Recent ICT-IDOT report publications and new projects

Several reports from recently completed Illinois-Department-of-Transportation-sponsored projects are now available on Illinois Center for Transportation’s website:

R27-163: Adapting Construction Staking to Modern Technology. This report provides written procedures for the use of modern technologies, such as GPS and civil information modeling, in construction staking of highway projects, for inclusion in the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Construction Manual. The written procedures are intended to support construction-staking processes when a contractor employs such technologies.

R27-115: Integral Abutment Bridges under Thermal Loading: Field Monitoring and Analysis. This report presents findings of a field monitoring program for two Illinois integral abutment bridges. Details about global bridge movements; pile, deck, girder, and approach-slab strains; and rotations at different abutment interfaces are included in the report.

R27-167: Establishing Procedures and Guidelines for Pedestrian Treatments at Uncontrolled Locations. The best practices for approving pedestrian crossings and pedestrian-crossing treatments at uncontrolled locations are summarized in this report. Procedures and guidelines were developed for use by the Illinois Department of Transportation and local agencies. Based on the findings of this study, a guidebook including strategies and treatments aimed to enhance pedestrian safety at uncontrolled locations was published.

Additionally, the following research projects have recently started:

R27-176: Alternative Noise Barriers (started 9/1/2017)

R27-177: Dynamic Travel Time Estimation (started 9/1/2017)

R27-SP36: Modified Micro-Deval Procedure (started 9/1/2017)

R27-178: Bridge Decks: Mitigation of Shrinkage Cracking, Phase III (started 9/15/2017)

R27-179: Effectiveness of Exterior Beam Rotation Prevention Systems (started 9/15/2017)

R27-180: Concrete Pavement Mixtures with High Supplementary Cementitious Materials Content (started 10/1/2017)

R27-181: Updated and Unified StreamStats Peak Discharges for Streams of Illinois (started 10/1/2017)

In addition to the projects above, ICT posted six RFPs on Aug. 18, 2017, and proposals were received by Sept. 30, 2017, for the following anticipated projects:

RFP# 17-01, Evaluation of On-site and In-situ Treatment alternatives for Contaminated Soils: The objective of this research is to develop an experimental program and recommend effective on-site treatment options to minimize the generation of special wastes. The suggested treatment(s) shall be a cost-effective process that minimizes construction delays.

RFP# 17-02, Evaluating the Beneficial Effects of Winter Maintenance Best Practices on Water Quality: The objective of this research is to provide a systemic life-cycle framework to enable comprehensive assessment of environmental sustainability (including the impacts on water quality) of winter highway operations (e.g., anti-icing, deicing, and sanding/plowing).

RFP# 17-03, Evaluation of the Hot-Mix Asphalt (HMA) Resurfacing Policy for State Maintained Highways Other than Interstates: The objective of this project is to update and revise policy guidelines for use of HMA overlays to rehabilitate state highways, other than the interstates.

RFP# 17-04, Correlation between Work Zone Exposure and Work Zone-Related Fatal and A-Injury Crashes: This project aims to determine the correlation between work zone exposure and number of work zone related injury and fatal crashes to achieve a better understanding of the cause of increased crashes in work zones and recommend steps towards making data-driven and systematic enhancements.

RFP# 17-05, Pavement Surface Treatments for Ice-Prone Locations in the Illinois Highway System: The objective of this research is to develop effective and durable pavement surface treatments suitable for implementation at IDOT ice-prone locations.

RFP# 17-06, Evaluating the Accuracy and Use of Drilled Shaft Integrity Testing Methods in Illinois: The objective of this project is to provide guidelines for the most appropriate use of integrity testing considering shaft sizes, number of shafts, soil conditions, expected wet vs. dry method of construction, redundancy of shafts, and importance of the structure. A simple “integrity testing selection” flowchart will be developed to be used by designers for determining when integrity testing should be conducted.

All six projects are expected to kick off on Jan. 1, 2018.