PennDOT Awards $2.1 Million to Pitt for Environmental Study

PITTSBURGH—The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has selected the University of Pittsburgh to conduct environmental research for its

Interstate-99 road construction. The three-year research project, funded for $2.1 million, will examine a new concept in roadway design that should preserve as much as possible surface and groundwater flows at their preconstruction conditions.

"Construction projects always disturb the landscape," said Rafael G. Quimpo, professor of civil and environmental engineering in Pitt's School of Engineering and the project's principal investigator. "In many ways the aesthetics in highway alignment and design can emphasize the harmony between man-made structures and nature, and a general rule is that in order to preserve the ecology, a project must have minimal impact on flora and fauna in the area."

"Endangered species must also be protected during and after construction," added Quimpo. "Thus, it is desirable to preserve as much as possible surface and groundwater flows, and this presents a formidable challenge. Stream restoration projects often improve water and wildlife conditions, although preservation of preexisting conditions is a minimum objective."

The new roadway construction design concept being studied involves creating a sub-base layer to act as an infiltration gallery to filter surface runoff and direct it underground instead of simply channeling it to receiving waters. Also, in order to reduce sediment production resulting from construction activity, off-road settling basins need to be built.

Because these basins minimize adverse impacts on the ecology, the extra measures could reduce the long-term cost of the highway, by minimizing the environmental factors that cause the roadway to deteriorate, according to Quimpo.

The research team will investigate and validate best management practices for protecting the environment during construction, and will examine methods to protect wetlands and ecologically restore streams to their preconstruction state.

Precha Yodnane, vice president of GAI Consultants of Monroeville, will assist Quimpo as associate director of the project, which will be conducted in collaboration with GAI, AWK Engineers of Turtle Creek, Gwin Dobson & Foreman Inc. of Altoona, and Unitec Engineers of State College.

Ronald Neufeld, professor of civil and environmental engineering and professor of environmental and occupational health in Pitt's School of Engineering and Graduate School of Public Health, respectively, will be coprincipal investigator of the study. Faculty members from Pitt's Departments of Geology and Planetary Science and Biological Sciences will assist in the project. Environmental monitoring will be conducted in collaboration with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

"This project has the potential to set or influence best-management practice standards for the environmental management of runoff for highway construction in Pennsylvania and possibly for other states in the nation," said Neufeld.

When completed, Interstate 99 will connect U.S. I-70 and I-80 from Wolfsburg, Pa., through Bald Eagle, Pa.

###

7/29/04/blg