EXPERTS ADVISORY

ANN ARBOR—As state legislators examine long-delayed fixes to road and infrastructure problems, University of Michigan experts are available to comment on a host of issues; from concrete composition to new approaches to funding public projects.

Victor Li, professor of civil and environmental engineering, will provide testimony Thursday on materials solutions to the Michigan House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation.

He is the E. Benjamin Wylie Collegiate Professor, James R. Rice Distinguished University Professor and director of the U-M Advanced Civil Engineering-Materials Research Lab. His research includes work on bendable and self-healing concrete.

“U-M has developed innovative concrete materials technology that can propel the state of Michigan to among the top states in road conditions,” Li said. “Michigan can lead.”

To develop his materials, Li looked to unique inspirations.

“Tai Chi is a traditional Chinese martial art that defends by soft ‘giving.’ Nature knows this, and for millions of years has created willow trees that protect themselves from strong winds and abalones shells (the nacre layer) that protect themselves from strong predators,” he said. “We can now make concrete that gently ‘gives’ and saves our roads from heavy truck loads and harsh Michigan weather. We can make potholes a thing of the past.

“Collaborations between universities, government and the private sector can be a major force in lowering risks and cost to accelerate innovations from the lab to the field.”

Contact: 734-764-3368, vcli@umich.edu | Images

Peter Adriaens is a professor of civil and environmental engineering, as well as director of the Center for Smart Infrastructure Financing. The center uses big data approaches to advance new business and investment models to deploy efficient capital for—and design of—smart and resilient infrastructure systems.

He wrote an op-ed in Bridge Magazine titled Fixing Michigan infrastructure crisis takes new thinking about funding. In it, he says:

“The core problem is that the way we are financing public infrastructure is stuck in the 20th century. It’s time to start thinking outside the box of traditional bonds and consider the much broader suite of options available under 21st-century private financing mechanisms.

“Imagine infrastructure as having two sets of values or attributes. The first is its functional use. In the case of water fountains, this is water delivery. In the case of roads, it is delivering a means of transportation. The second is the information content of the infrastructure. This could be the number of bottles filled or amount of water dispensed at a water fountain, or the traffic volume, truck weight or surface deterioration of a road.

“That data has value to third parties for various applications: an increase of water dispensed may be related to a reduction in sugary drinks, or health metrics such as obesity. Economists already use this type of model to infer insurance risk or compute lifetime earning potential. Road traffic data have value to hedge funds as a leading indicator for economic activity, which helps them make investment decisions, or can potentially predict where potholes might develop.”

Contact: 734-763-8032, adriaens@umich.edu

Sherif El-Tawil is the Antoine E. Naaman Collegiate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is also director of the Computational Structural Simulation Laboratory and has previously conducted research for the Michigan Department of Transportation on ultra-high performance concrete.

Contact: 734-764-5617, eltawil@umich.edu

Brian Ellis is an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. His current research includes the capture and use of carbon dioxide in cement materials that can be used in infrastructure projects. Ellis’ expertise lies in environmental geochemistry and, at present, his focus is in approaches to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions.

Contact: 734-763-5470, brellis@umich.edu