A UTA civil engineering professor and his team will perform academic review of policies, practice manuals and guideline specifications for work related to infrastructure in the city of Fort Worth.
Ali Abolmaali, the chair of The University of Texas at Arlington Department of Civil Engineering and the Tseng Huang Endowed Professor in civil engineering, has been awarded up to a three-year, $400,000 interlocal cooperation contract for work related to several municipal public works needs and projects. Co-principal investigators include: Habib Ahmari, senior lecturer in civil engineering; Mike McNerney, faculty research associate; and Sharareh Kermanshachi, assistant professor in civil engineering.
Other projects UTA reviews for Fort Worth could include:
"The strength of the agreement for UTA is that students working on this project will get a terrific overall view of what it's like to work for a municipality. They'll also receive a varied diet of projects," Abolmaali said. "It will extend the classroom out into the real world."
The contract could be amended to add scope and increased amounts.
Fort Worth officials believe the UTA work will give them guidance and direction on what needs to be done first.
"We see this contract as a great one for the city of Fort Worth," said Richard Martinez, assistant director of transportation public works. "We can prioritize what we need done. The contract allows the city to take care of the most needed items first. If we see a need regarding infrastructure that needs to be addressed immediately, we can do that and seek UTA's help to speed along the process. If something has to be addressed because of growth, we can shift gears to see to that, too."
The collaboration between UTA and Fort Worth addresses an important theme of UTA's Strategic Plan 2020: Bold Solutions | Global Impact: sustainable urban communities.
"Any time we transfer what we use in the classroom to what cities and their residents and businesses need, we've succeeded," said Peter Crouch, dean of the UTA College of Engineering. "Dr. Abolmaali and his students can learn about the practical world of policies and guidelines that operate and maintain the important backbone of municipalities."
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