Rhode Island Transportation Research Center

212 Bliss Hall, 1 Lippitt Road,
Kingston, RI 02881
Tel: (401) 874-2695 Fax: (401) 874-2786

Director: Associate Directors:

Prof. K. Wayne Lee Prof. Christopher Hunter and Prof. Natacha Thomas

Welcome to the Rhode Island Transportation Research Center

The Rhode Island Transportation Research Center (RITRC) was established in 1992, and received a $12 million University Transportation Center (UTC) grant under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA21) in 1998. New University of Rhode Island Transportation Center (URITC) was established to manage the grant in 1999. RITRC supported more than 125 faculty and researchers from at least 6 colleges and 22 departments to build the transportation research capacity at URI from 1999 to 2003. Then, we have been carrying out various multi-disciplinary studies mainly in the areas of intelligent transportation infrastructure and system (ITIS). The research effort covers all modes of transportation including highway (roads and bridges), transit, rail, airport, ports, bike paths, and pipelines. We also will perform several intermodal transportation projects.

The URI research team has been strong in transportation materials, e.g., asphalts, concretes, composites, steel, soils, and pavement marking materials. The facility contains a complete set of equipment for mixing and testing bituminous materials including Marshall, Hveem and Superpave mix design sets, and soil characterization as well as aggregate testing. There is also equipment for mixing and testing portland cement concrete and evaluating corrosion of reinforced steel and paint adhesion. In addition, it contains the soil resilient modulus tester, the Superpave Indirect Tension Tester (IDT), SHRP binder test setup, Automatic Asphalt Pavement Analyzer (APA), portable Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) and a 25 kip servohydraulic testing system which can be used for various static and dynamic loading modes, such as resilient modulus, dynamic modulus, fatigue, flexure and creep, and Simple Performance Test (SPT). This particular system is housed in the walk-in environmental chamber, which has temperature ranges from -12° to 60°C (10° to 140°F).

Recently, we have been working on establishing a Rhode Island Intelligence Road (RIIR) along RI Rte 138, and a Transportation System Analysis Lab (TSAL) in Bliss Hall. We are also working on Green Highway Initiatives, solar energy from the asphalt pavement, and cool pavement, etc. with various agencies including the Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC).

The 25th Transportation Forum was held on Friday, October 26, 2012. The theme was "Innovative and Green Transportation Infrastructure & Systems".  There were three keynote speeches: (1) "Innovative Transportation Infrastructure and System"  Mr. Victor M. Mendez, Administrator of Federal Highway Administration for USDOT; (2) "Trends On Asphalt Paving Technology"  Dr. Rebecca S. McDaniel, PE, President for Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT), Technical Director for North Central Superpave Center, Purdue University; (3) "Improvements on Runways of T.F. Green Airport"  Mr. Peter Frazier, Interim President of Rhode Island Airport Corporation (RIAC). For more details, please follow the 25th Forum Link on the sidebar.

For further information or details about RITRC activities, please e-mail Prof. K. Wayne Lee at leew@egr.uri.edu or the webmaster Paul Mendoza at paul_mendoza@my.uri.edu.