March 18, 2008

Disaster responses, transportation issues highlight Purdue Road School

Tom Sorel, Minnesota division administrator for the Federal Highway Association, will speak in a session on responding to disasters at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday (March 25). Some 1,500 local and state transportation officials from around the state will participate in the three-day event sponsored by the Joint Transportation Research Program, which is housed at Purdue.

The conference, the oldest of its kind in the nation, will feature a number of state, federal, academic and industry transportation experts. All conference sessions, which will be held in the Stewart Center, are free and open to the public.

"Bridge and transportation infrastructure has been a hot topic in the news since the Minnesota bridge collapse," said Kumares Sinha, Road School co-chairman and Purdue's Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering. "Responding to such incidents, and design and inspection of bridges will make up a few of the more than 30 different sessions we have focusing on important transportation issues."

The eight-lane I-35 West bridge across the Mississippi River collapsed during evening rush hour on Aug. 1 last year and was one of the largest failures of a freeway bridge in the history of the U.S. interstate system. The failure remains under investigation, but preliminary reports pointed to a design flaw in the structure.

Sorel will talk about how his division responded to the incident and what was learned from the experience. Larry Thompson, mayor of Nappanee, Ind., whose town was hit by a tornado last Oct. 18, will join Sorel on the panel.

Robert Conner, a professor of civil engineering at Purdue who assisted in the bridge collapse investigation, will speak on bridge design and inspections during an 8:30 a.m. session on Wednesday (March 26). Conner, who has taught at Purdue since 2005, has researched and evaluated bridges for nearly 20 years.

Retired Lt. Col. Todd Beer, a former member of the Air Force One flight team, will be the keynote speaker at the Road School luncheon at noon on March 26. The retired Air Force officer, a native of Nappanee, flew Air Force One for presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He was flying the plane carrying the president on the day of the 2001 terrorist attacks and during Bush's surprise Thanksgiving visit to Baghdad in 2003.

Greg Kicinski, manager of the project management office for the Indiana Department of Transportation, will give a progress update on major new construction within the state's Major Moves plan at 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday (March 26). Gary Mroczka, production management division manager for the department, will preside over the session.

Alf Guerbert, international president of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and Purdue civil engineering professor Andrew Tarko will take part in a session that will discuss several transportation safety issues, such as hazard analysis and comprehensive approaches to solving red-light running. Dan Shamo, senior engineer with the URS Corp., and Michael Dreznes, deputy director general of the International Road Federation, will join them on the panel.

Other highlights of this year's Road School include:

* Tuesday (March 25) from 1:30-3 p.m. "Back to Basics: Work Zone Safety - the New Rule." Rick Drumm, transportation safety engineer for the Indiana Division of the Federal Highway Administration, and Pat McCarty, work zone safety administrator for the Indiana Department of Transportation, will talk about safety management and assessing mobility in response to new federal rules in those areas.

* Tuesday (March 25) from 3:15-4:45 p.m. "Freight Corridors of the Future - Freight Mobility." Kate Quinn, from the freight management and operations office of the Federal Highway Association in Washington, D.C., and Donald Sansone, director of supply chain for Red Gold Inc., will talk about transportation and logistics issues that are unique to Indiana and the future of a planned multistate freight corridor.

* Tuesday (March 25) from 3:15-4:45 p.m. "The Silent Killer." County engineers Jodi Coblentz and Jim Olson, Brown County Commissioner Stephanie Yager, and Bill Hean, executive director of the Indiana Association of County Commissioners, will talk about highway access and the role county commissioners play in access management plans.

* Wednesday (March 26) 8:30-10 a.m. "Whitesell Cemetery Relocation." Christopher Koeppel, administrator for the cultural resource section of the Indiana Department of Transportation, and Ryan Peterson, of AMEC Earth and Environmental Services, will talk about the management and archeology processes conducted for the Whitesell-Wright-Gentry Cemetery relocation project, which was recently completed to enable an Indianapolis highway project to proceed.

* Wednesday (March 26) 10:15-11:45 a.m. "Creating and Maintaining Your Community Image." Berne Mayor John Minch, Jasper Mayor Maureen Brown, Delphi Mayor Randy Strasser, Angola historical landmarks coordinator Todd Ziegler, and Aaron Lyons of street development in Delphi will speak on how historical districts and festivals helped those cities define their heritage.

* Wednesday (March 26) from 10:15-11:45 a.m. "Greening Your Fleet." Kellie Walsh, executive director of the Central Indiana Clean Cities Alliance, and Larry Speicher, fleet account executive of General Motors Corp., will talk about integrating biofuels and biofuel-equipped vehicles into transportation fleets.

Held annually at Purdue since 1914, the Road School brings together transportation-related professionals from the Federal Highway Administration to the smallest municipalities in the state, said Karen Hatke, program coordinator for the Joint Transportation Research Program.

The Road School is co-sponsored by Purdue's School of Civil Engineering and the Indiana Department of Transportation.

Writer: Clyde Hughes, (765) 494-2073, jchughes@purdue.edu

Sources: Kumares Sinha (765) 494-2211, ksinha@purdue.edu

Karen S. Hatke, (765) 494-9310, kshatke@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

Note to Journalists: Interviews with Indiana Department of Transportation officials must be arranged through that department. Shelley Haney (317-233-4676) will coordinate interviews for INDOT officials at Road School.

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