The University of Texas at Arlington continues to pull in grant money to boost transportation research at the university.

The school announced this week that is has received three national U.S. Department of Transportation grants that could be valued at $12 million in funding for UTA during the next five years.

In a release, UTA said the College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs (CAPPA) and the Department of Civil Engineering are the principal investigators or the co-principal investigators on the grants.

UTA was one of a few universities to receive three projects in a national competition for $300 million in DOT funds allocated to some 32 University Transportation Centers nationwide.

UTA WILL BE AT THE CENTER OF ‘PROGRESS AND ADVANCEMENT’

“The announcement of these awards signals a transformational achievement by CAPPA, by civil engineering, and by UTA as we focus on enabling the sustainable megacity that the Dallas-Fort Worth region will become in the next decade,” UTA President Vistasp Karbhari said in the release. “It ensures that our talented faculty, researchers and students will be at the very center of progress and advancement, and will contribute significantly to quality of life in the years to come for North Texas and for the country.”

UTA said the first grant will establish the Center for Transportation Equity, Decisions and Dollars (C-TEDD) in North Texas, one of the 32 UTCs.

It will fund the center and transportation research, teaching and outreach on transportation-related projects, as well as issues for the North Texas region and elsewhere, the school said.

UTA said the C-TEDD grant is expected to total as much as $7.7 million over a five year period, and that UTA’s share in the first year is $1.4 million.

UT Arlington will join other partners in this Tier 1 University Transportation Center consortium that includes California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of South Florida.

FOCUS ON IMPROVING TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE

UTA also won U.S. Department of Transportation funding of another UTC as part of a Louisiana State University-led Transportation Consortium of South-Central States totaling $12.5 million over five years, the school said.

That consortium will focus on improving transportation infrastructure through research into innovative materials and new technology, the school said.

UTA said that it also will be a similarly funded consortium led by Portland State University.

Earlier this year, UTA was named a Carnegie Research-1 “highest research activity” school.

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