Center for Transportation Infrastructure Systems
FEATURED NEWS
CTIS research presented at the 97th Transportation Short Course in College Station, Texas | READ MORE
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How can current asphalt mix design guidelines be adjusted to create better performing recycled mixtures? | READ MORE
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UTEP Teams Participated at the 2023 Asphalt ROAD-EO in Buda, Texas | READ MORE
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Stanton and Ysleta Bridges Microsimulation Models: Update | READ MORE
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CURRENT AND UPCOMING EVENTS
CTIS Students Will Participate in 2023 ROAD-EO Competition | READ MORE
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Our Vision
CTIS will serve as the regional and national source for preparing new professionals for the twenty first century transportation workplace through cutting edge and competitive research in complex transportation.
Our Mission
CTIS through its faculty and staff works to generate and share knowledge in different aspects of transportation infrastructure. CTIS will recruit, retain, and graduate individuals with high professional and ethical standards to work in government and private organizations. CTIS accomplishes its missions by submitting highly-competitive proposals, engaging in innovative research that creates synergy among faculty, staff, students, and funding agencies. CTIS faculty and staff work together within the University, and with other collaborators internationally to engage in multidisciplinary opportunities for both students and faculty.
The goals of CTIS are the following:
- Produce well-rounded, technically-competent engineers in different aspects of Transportation Infrastructure
- Sustain activities in innovative research in the following core areas of strength:
- Transportation Materials/Design,
- Infrastructure Evaluation and Management, and
- Planning, Operation and Logistics
- Initiate new research fronts in:
- Sustainable Environment for Transportation
- InfrastructureTransportation Safety and Security
CTIS - Facilities
Asphalt Testing Laboratory
In the asphalt lab, all traditional and AASHTO binder testing equipment are available. Testing facilities for asphalt binder include: dynamic shear rheometer for characterization of asphalt binder at high and intermediate temperatures, bending beam rheometer to measure the low temperature properties of asphalt binder, rolling thin film oven and pressure aging vessel to simulate aging of asphalt binders, high speed centrifuge for asphalt extraction, Rotavapor for asphalt recovery, and rotational viscometers for viscosity measurements.
Hot Mix Asphalt Laboratory
Asphalt mixture characterization facilities include: an MTS system placed in a walk-in temperature control room used for strength and modulus tests of hot mix, including all simple-performance tests and diameter resilient modulus, a Hamburg wheel tracking device, an Overlay Tester (OT), beam fatigue test device and Moisture Induced Stress Tester (MIST), Corelok for density measurements, Ignition oven for asphalt content measurements are also available.
Computer Lab
Several software packages, acquired commercially or developed in house, are available for 2-D and 3-D visualization of NDT results, data fusion or integrating data analyses from different NDT devices, and advanced data analysis. A wealth of general-purpose software packages for finite element (e.g. LSDYNA, NASTRAN, and ANSYS), finite difference (e.g. FLAC3D and WAVE2000), and discrete element (e.g. PFC2D and 3D) modeling is available at UTEP.
Non-destructive Field Testing
CTIS in a partnership with the Department of Geological Sciences operates the Laboratory for Environmental and Engineering Geophysics (LEEG) at UTEP. LEEG is an $800,000 facility funded by the Department of Defense and operates virtually any geophysical methods applied in the field of engineering, from electromagnetic methods, to several electrical methods, to most seismic methods.
Soils and Aggregate Testing Laboratory
The soil and aggregate lab is equipped with all traditional equipment for characterizing the aggregates and index tests. One MTS system is dedicated to conducting resilient modulus and permanent deformation tests on bases and subgrades. The system is equipped with the latest fully-automated software for data collection and analysis.
Transportation Lab
The Border Intermodal Gateway (BIG) Transportation Laboratory is equipped with traffic survey devices (e.g., counters, GPS receivers), video cameras and playback devices, transportation planning tools (TransCAD, VISUM), traffic simulation tools (CORSIM, VISSIM, PARAMICS, DynusT, TransModeler), traffic signal optimization software (SYNCHRO), traffic analysis software (HCS), and many other pieces of software and devices.
Annual Expenditures
Partners
Government
CTIS is a long-term partner with TxDOT. The partnership began over 20 years ago and is expected to last long into the future. Through this partnership, UTEP has conducted research projects in various areas of transportation. CTIS also conducts research and provides engineering services to local transportation agencies such as the EI Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and the City of EI Paso. UTEP is also one of the few organizations in the US that have executed a memorandum 0f understanding to collaborate with the Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC) of the Army Corps of Engineers. Our other governmental partners have been:
Industry
CTIS has partnered with a number of research-oriented firms in a number of research projects. Examples of these companies are: Applied Research Associates Applied Pavement Technology Fugro
Academic Institutions
Rutgers Utah State University University of Delaware Columbia University New Jersey Institute of Technology Princeton University University of Virginia
WHAT WE DO
The Center for Infrastructure Systems (CTIS) Serve as the regional and national source for preparing new professionals for the twenty first century transportation workplace through cutting edge and competitive research in complex transportation systems. CTIS sustains innovative research in core areas: a) Transportation Materials/Design, b) Infrastructure Evaluation and Management, c) Planning, Operation and Logistics. Our diverse faculty and staff collaborate nationally and internationally to engage in multidisciplinary opportunities for both students and faculty. The main goals of the CTIS are to address the needs for basic and applied research as related to the transportation infrastructure and lifeline.
CURRENT RESEARCH FOCUS AREAS
- Improvement and Implementation of Intelligent Compaction
- Development of Specialized Pavement Analysis Tools
- Implementation of Pavement Structural Evaluation Methods
- Characterization of Pavement Properties
- Development of Balance Asphalt Mix Design
- Model Transportation Asset Management Practices
OPPORTUNITIES
- Engage in innovative research that creates synergy among faculty, staff, students, and funding agencies.
- Develop new collaborations with initiates in new research fronts such as Resilience and Disaster Recovery.
- Collaborate nationally and internationally to engage in multidisciplinary opportunities for both students and faculty.
- Serve as member of the Transportation Leadership Council, a student led council, which:
- Promotes collaboration of multi-disciplinary transportation professionals and UTEP students by fostering the development of leadership, teamwork, networking, and research skills through the activities conducted by the Chapter.
- Delivers educational outreach to the local k-12 community.