Connecticut’s new budget includes a multibillion dollar investment to dramatically improve the state’s aging transportation systems, and University of Connecticut engineers are supporting the historic effort on multiple fronts.

With the launch of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s landmark “Let’s Go CT!” transportation upgrade, UConn scientists are playing key roles in helping to identify specific infrastructure needs and gathering information so officials can make well-informed decisions.

“We have a long-established relationship with UConn, and we are seeking to maximize it now,” says Cheryl Malerba, director of administration for the Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT). “We are at an unprecedented moment in our state’s history, and we want to make sure we optimize every avenue to help us identify best practices … With a plan as big as Let’s Go CT! we’re going to need everybody working together.”

As the state’s flagship university, UConn’s role in the transportation overhaul is significant.

Nicholas Lownes, UConn’s F.L. Castleman Associate Professor in Engineering Innovation, and assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering Karthik Konduri are gathering data on state transportation trends that will help state officials decide which roadways, bridges, rail systems, and bus routes may benefit most from improvements and new designs.

For the first time in 40 years, there will be a comprehensive state transportation survey. Lownes and his team will survey 7,500 households statewide early next year to capture people’s travel habits.

“This data will allow us to look at neighborhoods with certain demographic and socio-economic characteristics, and predict how people may move about in the future,” Lownes says. “We can then aggregate trends statewide, information that will help the DOT calibrate its baseline transportation model.”

In addition to supporting infrastructure investment decisions, the insights from the data will allow state officials to evaluate the benefits of new transportation solutions such as  connected and automated vehicles, and car sharing services such as Uber. The data will also look at other innovative transportation policies, like adopting flexible work schedules and encouraging workers to commute through parking cash-outs in which employees receive cash to cover commuting costs in return for giving up their parking spaces.

“We’re developing a support system to help state officials make decisions on these huge investments,” says Lownes, who also serves as the director of UConn’s Center for Transportation and Livable Systems. “We are part of an effort to develop a statewide transportation model that will look at the ‘what if …’ scenarios.”

For instance, would the state achieve the most economic development impact and quality of life improvement by increasing the capacity of the Metro North rail line, or would adding another lane to I-95? What would be the impact of implementing toll roads in Connecticut?

State transportation officials also will be using data collected by UConn associate research professor of civil and environmental engineering Eric Jackson to determine which highways and roadways are considered the most hazardous and in need of attention, based on the number of accidents and other reports. Jackson serves as director of the Connecticut Transportation Safety Research Center at UConn, and is overseeing a massive collection of state crash data that will provide officials with extensive detailed information that has never been available before.

On another front, the governor’s transportation package calls for the expansion and development of bike paths and pedestrian corridors in the state’s urban centers, a research specialty of associate professor of civil and environmental engineering Norman Garrick.

Dean of the School of Engineering Kazem Kazerounian says the University’s contribution is not limited to research. UConn’s School of Engineering will play a vital role in training future engineers in the latest industry technologies to help support the improvement effort and maintain the new transportation systems once they are in place, Kazerounian says.

UConn and Connecticut’s DOT have a long history of working together. Since 1962, the DOT and UConn staff have been conducting joint research through the Connecticut Cooperative Transportation Research Program.

Today, UConn researchers within the Connecticut Transportation Institute, the Connecticut Advanced Pavement Lab, and the Connecticut Transportation Safety Research Center – all located at the University’s Depot Campus in Storrs – routinely provide DOT staff with up-to-date reports on the latest technologies and innovations to improve statewide transportation services.

Improvements to Connecticut’s transportation infrastructure will be discussed at a forum sponsored by UConn and the Connecticut DOT July 13 at the Hartford Public Library. Andrew Cotugno, a senior policy analyst from Oregon, will discuss some of the innovations that established Portland as a national model for transportation systems and livable communities. Connecticut DOT Commissioner James Redeker will also speak at the event, which runs from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., and is free and open to the public.