Topic 1

Title:  Wastewater Treatment Plant Telemetry Monitoring Pilot Project
State Job Number: 14657
Final Report, December 1999 (8,095 KB)
Executive Summary, (77 KB)

One of the most appreciated amenities provided by the state for use by the motoring public are the little "comfort stops'' along the highway. As the interstate highway systems became a reality the need for rest areas on these super highways became apparent. Today there are 146 roadside rest areas throughout Ohio. A total of forty-eight are located on interstates with the remainder on primary and secondary highways. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is responsible for the operation and maintenance of a network of water/wastewater treatment systems at rest areas throughout the State of Ohio. Presently, ODOT personnel must visit these sites on a daily basis due to permit requirements for maintaining system operation, process modifications, process information retrieval, and compliance to Ohio EPA regulatory requirements. With the geographic arrangement of the various roadside rests, site visits have become expensive for ODOT in terms of personnel, scheduling, and routine maintenance activities. Environmental considerations including increased regulatory requirements by the Ohio EPA require a system solution that provides ODOT the ability to more closely control effluent discharge without large capital or manpower costs.

 

Topic 2

Title:  Effects of Pavement Type on Traffic Noise Levels
State Job Number: 14677
Final Report, March 2000 (5,286 KB)
Executive Summary, (50 KB)

Implementation Plan, ( KB) not available yet

Traffic noise mitigation strategies are developed by considering the source, path, and receiver of the noise. Within the United States, strategies involving the path of traffic noise have dominated noise abatement efforts on Federal and State levels. As a result, many miles of barriers have been constructed to shield affected receivers from traffic noise. Strategies aimed at reducing the source of traffic noise are appealing in light of the potential for reducing these abatement costs. Vehicle noise has been divided into six noise-producing components: engine, fan, intake, exhaust, drive train, and tires. Due to market forces, vehicle manufacturers have been motivated in recent years to reduce the noise generated by these components. As progress has been made by manufacturers to reduce the noise emitted by the various sub-sources within motor vehicles, tire/road noise has emerged as the dominant component of traffic noise for speeds greater than 35-40 mph. Recent European studies have concluded that tire/road noise levels vary substantially according to pavement type [Herman and Bowlby 19931.

 

Topic 3

Title: A Study of the Use of Low Altitude Airborne Multispectral Scanning for Preliminary Environmental Analysis of Highway Project Sites
State Job Number: 14778
Final Report, January 2002 (2,611 KB)
Executive Summary, (103 KB)

Implementation Plan, ( KB) not available yet

The research project was initiated because specific research was needed to investigate the applicability of low altitude multi- spectral scanning for preliminary project development activities faced by ODOT on typical highway projects.  In particular, research was needed to measure the effectiveness of low altitude scanning for the detection and mapping of the types of small archaeological sites, potential contamination sites, and environmentally sensitive areas encountered on typical ODOT projects. 

 

Topic 4

Title:  Parallel Barrier Effect for Distant Receivers
State Job Number: 14687
Final Report, July 2002 (1,389 KB)
Executive Summary, (26 KB)

Implementation Plan, (81 KB)

In 1988, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) studied the I-71 corridor in Hamilton County, north of Cincinnati, to determine the environmental impacts of traffic lane additions for project HAM 71-11.44.  This study concluded that traffic noise abatement for residents living near the I-71 corridor was warranted according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) noise abatement criteria.

 

Topic 5

Title: Best Management Practices of Archaeological Study Methods
State Job Number: 14775
Final Report, December 2002 (4,574 KB)
Executive Summary, (44 KB)

Implementation Plan, (79 KB)

For several decades, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) allocated substantial funding to ascertain the location, extent, and significance of archaeological phenomena that would be affected by ground-disturbing undertakings. As archaeological survey data accumulated from such Phase I studies, however, questions arose regarding their usefulness for project-planning processes, particularly in settings involving transportation projects in their preliminary phases of development. This Final Report presents an analysis of information about Phase I pedestrian surveys that were conducted under the auspices of ODOT, either by ODOT personnel or contractors, between 1974-2001.

 

Topic 6

Title:  Archaeological Study Methodology and Results
State Job Number: 14776
Final Report, December 2003 (3,359 KB)
Executive Summary, (50 KB)

Implementation Plan, (84 KB)

For several decades, ODOT has funded a considerable number of cultural-resource studies, principally Phase I pedestrian archaeological surveys (Ioannides and Sullivan 2002).  As data regarding the location and type of archaeological resources accumulated, however, their usefulness for ODOT project planning was not examined.  Recently, ODOT determined that one of the best ways to optimize previous cultural-resource surveys and expenditures is to explore the feasibility of using advanced technology for project planning.  Depending on the quality and coverage of existing data, it is thought that new tools, such as remote sensing and GIS-based predictive modeling, might help ODOT personnel employ archived data more effectively and develop, as well, well-informed decisions about the allocation of future funding dedicated for cultural-resource management.  Such an approach would help ensure that increasingly scarce resources are spent wisely on pre-project planning, the formulation of effective scopes of work, and on the conduct of archaeological survey itself.  To assist ODOT with these objectives, we explore the advantages of remote sensing (Scollar et al. 1990) and GIS (Kvamme 1999) in developing models that forecast, with varying degrees of probability, the locations of prehistoric archaeological phenomena in different kinds of terrain.

 

Topic 7

Title:  Effects of Highway Deicing Chemicals on Shallow Unconsolidated Aquifers in Ohio
State Job Number: 14437
Final Report, August 2004 (13,931 KB)
Executive Summary, (157 KB)

Implementation Plan, ( KB) not available yet

Road salt applied to highways during winter months is a primary source of solutes to ground water in Ohio. Brine resulting from salt application may run off into nearby streams or into ditches, where it infiltrates into the ground. Plowed snow from the highway, splash caused by vehicles, and wind may also transport salt considerable distances. In general, there has been a lack of detailed knowledge about the fate and transport of deicing chemicals after application to the highway.