By Stefanie Dion Jones ’00 (CLAS)
Richard Christenson, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, inspects the Gold Star Memorial Bridge, which spans the Thames River between Groton and New London in Connecticut.
Early this year, President Barack Obama expressed concern over the nation’s crumbling roads and failing levees as he pitched his economic stimulus plan – a package primed to invest billions into everything from upgrading bridges to developing renewable energy. Today Obama’s $787 billion package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), is poised to pour crucial funding into many facets of America’s aging infrastructure, with allocations including $71 billion allocated for public transportation, highway projects and energy spending. Connecticut alone is set to receive nearly $3 billion in direct assistance in ARRA funding.
America’s infrastructure comprises the most visible parts of the nation’s structural backbone – bridges, dams and highways – along with less recognized necessities, such as the power grid and wastewater treatment plants.
In essence, infrastructure refers to anything that is connected, says Mehdi Anwar, associate dean for research and graduate education in the School of Engineering at the University of Connecticut. Restoring these infrastructures is no small task; to upgrade adequately, the United States must spend an estimated $2.2 trillion over the next five years.
"There is no question that we need additional investment in America’s infrastructure," says Jeffrey F. Paniati ’82 (ENG), executive director of the Federal Highway Administration. "While we have been making progress in recent years – for example, the overall quality of our pavements has improved and the number of deficient bridges has decreased over the last decade – there is much more left to do. We have an infrastructure that is aging, we lose far too many lives each year in traffic crashes and we have growing congestion in many of our major cities."
Despite the inherent challenges, there is no shortage of support from every corner of the University in carrying out the research vital to restoring the nation’s transportation, energy and other infrastructures critical to the nation and its security.
The School of Engineering is the research leader of the newly established U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence in Transportation Security. The Technology & Research for Advanced National Security of Intermodal Transportation (TRANSIT) Center is a partnership of seven U.S. academic institutions and addresses the important issue of maintaining and developing technologies to ensure a secure, sustainable and resilient national transportation infrastructure.
Bridge monitoring has been ongoing at UConn since the tragic 1983 collapse of the Mianus River Bridge in Greenwich, Conn., and is one of the key aspects of transporation work. Richard Christenson, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, assesses the structural health of bridges and buildings while seeking ways to extend the "safe life" of bridges, using supplemental devices that can be retrofitted to existing structures.
At the Advanced Hazards Mitigation Laboratory on UConn’s Storrs campus, a wealth of equipment – including a 25-ton crane, a mechanism called a shake table that simulates earthquakes, and several structures meant to mimic highway bridges – allows Christenson and others to test various engineering technologies. Much of the research performed here involves collaboration with the state Department of Transportation, the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation and fellow higher education institutions, including Lehigh University and the University of Illinois.
"There’s a lot of good [transportation] research coming out of UConn," Christenson says. "With regard to bridge health monitoring, this state is ahead of the curve and in a better position than a lot of other states."
With $302 million in ARRA recovery funds going toward rebuilding Connecticut bridges and roadways, applying this research and new technology will help achieve improvements and strengthen the infrastructure for the future.
"We have to find ways to make things last longer," says Leif Wathne ’92 (ENG), vice president of highways and federal affairs for the American Concrete Pavement Association. "Longevity is absolutely critical because we have a huge investment gap in the infrastructure in this country." Wathne notes that the quality of paving solutions such as concrete has improved tremendously over time. With advances in paving materials, he says, roadways will require less maintenance and repair, ultimately saving money while conserving natural resources and energy.
For Norman Garrick, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, the health of the U.S. transportation infrastructure extends beyond structural improvements to planning for alternative modes of transportation that also reduce energy use and improve community life.
Garrick directs UConn’s Center for Transportation and Urban Planning, which – with interdisciplinary research among collaborators throughout UConn and state and federal agencies – studies and promotes ways to reduce motorized travel by facilitating walking, biking and transit. Current projects include, for example, a study of people's public transit perceptions. Garrick’s own research has explored U.S. cities that have reduced their reliance on automobiles. (For more information: www.cti.uconn.edu)
"It’s a combination of what we build, but also it has to do with the policies and planning," says Garrick, whose expertise includes the social and environmental impacts of transportation. "It’s about understanding the systemic and social changes that we need to make."
Improving materials used to construct the nation’s interstate highway system, including in Hartford, right, and finding alternative means of transporation such as more bicycle lanes in cities, above, are part of improving the nation’s infrastrucuture.
At UConn, research focused on infrastructure improvements is not limited to the transportation sector, however. University scientists also are exploring ways to reduce America’s fossil fuel emissions, develop alternative energy technologies and work to revamp the nation’s outdated electrical network with a so-called "smart grid" – all of which are cited as priorities under the ARRA.
Such endeavors are central to the mission of UConn’s Connecticut Global Fuel Cell Center, which is undertaking research projects in energy at the state, federal and international levels. "Fuel cells are just one piece of the solution," says Prabhakar Singh, the Center’s director and United Technologies Corporation Endowed Chair Professor in Fuel Cell Technology. "We are looking at multiple aspects of energy, investigating issues of energy storage, energy conversion and many different kinds of fuels."
The Center is in the midst of a growth spurt, establishing public-private partnerships, forming collaborations and identifying emerging research and business opportunities in energy. Its ongoing studies range from developing "smart" sensors, appliances and other highly energy-efficient devices to creating advanced batteries that can capture and bank solar and wind power for times of peak demand. (For more information: www.ctfuelcell.uconn.edu)
"To develop these emerging technologies, to implement these technologies and to make them available to the nation’s people," Singh says, "takes a lot of effort, so it has to be done in a very collaborative fashion."
Partners include private companies, such as United Technologies, General Electric and Rolls-Royce; academic collaborators, including MIT and Cornell; and the federal government, including the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense.
The Center, which is operated by the School of Engineering, also collaborates with the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and School of Business in order to gain a better understanding of the energy marketplace. "You don’t want to put a lot of money and energy into something that may not compete; you have to be market savvy," Singh says.
Cooperating with diverse departments provides valuable opportunities to conduct research and, subsequently, deliver resulting innovations to the marketplace. "When we have a better understanding and develop better materials and better systems," Singh says, "we can then transfer that technology to industries and help industry to make better products."
With a new administration at the helm facing such complex, urgent issues as climate change, economic recession and war, launching an effort to rebuild the national infrastructure remains a significant challenge.
From designing smarter transportation systems to developing alternative energy sources for the power grid, UConn’s network of faculty and students, along with its valued partners in industry, academia and government, is well equipped to confront this challenge through intensive research and collaborative working relationships.
"We are prepared," Singh says. "We don’t underestimate the challenges, but we are positive, full of energy and working proactively."
A number of UConn research initiatives offer the promise of enhancing different aspects of the infrastructure not only in the United States but also on a global scale.
For Mekonnen Gebremichael, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, water infrastructure remains a vital concern. With water a central necessity for households, industry, agriculture and power plants, usage is escalating nationwide. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average American uses 100 gallons of water per day, up from 10 gallons per day 100 years ago.
"We don’t know how to use water in a sustainable manner," says Gebremichael. "Unless we utilize the water reserves efficiently, that’s going to be a problem."
Tap water faucet Gebremichael’s research is based in part on gaining a better understanding of the global water cycle in order to improve the accuracy with which the planet’s water resources are monitored. A portion of his work focuses on water supplies and distribution beyond the United States – namely in East Africa. Discerning rainfall patterns in countries such as Ethiopia, Gebremichael says, is tied closely with more accurate severe weather prediction in the United States, including floods, droughts and hurricanes. In fact, research shows that most U.S. hurricanes derive from the East African climate.
At the same time, private companies have reached out to UConn in the interest of research. Michael Curtis, ’76 (CLAS), ’80 M.S., ’87 Ph.D., senior vice president of Fuss & O’Neill, an engineering consulting firm in Manchester, Conn., initiated a research partnership in 2007 with UConn’s Baikun Li, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and one of the country’s leading microbial fuel cell (MFC) researchers.
In short, MFCs use bacteria to break down organic waste, or sewage, and convert it into electricity. Successful, large-scale development of MFC technology could mean lowering treatment plants’ greenhouse gas emissions and energy usage. If developed to its full potential, Curtis believes such technology could revolutionize a multi-billion dollar industry.
Investing in America’s various infrastructures is essential to our future progress as a nation. Through partnerships across academia as well as studies funded by private companies and federal agencies, UConn researchers remain focused on uncovering new and innovative ways to advance the energy, transportation and other networks that contribute to the country’s economic vitality.
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