10/08/96

CONTACT: Shad Sargand, civil engineering, 614-593-1467

ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University has received close to $900,000 from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) to monitor five test road sites in Ohio anddevelop a national database that can be used to build more durable roads around the country.

"These agencies want us to monitor pavement research projects around the state that have been going on over the last five years and continue to monitor the instrument results for the next five years," said Shad Sargand, professor of civil engineering in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology. Sargand heads the team of researchers that will monitor this project. He is also the principle investigator of a national test-road project on U.S. Highway 23 near Delaware that opened to traffic in August.

That project is the most comprehensive of the five test-road sites Ohio University is coordinating, Sargand said. This test road section is loaded with sensors that will monitor changes in the pavement caused by altering temperature; moisture from rain, ice and snow; stress from heavy traffic; and other conditions that cause wear and tear on roads.

Other projects include sites on state Route 2 in Vermillion, state Route 33 in Belfontaine and Athens, and state Route 35 in Gallipolis. The Gallipolis project was the first, starting in 1989. Not all of the projects have been monitored continuously. Part of the new project with ODOT and FHA will require researchers to renew monitoring of these sites and continue the process with others.

Researchers will do tests for durability and performance at the different test road sites, some of which use concrete pavement and others that use asphalt. To test the pavements, researchers will drive heavy trucks and vehicles over the roads, drop heavy weights on the pavement, and conduct a variety of other non-destructive tests. Sensors buried within the pavement will provide information about road endurance.

Another unique part to the project, Sargand said, is the involvement of graduate and undergraduate engineering students. Close to 20 students will be involved in the monitoring process at all of the sites, receiving hands-on technical experience that will aid them later in their careers.

Information collected by students and researchers will be entered into a national database that can be accessed by other state highway authorities as well as federal agencies. Sargand's team will develop this database as part of this project.

"This grant and others we've received indicate that we are becoming a national leader in instrumentation and monitoring of pavement," Sargand said. "We are collecting billions of data points and building a database that other agencies and states can access to aid in building better roads around the country."