The U.S. Department of Transportation granted Syracuse University funds to establish the TransLIVE University Transportation Research Center on Jan. 17. The center, a collaboration among five universities, will conduct research on the sustainability of transportation and infrastructure.

TransLIVE, or Transportation Livability by Integrating Vehicles and the Environment, is concerned with reducing traffic congestion and green gas emission, said O. Sam Salem, the Yabroudi Chair of Sustainable Civil Infrastructures and professor of construction engineering and management at SU.

‘It’s about producing a healthier, more environmentally friendly transportation system,’ he said.

He said this center is not only important because of the traffic jams and congestion on highways, but also because of environmental, economical and health aspects.

‘It’s more than just engineering and technical,’ he said. ‘It’s about the environment, the economy, the social, the health, the cultural aspect.’

Salem said the University of Idaho, Virginia Tech, Old Dominion University and Southern Texas University are also involved in the founding of TransLIVE. He said representatives from each school met to write the proposal and set the budget for the project.

Each school involved represents one arm of the project and will work on a single aspect of the problem. Some schools will also work together. SU’s expertise includes sustainable infrastructure system and infrastructure management, he said.

The total budget for TransLIVE is $7 million and SU’s budget is $1.13 million of that, Salem said in an email. SU’s budget will be used in three different areas: research, outreach and education.

The research aspect will create opportunities and projects for SU faculty. The outreach activities will include workshops and seminars for transportation officials and companies about transportation sustainability. The third area will involve educational modules and a series of seminars about transportation, and it will be included in engineering undergraduate and graduate classes, he said.

Salem said he is the principal investigator of the grant and will be the director of SU’s branch of the center. His job includes producing requests for proposals for small projects, overlooking the outreach activities and managing the educational modules and seminars. SU faculty can also submit ideas that could be awarded grant money, in which case he is in charge of merging those grants, he said.

Salem and Riyad Aboutaha, an associate professor of civil engineering at SU, are also representatives for a regional center led by the City University of New York. The regional center includes all the schools in New York state, New Jersey, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, Salem said in an email. CUNY’s managed budget also allowed for schools like SU to apply for smaller-funded projects through CUNY, he said.

New York Rep. Anne Marie Buerkle’s website published a press release about the grant stating her congratulations to SU and Chancellor Nancy Cantor.

‘With this award Syracuse University has once again proven itself to be a national leader in innovation,’ Buerkle said in the release. ‘I am certain that the funds they receive will be used to significantly develop the transportation industry and the communities they serve.’

Eric Persons, associate vice president of government and community relations, said in an email that after the city of Syracuse received a grant to work on the Connective Corridor, SU is happy to see the Transportation Department recognize the city and the university for its efforts in transportation sustainability.

Said Persons: ‘We are looking forward to working with our consortium members to further provide research and best practices in this field, which will only continue to grow.’

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Published on January 23, 2012 at 12:00 pm

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