The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) initiates and manages a comprehensive research program including Federal and State Planning and Research (SP&R) program funds every year. The research program is broad in scope, covering pavements, operations, planning, structures, geotechnical, construction, traffic and safety, multimodal travel, and environmental and other issues of importance to the Department. Expertise to work on these and other research projects is located throughout the University of North Carolina (UNC) system.
Questions often arise within NCDOT concerning project issues that do not warrant a full research proposal. NCDOT has created a nationally recognized Technical Assistance program which uses faculty at any university within North Carolina for small, quick response investigation services on specific, critical topics as may arise during the year. This project facilitates the implementation of the Technical Assistance Program by providing the monies available for dual employment, supplemental pay, or release time to faculty researchers at any university within the UNC system or at Duke University who are enlisted to perform small technical investigations for NCDOT. Typically, faculty professors are used for up to 120 hours of work per discrete Technical Assistance Request (TAR) to conduct these investigations.
Each TAR may include costs for lab fees, lab technicians, assistant researchers, lab and testing supplies, instrumentation, travel costs to testing sites, and student support in performing the technical assistance request. The budget attached provides estimated funding for approximately twenty technical assistance requests for the 2023 and 2024 calendar years.
