Cornell University to use federal grant to lead transportation research center

ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell University will use a federal grant of more than $1.4 million to lead a group of universities in researching and developing new transportation “innovations to limit adverse impacts on public health and the environment.”

The funding is from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) University Transportation Center (UTC) program, U.S. Senators Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.) said in a news release posted last week on Schumer’s website.

The five-year grant will give Cornell’s researchers the opportunity to meet “national challenges” related to transportation systems, the environment, and public health, the lawmakers contend.

The center will be called the Transportation, Environment, and Community Health (or CTECH) Center. 

Cornell will work in partnership with the University of California-Davis, University of South Florida, and the University of Texas at El Paso, according to the release.

The center will operate from Cornell’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and will “advance” research projects and educational opportunities at all partner schools focused on addressing the “critical” issues facing transportation systems.

The UTC Program advances transportation research and technology and develops the “next generation of transportation professionals,” according to the lawmakers’ news release. 

The congressionally-mandated program has been in place since 1987 to help address the nation’s “ever-growing” need for the safe, efficient, and environmentally-sound movement of people and goods. 

The grant is one of 35, five-year grants that the federal government is awarding to lead consortia under the UTC program. 

The program was reauthorized in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which Schumer and Gillibrand supported in the U.S. Senate, per the release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com