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SPECIAL REPORT: UT Center Aims to Spur Job Growth

Posted on: Monday, 20 March 2006, 03:03 CST

By Anonymous

The University of Toledo (UT) was designated a National University Transportation Center by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) in late 2005 after an application process that took over three years. UT will be awarded $2 million over a four- year period to advance state-of-the-art transportation research and expand the workforce of transportation professionals. A requirement for matching funds will result in $4 million of funding for this program. UT and its Intermodal Transportation Institute (ITI), specifically, intend to play a regional leadership role in developing improved intermodal supply-chain systems and alternative transportation methods and technologies such as hybrid-electric, fuel cell, and biodiesel technologies.

With the leadership and support of President Daniel M. Johnson, UT created ITI in 2001 to work cooperatively with public and private sector partners in transportation, logistics, and supply chain management to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life. ITI is designed to build upon the unique features of the region, offer the potential for sustained external funding, and is a way to access and assemble resources from various disciplines at UT to address opportunities defined with the help of its public and private sector partners.

"ITI is a university-based activity that focuses on research and educational programs that support economic development," explained Mark A. Vonderembse, PhD, director, ITI.

Now that ITI is designated a National University Transportation Center, it will have to obtain matching funds to receive the $2 million grant.

"We have to match it from other sources - private sector or other public sector dollars," explained Vonderembse. "We are in the process right now of working with US DOT to write the strategic plan so those funds can be released, which we expect will happen in late spring or early summer." The matching funds will be sought on a project-by-project basis.

Aside from UT's recent University Transportation Center (UT-C) designation, it is also part of the UTC designation that includes the University of Detroit Mercy (lead university) Bowling Green State University, Grand Valley State University, and Wayne State University.

UT's Intermodal Transportation Institute has three primary focus areas: alternate energy, infrastructure utilization, and supply chains. It currently has over a dozen active projects in these areas.

One example is the Upper Midwest States Freight Study. Phase one was completed in February 2005. Phase 2 funding began in. September 2005. The study aims to assess freight flow, capacity, and administrative impediments for freight movements across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin as well as Ontario. ITI is working with the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Illinois at Chicago to build a regional coalition of states, for transportation planning.

"Over the past two years, we have gathered a substantial amount of flow data - rail, truck, air, and water," Vonderembse stated. "We have all of that information now in the GIS layout. Peter Lindquist, the chair of geography and planning, has been helping to put that together... We have a wealth of data that we can use to our advantage in terms of economic development."

"When you're bringing in freight by air or by water, one of the concerns is backhaul," explained Vonderembse. "This data has become a real asset to planning,"

Another active project is ITI's transportation cluster leadership. Partial funding is secured for this project, in which ITI is providing leadership for the cluster. A detailed marketing plan is in preparation.

"We were asked about a year ago to provide a leadership role in helping to formulate a marketing plan for economic development related to the transportation cluster," Vonderembse stated. "Since then we have been developing the plan - there are multiple elements to that."

The cluster brings together many of ITI's public and private partners. In the public sector, ITI partners include ToledoLucas County Port Authority, TMACOG, Regional Growth Partnership, TARTA, Toledo Express Airport, Port of Toledo, EISC - Technology Center, and Ohio Department of Development. Government entities that have partnered with ITI include City of Toledo, Lucas County, Wood County, Congressional Representatives, Federal Highway Administration, and Ohio Department of Transportation. Private sector partners include: Roadway Express, Grand Aire, D&L Trucking, BAX Global, Dana Corporation, Hub Group, Transportation Advocacy Group for Northwest Ohio, Nagle Lines, N-Viro International Corp., Owens Coming, SSOE, Benchmark Engineering, Toledo Trucking Association, and Ohio Trucking Association.

"This is a team effort to look at how we develop the transportation assets of the region," stated Vonderembse, "What we see is an opportunity to have many things come together - development of land, transportation assets, the recognition that the transportation cluster is important for the area."

Economic development activities being examined include international air freight and distribution via highway, ship to rail to truck connectivity, and warehousing and distribution center development that support retail operations.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) are another project ITI is working on. According to ITI, PHEV is an important alternative to continued dependence on petroleum-based fuels. It can use inexpensive plug-in power at home or at work, a clean internal combustion engine for long distance driving, and have the added efficiency of regenerative braking and fuel optimization. The market penetration that can be achieved by PHEV depends on the vehicle cost versus the value perceived by the customer. The ITI is working with the Electric Power Research Institute, FirstEnergy, the Toledo- Lucas County Port Authority, and other partners to raise $1 million for a detailed preliminary study.

ITI is also investigating a hydraulic hybrid electric vehicle, which utilizes similar technology but stores energy hydraulically instead of in a battery.

Another ITI technology project involves alternate freight systems that could be utilized by suppliers to Toledo's DaimlerChrysler assembly facility. A gondola system and a Multi-Freight, or Multi-F system. These systems could be used to remove heavy truck traffic from the roadways and streamline the movement of materials.

"It would have RFID or GIS systems to track it," Vonderembse stated of the MultiF. "It has some real advantages for efficiency, cost reduction, pollution reduction, safety improvements, and more reliable delivery from the supplier to the manufacturer."

The gondola concept has been studied to some extent, but more work needs to be done. "If you're trying to attract the kind of money it takes to build that kind of system, then you need a sophisticated study of the economics," stated Vonderembse. "We have raised about half of the money to do that kind of a study. We estimate the preliminary engineering, work and the financial analysis will cost about $100 thousand."

The emergence of supply chains and sophisticated distribution systems is placing new demands on transportation. ITI sees understanding transportation's role in this new paradigm and adapting the transportation systems to meet the needs of suppliers, manufacturers, and customers as fundamentally important for economic development.

Copyright Telex Communications, Inc. Feb 01, 2006

Source: Toledo Business Journal

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