Transportation pooled funds
The Transportation Pooled Fund (TPF) Program allows federal, state, and local agencies and other organizations to combine resources to support transportation research studies. A pooled fund study is intended to address a new area of planning, research or technology transfer or provide information that will complement or advance those areas.
The number of TPF studies each U.S. state or territory has participated in.
Minnesota has participated in 716 studies.
Active MnDOT-led pooled fund programs/studies
Clear Roads
The Clear Roads research program brings together transportation professionals and researchers from around the country to drive innovation in the field of winter maintenance. By evaluating materials, equipment and methods in real-world conditions, the program identifies the most effective techniques and technologies to save agencies money, improve safety and increase efficiency.
Continuous Bituminous Pavement Stripping Assessment Through Non-destructive Testing
Stripping is a critical pavement subsurface distress affecting the performance and durability of asphalt pavement systems. The most challenging aspect of stripping is that it starts at the bottom or middle of bituminous layers and propagates upward. This makes it almost impossible to detect and quantify at early stages through visual inspections or traditional pavement forensic investigation tools. Fortunately, new, advanced, non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technologies are becoming increasingly accessible and suitable for solving complex pavement issues. The primary objective of the pooled-fund project is to develop a methodology for rapid and automatic detection of stripping in bituminous pavements using 3D-GPR and other NDE technologies.
Continuous Asphalt Mixture Compaction Assessment using Density Profiling System
The objective of the ongoing pooled-fund project is to use DPS to improve density construction leading to longer lasting pavements. In addition, the goal is to reduce the need for destructive methods such as coring in evaluating the in-place density to improve both safety and coverage of the evaluation process. Phase II will include both research and implementation track activities. The second phase of the pooled-fund project will continue to build upon and advance the progress made in Phase I by answering technical and practical questions related to DPS and developing tools and guidance for implementing DPS in the field as a best practice for density measurement.
National Access Evaluation
Access is a category on MnDOT’s performance website that measures access to jobs by walking, bicycle, automobile, and transit. The datasets also include many destination types in the areas of education, healthcare and services, food grocery, entertainment, and intermodal freight. The research team has created interactive maps for each participating state that measure access to opportunities using census populations centers at the tract level. The tool shows travel time medians by walking, bicycling, transit, and automobiles to selected destinations. In phase III, the TPF study will add more features to the datasets such as focal destinations including access “deserts”.
National Accessibility Evaluation Phase II Access Across America
Transportation exists to provide the opportunity to reach destinations, and this potential for interaction can be regarded as the fundamental product of transportation systems. Accessibility metrics directly reflect the ability of travelers to reach critical destinations. This project has two main objectives. First, it will create a new, national Census block-level accessibility dataset that can be used by partners in local transportation system evaluation, performance management, planning, and research efforts. Second, it will produce and publish a series of annual reports describing accessibility to jobs by auto, transit, and biking in metropolitan areas across America.'
National Partnership to Improve the Quality of Pavement Preservation Treatment Construction & Data Collection Practices (PG Phase III)
This pooled-fund study will support state highway agencies (SHAs) and other Local Public Agencies (LPAs) by improving the application and quality of PM treatments on their pavements under live traffic conditions. The study will also provide guidance and funding to SHAs and LPAs in an effort to standardize or harmonize treatment strategies, address implementation efforts, and develop best construction practices utilizing their existing specifications or available AASHTO standards. For the study to be valuable, documentation of pretreatment pavement condition is critical along with monitoring of post treatment performance. The study will use established and proven data collection procedures such as those from the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) program to monitor the PM treatments. This data will be available to the public through an online system (e.g. LTPP InfoPave™ web portal).
National Road Research Alliance
The National Road Research Alliance (NRRA) pooled fund focuses on solving problems that impact road owners with an emphasis on customer needs. This pooled fund will help direct and complement the use of the MnROAD test track for local, regional and national research, technology transfer and implementation needs.
North/West Passage
Interstates 90 and 94 between Wisconsin and Washington (the "north/west passage") are major corridors for commercial and recreational travel. They are also subject to extreme winter weather conditions that pose significant operational and travel-related challenges in all the cooperating states. These states — Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming — are predominantly rural and face similar transportation issues related to traffic management, traveler information, and commercial vehicle operations. Recognizing the value of coordinated, cross-border collaboration for Intelligent Transportation Systems deployment to address these issues, Minnesota initiated a meeting in 2002 with representatives from each of the states within the corridor. The group established itself as a Transportation Pooled Fund in 2003. North/West Passage members contribute $25,000 or more annually to the pooled fund and are reimbursed for program travel. A work plan is developed and approved annually by the Steering Committee.
To see a complete lists of all pooled funds that Minnesota participates in, go to The Transportation Pooled Fund website. On the map, click on Minnesota. Below the map, you will see links to all projects Minnesota is involved in, and all active solicitations.