Emily Bonini, a student in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, participated in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program during summer 2014.  Her mentors for this project were Professor John Haddock, Pat Conner, and graduate student Yu Tian.

The Project:  Roundabout Maintenance Manual.  In recent years, roundabouts have grown rapidly in popularity. As a result, many communities are installing them; however, they encounter difficulties in maintaining them. Uneducated workers can cause damage to roundabouts and to themselves, costing cities time and money. Emily researched and gathered the most common maintenance questions and problems, along with what information was already available on roundabout maintenance. Next, she surveyed agencies most experienced with roundabout maintenance practices. Responses from interviews provided detailed information on maintenance and vehicle and pedestrian access during maintenance activities.

The Results: Information was compiled to create the roundabout maintenance manual. This guide will be helpful for communities new to roundabouts and serve as a reference for agencies in Indiana and surrounding states. In addition, a summarized version of the manual was developed in "flip-book" fashion that can more easily be used in the field.

From the Researcher:  "The SURF program gave me the opportunity to experience what it was like to work on a research project and open my eyes to what life is like for a graduate student. My work with the program was also a great learning experience within civil engineering. I was glad to have the opportunity to work on a project that has real world application and will be published for use by people in our community."

Learn more about this project at:  http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/surf/2014/presentations/104/

Figure 1:  This diagram describes the proper procedure for plowing snow from a roundabout.

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program brings undergraduate students into the modern research laboratories at Purdue, teams them with a faculty and graduate student mentor and introduces them to the research tools used on the cutting edges of science, engineering and technology.  For more information about the SURF program, visit https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/Research/SURF.