The School of Transportation at Southeast University has conducted comprehensive research in highway construction in complex areas, covering various challenging environmental conditions including plateau permafrost, mountainous terrain, and special geological formations. In plateau permafrost regions, Professor Wang Shengyue led the project "Key Technologies and Engineering Applications for Construction and Maintenance of High-Altitude Permafrost Expressways on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," which won the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. This project created China's unique technical system for high-altitude permafrost highway construction and maintenance, supporting the building of the world's first permafrost expressway—the Gongyu Expressway, and has been applied to 4,600 kilometers of permafrost highway construction. The school also established core technologies for plateau permafrost subgrade deformation control, and unidirectional heat-dissipating asphalt pavement materials and structural design. In mountainous expressway construction, Professor Chen Fei presided over the research on long-lasting asphalt pavement technology for mountainous expressways in Yunnan Province; Professor Sun Lu's team conducted research on traffic safety in mountainous highway tunnels; and the school participated in key technical projects such as the treatment of atypical soft soil subgrades in Guangxi and the digital-intelligent integrated management and maintenance of plateau mountainous highways, winning multiple provincial and ministerial-level science and technology awards.

In highway construction under special geological conditions, the research team led by Professor Miao Linchang developed the "Mechanical Properties of Special Foundation Soils and Complete Set of Technologies for Highway Deformation Control," which won the First Prize of the Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. Targeting soft soil and expansive soil, they created a complete technical system of "accurate calculation—key technologies—design methods—construction quality assurance," and invented rapid mixing and metering control equipment for EPS particle-mixed lightweight soil, and rigid composite foundation reinforcement technology using concrete modulus-controlled piles. These achievements reached internationally leading level, have been applied in over 20 expressways, and have cumulatively saved more than 1.2 billion yuan in construction costs.

Furthermore, the school has made important breakthroughs in traffic safety and intelligent control in complex environments. Professor Chen Fei led research on safety design for plateau highways, developing patented technologies such as methods for determining the minimum safe radius of horizontal curves for two-lane highways. The school's project "Key Technologies and Applications for Expressway Operation and Travel Services Based on Vehicle-Road-Network-Cloud Integration," which it led, won the Science and Technology Award of the China Highway and Transportation Society, providing systematic technical support for the intelligent operation of expressways in complex areas.