news>>awards>>lee wins caltrans award

Researchers led by Eul-Bum Lee of the Pavement Research Center are winners of two Caltrans 2005 Excellence in Transportation Awards, one for innovation and another for public awareness.

Lee and his team developed a "rapid rehab" construction and traffic management plan for a repaving project on several miles of Interstate 15 in Devore in southern California. The researchers determined that construction would be less costly and time consuming if it were done around the clock instead of only at night. Night-time construction is less safe for road workers as well.

The project was completed in October 2004 with just two nine-day, one-roadbed continuous closures, saving Caltrans $6 million. The project would have taken 12 months to complete if workers had been limited to working only at night.

Convincing the public that the rapid rehab approach, which meant traffic delays during the day, were preferable to night-time only construction required a public information and outreach component, which also garnered the group an award. The researchers used Automated Work Zone Information Systems to provide real-time travel information to commuters during construction, which cut delays during peak hours by 50 percent. The project’s website updated the public with closure schedule information and an AWIS traffic roadmap.

Caltran’s Excellence in Transportation Awards Program is open to local and public transportation agencies, private engineering and consultant firms.

Go to the Pavement Research Center Web site for more information about its programs: http://www.its.berkeley.edu/pavementresearch/index.html