What We Do – Rao Research & Consulting

For well-informed highway investment decisions.

WHAT WE DO

RRC performs research and consulting projects for agencies that seek to improve their designs, construction processes, rehabilitation, maintenance and investment strategies for their highway infrastructure facilities. Findings from these studies typically form the basis for developing and upgrading pavement or bridge design standards and construction specifications that ultimately improve the performance, safety, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of the nation’s infrastructure.

OUR SERVICES

We provide research, training, technology transfer, and product development services for the highway infrastructure industry. Our projects, typically funded by federal, state, and other highway industry clients, aim to improve infrastructure performance and facilitate well-informed highway investment decisions.

Our project findings and deliverables are based on sound technical concepts combined with thorough validations with field, experimental, and case studies data. Therefore they are ready for immediate implementation by the sponsor agencies, their affiliates, and the industry.

Our research products range from research reports on advanced topics, guidebooks, best practice documents, design manuals, “how to” guides, instructor-led and web-based training courses, and software tools.

Highway material characterization.

Quality assurance procedures.

Pavement analysis and design including AASHTOWare Pavement ME design and local calibration of distress models for agency implementation.

Statistical modeling for performance prediction.

Evaluation of test procedures and technologies.

Materials, testing, and construction standards and specification development.

Forensic analyses.

Transportation data fusion and data analytics.

Economic analysis and life cycle cost modeling.

Value engineering.

Innovations in materials, design, construction, and rehabilitation of concrete and steel bridges.

OUR PRODUCTS

DART is a sensor technology incorporated into a portable device for real-time testing of asphalt binder consistency and uniformity during production, modification, and plant mixing processes. The DART addresses a critical testing need for suppliers, contractors, and owner-agencies and is uniquely positioned to be a game changer in the $6-8 billion asphalt binder market. The development of the bench prototype was partially funded under a National Science Foundation grant, and the validation of the field prototype was funded by the Transportation Research Board. This device has undergone extensive evaluation using real-world construction samples and been validated as an effective compliance testing device.

Contact us for more details on the technology or

to join our list of industry partners,