Road Maintenance Costs Research Articles

Relating asphalt binder elastic recovery properties to HMA cracking and fracture properties

Cracking in HMA pavements reduces the long-term durability of HMA pavements and undesirably increases the costs of road maintenance. Asphalt binder as one of major constituents of HMA plays an important role in the HMA cracking performance. Previous studies have indicated that higher elastic recovery of asphalt binder was favored to resist fatigue cracking. This study was undertaken to further investigate the relationships between the asphalt binder elastic recovery (ER) properties and the HMA cracking resistance and fracture properties, measured in the laboratory. The ER test (or ductility test) and MSCR test were used to measure and quantify the asphalt binder ER properties. Similarly, the OT and IDT tests were used to measure and quantify the HMA cracking resistance (cycles to crack failure) and fracture properties (tensile strength, fracture energy [FE], and FE Index), respectively. The test results indicated that HMA mixes with high ER properties (⩾59%) showed superior fracture properties and better laboratory cracking resistance performance, i.e., higher FE Index values (>1.0) and more load cycles to crack failure (>500 OT cycles), respectively. By contrast, no definitive performance trends were found for the HMA mixes with low ER properties (<59%).

A Set of Tools for Making Urban Transport More Sustainable

There are six possible tools for making urban mobility more environmental friendly: more strict rules of the new urban transport policy, using advantages of connected vehicles, improving urban structure, showing better alternative for a car use, new financial sources for changing drivers behavior and the Business Model for cities wanting to have a green image. The new urban transport policy should concentrate on promotion of environmental friendly vehicles, equal access to public transport modes, better telecommunication services and better goods transport management. The Autonomic Road Transport Support Systems can change the street view: fights congestion by ramp-metering and better traffic distribution on the road network; autonomous cars densely packed when moving; no traffic signals, traffic signs, signposts and road painting; narrower carriageway means more space for bicycle routes, sidewalks, greenery and coffee gardens. Multifunctional and Intensive Land Use should be promoted to reduce travel needs or to make travel distances smaller (acceptable for walking or cycling). MILU will help also with urban sprawl – higher density means people are not car dependent. My Smart Eco-travel Planner and its database can be used for implementing sustainable urban transport policy in more efficient way. The main financial source for promotion of eco-friendly travel modes could be a transport policy rule: fuel prices can never go down – probably more effective measure than all Climate Summit 2015 results. Only during last 3 years changes in fuel price could result in Poland in gathering ca. 10bn € on the eco-fund for financing e.g. the new metro lines. Business Model (showing the cities their potential gains in result of above measures implementation) will help the cities authorities to vote for the new way of mobility management. Financial Div. of the City Transport Dpt. will calculate gains of the lower car use: lower costs of road construction and maintenance, new work places, shorter travel times, better environment, better inhabitants health and the Green City image – minus costs of the new system implementation. Measures mentioned above shape the new paradigm of urban transport management.

외부비용을 반영한 도시내 도로의 혼잡통행료 추정: 서울시를 대상으로

This paper formulates the methodologies to estimate optimal congestion tolls from long-run and short-run perspectives and applies them to the highways of Seoul. An optimal long-run congestion toll is estimated with an optimal volume-capacity-ratio to minimize the total costs which consist of two components: road construction and maintenance costs and traveler costs. By contrast, an optimal short-run congestion toll is estimated with a supply-demand equilibrium which is determined by using a speed-flow function and a disaggregate modal choice model. The results of a long-run analysis for the Seobu urban expressway suggest the optimal volume-capacity-ratio of 1.35 and the optimal congestion toll of 503 Won per automobile kilometer. By contrast, those of a short-run analysis for the Mia-ro urban arterial suggest 1.31 and 420 Won, respectively. Although our results are to some degree dependent on the interest rate and time value assumed, one basic conclusion holds up: the congestions toll tested could generate substantial gains in social welfare if applied to Seoul.

Landslide susceptibility mapping using GIS and FR method along the Cagayan de Oro-Bukidnon-Davao City route corridor, Philippines

Landslides along highways in Mindanao including the Cagayan de Oro (CDO)-Bukidnon-Davao City (Buda) highway pose high risk to many motorists and passengers. It also hampers the flow of transportation affecting the economy of the region not counting the cost of road maintenance and rehabilitation. This study aimed to evaluate the casual factors of rainfall-induced landslide along the study area using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Frequency Ratio (FR) approach. Global Positioning System (GPS) was used to determine the coordinates of 78 landslide locations recorded. Map layers of different parameters with FR values were overlaid to produce the rainfall-induced Landslide Susceptibility Index (LSI) map. The generated LSI map was classified into low, moderately low, moderate, moderately high and high risk. Results showed that rainfall coupled with soil type and slopes were the main triggering parameters of based on their corresponding FR values. Majority of high risk areas for rainfall-induced landslides were located along the southern portion belonging to Davao City and Kitao-tao and Arakan Municipalities. Validation using Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) revealed a model accuracy rate of 76.4% at 0.05 level. Hence, the LSI map generated can be a useful input in planning out projects for road repairs and maintenance along landslide prone areas so that cost, disturbances and exposure to such hazards may be minimized.

The impact of agriculture drainage reconstruction on ground water recession close to the subgrade

Good drainage is the most important design consideration for a road, both to miniaturize road maintenance costs and maximize the time the road is operational. The lack of good drainage lead to the structural damages and costly repairs. Many of roads are built in intensively drained agricultural land. The effective way to drain subgrades is reconstruction of existing agricultural drainage. The impact of cross-subsurface drainage system on water level fluctuation was measured using Plane geofiltration mathematical model, one of 3D geofiltration modelling programs. The hydraulic permeability characteristics were determined in field of Pikeliai, close to local road in Kėdainiai district, Lithuania. This object is composed of clay and loamy soils. Subsurface cross drains trenches spacing of 20 m, 30 m and 40 m were simulated. The hydraulic permeability of cross drain trenches and lateral trenches modelled was from 0.006 m/a day to 6 m/a day. The simulation of cross drains trenches showed that the most effective distance between them are 20 m. The highest water depression occurs when the permeability of cross drain trenches and lateral trenches is ~ 6 m/day, at the distance of 20 m. The water recession is 20 cm lower compared to the drainage systems without cross drains trenches. By installing cross drains trenches every 30 m, water recession is 10 cm lower when the trench permeability is about 6 m/day. When increasing the distance between the cross drains up to 40 m their influence disappears.

Climate Change, Soil Salinity and Road Maintenance Costs in Coastal Bangladesh

The potentially-adverse impact of salinity on paved roads is well-established in the engineering literature. The problem seems destined to grow, as climate-related changes in sea level and riverine flows drive future increases in soil salinity. However, data scarcity has prevented systematic analysis for poor countries. This paper assesses the impact of soil salinity on road maintenance expenditures in the coastal region of Bangladesh. The assessment draws on new panel measures of salinity from 41 stations in coastal Bangladesh, and road maintenance expenditures, income, road network length and road surfaces from 20 coastal municipalities. In a model relating to maintenance expenditure for paved roads to soil salinity, municipal income and road network length, large and significant effects are found for salinity. The regression model is used to predict the effect of within-sample salinity variation on road maintenance expenditure share, holding municipal income and road length constant at sample mean values. Increasing salinity from its sample minimum to its sample maximum increases the predicted road maintenance expenditure share by 252%. The implied welfare impact may also be substantial, particularly for poor households, if diversion of expenditures to road maintenance reduces support for community sanitation, health and other infrastructure-related programs.

Utilization of Steel Slag as Aggregates for SMA-13

A new method to make SMA is developed by using SBS modified asphalt when the coarse aggregate steel slag and the fine basalt aggregate are selected respectively. The Mix Proportion is 1#(16-9.5mm, steel slag):2#(9.5-4.75mm, steel slag):3#(3-4.75mm, basalt):4#(3-0mm, basalt):5# (mineral powder)=38%:36%:8%:8%:10%.The optimal asphalt content (OAC) is 6.4%. The mass percentage of steel slag is reached 74%. The costs of this kind of high quality road material can be saved because the amount of asphalt is not increased. Based on Marshall Stability and Splitting Strength test, it is shown that the Marshall stability of SMA is 10.6 kN, dynamic stability is 7800, and tensile strength ratio is 89.2%. All above test values are superior to the standards in China's traffic regulations. The water permeability coefficient of SMA is 65, which means that SMA has an excellence Wear-Resistant performance. Therefore, SMA can increase the road useful life and reduce the road maintenance costs.

Advanced self-healing asphalt composites in the pavement performance field: mechanisms at the nano level and new repairing methodologies.

In an effort to give a global view of this field of research, in this mini-review we highlight the most recent publications and patents focusing on modified asphalt pavements that contain certain reinforcing nanoparticles which impart desirable thermal, electrical and mechanical properties. In response to the increasing cost of asphalt binder and road maintenance, there is a need to look for alternative technologies and new asphalt composites, able to self-repair, for preserving and renewing the existing pavements. First, we will focus on the self-healing property of asphalt, the evidences that support that healing takes place immediately after the contact between the faces of a crack, and how the amount of healing can be measured in both the laboratory and the field. Next we review the hypothetical mechanisms of healing to understand the material behaviour and establish models to quantify the damage-healing process. Thereafter, we outline different technologies, nanotechnologies and methodologies used for self-healing paying particular attention to embedded micro-capsules, new nano-materials like carbon nanotubes and nano-fibres, ionomers, and microwave and induction heating processes.

Utilization of Steel Slag as Aggregates for OGFC-13

We propose a new method to make OGFC-13. By this method we select steel slag as coarse aggregate (whose diameter is bigger than 4.75mm) and limestone as fine aggregate, using the SBS modified asphalt to make OGFC-16. The Mix Proportion is 1#(19-13.2mm,steel slag):2#(13.2-9.5mm, steel slag):3#(9.5-4.75mm, steel slag):4#(4.75-0mm, limestone):mineral powder=13%:28%:45%:13%:1%. The optimal asphalt content (OAC) is 4.5%, the polyester fiber content is 0.3%, and the steel slag content reaches 86%. The increase of the amount of asphalt and polyester fiber doesn’t help to save costs. When the asphalt content is optimum, the run-off loss and Cantabro scattering loss satisfy the Chinese regulatory requirements. By Marshall Stability test, we find that the Marshall stability of OGFC-13 reaches 9.8kN, superior to China's traffic regulations. The water permeability coefficient of OGFC-13 is 37.0, which means that OGFC-13 has a strong water seepage performance. In a word, OGFC-13 made by our method can guarantee the driving security of the long-term use of the road and save a lot of road maintenance costs.

Appraising Road Design and Material-Cost Component Using Virtual Reality

Capital infrastructure such as road construction weighs heavily on the budget of countries having large geographical area and growing population. The paper presents an emerging computer aided valuation appraisal technique for verifying design and quantifying the material-cost components contained within Bill of Quantities (BOQs) of paved road constructions. The method employed in achieving the research objectives is the use of Virtual Reality (VR) which is a technology capable of shifting a subject into a different environment without physically moving it. A prototype road with surrounding environment similar to the real environment was simulated using a combination of commercially available 3 Dimensional (3-D) design applications and the developed 3-D roadway with adjoining auxiliary road structures were subsequently analyzed using finite element testing method. The Ceremonial Road of the Federal University of Agric Abeokuta was chosen as the location for case study. The result of the developed VR platform showed matching values of material quantities close to that actually utilized. This technique has the potential of closely verifying the accuracy of presented BOQs by comparing the presented quotation with those generated using a VR platform. It is quite certain that application of this appraisal approach can proactively checkmate design flaws, Original Research Article British Journal of Applied Science & Technology, 4(27): 3956-3966, 2014 3957 overpricing and excessive budgets hence reducing cost of road development and maintenance. For future analysis, it is suggested that proprietary applications be explored for the same purpose. The research concluded with recommendations as a panacea to cutting down road construction cost.

Decision of National and Provincial Highway Asphalt Pavement Structure Based on Value Engineering

It is important that decision of asphalt pavement structure requires overall considerations of the performance and financial investment. To have asphalt pavement structure fulfilling good reliability, the asphalt pavement structure decision was researched based on value engineering theory. According to the national and provincial highway investigation data in Shandong Province during the last decade, the asphalt pavement performance attenuation rules of traffic levels and asphalt layer thicknesses were developed, and then the road performance evaluation method was presented. In addition, the initial investments, the costs of road maintenance, and middle-scale repair in a period were analyzed. For the light traffic and medium traffic example, using the value engineering method, the pavement performance and costs of which thickness varies from 6 cm to 10 cm were calculated and compared. It was concluded that value engineering was an effective method in deciding the asphalt pavement structure.

Maintenance cost of forest operation roads on medium to gentle slopes

Maintenance cost of forest operation roads on medium to gentle slopes

Vehicle Routing Optimization for Deicing Salt Spreading in Winter Highway Maintenance

Optimization of spreading vehicle routing for deicing salt play important roles in improving operational efficiency of snow removal, reducing environmental pollution, and reducing road maintenance cost. In this paper, characteristics of different snow highway removal modes in winter and factors to affect vehicle routing decision making for deicing salt spreading are analyzed. Combined with road network structure, capacity constraints, and load balance constraints, vehicle routing model for spreading deicing salt is constructed, which can be solved by a designed genetic algorithm.

Kinematics Analysis for Pavement Accelerated Loading Testing System

In order to study the reasonable structure and failure mechanism of the road surface, reduce construction and maintenance costs, optimize road performance, kinematics analysis for the loading car virtual prototype is researched. The simulation results show that the velocity and acceleration of the loading car are all changed. And a delay time is needed in order to get stable loading, which can provide a theoretical basis for pavement accelerated loading testing system design.

Assessment of climate change adaptation costs for the U.S. road network

The U.S. road network is one of the nation's most important capital assets and is vital to the functioning of the U.S. economy. Maintaining this asset involves approximately $134 billion of government funds annually from Federal, State, and local agencies. Climate change may represent a risk or an opportunity to this network, as changes in climate stress will affect the resources necessary for both road maintenance and construction projects. This paper develops an approach for estimating climate-related changes in road maintenance and construction costs such that the current level of service provided by roads is maintained over time. We estimate these costs under a baseline scenario in which annual mean global temperature increases by 1.5°C in 2050 relative to the historical average and a mitigation scenario under which this increase in mean temperature is limited to 1.0°C. Depending on the nature of the changes in climate that occur in a given area, our analysis suggests that climate change may lead to a reduction in road maintenance and/or construction costs or an increase in costs. Overall, however, our analysis shows that climate change, if unchecked, will increase the annual costs of keeping paved and unpaved roads in service by $785 million in present value terms by 2050. When not discounted, this figure increases to $2.8 billion. Policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to reduce these costs by approximately $280 million in present value terms and by $885 million when not discounted. These costs vary substantially by region and time period, information that should be important for transportation planners at the national, state, and local levels.

Environmentally friendly road construction

Environmental pollution is a major problem in developing countries like Egypt. Reuse of waste polymers is considered an attractive solution for environmental white pollution and reducing of the costs of road pavement and maintenance. This research aims to prepare environmentally friendly hot mix asphalt (HMA) for paving using some industrial wastes as polypropylene and polyester fibers. The solid materials in the mix include normal and highly porous aggregates. 5% and 10% of waste polymers by weight of the asphalt were used to prepare special binders. The samples were tested for their physical properties, chemical properties, aging, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). The results revealed that the prepared HMA using 5% of waste polymer had high performance as compared to the ordinary one and the waste polymer could be used in road construction.

Modelling planner–carrier interactions in road freight transport: Optimisation of road maintenance costs via overloading control

A bi-level modelling approach is proposed to represent the interaction between the vehicle loading practices of road freight transport carriers, and the decisions of a road planning authority responsible both for road maintenance and for the enforcement of overloading control. At the lower (reactive) level, the overloading decisions of the carriers impact on road maintenance expenditure, while at the upper (anticipatory) level the planner decides fine and enforcement levels by anticipating the responses of the carriers. A case study using data from Mexico is used to illustrate the method.

Heuristic Scheme for Heterogeneous Vehicle Routing Problem on Trees Based on Generalized Assignment and Bin-Packing Upper Bounds

The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a classical problem in logistics that aims to design minimum-cost delivery routes from a centralized depot. A special case of the VRP arises in situations in which the network has a tree structure (TVRP). Such tree networks arise when the cost of road construction and maintenance is much more than the routing cost or when the transportation network consists of a main highway (e.g., Interstate system) and the customer locations are located off the highway. A heuristic for a constrained case of TVRP in which the vehicle fleet is capacitated and heterogeneous is proposed. The heuristic first determines the customers that will be served by each vehicle by use of bin-packing and Lagrangian-based generalized assignment algorithms. The individual vehicle routes are then determined by use of a depth-first search method. A procedure for further refinement of the heuristic solution quality is also described. The heuristic algorithm was implemented on two real-world networks and on randomly generated networks that varied in size from 20 to 120 nodes. The heuristic solution was found to be between 2% and 10% for almost all of the 200 instances tested and took a fraction of the time taken to find the optimal solution.

Agroforestry

Abstract 375Blowing and drifting snow on Minnesota's roadways is a transportation efficiency and safety concern. Living snow fence is an agroforestry system involving planting of woody/tree species such as hybrid poplars, willow, other shrubs and pine trees along drifting snow areas. Establishing living snow fences improves driver visibility and road surface conditions and has the potential to lower costs of road maintenance, reduce accidents attributed to blowing and drifting snow, sequester carbon, and avoid the carbon emissions of snow removal operations. In recent years the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) has paid farmers to leave standing corn rows to protect identified snow problem roadways. It also encourages farmers to plant living snow fences for such purpose but the adoption is too low. With increasing demand for corn to fuel the ethanol industry, paying $1.50 per bushel above market rate may not be sufficient incentive for leaving standing corn rows or to take land of production. With MNDOT's Memorandum of Understanding with USDA to plan living snow fences through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), now is an opportune time to review MNDOT's annual payment structure to farmers and prepare a new one. This project aims to 1) develop a calculator to estimate payments for farmers that will include considerations of safety and snow removal cost savings using living snow fence agroforestry systems; 2) work closely with MNDOT's engineers and plow operators to estimate the safety and snow removal costs and carbon emissions avoided through establishing living snow fences; and 3) evaluate farmers' willingness to establish snow fence and identify farmers/landowners constraints to adoption. This data will be provided to MNDOT to assist them in their decision making related to their living snow fence program, and data will be useful for other states wishing to address drifting snow problem areas using agroforestry systems.

LARGE WOODY DEBRIS IN URBAN STREAM CHANNELS: REDEFINING THE PROBLEM

ABSTRACTLarge woody debris (LWD) is an important ecological element in rivers and streams. Despite its importance, LWD is often removed from urban stream channels for flood control or road maintenance purposes, an approach with high economic and ecological costs and one that is largely unsuccessful. We propose an approach to conserve LWD in channels by modifying infrastructure (culverts and bridges) to allow LWD passage, maintaining aquatic habitat and reducing flooding and road maintenance costs. In Soquel Creek (California, USA), which has a history of LWD‐related flooding, we compared long‐term LWD management costs of historical, current and a LWD‐passing approach whereby infrastructure is enlarged to accommodate LWD passage downstream. We estimated costs of infrastructure replacement, programmatic flood control (LWD removal), LWD‐related flood damage and lost aquatic habitat. The amount of lost aquatic habitat was determined by comparing LWD loading (pieces m−1) in Soquel Creek (0.007 pieces m−1) to nearby unmanaged streams (0.054 to 0.106 pieces m−1). Estimated costs of infrastructure able to pass LWD were nearly double that of historical costs but comparable to current costs. The LWD‐passing approach was comparable to removal approaches in the short term (1 to 50 years) but much less in the long term (51 to 100 years), as expenditures in infrastructure replacement to accommodate LWD yielded reductions in flooding costs and habitat loss. Given the urgency to maintain and restore aquatic habitat, the proposed approach may be broadly applicable. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.