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Center for Sustainable & Resilient Infrastructure

Envisions, develops and deploys innovative, safe, efficient, sustainable, and resilient solutions for re-inventing, renewing, and managing infrastructure facilities, networks, and systems.

The Center for Sustainable & Resilient Infrastructure (CSRI) is a partnership between VTTI and Virginia Tech's Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Transportation Infrastructure and Systems Engineering (TISE) Program. The mission of CSRI is to envision, develop and deploy innovative, safe, efficient, sustainable, and resilient solutions for re-inventing, renewing, and managing our infrastructure facilities, networks, and systems, while educating the next generation of transportation professionals to have a solid academic foundation, be creative and resourceful, and appreciate the social, economic, and environmental impacts of our profession.

  • Vehicle Pavement Interaction
  • Structural Evaluation
  • Accelerated Pavement Testing

Gerardo Flintsch

Gerardo Flintsch

Center Director
Edgar de Leon Izeppi

Edgar de Leon Izeppi

Research Scientist
Samer Katicha

Samer Katicha

Research Scientist

  • INNOVATION: CSRI has developed, tested and deployed a number of innovations, including a systemic approach for incorporating safety into transportation asset management, novel approaches to evaluate the safety of pavement and bridges using smart vehicle and tire technologies, robust splash-and-spray and hydroplaning models and assessment tools, effective big data approaches for effectively assessing pavement structural capacity at highway speeds, and tools for life-cycle cost and environmental assessment of transportation infrastructure.
  • INDUSTRY BEST PRACTICES: CSRI research products have been adopted by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the American Association of State highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and ASTM International as standard guidance and protocols. Among other efforts, CSRI has worked with FHWA and NCHRP to develop standards for network level measurement of friction, macrotexture and pavement structural capacity.
  • SUSTAINABILITY: CSRI has developed approaches, guidance, and tools that are being used by transportation agencies around the world and have resulted in significant safety improvements to reduce crashes and associated fatalities, enhanced asset management decisions, and more sustainable and resilient pavements.
  • OUTREACH: CSRI has contributed to enhance the transportation infrastructure body of knowledge with more than 400 journal articles, conference papers, reports, manuals, and magazine articles and 300 presentations, including many keynote presentations at international venues. We have also organized several national and international conferences in Virgnia, including the principal conferences in the world in the areas of vehicle-pavement interaction and pavement asset management.
  • EDUCATION: CSRI has championed the incorporation of asset management and sustainability concepts into the Civil and Environmental Engineering curriculum. The center has initiated and led a series of Infrastructure Management Research and Education Workshops sponsored by the National Science Foundation, FHWA and the Transportation Research Board (TRB). These workshops have provided a forum for the exchange of ideas, best practices, and know-how on asset management education and has been incorporated by the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine as a formal TRB Subcommittee on Asset Management Education.

  • Flintsch, G.W., de León Izeppi, E., Bongioanni, V., Katicha, S., Meager, K., Fernando, E., Perera, R., McGhee, K.K., NCHRP Research Report 964 Protocols for Network-Level Macrotexture Measurement, NCHRP, Washington, DC, 156 pp. https://www.nap.edu/download/26225
  • Katicha, S, Shrestha, S, Flintsch, G.W., Diefenderfer, B.K., Network Level Pavement Structural Testing With the Traffic Speed Deflectometer, VTRC 21-R4, 2020 Charlottesville, VA, 36 pp. http://www.virginiadot.org/vtrc/main/online_reports/pdf/21-R4.pdf.
  • Flintsch, G.J Meijer, K Smith, Improved Asphalt Pavement Sustainability through Perpetual Pavement Design, FHWA Case, 2020, https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/50764.
  • de León Izeppi, E., Katicha, S., Flintsch, G.W., McGhee, K., McCarthy, R., Smith, K., Pavement Friction Management Program Utilizing Continuous Friction Measurement Equipment and State-of-the-Practice Safety Analysis Demonstration Project, Report No. FHWA-RC-20-0009, Sep 2019, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C (in print).
  • de León Izeppi, E., Flintsch, G.W., McCarthy, R., Evaluation of Methods for Pavement Surface Friction, Testing on NonTangent Roadways and Segments, North Carolina Department of Transportation, FHWA/NC/2017-02, Aug 2017, Raleigh, NC. https://connect.ncdot.gov/projects/research/RNAProjDocs/2017-02FinalReport.pdf.
  • Katicha, SW, Flintsch, G.W., Shrestha, S., Thyagarajan, S., Demonstration of Network Level Structural Evaluation with Traffic Speed Deflectometer: Final Report, 2017, TPF-5(282), 35 pp. https://www.pooledfund.org/Details/Study/518.
  • de León Izeppi, E., Katicha, S.W., Flintsch, G.W., McCarthy, R., Continuous Friction Measurement Equipment As a Tool for Improving Crash Rate Prediction: A Pilot Study, Virginia Transportation Research Council, VTRC 16-R18, 2016 Charlottesville, VA, 37 pp. http://www.virginiadot.org/vtrc/main/online_reports/pdf/16-r8.pdf.
  • Flintsch, G.W., Smith, B.L., Infrastructure Pavement Assessment & Management Applications Enabled by the Connected Vehicles Environment – Proof-of-Concept, Final Report, Connected Vehicles- Infrastructure University Transportation Center (CVI-UTC), Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, 2015. Blacksburg, VA, 13 pp. http://cvi-utc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Flintsch_Final.pdf.
  • de León Izeppi, E., Morrison, A., Flintsch, G.W., McGhee, K.K., Best Practices and Performance Assessment for Preventive Maintenance Treatments for Virginia Pavements, Virginia Transportation Research Council, VTRC 16-R3, 2015, Charlottesville, VA, 58 pp. http://vtrc.virginiadot.org/PubDetails.aspx?PubNo=16-R3.
  • Flintsch, G.W., Tang, L., Katicha, S.W., de León, E., Viner, H., Dunford, A., Nesnas, K., Coyle, F., Sanders, P., Gibbons, R., Williams, B., Hargreaves D., Parry, T., McGhee, K., Larson, R.M., and Smith K. (2014), Splash and Spray Assessment Tool Development Program, Final Report, 2014, DTFH61-08-C-00030. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/50550.
  • Bryce, J., Flintsch, G.W., Katicha, S., and Diefenderfer, B.,, Network-Level Structural Capacity Index for Network-level Structural Evaluation of Pavements, Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research, VCTIR 13-R9, 2013. Charlottesville, VA, 63 pp. http://www.virginiadot.org/vtrc/main/online_reports/pdf/13-r9.pdf.
  • Flintsch, G.W., Katicha, S.W., Bryce, Ferne, B., J., Nell, S., Diefenderfer, B., Assessment of Continuous Pavement Deflection measuring Technologies, Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2), S2-R06F-RW-1, 2013, The National Academies, Washington, DC. http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/shrp2/SHRP2prepubR06F.pdf.
  • de León Izeppi, E.D., Flintsch, G.W., and McGhee, K.K, Field Performance of High-Friction Surface, Virginia Transportation Research Council, VTRC 10-CR6, Jun 2010, Charlottesville, VA, 28 pp. http://www.virginiadot.org/vtrc/main/online_reports/pdf/10-cr6.pdf.
  • Flintsch, G.W., and McGhee, K.K., NCHRP Synthesis 401 - Quality Management of Pavement Condition Data Collection, Transport Research Board, NAS-NRC, 2009, Washington, DC, 155 pp. http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_syn_401.pdf.