| Project Title | Transportation Infrastructure Readiness for Post-Pandemic Supply Chain Transformation for Greater Resilience |
| University | George Mason University |
| Principal Investigator(s) | Elise Miller-Hooks |
| PI Contact Information | miller@gmu.edu |
| Funding Source(s) and Amounts Provided (by each agency or organization) | Federal Share — $86,000 Match — $86,000 |
| Total Project Cost | $172,000 |
| Start and End Dates | 06/01/2020—06/01/2022 |
| Brief Description of Research Project | Society depends on regional, national and global supply chains to provide physical goods and services to meet its daily needs. Transportation infrastructure systems are the backbone of the supply chains, supporting the movement of raw materials, goods and services between manufacturers, their sources, distributors, and service providers with consumers. Transportation modes and vehicles may even be tailored to meet these needs, and they may need to be reconfigured to address changing production plans and markets. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the markets, as well as regional, national and international policies related to goods production and movements. As supply chains fail to fully serve our nation, and the Mid-Atlantic Region’s consumers, including health care providers, there are new realizations of the risks we have taken with existing streamlined, just-in-time production approaches that exploit centralized manufacturing concepts implemented overseas for the sake of obtaining low-cost solutions and products. Supply chain resilience is needed. Such resilience requires, at least in some part, self-reliance, as well as redundancies. This project investigates the readiness of the region’s transportation infrastructures systems, including maritime, air, road, rail and intermodal terminals, to support a potential transformation to manufacture more of our food, medical and other important supplies in America. |