Academic literature on the topic 'New Mexico State University. Dept. of Civil Engineering'

The research experiments reported were conducted at the Materials Research Center, ATR Institute, University of New Mexico, at the request of the Research Bureau, New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department (NMSHTD). The purpose was to determine the amount of additives required for mitigation of alkali-silica reactivity (ASR) based on screening tests. Fly ash additives routinely used in New Mexico and a new material—lithium nitrate—proposed by the Strategic Highway Research Program were evaluated. The work was motivated by continuous problems with early deterioration of concrete structures due to alkali-silica reactivity. The work was based on the use of acceptance criteria established by NMSHTD for expansion due to ASR, as measured in screening tests. Recommendations resulting from this research do not consider all aspects of the behavior of concrete mixtures and structures. The additive recommendations are based on reduction in mortar-bar expansion during accelerated tests.

Despite the area's notable heterogeneity, the North Central Regional Transit District (NCRTD) is the first regional transit district (RTD) certified in New Mexico. The NCRTD contains the state's largest and smallest pueblos, the poorest and richest counties, and rural communities steeped in 500-year-old Spanish traditions near the New Age cosmopolitanism of Santa Fe. The diverse geographical, political, and economic landscape of the NCRTD can make it difficult to pursue new or ambitious projects across the disparate jurisdictions. Organizational and jurisdictional barriers can create roadblocks to effective collaboration. The New Mexico Department of Transportation Research Bureau provided funds to develop a case study and model that could be followed by other potential RTDs in the state. As the organizing and research entity, the Alliance for Transportation Research Institute of the University of New Mexico was charged with developing the RTD model and staffing the effort. An organizing committee, representing public and private interests, was tasked with producing the certification documents and supporting materials, presenting them clearly and effectively to governing bodies and the public, and providing an example of crossjurisdictional transit collaboration. Creation of the NCRTD required public hearings in every jurisdiction. One-on-one “study sessions” raised public awareness in every jurisdiction and fueled the process for obtaining the needed affirmative votes to join the NCRTD. The NCRTD, composed of 10 initial members, has completed the necessary steps for creating an RTD and was certified by the New Mexico Transportation Commission in autumn 2004 as the first RTD in New Mexico.

From the 1990s on, a growing number of federal and state human service programs have identified transportation as an allowable, often vital, support service for clients. State human services agencies in New Mexico are improving clients’ transportation options either by funding the expansion of local transit operators’ service areas and hours, or the starting up of new transit systems. Agencies providing this new transportation funding require specific reports based on the human service delivery model. Because services are client-based, the reports include the number of unique clients served, number of trips provided to each client, trip purposes, and costs. For New Mexico rural transit systems that operate under FTA Section 5311 guidelines, services and reports are trip based. To bridge the gap between human service agency and rural transit system cultures, the Alliance for Transportation Research Institute of the University of New Mexico developed a web-based software program, the Client Referral, Ridership, and Financial Tracking (CRRAFT) Transit Management System. The software integrates human service client transportation referral and service delivery with daily rural public transit operations, provides passengers with increased seamlessness in transportation service, and generates financial and client tracking reports that meet each funding agency’s criteria, including those required by FTA. The CRRAFT lessens the burden on small transit systems that have limited administrative staff of two to three people. The software also provides funding agencies with tools to facilitate planning and to maintain administrative and fiscal accountability.