FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Watching the white minivan with equipment protruding from the top chasing a 747 down the runway at Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport, most people would not think of rural transportation. But the digital highway data vehicle (DHDV) is the result of research funded by the Mack-Blackwell Rural Transportation Center (MBTC) at the University of Arkansas.

Since it was established in 1992 Mack-Blackwell has funded more than 100 research projects. This year it competed successfully for one of only 10 funding slots and received an award of $916,300 from the U.S. Department of Transportation. These funds will be matched by non-federal funds to support 16 projects.

"At Mack-Blackwell we focus on infrastructure, logistics and people," explained Melissa Tooley, director of MBTC. "We fund projects in many departments and at many institutions, not just the University of Arkansas."

Engineering projects that will receive funding include: developing new materials to repair damaged concrete highway structures, such as barriers and supports; testing of subgrade soils for highway construction; evaluating the economics of different sign and post materials; and developing improved roadway paving mixes. Other projects use sophisticated tools such as multi-spectral imagery for route characterization and a GIS-based planning tool for stormwater management.

Logistics is another key area of rural transportation. Several projects will look at intermodal transportation and distribution networks, while others will examine the feasibility of petroleum/grain exchange shipments with Russia or the transportation of poultry litter.

Rural transportation is also about people. MBTC is funding development of a model that can predict tractor-trailer truck driver safety, a study of the impact of regional transportation infrastructure growth and a video on work-zone driving safety.

Projects are funded from many University of Arkansas departments, including civil, industrial and chemical engineering; agricultural economics; vocational and adult education; political science and the Arkansas Archeological Survey. MBTC is also funding projects at Louisiana State University, Kansas State University and the University of Kentucky.

"Over the past10 years, we have developed a world-class program for rural transportation," Tooley said. "Although our greatest impacts have been in the areas of highway and pavement design and maintenance and the freight industry, we are also proud of our work in rural transportation policy, in areas such as welfare-to-work, rural public transportation, cultural resources and agricultural applications."

Although the focus of MBTC is rural transportation, it is a national resource and the results of its funded research impact transportation issues throughout the United States. The DHDV, developed by Kelvin Wang, professor of civil engineering at the University of Arkansas, is a good example of the broad application of technologies developed at MBTC.

More than 80 percent of the roadway infrastructure in the United States in rural. Almost from the moment they are built, these highways must be examined regularly for signs of wear. Often done by hand, this is a dangerous process that produces mountains of data that are difficult to access and interpret.

Wang developed a digital solution, the DHDV, which can gather this information while driving down the roads at full speed. This system can make highway conditions information readily available to the engineers who must make critical maintenance decisions. But it doesn’t just work on rural highways in the United States. City streets and even airports need access to this type of information as well. And it is also being considered for use in other countries.

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Rural transportation affects everyone in the United States. Rural residents rely on it for importing products that are readily available in large cities, but urban residents also rely on it for the vast majority of their food products. And the broad range of research supported by the Mack-Blackwell Rural Transportation Center has a significant impact on rural transportation.