Research

Research in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering centers around the transportation and environment infrastructure. Within these rather broad arenas, current research is focused on materials for civil engineering facilities, biotechnology for water/waste water treatment, and information sciences and technology for planning, developing, operating, and monitoring the performance of our nation’s infrastructure.

Transportation research focuses on safety, efficiency, and sustainability of various modes of transport. Advanced technologies such as remote sensing, geographic information systems, global positioning, simulations, animations, and network models are applied to solve emerging problems in transportation policy, planning, design, operations, and maintenance. Focal areas include freight transport, asset and access management, Internet, in-vehicle systems and services, transit systems, air quality studies, highway safety and information systems, and energy.

Research in the structures area has a strong focus on transportation, most specifically bridge structures. There are a number of projects in progress that focus on bridge repair and strengthening using recently developed high-performance materials including fiber-reinforced polymers. New bridge systems have been designed and are being evaluated; the bridges use high-performance materials including fiber-reinforced polymer decks and high-performance steel. Methods to eliminate joints in existing bridge systems are being evaluated.

New processes and systems for construction of transportation facilities are also under investigation. Faculty are studying enhanced scheduling for highway renewal, web-based construction specifications, and laser scanning for as-built drawings. Work continues on benchmarking, partnering, construction organization, and management of transportation projects.

Innovative foundation systems are being studied in the geotechnical/materials area for bridges, pavements, and buildings. Work on slope stability and uniform embankment parameters as related to roadway construction is underway. People in the Portland cement concrete area are looking at methods to improve the quality and performance of pavements and runways. Asphalt concrete pavement work is focused on refining the newly developed design philosophies. Studies in soil-structure interaction are being initiated.

Environmental research is focused on pollution control in water and wastewater systems. Research on recovery of useful byproducts from waste streams has resulted in innovations in the production of methane gas, hydrogen, and bio-recovery of useful protein from a variety of waste products. Research to optimize the performance of the anaerobic biological process has resulted in several patents. Faculty members are also involved in research on defining total maximum daily loads for agricultural watersheds, surface and groundwater systems, and hazardous waste sites. New techniques of bioremediation of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons have been developed and evaluated at several abandoned coal gasification plants. The environmental engineering program also includes research in water resources, which includes watershed modeling, flood prediction, and water quality modeling.

The department has faculty in leadership positions in three centers: the Center for Transportation Research and Education, the Bridge Engineering Center, and the Portland Cement Concrete Pavement Center.