Intelligent Compaction and Infrared Scanning Field Projects with Consulting Support

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) was awarded a grant from the FHWA Accelerated Innovation Deployment (AID) program, in 2016. MoDOT provided the required matching funds to support this Intelligent Compaction (IC) and Infrared Scanning (IR) Field Projects with Consulting Support in 2017. The consulting support was provided by the Transtec Group (Consultant) and includes the development MoDOT IC-IR Protocol and training materials, conducting IC-IR training, on-site technical support to IC-IR field projects, data analysis, and reports of IC-IR field data. The original IC-IR project included 10 field projects.  Additional MoDOT funding was later added to support three additional IC-IR projects, making a total of 13 field projects. This document is the final report summarizing the two combined projects including field test results, lessons-learned and recommendations.

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Report number: cmr18-003
Published: February 2018
Project number: TR201716

Authors: George Chang, Kiran Mohanraj, and David Merritt (Transtec Group); Victor (Lee) Gallivan (Gallivan Consulting, Inc.)

Performing organization: The Transtec Group, Inc.

Evaluation of Automated Flagger Assistance Devices

Automated flagger assistance devices (AFADs) are designed to improve worker safety by replacing flaggers who are typically located near traffic approaching a work zone. In this study, a new AFAD developed by the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) was evaluated via a combined driving simulator and field study. The MoDOT AFAD configuration conformed to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and involved STOP/SLOW paddles, red/yellow lights, and a changeable message sign (CMS). This AFAD was incorporated onto a truck-mounted attenuator for operator protection. Driver behavior measures, including approach speed, initial braking location, full stop distance, reaction time, and intervention rate, were used to measure the effectiveness of AFAD as compared to a human flagger. In the field study, the AFAD induced slower vehicle approach speeds (4.20 mph less), stopped vehicles farther back (11.4 feet), and released traffic quicker (1.3 seconds less) than flaggers. In the driving simulator study, the AFAD and its alternative designs significantly reduced average approach speeds (7.7 to 8.9 mph) and increased the distance at which the approaching vehicles came to a complete stop (24 to 48 feet). Both the field and the simulator study were followed by surveys that captured driver preferences and understanding. The results from both surveys showed that drivers understood AFADs well and preferred AFADs over human flaggers, especially for the MoDOT AFAD configuration. Overall, the AFAD has potential to improve the safety of work zones for both workers and the traveling public.

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An interim report cmr 17-010 was published for this project in August 2017.

Report number: cmr18-004
Published: February 2018
Project number: TR201717
Author(s): Henry Brown, Carlos Sun, Siyang Zhang and Zhu Qing
Performing organization: University of Missouri-Columbia

Economic Impact Study for Public Ports in Missouri

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) commissioned this study to assess the economic role of public ports and waterways in supporting and enhancing the state and local economy. The key objectives of the study are to profile the economic activity of the public port facilities in Missouri; identify and assess port-dependent and port-benefitted industries in Missouri; and evaluate the economic impact of ports and waterways on the state in terms of employment, tax revenue, economic output, and induced or multiplier effects. The study team used a combination of port/shipper interviews, site visits, analysis of commodity flow data, and economic modeling to accomplish these goals. The results of the study provide insight to MoDOT and other stakeholders to inform future investment decisions for Missouri’s ports and waterways. See also separately published individual port brochures.

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Report number: cmr18-002
Published: February 2018
Project number: TR201711

Performing organizations: Cambridge Systematics, Inc. with Hanson Professional Services, Inc.

Missouri Highway Safety Manual Recalibration

The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) is a national manual for analyzing the highway safety of various facilities, including rural roads, urban arterials, freeways, and intersections. The HSM was first published in 2010, and a supplement was published in 2014 that addressed freeway interchanges. The HSM incorporated the safety modeling results from several National Cooperative Highway Research Projects that used data from various states across the nation. The HSM recommends that individual states calibrate the HSM to local conditions on a regular basis. An initial statewide calibration for Missouri was finalized in 2013. The current recalibration effort builds upon the previous calibration and keeps the calibration values up-to-date with the most current crash data and calibration methodology. The current effort also involves the development of crash severity distributions functions so that crash frequencies can be estimated according to the severities of fatal, severe injury, minor injury, and property damage only. HSM calibration is a labor intensive effort that requires the derivation and use of detailed data such as road geometrics, traffic volumes, traffic signalization, land-use, and crash frequency and severity. This report documents the details of the methodology employed for facility site selection, data collection, data processing, calibration, and severity assignment. A total of 16 facility types were calibrated. These include rural 2-lane segments with the related 3-leg and 4-leg intersections; rural multilane segments with the related 3-leg and 4-leg intersections; urban 2-, 4- and 5-lane arterial segments; urban and rural 4-lane and urban 6-lane freeway segments; urban 3- and 4-leg signalized intersections; and urban 3- and 4-leg unsignalized intersections. The calibration results indicated that the HSM predicted Missouri crashes reasonably well, with the exception of a few site types for which it may be desirable for Missouri to develop its own safety performance functions in the future.

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Report number: cmr18-001
Published: February 2018
Project number: TR201616
Author(s): Carlos Sun (PI), Praveen Edara (co-PI), Henry Brown (co-PI) with Jacob Berry, Boris Claros, and Xiang Yu (Research Assistants)

Performing organization: University of Missouri-Columbia, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering