TREC research addresses complex transportation problems by drawing on multiple disciplines, including engineering, planning, economics and design, from across the Portland State University campus. Use the search box at right to search for a specific project.

Research Highlights

The Use of Mt. Mazama Volcanic Ash as Natural Pozzolans for Sustainable Soil and Unpaved Road Improvement

Matthew Sleep
This Small Starts study offers sustainable road building materials for rural infrastructure, from an unlikely source. Approximately 7,000 years ago, the eruption of Oregon's Mt. Mazama blanketed the Klamath Basin region with a thick layer of volcanic ash. Matthew Sleep, an associate professor of civil engineering at Oregon Tech, investigated the use of this ash as a natural pozzolan for soil stabilization and unpaved roadway improvement. He found that the ash, prevalent in Southern Oregon, has… Read More

Establishing Risk-based Bridge Management Models and Tools for Municipal Transportation Assets

David Yang
The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) manages a bridge inventory including National Bridge Inventory (NBI) bridges, non-NBI pedestrian bridges, and culverts. Historically, condition data has been stored in disparate and/or non-digital formats, hindering efficient management and decision-making for rehabilitation efforts. PBOT is addressing this by migrating to AASHTOWare BrM, a bridge management system, to digitize and standardize infrastructure data. However, this process faces… Read More