California Department of Transportation District 11 NSF Summer Team Internship 2012

Tamina Akram ♦ tamina15@hotmail.com Leonora Pizarro ♦ leonorapizarro@gmail.com

San Diego State University Department of Civil EngineeringNSF Grant # DUE0653277

INTRODUCTION

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is a department in the state of California with the mission to improve mobility across the state. It manages the state highway system which includes the California Freeway and Expressway System and is actively involved with public transportation systems throughout the state. District 11 is in charge of the San Diego county and Imperial Valley located in Southern California.

METHODS

TAMINA - ADA DIVISION:• Corrected ‘Redline’ Design Plans using Bentley Microstation CAD software and the Plans Preparation Manual. • Took and calculated field measurements

LEONORA - ADVANCED PLANNING DIVISION:• Utilized Microstation CAD to draft strip map of the SR-78 highway.• Calculated capacity of AM and PM peak hour traffic per lane for SR-78.• Corrected weaving analysis on existing Westbound and Eastbound SR-78 interchanges on Microsoft Excel.

Caltrans District 11 Office in Old Town

RESULTS

TAMINA: • The slope was adjusted to ensure greater safety for handicap people.

LEONORA:• The strip map with the calculated capacity per lane allows the engineers to see which lanes along the highway exceed standard. Comparisons can then be made between traffic in those interchanges for the next decades. It shows the solution chosen by the engineer will indeed decrease congestion.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to acknowledge the National Science Foundation for funding and providing this opportunity. We would also like to thank the MESA staff and Eric Pamintuan for all their guidance. Special thanks to our Caltrans mentors: Al-Jafri Abu-Bakr, Vasant Kale, Mohammad Oladi, Roy Flores, Frank Contreraz, and Benjamin Guerrero.

CONCLUSION

Our experiences through our internships has given us insight into the transportation engineering industry that we would not have the benefit of obtaining in our academic curriculum. Both of us were able to become familiar with Microstation CAD. Leonora was able to gain more knowledge of highway design and see the process taken by Advanced Planning to resolve deficiencies along the highway. Tamina became much more acquainted with various ADA projects and familiarized herself with ADA rules and regulations.

DESIGN – AMERICAN DISABILITY ACT (ADA) DIVISION

This division provides the procedures, policies, standards, guidance, technical assistance, and training needed to facilitate the transportation improvements in California.

An Example of ADA design:

The images below show the corner of Palm Avenue and 13Th Street. The slope was 13% and was supposed to be lowered to Maximum 8.33% per ADA standard.

ADVANCED PLANNING DIVISION

This division focuses on developing and maintaining a system that provides safe, reliable transportation, and mobility for the people and services of the state. This involves identifying the structural or operational deficiencies in the transportation system and producing a solution. A Project Study Report (PSR) is formatted which meets the statutory requirements and is a model for Project Initiation Documents (PIDs).

Image of the existing sidewalk, which was not Built to ADA standard.

Image of the existing design at the corner of 13Th Street and Palm Avenue before construction.

Image of the design at the corner of 13Th Street and Palm Avenue after construction.

Portions of the strip map of the SR-78 showing the Peak AM and PM Traffic.

The twelve Caltrans Districts and their counties.

Portions of the strip Map of the SR-78 showing capacity for the AM Peak hour.

Aerial Views of separate sections along the SR-78

Image of the continuation of the ramp around 13Th

Street and Palm Avenue on Palm Avenue side after construction