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UC lands federal grant for transit infrastructure study

A Metro bus sits in the underground Riverfront Transit Center, beneath 2nd Street, ahead of a press conference on September 30, 2022.
Bill Rinehart
/
WVXU
A Metro bus sits in the underground Riverfront Transit Center, before a press conference on September 30, 2022.

A team of local researchers is getting federal funding to find ways to make construction of transit infrastructure safer and more efficient.

The group from the University of Cincinnati, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, and the Butler County Transit Authority will receive $5.1 million for the project.

The competitive Federal Transit Administration grant will go toward testing ways to integrate AI, advanced modeling and simulation, real-time data processing, and other technologies into real-world transit infrastructure construction projects.

RELATED: OKI awards $51 million for transportation projects

"Our goal is to help transit agencies deliver projects on time, on task, and on budget,” FTA Deputy Administrator Veronica Vanterpool said in a news release Monday. “Today’s selection will help us do that by improving efficiency and providing tools that reduce construction delays and costs and enable workers to perform tasks faster, more safely, smarter, and more accurately.”

The FTA cited UC's research background, labs and technical expertise in selecting the university.

The money, administered through FTA's Accelerating Advanced Digital Construction Management Systems Program, is from the 2021 federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

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