Dr. Abolmaali along with Dr. Bill Carroll, Dean of the College of Engineering, and Dr. Nur Yazdani, the Chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, has been working on the development of the UT-Arlington Center for Structural Engineering Research (UT-Arlington-CSER). This Center is being developed by the majority of the funds from the Hanson Pipe and Precast in Grand Prairie, Texas. Richard Manning, Hanson’s North American President, Clifford Hahne, a UT-Arlington Alumni and Hanson’s Regional President, and Joe Lundy, Hanson’s Chief Structural Engineer are those who are making the funding for the Center to be possible by donating the 3.27 acres of land and most of the building materials. Matthew Childs, a UT-Arlington Alumni and the President of the American Concrete Pipe Association, has been actively involved in the fund raising activities for the Center. The UT-System recently approved the gift of the land to the UT-Arlington.

The 80,000 square foot UT-Arlington CSER will be constructed on approximately 4 acres of land with 18,000 square feet of reaction floor, two 50 ft tall reaction walls, two 50 ton cranes, 30,000 square feet of office spaces, etc. This facility is expected to be the largest structural testing facility in the nation with state-of-the-art equipment with nano-sensors and laser instrumentations to accommodate modern full-scale testing of structural/mechanical components and systems subjected to loads such as dynamic, blast, fire, etc. The UTA-CSER is expected to be completed within the next three years. The research expenditure for the UTA-CSER is expected to reach approximately $5,000,000 annually within the first five years from the date of its establishment.