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Center for Infrastructure Renewal

Texas A&M University

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UTC Awards

CIR labs to be utilized for upcoming UTC research, Dr. Jeffrey Bullard named PI

July 25, 2023 by Katie Carroll

Dr. Jeffrey Bullard, Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering and a preeminent researcher in Infrastructure Materials at CIR is the lead PI from TEES and TAMU on a new University Transportation Center (UTC), “Innovative Bridge Technologies & Accelerated Bridge Construction.” This is one of the eight UTC’s that the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced grant awards for the 2022-2026 Program. Florida International University (FIU) leads the IBT/ABC UTC. Along with TEES, UTC partners include Florida A&M University, University of Georgia, University of Nevada Reno, University of Oklahoma, and University of Washington.

The need for this UTC focused on IBT/ABC is evident when considering the current state of our nations’ bridges. According to the ASCE’s 2021 Infrastructure Report Card, the nation’s bridge score was a C, and 42% of all bridges are at least 50 years old, with the average age being 44 years old. In addition, 7.5% of all bridges are considered structurally deficient, meaning they are in “poor” condition. According to the FIU’s ABC UTC website, the mission of the IBT/ABC UTC is “to reduce the societal costs of bridge construction by reducing the duration of work zones, focusing special attention on preservation, service life, construction costs, education of the profession, safety and development of a next-generation workforce fully equipped with IBT/ABC knowledge.”

According to the ASCE’s 2021 Infrastructure Report Card, the nation’s bridge score was a C.

“Our nation’s bridges greatly need more durable and sustainable construction materials, more efficient construction and repair methods, and more effective asset management practices. I expect this UTC to help meet all three of those needs,” says Dr. Bullard. He believes that the UTC’s mission and those needs closely aligned with the resources we have to offer here at the CIR and TAMU. “Our universities and lead investigators have a wealth of resources and backgrounds in these research areas and have already demonstrated the kind of teamwork and leadership required to meet these goals.”

Research, education, workforce development and technology transfer are also some of the UTC’s main objectives. A noteworthy tactic they implement is their development and national distribution of K-12 educational material related to bridge engineering to educate and attract future generations to transportation and sustainability engineering fields. Dr. Bullard notes that the UTC gives a similar, more in depth opportunity to TAMU graduate students as well. He states that “this UTC provides an opportunity to infuse our graduate students with a sense of the excitement and urgency of being at the forefront of nationwide efforts to modernize bridge engineering practices. These students are our country’s future engineering leaders, and they will need that combination of forward-thinking creativity and pragmatic construction practice expertise that this UTC will foster.”

One way to combat the poor conditions of the nation’s bridges is to develop materials that can reach longer lives while still maintaining high performance throughout their use. Texas A&M’s focus on this UTC will be just that. Dr. Bullard and his team will be researching the “development of low-carbon concrete materials for bridges and on enabling ultrahigh performance concrete for additive manufacturing of bridge components” and he says that the CIR has “one of the nation’s best collections of laboratories for developing, processing, and characterizing these kinds of materials.”

CIR Concrete Innovation Lab, Concrete testing

Dr. Anand Puppala, Director of CIR, is delighted to see this UTC research being conducted the CIR. “This IBT/ABC UTC is one of the five major UTCs that work on infrastructure track at CIR,” he says, “I greatly appreciate the efforts by Professor Bullard in bringing this important bridge infrastructure center with focus on materials to CIR.” The CIR’s Laboratory for Advanced Characterization of Infrastructure Materials (ACIM) and the Concrete Innovation Laboratory will be two of the labs utilized for the UTC at Texas A&M. These labs feature high-precision equipment for investigating materials’ thermal and kinetic properties as well as monitoring their response to controlled environmental variables like temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide partial pressure in the atmosphere.

For more information regarding this UTC at FIU, click here.

For a list of all the affiliated UTC’s in the 2022-2026 Program, click here.

For more information regarding the ACIM & Concrete Innovation Labs please visit cir.tamu.edu

Filed Under: News Tagged With: ACIM, Advanced Characterization of Infrastructure Materials Lab, bridge, CIR, Concrete Innovation Lab, FIU, IBT ABC, Jeffrey Bullard, UTC, UTC Awards

Texas A&M partners with Prairie View A&M to lead national transportation center

April 20, 2023 by Pamela Mize

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (KBTX) -Prairie View A&M University has been selected as the first historically Black college or university (HBCU) to lead a competitively awarded national-tier University Transportation Center by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The National Center for Infrastructure Transformation at Prairie View will focus on improving the durability and extending the life of transportation infrastructure through its research, education, and technology transfer programs.

Prairie View A&M University will lead the National Center for Infrastructure Transformation as part of a consortium that includes several members of The Texas A&M University System, including Texas A&M University, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station. Other partnering institutions include Arizona State University, Michigan State University, Rutgers University, and Blinn College.

During a special ceremony Monday at the Willie A Tempton, Sr. Memorial Student Center on the campus of Prairie View A&M Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp announced the $2.5 million commitment from A&M System.

Chancellor Sharp says the investment made by the Texas A&M University System is a sign of the trust that the system has in the leadership of Prairie View A&M University and its partnership with the A&M System.

“This historic first for Prairie View A&M University shows the power of its partnership with the A&M System, which made this success possible,” said Sharp. “Prairie View A&M University’s alliance with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and Texas A&M University is an example of how this kind of collaboration makes it possible for us to compete against the best research institutions in the country and win.”

The National Center for Infrastructure Transformation at Prairie View will receive $4 million per year for the next five years and is one of only five awarded national-tier centers. Its focus will be on practical research to improve the durability and resilience of the nation’s transportation infrastructure for the next century. The Texas A&M System’s contribution will support the administration of NCIT, as well as its programs in education and technology transfer, freeing up more assets to pursue research in better ways to design, construct, and maintain transportation infrastructure.

“Today I stand before you as one of five center directors responsible for leading a national university transportation center for the next five years. The newly awarded National Transportation Center to Prairie View A&M University is unequivocally a historic achievement. Per my discussion with the Office of Sponsor program, this is the largest competitive award that Prairie View has received. So how did this occur? It was through the invisible but divine hands that brought all the right people together to develop a proposal document built on three key elements, and they were innovation, intentional, and unique. Innovation. Given the infrastructure, investment, and job acts, historic investment in American infrastructure, we would have to be about the business of describing how we would change and lead change regarding the statutory research priority to improve the durability at extending the life of the trans transportation infrastructure intentional, the message had to be clear to anyone reading the document that our commitment to leading change was deliberate regarding the projects and programs listed under the categories of research, education and workforce development and technology transfer and collaboration.”

 Dr. Judy Perkins, director of the National Center for Infrastructure Transportation at Prairie View A&M University.

“For 147 years, Prairie View A&M University has, as a part of its mission, been dedicated to achieving excellence and relevance in teaching, research, and service. Today’s announcement that Prairie View A&M University, the first HBCU in the nation will lead one of five national university transportation centers of infrastructure Transformation Insight, that’s a great acronym, demonstrates that Prairie View is an institution of the first class and is committed to realizing its historic mission.

This National Transportation Center will display to the World Prairie View A&M University’s long-held transportation research expertise, and the combined research capacity and capability of the Texas A&M University System.”

Michael McFrazier, Acting President, Prairie View A&M University

This selection of Prairie View A&M University as the first HBCU to lead a competitively awarded national-tier University Transportation Center is a significant milestone for the university, the Texas A&M University System, and the field of transportation infrastructure. It underscores the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in research, innovation, and leadership.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Anand Puppala, centerforinfrastructurerenewal, engineering, Prairie View A&M, TAMU, Texas Transportation Institute, UTC Awards

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