Treating roads with deicers during winter storms is essential for ensuring the safety of the traveling public. However, salt runoff can negatively impact the environment. In-ditch salt capture techniques may limit the migration of salt from roads into watersheds.
Continue reading Permeable Barriers for Absorbing Road Salt RunoffMotorists driving dangerously in work zones present a safety risk to workers and themselves. Alerting these drivers about their driving behavior before they reach the work zone could reduce the number of work zone crashes and enhance work zone safety. This project developed and evaluated the performance of a device that provides audio and visual alerts to drivers whose vehicles are approaching work zones at a high speed and on a dangerous trajectory.
Continue reading Alerting Drivers Dangerously Approaching Work ZonesCulverts are essential components of urban and rural infrastructure that guide and channel water under roads and embankments. The most common failure affecting culverts is joint separation between segments of the concrete pipes. This project examined the predictors and factors that lead to joint separations in culverts to determine practices that will decrease future separations.
Continue reading Strategies to Prevent Joint Separations in CulvertsTo enhance pedestrian safety at intersections, transportation agencies may install temporary or permanent infrastructure such as curb extensions or pedestrian refuge islands. While more permanent infrastructure with concrete is generally considered effective, specific details about temporary infrastructure with flexible delineators (or bollards), such as installation, use and safety impact, would be valuable to optimize cost-effectiveness. This project evaluated both temporary and permanent pedestrian infrastructure at crossing sites to measure the effects on pedestrian safety and driver behavior.
Continue reading Evaluating the Safety Impacts of Select Pedestrian InfrastructureThe Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota has called for speakers. If you have recently completed or participated in an innovative transportation-related research, implementation, or engagement activity, consider sharing your work in a presentation at the 2026 CTS Transportation Research Conference!
Continue reading Call for Presentations: 2026 CTS Transportation Research ConferenceWednesday, April 1, 2026, 9:00–10:30 am CST, Virtual
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly influencing how transportation and infrastructure projects are planned, delivered, and communicated. This Education and Engagement Council webinar builds on CTS’s earlier AI discussion by highlighting how AI is being used in practice, both nationally and internationally.
Speakers from outside Minnesota will share real-world examples of AI integration in infrastructure and construction contexts. Nicole Moon, Strategic Communications Highways and Roads Market Sector Lead at HDR, will discuss how AI is supporting transportation agencies and project teams through applied industry use.
Mr. Tomi Kotala, Project Director, City of Helsinki Public Works Department, and Mr. Pieti Marjavaara, Chief Innovation Officer, Construction Management, AINS Group, will discuss the Infrastructure Programme Helsinki, Finland. This strategic urban development initiative focused on designing and constructing a sustainable future for the city, including a massive expansion of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) network. They will demonstrate how their approach to Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) and alliance models optimizes infrastructure lifecycles through fair partnership. Efficiency is driven by Knowledge Management and industrial construction via data-driven, repeatable processes. The Project-AI concept evolves situational awareness into active AI-driven support for all project members, ensuring smarter, more predictable, and value-driven outcomes.
This webinar is designed to foster shared learning and discussion around how AI is being adopted today, why organizations are investing in these tools, and what lessons transportation professionals can take from industry and international experience. It is intended for practitioners, researchers, students, and others interested in the evolving role of AI in transportation and infrastructure.
Continue reading CTS Webinar: Industry and International Perspectives on AI IntegrationCold recycling road pavement materials into new road construction is a cost-effective and sustainable practice. However, the properties of these materials must be characterized to adequately design pavement structures. This project developed a framework and tool for transportation agencies to estimate the key material properties of cold recycled materials incorporated into road designs.
Continue reading Assessing Recycled Pavement for Use in Road DesignDetours for highway construction projects direct heavy freight vehicles onto local roads that were not designed to accommodate the frequency of heavy loads. Detours to these local roads often accelerate pavement deterioration that shortens their service life and requires additional repair. This project examined the structural and economic impacts of detours on local roads to develop a framework for optimizing detour routes that limit pavement damage while maintaining traffic mobility.
Continue reading Limiting Pavement Damage from DetoursFebruary 25, 2025, 10-11 AM CST
TRB is offering a free webinar tomorrow on rural mobility, which has been a focus of a number of MnDOT studies in the last few years. For a review of research on rural mobility in Minnesota, see the following lists of completed and active projects. To register for the webinar, follow the link above.
Continue reading TRB Webinar: Improving Mobility in Rural and Tribal CommunitiesMany modern vehicles continuously track location and performance data such as speed and acceleration. Collecting large amounts of this data to use in machine learning models has many potential applications, including aggregating and evaluating road pavement conditions. This project investigated the feasibility of using large amounts of onboard data from electric vehicles to monitor and assess pavement conditions comprehensively and cost-effectively across a large network.
Continue reading Using Onboard Vehicle Data to Assess Pavement Quality
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