Developing sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems is vital to ensuring that transportation investments deliver reliable, long-term mobility options for the state of North Carolina. The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has shown a deep commitment to developing sustainable and resilient transportation infrastructure and systems across the state. To better prepare for and mitigate disruptions in the transportation network, NCDOT is sponsoring a Center of Excellence focusing on sustainable and resilient infrastructure research. Our proposed research consortium answers this call by bringing together diverse interdisciplinary approaches and expertise to answer to address issues of sustainability and resilience in the transportation system.
Our team consists of researchers from North Carolina State University, Fayetteville State University, and East Carolina University with multiple areas of disciplinary expertise spread across nine departments and research centers. The consortium will also engage undergraduate and graduate students across the three universities. Through these efforts, students will experience positive and meaningful workforce development opportunities that help prepare North Carolina’s next generation of transportation professionals.
The proposed research projects included in the consortium were developed by the research team to address specific sustainability and resiliency needs outlined by the NCDOT request for proposal, NCDOT senior leadership, and NCDOT staff. The projects developed for the Center of Excellence are
focused on the three specific themes, each of which are designed to address disruptions in the transportation system stemming from natural hazards, everyday disruptions, and other unexpected large33
scale disruptions to the network. The three projects proposed for the center of excellence will address the following themes:
• Theme #1: Resilient Infrastructure and Asset Management
• Theme #2: Electric Vehicle (EV) Resilience
• Theme #3: Resilient Cyber Security
The proposed consortium of universities and researchers involved in addressing these themes will bring an extensive set of expertise, research experience, and state-of-the-art methodological approaches to addressing these three sustainable and resilient research themes. Research products from these projects will yield future-focused, practice-ready solutions for enhancing the sustainability and resilience of NCDOT transportation infrastructure investments.
