San José State University’s Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) announced plans to create a multi-university consortium and climate change research program, following a $4.6 million award provided by a federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant.
The CRISI grant from the Federal Railroad Administration was announced earlier this month, as part of a larger, more than $368 million effort to harden rail network protections against climate change. Enter MTI, which intends to partner with Colorado State University-Pueblo, Michigan State University, Oregon State University and the University of Hawaii to develop the Climate Change and Extreme Events Training and Research (CCEETR) program.
CCEETR aims to develop, demonstrate and distribute risk mitigation strategies and preventative measures to improve the U.S. rail network’s resilience to extreme weather events and climate change at large. As part of this, the academic consortium would work with railroads nationwide and test a variety of technologies at the Transportation Technology Center and on revenue service track.
In this, the partners hope to determine methods and technologies capable of saving lives and equipment, preventing transportation disruption and shield billions of dollars the effects of climate change could otherwise threaten.