn Lehman (UW), Charles Roeder (UW), John Stanton (UW), Leroy Hulsey (UAF), Andre Barbosa (OSU) The Pacific Northwest (PNW) faces unique combinations of environmental hazards, including the strong potential for seismic events from the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ). The last known significant earthquake on the CSZ is believed to be in 1700. Evidence indicates that major earthquakes on the CSZ likely occur at a return period of approximately 300 years, and the next subduction event is anticipated to cause widespread damage throughout the PNW (The Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup 2005). In addition to being susceptible to earthquake damage, many infrastructure systems in the region are exposed to coastal zones or de-icing and/ or anti-icing chemicals. Exposure to these conditions result in premature deterioration (corrosion, alkali silica reactions (ASR), cracking, etc.) and often results in reduced structure capacity. Keeping critical corridors operational during and after a seismic event on the CSZ is essential to minimizing loss of life and minimizing economic impact after the quake in the State. Critical to keeping these corridors open is the continued operation of the bridges on these corridors. For this research we will perform inspections of bridges on critical corridors. In addition, the research will identify methods to assess the health of bridge structure and will identify innovative methods for repairing, rehabilitating, or replacing bridges on critical corridors. The outcome of the research will provide SHAs with efficient methods to inspect, assess, repair, rehabilitate, or replace these critical structures. 2012-2013 Annual Report 7

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