The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department is known for building roads and bridges, but the agency also has set aside millions of dollars in recent years to figure out ways to build them more efficiently or find someone who can.
The agency draws on research to improve a variety of other functions essential to its mission -- including research into soils and figuring out ways to improve its financial systems, which are integral to a department that must pay contractors in state money before seeking any reimbursement from the federal government.
For many years, the department relied on engineers and other professors at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. The school's faculty members have received $13 million in research grants from the department over the past 25 years, according to agency data.
But in recent years, the agency has begun spreading those research dollars to universities throughout the state.
In all, the department has doled out $20 million in those 25 years to study problems associated with building roads and bridges that are peculiar to the state's terrain and soil.
Much of that work is funded by federal transportation money set aside specifically for research.
"We're not going to study whether Arkansas should play ASU," agency spokesman Randy Ort said, referring to the possibility of the two schools' football teams playing each other.
"It's got to be germane to our responsibilities. Research plays a role in determining what you have in a region and how best to adapt to what you have in a region."
Much of the research is filtered through the department's transportation research committee, made up of the agency's senior members, Ort said.
The committee also has an advisory council, made up of stakeholders outside the department who vet the research proposals.
The research proposals often come from within the agency. The committee first considers whether the proposals are worthy and then decides whether the department's staff will perform the research or whether the work will be competitively awarded outside the agency.
Kevin Hall, the chairman of the University of Arkansas' civil engineering department and a member of the transportation research committee's advisory council, said the proposals identify specific problems and seek either new products or specifications that can be implemented.
"It's very targeted," Hall said. "They wouldn't be doing the research if they didn't think it would be implemented."
Such research can lead to groundbreaking solutions.
High on Hall's list of projects was the development of the agency's multimedia highway information system by a team led by UA researchers.
Information about particular sections of highway, including video showing conditions, is available "at a glance, at the click of a mouse" to almost everyone in the department, Hall said.
"It not only met an immediate need, but it provided the department a platform for doing better things," he said.
More recent projects also reflect the scope of the agency's research.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock recently announced that the Highway Department awarded $286,341 to two of its professors to determine which type of ground-penetrating radar, or GPR, is most efficient to manage and maintain state highways.
Ground-penetrating radar uses pulses to detect subsurface structures and other objects.
It can be especially useful when planning construction and road projects to avoid project delays and cost overruns, according to the department.
A ground-penetrating radar configuration specifically designed for the department would help determine the location and depth of underground utilities to avoid destruction of water pipes, gas pipes, drainage systems, electric cables and sub-pavement cavities, according to one of the investigators, Hanan Mahdi, an associate professor in the UALR Graduate Institute of Technology and the Arkansas Earthquake Center.
Mahdi will collaborate on the project with Amin Akhnoukh, an associate professor of construction in the UALR College of Engineering and Information Technology. They will also train department personnel on the use of the new system during field investigations and through workshops.
The department also recently awarded $213,208 for a two-year collaborative project to research the performance of asphalt modified with polyphosphoric acid.
The work will be conducted jointly by professors at UA-Fayetteville, Henderson State University in Arkadelphia and Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
The researchers include John Hardee, professor of chemistry and dean of the Ellis College of Arts and Sciences at Henderson; Andrew Braham, assistant professor of civil engineering at UA-Fayetteville; and Ashraf Elsayed, associate professor of civil engineering at ASU.
Through laboratory and field evaluations, the project will provide the department with information on the physical and chemical properties of asphalt that has been modified with polyphosphoric acid, which can lengthen its life.
In addition, the work will involve aging studies, along with studies on interactions of the polyphosphoric acid with other additives that are often used by suppliers to improve the quality of asphalt, according to a news release from Henderson.
Elsayed is also working on other research for the department. Under a three-year project, Elsayed is determining the specifications needed to strengthen soil too weak to support construction equipment.
If soil contains too much moisture, construction equipment can get stuck, just like passenger cars, Elsayed said.
His project will study different soils around the state and determine the best ratio of lime or cement needed to stabilize the ground.
Once the project is completed, contractors "who come across this situation will have specific guidelines" that will allow them to stabilize the ground "efficiently and economically," Elsayed said.
Metro on 01/05/2015