MTC Asset Newsletter Winter 2007

From the Director

by Tom Maze

The most recent federal transportation policy bill—Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU)—was passed in August 2005. The bill includes the largest and most significant changes to the University Transportation Centers program since the program was initiated in 1987.

The new program specifies four types of University Transportation Centers, including regional centers, Tier I centers, and two other center categories. Most centers were selected or reauthorized competitively.

Over the summer, we were quite busy with our partners at the University of Missouri writing a proposal to reauthorize the MTC. The existing consortium, consisting of the University of Missouri-Columbia, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Lincoln University, the University of Northern Iowa, and Iowa State University, has been an excellent combination. Unfortunately, our consortium lost to another regional consortium led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

MTC Becomes a Tier 1 Center

Following our loss, we reduced our consortium to Iowa’s three regents universities and—with tremendous backing from our Iowa DOT partners—won status as a Tier I center. Therefore, starting on October 1, 2007, the MTC will become a Tier I University Transportation Center (UTC). Tier I centers are nominally funded with $1 million per year in federal funds (though all federal funds are subject to obligation limits and must be matched dollar-for-dollar with non-federal funds).

Fellow Tier I centers include Georgia Tech, the University of Michigan, Rutgers University, San Jose State University, the University of Florida, the University of Idaho, the University of Maryland, the University of South Florida, and a consortium of the University of Southern California and California State University at Long Beach.

Center’s Theme Shifts to Safety and Safety Management

The theme of the current regional MTC has been sustainable asset management and techniques. The new Tier I UTC will concentrate on safety and safety management, which we view as a subset of the current theme.

Over the next several months, we will be winding down the MTC. In its final year, the MTC’s research program will be the largest it has ever been. We have already accepted pre-proposals in our two-step selection process and hope to award several projects to the University of Missouri-Columbia, the University of Northern Iowa, the University of Iowa, and Iowa State University. Additionally, the spring seminar for 2007 is shaping up to be another great series of presentations. We want to make this year, the last year of the current MTC, a great one for our partners in Missouri and Iowa.