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Transportation

FIU's Accelerated Bridge Construction University Transportation Center (ABC-UTC) is leading research and engaged practice that reduces the societal costs of bridge construction by working with industry and state highway officials to commercialize new technologies and develop new protocols that reduce the duration of work zones, prioritize preservation, and increase service life, while reducing construction costs.

The ABC-UTC, part of our College of Engineering and Computing, is funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. One technology, Folded Steel Plate Girder is a rapid alternative to replacing short span bridges with minimal impact to traffic and mobility, and with greater cost effectiveness in relation to overall lifespan.

Our country’s transportation infrastructure is the underpinning of our world-class economy—one of the most productive, flexible and dynamic in the world… We want to work to position the federal government as a catalyst for safe, efficient technologies, not as an impediment.

Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Transportation

According to the Federal Highway Administration, one-fourth of the nation’s 600,000 bridges require repair, rehabilitation or replacement. Dr. Azizinamini, recently named a White House Champion of Change for Transportation, is helping lead the effort to address this issue in order to create a more sustainable transportation infrastructure in the United States.

Priorities/Recommendations for Congress

  • Successfully re-compete for the University Transportation Center designation.
  • Establish Bridge and Structure Product and Technology Clearing House to mainstream new innovations within the surface transportation communities that will provide a technically robust and unbiased process to evaluate innovations, and accelerate the acceptance and implementation of “new” bridge structure materials and technologies.

Research Lead

Atorod Azizinamini, Ph.D.
Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Azizinamini is a specialist in bridge engineering and an expert in the field of accelerated bridge construction. Azizinamini has been instrumental in facilitating the use of advanced materials and technologies in bridges by educating professional engineers and conducting major research studies. Azizinamini has also been an entrepreneur and a leader in developing innovative bridge systems and implementing novel concepts in practice.