The awards were made by USDOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration. The university centers maintain vital partnerships with regional, state, and local transportation agencies to help find solutions to mobility challenges impacting their local communities.

"Sound science and rigorous analysis provide a solid foundation for the development of transportation policy," RITA Administrator Peter Appel said in a statement. "The UTC program plays a key role in supporting collaborative research and transportation workforce development that will help us create a truly 21st century transportation system."

Some of the largest university transportation center grant recipients are:

• The Infrastructure Technology Institute at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, which will use a $3 million grant to extend experimental work in monitoring the health of the infrastructure of rapid transit and commuter railroad structures.
• The Oklahoma Transportation Center, which will use its $3 million award to provide the consortium of Langston University, the University of Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State University with support for transportation-related research, education, outreach, and technology transfer while developing a diverse next-generation transportation workforce.
• The Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium -- a partnership among Portland State University, the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and the Oregon Institute of Technology -- which will use a $3 million grant to further advance research and education in areas such as transportation modeling, sustainable cities, and electric vehicles.
• The National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education at University of Wisconsin-Madison, which will use its $3 million award to fund research on a range of freight-related issues that include multimodal efficiency, transportation policy, traffic analysis, air quality and public health, and sustainable construction materials.
• The University Transportation Center based at the City University of New York, a consortium of 12 major universities from the states of New York and New Jersey as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which will use a $2 million grant to support research, education, and technology-transfer activities that address the planning and management of regional and national transportation systems.

A full list of grant recipients is available at bit.ly/101510UTC. More information about the UTC program is available at utc.dot.gov.

RITA announced last month a round of seven university research grants totaling $9 million. (see Oct. 8 AASHTO Journal story)