Skip to main content

News

Transportation system research will lead to improved Texas highway planning
By

mjones4 [at] central.uh.edu (Marilyn Howard Jones) 713-743-5630

Dr. Lu Gao, construction management professor, is principal investigator for the research project, “Understanding the Deterioration of Texas Transportation Infrastructure System Through Data Science.”
Dr. Lu Gao, construction management professor, is principal investigator for the research project, “Understanding the Deterioration of Texas Transportation Infrastructure System Through Data Science.”

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has awarded $349,884 to the University of Houston and the University of Texas at Austin for a two-year project, “Quantification of the Performance of Preventive Maintenance and Rehabilitation Strategies.” The principal investigator of the UH research team is Dr. Lu Gao, associate professor of construction management in the College of Technology.   

This research is expected to help TxDOT improve its pavement analysis system, which is used for the planning, construction, and management of the Texas highway infrastructure. Using advanced data science techniques, the research team will develop deterioration models that incorporate historical data and capture the impact of maintenance and rehabilitation activities. Reducing errors in predicting deterioration can bring significant savings through timely intervention and accurate planning.

This is the sixth research grant awarded to the UH Department of Construction Management by TxDOT in recent years.