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Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Dec. 7 awarded a $97,000 contract to the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in partnership with Gannett-Fleming Inc., to improve intermodal transportation through in-service training, conducted as part of PennDOT’s university-based Research, Education and Technology Transfer Program.

The idea is to improve the Commonwealth’s economic competitiveness by improving its transport of people and freight to and from Pennsylvania’s airports and ports via water, rail and highway. PennDOT-designated intermodal coordinators from each district would work with shippers, freight carriers, air and transit officials, and professionals from local development districts and metropolitan planning organizations.

Initial work would involve information gathering to discern what skills and knowledge would be most valued in intermodal coordination. Then, participants would devise initiatives leading toward requirements analysis and creation of a "skills tree," from which PennDOT would develop course content.

The Research, Education and Technology Transfer Program already is under way and scheduled to be completed by early summer.