The 26th Annual NJDOT Research Showcase provided an opportunity for the New Jersey transportation community to learn more about the broad scope of research projects and technology transfer activities being conducted by institutions of higher education partners and their associates. The annual event serves as a showcase to highlight the benefits of transportation research, including NJDOT’s own program. This event was an in-person event with a livestreaming option with sessions held from 9:00am-2:45pm on October 23, 2024.

This year’s Showcase theme, “Pathways to Sustainability,” served as the organizing framework for the speakers and panelists during the morning plenary session. Throughout the day the Research Showcase featured presentations on infrastructure, safety, and sustainability topics being performed by research faculty, staff, students, and NJ agencies. Several awards were presented in recognition of research and implemented innovations.

The Research Showcase Program Agenda provides more information on the day’s proceedings, including presented topics and invited speakers. Recordings of the plenary and breakout sessions, and the presentations and posters shared during the event can be found below.

MORNING

WELCOMING AND INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

David Maruca, Program Development Administrator, Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT), served as the moderator for the morning session, offering some housekeeping remarks and walked through the morning’s agenda.

Eric Powers, Assistant Commissioner Statewide Planning, Safety and Capital Investment at NJDOT, welcomed attendees to the 26th Annual NJDOT Research Showcase, explaining the purpose and theme of the event, “Pathways to Sustainability,” and acknowledging several parties, including NJDOT Bureau of Research, Innovation and Information Transfer (BRIIT) staff, Rutgers-CAIT, and the leadership of NJDOT and FHWA for their planning and participation in the day’s event along with the research partners whose work was being showcased.

Francis O’Connor, Commissioner, NJDOT, thanked several partners for their involvement in organizing the Research Showcase event. He expressed his enthusiasm for the research mission, noting that research is at the heart of progress for innovation in transportation. He framed the event as an opportunity to convene and collaborate with talented researchers and staff in tackling challenges that still confront us in transportation. Mr. O’Connor spoke about the day’s sustainability theme and emphasized the integral importance of safety in all that the agency does. The recent actions by NJDOT to improve safety for all road users, and the NJDOT highway workforce were highlighted by the Commissioner, among other topics.

Sutapa Bandyopadhyay, Planning and Program Development Manager, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) New Jersey Division, praised the NJDOT Research Showcase’s “Pathways to Sustainability” theme and noted its close alignment with FHWA’s newest strategic plan which contains climate and sustainability as a core goal. She spoke of the strategic plan’s focus on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and resilient infrastructure. She highlighted select formula and discretionary programs supported through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), including the Carbon Reduction Program, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) deployment, and discretionary programs to reduce truck emissions in port facilities. In her remarks, she also emphasized the importance of research to assist in supporting the current administration’s major planning goals and targets (e.g, net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, adoption of resiliency plans by 50% of the states and MPOs by 2026, and 40 percent of the transportation clean energy benefits delivered to disadvantaged communities in alignment with the Justice40 initiative).

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Jim Tymon, Executive Director at American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) provided the keynote address, “Navigating the Storm: Resilience, Sustainability and Surface Transportation”. His address reminded those in attendance of the importance of collaboration in continuing to build a resilient and sustainable transportation network. 

Mr. Tymon began his talk by introducing AASHTO, a multi-modal focused trade association that works with 52 state DOTs (including D.C. and Puerto Rico) to provide codified guidance and a platform for sharing knowledge. AASHTO is governed by a strategic plan, created in 2020, that expands their focus beyond the technical goals of transportation to developing “quality of life through strategic leadership”.

AASHTO hosts over thirty different committees and councils in which state DOTs can learn from each other’s experiences. Tymon’s remarked that AASHTO’s President has coined this process as “R&D” — or rip-off and duplicate. This form of “R&D” keeps departments from having to re-invent the wheel themselves and often leads to more successful outcomes.

This collaboration, he pointed out, is necessary for navigating the storm of increased climate disasters and unpredictable weather conditions. In the transportation field, the effects of climate change are both economically devastating and logistically challenging to address. In 2023 alone, climate related disasters cost the U.S. at least $92.9 billion in damages and in the past forty-three years, there have been 376 disasters, each costing over $1 billion. He stated, “Whether or not you are a climate change denier, or somebody that believes in the fact that our climate is changing, we have events that we are dealing with on a regular basis that we need to adapt to and that we need to take into account as we are dealing with our transportation network”.

Mr. Tymon proceeded with additional data and statistics to illustrate how State DOTs were fiscally impacted by the storms. Mr. Tymon laid out two avenues of solutions for addressing this growing issue: 1) building a more resilient transportation system; and 2) building a more sustainable transportation system.

To build a resilient transportation system and network, Mr. Tymon recommended deeply considering how we are designing and building transportation systems and taking into consideration a variety of changing climate factors. Mr. Tymon presented the Resilience Planning Cycle from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as a model for this type of planning. Fortunately, there is a variety of federal assistance programming available through the Infrastructure Investment and Job Act, including the PROTECT program. PROTECT (Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation) is a formula program that is given annually to each state to use for state resilience projects. This funding can also assist States with the development of a state Resilience Improvement Plan, which is not a requirement, but does ensure a higher federal match.

Mr. Tymon’s second recommendation, to build a more sustainable transportation system, can be made possible through intentional efforts such as encouraging a modal shift by transportation users. He noted that encouraging a shift of transportation usage from single use cars to buses, trains, walking, cycling, or using more fuel-efficient cars, can help to reduce carbon emissions that may slow the effects of climate change.

AASHTO recently assisted with the administration’s U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, which laid out guidance for decarbonizing the transportation network. He highlighted several methods in the Blueprint from planning and leveraging telework, to e-commerce and travel demand management. State agencies receive financial support for developing carbon reduction strategies through programs like the Carbon Reduction Program as well as the National EV Infrastructure Program (NEVI).

Mr. Tymon closed his talk by sharing a recent commercial created by the Tennessee Department of Transportation which aired during a recent football game between Florida and Tennessee. The video highlighted the collective rebuilding and road improvement efforts of Tennessee DOT and Florida DOT volunteers in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Mr. Tymon explained that prior to landfall, Hurricane Helene was expected to impact Florida greatly. To help, Tennessee DOT members were preparing to travel down to Florida in its wake. Instead, when Tennessee became more impacted because of the Hurricane, Florida DOT employees traveled up to Tennessee to help. The video and situation, Mr. Tymon noted, represents how state DOTs “can work together to help mitigate some of those impacts (climate change) and recover.”

Mr. Tymon responded to questions in the Q&A session that followed his keynote remarks.

MORNING SESSION PANEL DISCUSSION

An interactive panel discussion, “How is New Jersey Department of Transportation Creating Pathways to Sustainability?” followed the keynote session. NJDOT staff representatives presented several examples of sustainability initiatives underway at NJDOT in various areas including construction and materials selection, pavement preservation, transportation planning, project management and research. The presenters reflected on the opportunities and persistent challenges as well as the benefits of addressing sustainability in New Jersey.

The panelists included:

• Alex Borovskis, Director, New Jersey Department of Transportation Division of Construction and Materials
• Robert Blight, Executive Manager, New Jersey Department of Transportation Division of Pavement & Drainage Management and Technology Bureau
• Krishna Tripathi, Project Management Specialist, New Jersey Department of Transportation Division of Project Management
• Mohab Hussein, Supervising Engineer, New Jersey Department of Transportation Bureau of Structural Design & Geotechnical Engineering
• Sushant Dargi, Principal Engineer, Planning, New Jersey Department of Transportation Bureau of Statewide Strategies
• Giri Ventikeela, Innovation Officer, Bureau of Research, Innovation & Information Transfer

Participants responded to a series of questions posed by the moderator and by the audience members.

Panelists shared their views on how the New Jersey Department of Transportation is creating pathways to sustainability.

AWARDS

The program continued as Pragna Shah, New Jersey Department of Transportation, announced several awards given in recognition of research, innovation and implementation efforts. Below is a listing of the award winners presented at this year’s showcase:

2024 Outstanding University Student in Transportation Research Award – Deep Patel, Rowan University. Mr. Patel received the award for his valued contributions to research on “Real-Time Traffic Signal System Performance Measurement” through successive phases and several other recent and ongoing NJDOT projects.

2024 NJDOT Research Implementation Award – Dr. Peter Jin, Rutgers University, New Brunswick Innovation Hub Smart Mobility Testing Ground (Data City SMTG). This project, partially funded by NJDOT, generated a living laboratory for transportation data collection and smart technology innovation across a 2.4-mile multi-modal corridor in New Brunswick.

2024 Best Poster Award – Swathi Malluru, Rowan University, Performance Evaluation of Full-Depth Reclamation and Cold In-Place Recycling Asphalt Mixtures at Varying Amounts of Bituminous and Cementitious Additives. This poster described research activities conducted towards evaluating best practices in Full-Depth Reclamation (FDR) and Cold In Place Recycling (CIR) asphalt rehabilitation. The researchers distributed surveys to state agencies, conducted a literature review and performed laboratory tests, finding that 3 percent emulsion, with 1 percent cement worked best for FDR mixes, and 2 percent emulsion or 1.5 percent foamed bitumen for CIR mixes.

2024 Research Champion Excellence Award – Yong Zeng and Emmanuel Bassey, Technical Advisory Panel at the New Jersey Department of Transportation. This award recognized Yong Zeng’s and Emmanuel Bassey’s dedication serving as Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) members for the research project, Advanced Reinforced Concrete Materials for Transportation Infrastructure. Their work greatly contributed to the success and implementation of the project, which received an AASHTO National High Value Research Award in 2024.

2024 NJDOT Build a Better Mousetrap (BABM) Award – Bishoy Abdallah, Senior Engineer in Transportation Roadway Design at NJDOT. The BABM award was given to Bishoy Abdallah for his creative response to current NJDOT roadway standards that require all resurfacing and preservation projects to upgrade existing inlet curb pieces to have a smaller opening. To make more efficient the process of upgrading existing inlet curbs, Abdallah created two details; one specifically for barrier curbs that do not need to be replaced, and the second for damaged or cracked barrier curbs.

PRESENTATION OF AWARDS

HIGH VALUE RESEARCH

In addition to the awards announced and distributed by NJDOT for the 26th Annual NJDOT Research Showcase, the event highlighted two NJDOT research projects that were recognized with 2024 AASHTO National High Value Research Awards at the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) national meeting in Columbus, Ohio in late July 2024.

Advanced Reinforced Concrete Materials for Transportation Infrastructure. One of only 16 research projects nationwide to receive the 2024 AASHTO National High Value Research Award, this project evaluated the performance of three highly ductile concrete materials in comparison to two standard NJDOT mixtures. The results of the research can be used to guide best practices around deploying novel concrete materials to improve the service life of reinforced concrete infrastructure. Principal Investigators: Dr. Matthew Bandelt and Dr. Matthew Adams of New Jersey Institute of Technology; Technical Advisory Panel: Yong Zeng, Nehemie Jasmin, Emmanuel Bassey; Research Project Manager: Dr. Giri Venkiteela of NJDOT BRIIT.

Innovative Pothole Repair Materials and Techniques. This research project tested several new pothole repair materials and techniques including the use of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) and PVA fibers. The research findings can be used to produce longer lasting and more sustainable roadways. The research project received a Supplementary National High Value Research Award from the AASHTO RAC. Principal Investigators: Dr. Hao Wang and Dr. Husam Najm at Rutgers-CAIT; Technical Advisory Panel: Sadime Absolam, Jeff Evanylo, Emmanuel Bassey, Kenrick Layne, Nicholas Colangelo, Anupkumar Patel, Roger Estivalletti, Yong Zeng; Research Project Manager: Dr. Giri Venkiteela of NJDOT BRIIT.

AFTERNOON 

In the afternoon, concurrent break-out sessions were held and research presentations were given on the topics of Infrastructure, Sustainability and Safety. Students and researchers at New Jersey’s colleges and universities also presented their research objectives, methods and findings in a concurrent poster session offering those in attendance an opportunity to learn more about ongoing and recently completed research and interact with the researchers.

INFRASTRUCTURE BREAKOUT

SUSTAINABILITY BREAKOUT

SAFETY BREAKOUT

2024 POSTER PRESENTATIONS

The 26th Annual Research Showcase was organized and sponsored by the NJDOT Bureau of Research in partnership with the New Jersey Local Technical Assistance Program (NJ LTAP) at the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) and co-sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration.

The 25th Annual NJDOT Research Showcase provided an opportunity for the New Jersey transportation community to learn about the broad scope of academic research initiatives underway and share technology transfer activities being conducted by institutions of higher education partners and their associates. The annual event serves as a showcase to highlight the benefits of transportation research, including NJDOT’s own program. This event was an in-person event with a livestreaming option with sessions held from 9:00am-2:45pm on October 25, 2023.

This year’s Showcase theme, “Commitment to Safety,” served as the organizing framework for the speakers and panelists during the morning plenary session. Throughout the day the Research Showcase featured presentations on infrastructure, safety, mobility, and equity topics being performed by research faculty, staff, students, and NJ agencies. Several awards were presented in recognition of research and implemented innovations.

The Research Showcase Program Agenda provides more information on the day’s proceedings, including presented topics and invited speakers. Recordings of the plenary and breakout sessions, and the presentations and posters shared during the event can be found below.

MORNING

WELCOMING AND INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

David Maruca, Program Development Administrator, Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation, served as the moderator for the morning session, offering some housekeeping remarks and walked through the morning’s agenda.

Andrew Swords, Director, New Jersey Department of Transportation Division of Statewide Planning, welcomed attendees to the 25th Annual NJDOT Research Showcase, explaining the purpose and theme of the event, “Commitment to Safety,” and acknowledging several parties, including NJDOT Bureau of Research staff, Rutgers-CAIT, and the leadership of NJDOT and FHWA for their planning and participation in the day’s event along with the research partners whose work was being showcased.

Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Transportation, thanked several partners for their involvement in the event and reflected on the history of the Research Showcase Event on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary. In framing the day’s activities, Commissioner Gutierrez-Scaccetti recognized the event’s “Commitment to Safety” theme and the foundational importance of transportation for affecting positive change, improving the quality of life, and the shape of New Jersey’s transportation system. In her remarks, she appealed to attendees to advance community-centered transportation and to commit to considering the needs of ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) persons when devising research questions and in carrying out their day-to-day activities with the goal of planning, building and maintaining a more safe, equitable and sustainable transportation system.

Robert Clark, Division Administrator, Federal Highway Administration New Jersey Division acknowledged the importance of the NJDOT Research Showcase’s “Commitment to Safety” theme. He described several policy and research commitments at U.S. DOT, FHWA Turner-Fairbanks Research Center and the Volpe Center that are intended to “double-down” on improving safety, reducing fatalities and strengthening the culture of safety in transportation. In closing out, Mr. Clark shared the USDOT Commissioner’s message that roadway deaths is a crisis that is urgent, unacceptable and preventable; those in attendance should see that their work and research into safety can prove that roadway fatalities need not be inevitable.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Dr. Allison E. Curry, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia delivered the keynote address on the New Jersey Safety and Health Outcomes (NJ-SHO) Data Warehouse. In organizing her talk, she explained the vision behind the development of the data warehouse over the last 15 years, the data sources that have been employed, its innovative features that can support meaningful research, and her vision for future research and collaborations drawing upon the data warehouse platform.

Dr. Curry described how crash data can be linked to other data sets to extend the period of study about crashes. She explained the data warehouse has been built through an array of administrative data partnerships with NJ agencies (e.g, public health, hospital, motor vehicle, police, medicare and medicaid, etc.) that have been linked alongside rich community-level indicators available at the census tract level to create a robust data tool for traffic safety research.

Her talk highlighted some of the limitations of crash reports that explain the need for data integration with other administrative record sources. She emphasized the longitudinal features of the data warehouse and explained how its linkages to health and motor vehicle records makes it possible to study specific populations segments — for example, teens on the autism spectrum. In her example, she described her research demonstrating how the data sets could be used to investigate the percentage of teens with autism who acquired driver licenses to increase their travel independence. She also could compare whether crash rates were comparable between this group and other teens in their age cohort at 12 months and 48 months from receipt of a license.

Dr. Curry also highlighted data limitations on reporting of race and ethnicity on NJ crash and licensing data and how other data sources (e.g., hospital discharge, electronic health records, birth and death data, etc. ) can be used to look at race and ethnic differences in non-fatal crash outcomes.  In doing so, she highlighted how a probability-based algorithm, Bayesian Surname Geocoding (Sartin 2021), developed by the RAND Corporation, has been applied to estimate the race and ethnicity of driver licenses and address a source of race and ethnic bias in hospital record reporting due to varying levels of hospital usage.

Dr. Curry touched upon several of NJ SHO’s innovative features that can enable research.  Among other points, she contrasted the “urban planning lens” which considers the place in which an accident occurred with the “public health lens” which seeks information about persons who are crash victims and where they live.

She also offered illustrative examples of how the NJ-SHO can be linked to vehicles to examine types of crashes, vehicle types and the injuries incurred which can reveal differences among more vulnerable populations (e.g, youth, elderly, poor) from other populations.

Dr. Curry closed her talk with a sneak preview of a new interactive data dashboard, NJ-SHO Center for Integrated Data, currently in development in association with the NJ Division of Traffic and Highway Safety. She noted how the dashboard tool will help practitioners efficiently use available data sets in ways that will mirror the metrics of the NJ Strategic Highway Safety Plan with a focus on persons as well as community resilience and social vulnerability equity-oriented measures.

Dr. Curry responded to questions in a Q&A session that followed her keynote remarks.

MORNING SESSION PANEL DISCUSSION

An interactive panel discussion, “How is New Jersey Department of Transportation Addressing Safety?” followed the keynote session with state NJDOT staff representatives who presented examples of the safety initiatives underway at NJDOT and reflected on persistent challenges and opportunities for addressing transportation safety in New Jersey.

The panelists included:

• Andrew Swords, Director, New Jersey Department of Transportation Division of Statewide Planning.
• Syed Kazmi, Section Chief, New Jersey Department of Transportation Division of Traffic Engineering
• Kurt McCoy, Supervising Engineer, New Jersey Department of Transportation Division of Operations Support
• Sangaran Vijayakumar, Project Management Specialist 3, New Jersey Department of Transportation Division of Project Management
• Hirenkumar Patel, Principal Engineer, New Jersey Department of Transportation Division of Transportation Mobility

Participants responded to a series of questions posed by the moderator and by the audience members.

Panelists shared their views on how the New Jersey Department of Transportation addresses safety. Photo by Steve Goodman.

AWARDS

The program continued as Dr. Giri Venkiteela Research Scientist, Bureau of Research, New Jersey Department of Transportation announced several awards given in recognition of research, innovation and implementation efforts. Below is a listing of the award winners presented at this year’s showcase:

• 2023 Outstanding University Student in Transportation Research Award – Alissa Persad, Rutgers University, Ms. Persad was being recognized in part for her valued contributions to the Innovative Materials for Quick Patching and Repair of Concrete project.
• 2023 NJDOT Research Implementation Award – Dr. Hao Wang, Rutgers University Energy Harvesting on New Jersey Roadways. This project identified potential energy harvesting technology for applications on roadways and bridges and conducted feasibility analysis and performance evaluation of the selected technologies for large-scale and micro-scale energy generation.
• 2023 Best Poster Award – Alyssa Yvette Sunga, Rowan University, Properties of Cementitious Materials with Reclaimed Cement. This poster described research activities that obtained recycled concrete; determined the chemical composition of reclaimed cement; partially replaced ordinary Portland cement with reclaimed cement in cement paste and mortar; and determined the fresh and hardened properties of cement paste and mortar through tests measuring flowability, initial setting time, heat of hydration, and compressive strength.
• 2023 Research Champion Excellence Award – Thomas Bushar, New Jersey Department of Transportation, Materials. This award recognizes Mr. Busher’s dedication while serving as a Technical Advisory Panel member for The Evaluation of Different Paint Systems for Over-Coating Existing Structural Steel project. The award notes that his commitment greatly contributed to the success and implementation of this research project.
• 2023 NJDOT Build a Better Mousetrap Award – Gerald Oliveto, P.E. New Jersey Department of Transportation, Moveable Bridge Unit. The “Route 71 Over Shark River Road Diet” is a road diet project that preserves an old historic drawbridge while improving safety and saving money.  When the Route 71 Drawbridge over Shark River between Belmar and Avon-by-the-Sea in Monmouth County suffered a mechanical failure in September 2021, engineers worked quickly to design and implement a solution that would both preserve the drawbridge and keep it in safe operation. The traffic load needed to be redistributed and balanced properly across the span to keep the bridge opened. NJDOT implemented a road diet across the bridge, which allowed the Department to address several safety issues. Traffic over the bridge was reduced from one northbound lane and two southbound lanes to one lane in each direction. Signal timings were adjusted, safety improvements at surrounding intersections were installed, and highway signage was enhanced. In addition, bike lanes that had previously ended abruptly were carried across the drawbridge utilizing an innovative bicycle-safe grid, a first-of-its-kind achievement in New Jersey. Through this $150,000 project completed in May 2022, the Route 71 over Shark River Road Diet project improved traffic flow, increased safety, and reduced congestion in a busy tourist area.

PRESENTATION OF AWARDS

AFTERNOON 

In the afternoon, concurrent break-out sessions were held and research presentations were given on the topics of Equity & Mobility, Infrastructure, and Safety in transportation. Students and researchers at New Jersey’s colleges and universities also presented their research objectives, methods and findings in a concurrent poster session offering those in attendance an opportunity to learn more about ongoing and recently completed research and interact with the researchers.

INFRASTRUCTURE BREAKOUT

EQUITY & MOBILITY BREAKOUT

SAFETY IN TRANSPORTATION BREAKOUT

2023 POSTER PRESENTATIONS

The 25th Annual Research Showcase was organized and sponsored by the NJDOT Bureau of Research in partnership with the New Jersey Local Technical Assistance Program (NJ LTAP) at the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) and co-sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration.