State funding marked for transportation engineering research at Rowan

New Jersey Assembly Members Heather Simmons and Dave Bailey Jr. (D-3) visited the South Jersey Technology Park Thursday to present Rowan University leaders with a ceremonial $1 million check, representing the latest round of state funding for the Center for Research & Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering Systems (CREATES). 

Part of Rowan University’s Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering, the center produces transportation engineering and infrastructure innovations through research funded by federal, state and local governments. 

Rowan is the only academic institution in the Northeast with the testing capacity to simulate decades of heavy traffic conditions in just a few months. Its Accelerated Pavement Testing Facility allows researchers to rapidly evaluate new materials, pavement designs and construction techniques. 

For more than a decade, the state of New Jersey and elected officials representing Glassboro have provided significant funding to support CREATES’ wide-ranging research activities.

Since 2015, the center has produced dozens of publications on technologies to deice runways, increase the use of recycled asphalt and highly elastic binders in pavements, and develop resilient pavement systems for cold regions. CREATES researchers also conduct transportation studies for the state on safety belts, school bus crashes and mass transit use.