Lecture Series: Expert Perspectives in Transportation
A History of Transportation Research
Engineering students gathered to hear Dr. Clyde Lee, engineering professor emeritus, tell the story of the birth and development of engineering at UT Austin and the growth of transportation research. The lecture was given on Friday, September 14, 2007, at the Cockrell School of Engineering as part of the “Expert Perspectives in Transportation” series sponsored by the Transportation Engineering Group in the Department of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering. Ph.D. student Alison Conway, who introduced the speaker, said that Dr. Lee was a primary architect of the UT academic and research program in transportation engineering, one of the premier programs in the world.
Dr. Lee's research activities include pioneering work in the development and application of highway Weigh-In Motion (WIM) systems, simulation of traffic control and vehicular flow at intersections, automated traffic data collection and analysis, and traffic monitoring for pavement and bridge research. Although he is not an alumnus of The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Lee was elected the first and, so far, only honorary member of the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni.
Dr. Lee, the Nassir I. AI-Rashid Centennial Professor Emeritus in Transportation Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, completed bachelor's and master's degrees at Mississippi State University and a Doctor of Engineering degree at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Lee began his faculty career at UT Austin in 1959 as an Assistant Professor, advanced to Associate Professor in 1963, and was appointed Professor in 1967. Dr. Lee taught transportation engineering until 1999, when he became a professor emeritus.
How UT engineering and the transportation research program began
The University of Texas began its engineering program when classes started in 1883 with one faculty member, T.U. Taylor, who taught applied math, engineering, and surveying. Taylor, who served as engineering dean until 1936, hired the second engineering faculty member, E.C.H. Bantel in 1901 to teach railroad engineering. In 1926, Dean Taylor hired Professor John A. Focht, who taught highway engineering until 1959.
Dr. Lee was hired in 1959 by the third Dean of Engineering, William W. Hagerty, to teach highway engineering at a salary of $7,000 for nine months, with no guarantee of summer employment. To get a picture of what the UT’s Department of Civil Engineering was like in 1959, the Department included twelve faculty members, one secretary, and one female student. At that time, the Department’s emphasis was on structural and sanitary engineering, hydraulics, and soil mechanics. There was only one graduate student in highway engineering and no sponsored research in this area.
The Texas Highway Department
Dr. Lee explained that transportation research is usually funded and managed by a combination of federal, state, and university resources.
In 1917, the Thirty-fifth Texas Legislature created the Texas Highway Department (THD) in response to the 1916 “Federal-Aid Road Act.” The Act was intended to encourage new highway construction. Federal monies from the U.S. Treasury were provided for construction, with no funding intended for the acquisition of right-of-way or for maintenance. The goal of the Road Act was that states build a primary system of roadways to connect all principal population centers. In the Federal-Aid Act of 1913, funds had been offered at one federal dollar for every two state dollars in matching money, but states were slow to respond. The 1916 Road Act offered funds at a one-to-one matching ratio. To qualify, States were required to have an administrative unit to manage the funds. Thus, the Texas Highway Department was born. Policies of the Department were determined by three Commissioners, each appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate. The Commissioners appointed a State Highway Engineer, who served as the chief administrative officer.
The Texas Highway Department’s main office was located in Austin due to the city’s central location. Commission meetings were held three days after the beginning of the full moon to enable staff to travel by horseback to Austin by the light of the moon, avoiding the heat of day.
Universities and the Texas Highway Department
When Dr. Lee joined the faculty at UT, only a few transportation-related engineering courses were listed in the UT Catalogue. Dr. Lee wanted to offer classes in geometric design of highways and related subjects, but there was only one graduate student in the Department of Civil Engineering majoring in highways. To recruit students for the graduate-level classes he wished to teach, Dr. Lee went to the Texas Highway Department, Federal Highway Administration, Bergstrom Air Base, City of Austin, and other State agencies. Some courses were taught at night to accommodate the needs of working students. Soon, graduate and undergraduate course enrollments grew
From the beginning there were close ties between the universities — Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College (created by the Texas Legislature in 1871) and The University of Texas (established by The Texas Constitution in 1876) — and the Texas Highway Department. The Texas legislative statute that created the Texas Highway Department in 1917 stipulated that laboratories at both A&M and at UT would be available at no cost to the Texas Highway Department for testing materials. Highway-related materials testing was done at UT in a building on the original “40 acres” from about 1926 until 1936, when property at Camp Hubbard was acquired by the highway department, and their testing facilities were established there.
About 1938, the first sealed beam, self-contained headlamps were in development by automakers. Tests were needed on the new devices. In order to facilitate testing, the walls and ceiling of the attic in Taylor Hall (engineering building from 1933-1974) were painted black so that Professor Focht could use the space to test these early automobile headlights. Dr. Lee remembers that this attic later served as new professors’ office space. He had an office there in the 1960s.
In 1950, the Texas legislature approved the creation of the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at A&M University, and TTI began conducting research for the highway department. Dr. Lee wanted UT to have a similar relationship with the highway department. He began to develop statements of cooperation between the two agencies. A bill was introduced in the Texas Senate on behalf of UT, and the legislature passed the bill in 1965 that allowed UT to start the Center for Highway Research. (CfHR) It is now known as the Center for Transportation Research (CTR). CTR is an administrative unit in the Bureau of Engineering Research in the College of Engineering that represents The University of Texas at Austin in matters related to transportation research.
The 1965 bill thus allowed UT Austin to join A&M in submitting proposals to conduct research for the Texas Highway Department (THD).
Some of the first UT research proposals accepted by THD included a precursor to a finite element computer modeling technique and a weigh-in-motion (WIM) system for weighing moving highway vehicles. Dr. Lee, whose master’s thesis in 1955 was on weigh-in-motion, was challenged by THD engineers to use the recently-invented strain gauge to weigh trucks in motion within 5 percent within one year of the beginning of the project. Both these new research projects made use of the University’s first digital computer, an IBM 650, a gigantic instrument whose functions consisted of only addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
The first year, CfHR’s five projects’ total funding was $30,000. Today, CTR’s yearly funding is close to $15 million.
Funding the highway system and transportation research
A significant change in federal-aid funding for highways and highway research occurred in 1956 when the US Congress approved the construction of the 41,000 mile National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. What prompted the development of the interstate highway system in America? Dr. Lee said that it was inspired by observations made during WWII.
While serving as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, General Dwight D. Eisenhower studied the German Autobahn, which was designed (circa 1929) for vehicles to travel at a speed of up to100 miles per hour on a road with fully-controlled access—no intersections, only ramps. When Eisenhower became United States president in 1953, he envisioned a national system of highways to serve the needs of national defense and connect all state capitals and all urban areas with a population exceeding 50,000 with a “freeway”—a divided arterial highway primarily for through traffic, upon which access is fully controlled.
In 1956, the U.S. Congress created a trust fund to be used for financing our first national highway system. Highways in the new freeway system would be funded using 90 percent federal funds matched with 10 percent state funds. This money was to be used for road construction only; no maintenance or repair. The federal government imposed a “temporary” tax on fuel, truck tire tread rubber, and excessive truck weight, to supply the national highway trust fund.
Dr. Lee emphasized that this transportation infrastructure construction funding system, and previous ones, were designed to be a “pay as you go” plan financed by available user taxes and fees. It is unlike some current toll road projects that are funded by borrowing money (bonds and loans) and repaying it—plus interest—with future toll revenue.
From 1934 until 1956, up to 2 % of federal-aid funds allocated to a state might be matched by state funds and spent for planning and research. If these funds were not spent for this purpose within two years, they could then be used for construction. Significantly for future transportation research at UT, the federal-aid legislation of 1962 mandated that 1½ % of federal funds allocated to a state must be matched and spent for planning and research. This offered an opportunity for THD to extend the use of their research funds to include UT, as research resources beyond those which could be provided by A&M were needed. In the summer of 1963, five research project proposals were accepted by THD. Contractual arrangements were executed via individual Interagency Cooperation Agreements. Since CfHR was established in 1965, annual research contracting has been accomplished through the Cooperative Research Agreement (CRA) between UT Austin and the Texas Highway Department.
Alison Conway, a Ph'D student in transportation engineering, speaks with Dr. Clyde Lee. Following Dr. Lee's initiation and the enactment of enabling legislation, the Center for Highway Research (now the Center for Transportation Research) was established as an administrative unit in the College of Engineering to represent the interests of The University of Texas in matters related to highway research. Dr. Lee served as the Center's director until 1980, when it became the Center for Transportation Research. The Center's research opportunities have contributed significantly to the advancement of the Department of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering and to the enrichment of the educational experiences for many students.
Growth and change
As time has passed, Dr. Lee said, there have been many changes. The names certainly have changed. The Texas Highway Department changed its name first to the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation, and then to the Texas Department of Transportation. In 1980, UT’s Center for Highway Research (CfHR) changed its name to the Center for Transportation Research (CTR). And in 2007, the engineering college changed its name from the College of Engineering to the Cockrell School of Engineering.
As UT’s transportation research program has developed, all faculty members in the Department of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering’s Transportation Engineering Group have been involved, along with other faculty members throughout UT. Those in the Transportation Engineering Group include: Ronald Hudson [1965-2001], Tom Kennedy [1965-2002], Dewitt Greer [1968-1972], Frank McCullough [1969-2001], Mike Walton [1971-present], Randy Machemehl [1977-present], Robert Herman [1979-1997], Hani Mahmassani [1981-2002], Chandra Bhat [1997-present], Kara Kockelman [1998-present], Zhanmin Zhang [2000-present], Jorge Prozzi [2002-present], and Travis Waller[2003-present].
Research has changed and grown throughout the existence of the Center. There have been three directors. Both Dr. Lee (Director from 1963 to 1980) and Dr. B. Frank McCullough (Director from 1980 to 1998) served 18 years as Center Director. Dr. Randy B. Machemehl has served as Center Director since 1999.
To contact Dr. Clyde Lee:
Dr. Clyde E. Lee, PhD, P.E.
Nasser I. Al-Rashid Centennial Professor Emeritus in Transportation Engineering, PHD
Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
Cockrell School of Engineering
512-232-3071
cel@mail.utexas.edu