Highways and Transportation

This broad and wide-reaching topic influences global road development and management, and includes study not only of materials and engineering, but also touches on the social science and economics surrounding road transportation. Working for many years in close collaboration with organisations such as the World Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Department for International Development (DIFID), the International Road Federation, and the European Transport Research Council, the influences of this research group are felt world-wide.

Dr Michael Burrow leads this group, together with Dr Harry Evdorides and Professor Miles Tight. Their research in highway management and engineering informs the internationally-reputed Advanced Engineering Management (Highways) MSc and a number of short courses and workshops, most notably the annual Senior Roads Executive Programme.

Recent and current major research activities cover such topics as:

• road economics; road pavement design and performance;
• highway condition monitoring and data collection;
• effects of climate change and disaster management;
• road maintenance management;
• traffic signal violations; energy management;
• road safety and accident modelling

Examples of research projects:

• Design of urban transport systems to meet the needs of an older population (pdf, 230KB)
• The aggregation of road star ratings for urban areas (pdf, 125KB)
• CRISPS – Climate resilient sustainable road pavement surfacings

Birmingham is host to the world-leading Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education, a multi-disciplinary group of staff from the Schools of Civil Engineering, Electronic, Electrical & Systems Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Materials & Metallurgy.

This unique collaboration is led by Professors Chris Baker and Felix Schmid, together with Dr Andrew Quinn, and research with a particular focus in civil engineering include railway asset management, railway-specific environmental and geotechnical engineering, aerodynamics and risk management.

Recent and current projects in railway engineering include:

• Tomorrow’s Railway and Climate Change Adaptation (TRaCCA )project
• studying the effect of train aerodynamic phenomena in operating conditions
• the Living Rail project(barriers to achieving a modal shift towards electrified railways by 2050)
• Move-IT (transport disruption caused by natural disasters and climate change
• Past Dependency - The development of electric traction on urban railways and how it affects future development, using London Underground as a case study (pdf, 79KB)
• Potential impacts of climate change on transportation systems (pdf, 84KB).
• The impact of extreme weather on the power supply to GB railways (pdf, 473KB)
• Railway Infrastructure Systems Engineering Network (RISEN)

Transport sustainability is about the safety, equity and sustainability of travel: transport systems and usage which promotes sustainable urban living. This theme involves projects, funded by UK research councils and the European Union amongst its many supporters, which investigate the nature of long term and large scale change in transport systems and the future design and form of sustainable urban areas.

Under the leadership of Professor Miles Tight, recent and current major research activities include:

• the understanding and modelling of transport practices (STEP-CHANGE project)
• visions for the role of walking and cycling
• understanding walking and cycling
• evaluating the impact of individual habits on the implementation of a sustainable transport system (pdf)
• Developing Urban Transport in Turkey with Much Higher Dependence on Walking and Cycling (pdf)

As in all engineering activity, safety and reliability are key to a successful project and on-going operation of the transport sector. This research theme includes study of risk and reliability transferred from the more-traditional construction industry into the transport sector.

Projects include decision-making tools based on:

• safety-cost analysis;
• life cycle analysis;
• uncertainty analysis;
• safety-critical software assessment;
• dynamic and static finite element analysis;
• safety case preparation for industry.

Dr Michael Burrow and Dr Harry Evdorides' work includes much on safety and reliability, and recent projects have focused specifically on road safety and railway risk-safety support systems, many in conjunction with i-RAP.

Example of research projects:

• Urban road safety and sustainability in low and middle income countries (pdf)