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6/7/2022
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a correction to the name of the operator of the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado.
San Jose State University's Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) will use a $4.6 million federal grant from the Federal Railroad Administration to help create a multi-university consortium that will establish a climate change and extreme events training and research center.
MTI will partner with Colorado State University-Pueblo, Michigan State University, Oregon State University and University of Hawaii to create the new center. The FRA issued the grant earlier this month through the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program.
The universities are members of the Center for Surface Transportation Testing and Academic Research consortium working with ENSCO and the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado. Together, they will conduct research that identifies risk mitigation strategies and preventative measures to improve the U.S. rail network’s resiliency, MTI officials said in a press release.
Climate change and the consequential impacts of sea-level rise, coastal storms, landslides, extreme temperatures, wildfires and inland flooding pose a significant risk to the North American freight- and passenger-rail network.
The consortium plans to work with railroads and test technologies at the Transportation Technology Center and on revenue service track, officials said.