Category: Transportation Engineering

Factors Affecting the Lifespan of Paved Roadways: Construction Materials, Temperature Extremes, and Drainage

Across the country, one-third of our highways and major streets are in poor condition, according to TRIP, a nonprofit transportation research group. Persistent potholes and recurring ruts wreak havoc with our commutes, impose financial burdens from automobile repairs, inflict significant injury, prompt contentious lawsuits, and account for roughly one-third of deaths occurring annually on American… Read More »

On the Road Again: Guardrails Serve to Protect, Deflect

By Mark Petersen, PE The No. 1 goal of every driver is to stay on the road. But sometimes, due to circumstances beyond our control (and some that are in our control), vehicles can go astray. Thanks to guardrails, many potentially tragic crashes instead result in just the inconvenience of a fender bender and insurance… Read More »

One-Way or the Other? Two-Way Traffic Conversion Requires Study

By Alexander Cowan, PE, PTOE A drive through the downtown area of many American cities includes time spent on one-way streets. Cities have used short segments of one-way traffic for hundreds of years to try to improve traffic flow and move higher volumes of traffic along downtown arterials. However, in recent years many communities have… Read More »