Egyptian Roads Research Articles

Analysis of Pavement Distresses Using the Image Processing Technique for Egyptian Roads

Analysis of Pavement Distresses Using the Image Processing Technique for Egyptian Roads

Prioritization of Egyptian Road Maintenance Using Analytic Hierarchy Process

Prioritization of Egyptian Road Maintenance Using Analytic Hierarchy Process

Whatever happened to the Egyptian road to Democracy?

ABSTRACT In 2011, Egypt saw one of the largest protest movements in its modern history: the 25th of January revolution. One of its major demands was the call for democracy and end of dictatorship after 30 years of Mubarak’s rule. After ousting Mubarak, the Egyptian public sphere witnessed an openness. Even with increasing levels of oppression and violence, there were open spaces for freedom of association, expression, and demonstration, etc. Yet, in 2013 and with the intense protests against the elected Muslim Brotherhood (MB) president, the military interfered and ousted the elected president. In light of these events, Egypt witnessed a backlash against democracy under the pretext of fighting ‘terrorism’. Since then, Egypt has been seeing manifestations of this relapse on almost all levels, in terms of legislations, decrees, practices that closed the public space to any protesting voices, with higher levels of oppression and violence against the opposition and not only the so-called ‘terrorists’. In this context, this paper proposes to dissect the Egyptian stumbling road to democratisation since 2011. It examines internal factors as well as the role of regional and international actors in orchestrating developments in Egypt. The paper proposes that the process of democratisation in Egypt has faced multiple drawbacks, not only related to regime type (military rule) but also with respect to social movements, the involvement of regional actors, etc..

Characterization of Traffic Accidents Based on Long-Horizon Aggregated and Disaggregated Data

For sustainable transportation systems, modeling road traffic accidents is essential in order to formulate measures to reduce their harmful impacts on society. This study investigated the outcomes of using different datasets in traffic accident models with a low number of variables that can be easily manipulated by practitioners. Long-horizon aggregated and disaggregated road traffic accident datasets on Egyptian roads (for five years) were used to compare the model’s fit for different data groups. This study analyzed the results of k-means data clustering and classified the data into groups to compare the fit of the base model (Smeed’s model and different types of regression models). The results emphasized that the aggregated data used had less efficiency compared with the disaggregated data. It was found that the classification of the disaggregated dataset into reasonable groups improved the model’s fit. These findings may help in the better utilization of the available road traffic accident data for determining the best-fitting model that can assist decision-makers to choose suitable road traffic accident prevention measures.

Development of a methodology for estimating U-turn capacity at median opening on Egyptian roads

Development of a methodology for estimating U-turn capacity at median opening on Egyptian roads

Estimation of Cross Classified Value of Travel Time Using Binary Logit Model on Egyptian Roads

Objective: In this study, cross-classified categories of Value of Travel Time (VOT) are estimated using the binary logit model for the users of both public and private vehicles who have diverse income levels and go on different trips. The travelers’ income level has a large impact on their VOT and on their willingness to pay regarding other factors that impact the travelers’ choice of the most suitable means of transport for them. Methods: The research uses the combined stated and the revealed preference survey and applies the logistic regression analysis to estimate the categorized VOT on Egyptian roads. The data sets consist of 1123 respondents who were approached to collect information related to the socio-economic factors and the trips’ characteristics. Each respondent was requested to choose an alternative to each of the choice sets’ levels. All data sets were collected in light of the Binary Logit analysis and recorded concerning the socio-economic factors. A total of 33 models were developed to predict the VOT. Results: According to the given analysis, VOT for private car owners (32.5 LE/HR about 2.06 $/ HR) is higher than that for public transport users (18.3 LE/HR about 1.16 $/ HR) in Egypt. As for the diverse income level groups, a positive correlation is found between each traveler and his/her income. To clarify, the travelers’ VOT increases when their income levels improve. Conclusion: Concerning the purpose of the trip, the VOT reaches its peak for travelers who travel for the sake of work as their VOT is approximately 38.82 LE/HR, about 2.47$/HR compared to the other travelers who have different traveling purposes other than doing business.

IoT for measuring road network quality index

Egypt has been fighting the issue of ensuring road safety‚ reducing accidents‚ preserving the lives of citizens since its inception. For these reasons‚ precisely identifying the road condition‚ followed by effective and timely maintenance and rehabilitation measures‚ leads to an increase in the road network's safety level and lifespan. This paper presents a multi-input deep learning framework that combines BiLSTM and Depthwise separable convolution to work in parallel for automatic recognition of road surface quality and different road anomalies. Furthermore, we performed an investigation to compare deep networks approaches against other traditional approaches using real-time data sensed and collected from the Egyptian road network. The proposed deep model has achieved an average accuracy of 93.1%‚ which is superior compared to other evaluated approaches. Finally, we utilized the proposed model to estimate a road quality index in the Egyptian cities.

Reducing carbon emissions in Egyptian roads through improving the streets quality

The streetscape of any city reflects the natural built fabric of the street and adds to the experiential quality of that space. A sustainable streetscape ensures that the spaces are long-lasting and functional as a part of the greater sustainable eco-system. Over the past two centuries, mankind has increased the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere from 280 to more than 380 parts per million by volume, and it is still increasing every day. If Earth continues to emit carbon without control, the surface temperature is expected to rise by 3.4 °C by the end of this century. Climate change of that magnitude would likely have serious, long-lasting, and, in many cases, devastating consequences for the planet Earth. Egypt has become one of the biggest emitters of atmospheric pollutants from the transportation sector. The level of carbon emissions and its effect on air quality are placed high on the research agenda. The transportation sector has a great impact on increasing CO2 emissions. The transportation and traffic sectors produce a quarter of the global CO2 emissions due to the heavy use of fossil fuels. This research aims to study the effects of street shape and design on CO2 production. This paper presents an analysis of road transportation in Egypt, taking Helmiet EL-Zaitoun as the main case study, with a focus on energy demand and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Carbon emissions are measured using “Testo 315-3” as a measuring instrument to identify the relationship between street design and quality on the amount of carbon emissions produced. The results of this research suggest that street quality affects the amount of CO2 emissions produced. A car moving at a constant speed will produce fewer CO2 emissions than a car forced to start–stop every while because of external factors such as cracks in the roads occurring from bad streetscape elements. The presented research provides a set of guidelines to enhance the quality of the streetscape and design in order to reduce the amount of CO2 produced in the streets.

The role of Street condition and forms on the amount of carbon emissions released from vehicles

In the last two decades, the percentage volume of carbon emissions has increased from 280 to more than 380 parts per million in the atmosphere, the problem is that it is still increasing daily in which it caused many environmental hazard that has been seen the last couple of years. The end of this century, It is expected that the uncontrolled amount of emissions emitted to the atmosphere will increase the surface temperature of plant earth by 3.4ºC. Worldwide, the percentage of carbon emissions in the atmosphere and its effect on air quality has been the main concern of scientist and researchers in the past decade. Egypt, is one of the biggest emitters that surfer from atmospheric pollution, almost 24% of the atmosphere pollutants in Egypt is from the transportation sector due to the heavy use of fossil fuels. Reducing the roads carbon emissions through streets design and form is the main scope of this research. This research intend to control the amount of carbon emission released in air by vehicles through controlling vehicles speed and motion which is effected by the street design and form. The presented research analysis the relation between carbon emissions and streets condition and forms, through measuring the amount of CO2 and CO emission produced in one of the Egyptian roads from different types of vehicles in road with three different conditions. El-Shuhada Street has been chosen to be the study area of this research. The researchers used Testo 315-3 to measure the Carbon emissions in the street and to identify the relation between CO2 emission and street condition and form. The results reveled that straight routes with vehicale speeds ranged between 80 to 100 kn/h produces less carbon emissions then straight routes with street bumps and vehicle speed ranged between 26 to 19 km/h. Moreover, curved routes emitted more emission than straight routes

Investigating the Performance of Hot Mix Asphalt Modified with Chemical Additives.(Dept.C)

The Egyptian roads suffer from many distresses, which depends to a significant extent on the mechanical properties of the asphaltic layer. Therefore, scientists and engineers are constantly trying to improve the mechanical properties of the asphaltic mixtures. One common method of improving the performance of asphaltic mixtures is the use of different types of additives. The objective of this research is to study the effect of using chemical additives on the mechanical properties of hot mix asphalt (HMA). Three chemical additives were used. The additives were Addicrete PVS, Adibond 65 and Silica gel, that were added with different ratios of 5, 10, 15 and 20 % by the weight of optimum asphalt content in addition to the original mix. Marshall test, Indirect tensile strength test and Moisture susceptibility test were conducted on the investigated mixes. Testing results on the modified mixes were compared with the original mix. The results show that exploitation of Addicrete PVS and Silica gel at 10% content enhanced the worth of Marshall stability, Marshall stiffness, indirect tensile strength, TSR and improved the value of flow whereas decreased the value of bulk density compared to the control mix. Also, the results showed that the most effective content at that adding of Adibond 65 yielded the most effective results was 15%.

Optimum Tire Pressure for Legal Axle Loads on Egyptian Road (Dept.C)

In recent years, the effect of increased truck-axle load on pavement performance has become a subject of great concern under the allowance of increasing the limits of legal axle loads. So, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of increased truck-axle load and tire pressure on the pavement life with respect to fatigue and rutting, to recognize the optimum truck-tire pressure for the recommended truck-axle loads in Egypt. Ten axle loads levels ranging from 16-kip to 34-kip and from 20-kip to 56-kip for single and tandem axles, respectively, along with ten levels of tire contact pressure; 80-psi to 170-psi are investigated in this study. The used methodology is based on the damage analysis concept which performed for both fatigue cracking and rutting using KENLAYER program, The study results showed that pavement life with respect to rutting is mainly related to the magnitude of the axle load, while fatigue life is mildly related to the magnitude of both tire pressure and axle load. Also, the equilibrium between fatigue and rutting lives is found at heavy axle loads associated with high tire pressure or at light axle loads associated with low tire pressure. The study also, concluded that the heavy axle load should associate with high tire pressure for optimum utilization of pavement section. Finally, the study recommended optimum truck-tire inflation pressure of 140 and 120-psi at the value of the legal axle load in Egypt for single axle and tandem axle, respectively.

Evaluation of Asphalt Mixes Containing Rubber (Dept.C)

Increasing truck loads on Egyptian road network cause several pavement distresses. The most common distress types occurring in the Egyptian roads are rutting and cracking. Several research studies trials were conducted to control pavement distresses by mix enhancement, Several trials were done to eliminate pavement rutting by using some additives. However, although these additives increase rutting resistance, it increases the propagation of cracking. One of the cheapest methods for mix enhancement is to use waste materials such as crumb rubber, This study aims at investigating the effect of using crumb rubber on the properties of asphalt binder and evaluating asphalt concrete mixtures modified by crumb rubber for increasing pavement resistance to cracking. To achieve the study objectives, the properties of asphalt binder modified by certain ratios of crumb rubber were measured. Furthermore, Marshall test was conducted on standard mix without rubber as a reference and on two groups of asphalt concrete mixtures. In the first group crumb rubber was used instead of fine aggregate by certain percents. While in the second group, crumb rubber was used instead of certain asphalt percents. Finally, some special tests were performed to measure the different mix characteristics. These tests included loss of stability test, modulus of elasticity test, wheel tracking test and indirect tensile strength test. Analyzing the study results it can be concluded that the use of crumb rubber greatly enhance the pavement resistance to cracking. Finally the study recommended a proposed mix with 20% and 5% by weight instead of typical percents of sand and asphalt respectively.

Segmentation Effect on the Transferability of International Safety Performance Functions for Rural Roads in Egypt

This paper examines the transferability of the Safety Performance Function (SPF) of the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) and other 10 international SPFs for total crashes on rural multi-lane divided roads in Egypt. Four segmentation approaches are assessed in the transferability of the international SPFs, namely: (1) one-kilometer segments (S1); (2) homogenous sections (S2); (3) variable segments with respect to the presence of curvatures (S3); and (4) variable segments with respect to the presence of both curvatures and U-turns (S4). The Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD), Mean Prediction Bias (MPB), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), Pearson χ2 statistic, and Z-score parameters are used to evaluate the performance of the transferred models. The overdispersion parameter (k) for each transferred model and each segmentation approach is recalibrated using the local data by the maximum likelihood method. Before estimating the transferability calibration factor (Cr), three methods were used to adjust the local crash prediction of the transferred models, namely: (1) the HSM default crash modification factors (CMFs); (2) local CMFs; and (3) recalibrating the constant term of the transferred model. The latter method is found to outperform the first two methods. Besides, the results show that the segmentation method would affect the performance of the transferability process. Moreover, the Italian SPFs based on the S1 segmentation method outperforms the HSM and all of the investigated international SPFs for transferring their models to the Egyptian rural roads.

Research of the current Egyptian roads service facilities placement condition

The state and provision level of road traffic participants to the objects of service on Egypt highways have been analysed. Ingeneral, there are a number of significant shortcomings regarding the systematic approach in justifying and standardizing thedistances of the road services location, considering the requirements of road users. With the help of Google Earth and realsurvey, the current status of the service objects along the Egypt highways and in foreign countries of the world has been surveyed.The obtained data show that service facilities are unevenly located in Egypt, often do not meet normative requirementsand are not characterized by complexity. Instead, in foreign countries there is even more distribution of complex servicefacilities along highways, all service facilities has transition-high-speed bands and the vast majority have separate congresses.

Impact of Road Humps on the Pavement Surface Condition

In order to fight against over-speeding, the government and people in Egypt resorted to the installation of speed humps without adequate studies. On this basis, speed humps became widespread in most of the Egyptian roads in a semi-random way. It has been observed that the pavement condition of the roads has deteriorated in the vicinity of these humps. For impact assessment of speed humps on the pavement condition index (PCI), three roads link Kafr El-Sheikh city with three major towns in Kafr El-Sheikh governorate were selected to conduct PCI survey. The results indicated that the presence of speed humps contributes greatly to reduce the pavement condition index (PCI) values. It should be mentioned that the average reduction in PCI values ranged between 15% and 22% due to the presence of speed humps. Also, the most frequently observed distress on the pavement sections including humps considered for the selected roads was Raveling and Rutting. Accordingly, to avoid the pavement defects at the locations where the speed humps are installed, it is proposed to study the structural section of the road in the vicinity of the speed hump to resist the braking force and speed reduction effect.

AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF THE COSTS OF REPAIR OF DETERIORATION OF EGYPTIAN ROADS TO MAXIMIZE THE EGYPTIAN SOCIETY BENEFITS

The problem of environmental degradation of the roads leads to significant damage that negatively affects the progress of the state and therefore it is necessary to pay the cost of repairing these roads. Therefore, a return is achieved from this reform, which is to get rid of the damage of this deterioration and the benefits of this reform, and the target of the research becomes an analytical study of the costs of reforming the deterioration of Egyptian roads to maximize the return to society. To achieve this, the Extraction study method was used by view the data and its analysis and the applied study method by applying the theoretical study. The research sample consisted of 60 individuals, from used roads in Cairo Governorate and workers in the institutions and organization concerned with these roads, and tools used are the questionnaire in the traditional methods. The results of the research is the lack of efficiency of the roads currently available and the lack of road network in meeting the needs of traffic. And finish in this research Prove that there is a return from pay the cost of repairing roads, which encourages the state on the road repair process. Therefore, it is necessary recommended to upgrade the efficiency of roads currently available to meet the needs of traffic and to expand the road network by adding new roads or bridges or tunnels and the need to follow modern scientific methods in maintaining the roads.

An Approach for Development of Local Safety Performance Functions for Multi-Lane Rural Divided Highways in Egypt

Egypt is a middle-income country, belonging to the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). Egypt used to be the worst performing EMR country, with over 45 fatalities per 100,000 population. It is considered an example case of many EMR countries in the region where there is a need for quantitative assessment of safety on its roads. The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) offers several functions to calculate safety performance (SPFs), which can estimate crash frequency on a highway network according to its geometric and traffic characteristics. The HSM was developed in the United States using road and crash data specific to its environment. Jurisdictions and other non-U.S. regions were encouraged to develop locally derived models suitable for the local characteristics of roads and crashes. The objective of this paper is to assess the suitability of using the HSM models on rural multi-lane divided highways in Egypt. The calibrated SPFs considering Egyptian road factors were compared with the actual crash events. The results showed that there was a need to develop locally derived SFPs using negative binomial models. The modeling approach and a validation procedure were presented and are applicable when developing local SPFs to compare how well the model performs to the actual data, and to HSM calibrated models. The models were created using 90% of the data and tested on the remaining 10% of the data. The study found that the results relating to driver behavior would help designers in regions other than the United States to benefit from the HSM.

Effect of speed hump characteristics on pavement condition

Speed humps are the most common type of traffic calming devices due to their low cost and easy installation. However, in many Egyptian roads, considerable number of these humps is randomly placed without proper engineering studies and justifications. Deterioration of pavement condition is observed near these humps. This paper presents a case study applied to collect and analyze visual inspection data for the reason of evaluating the impact of speed humps on pavement condition on intercity rural roads. The paper used 52 speed humps located in an intercity two-lane, two-way road that connects two cities, Tahta and Gerga, in Upper Egypt. The total length of this road is about 34 km. Pavement condition index (PCI), in road sections, near speed humps in the two directions of travel were calculated from the visual inspection measurements. The characteristics of each speed hump (width, height, and distance from preceding hump) were measured. Using statistical analyses, the correlations between the pavement conditions and hump characteristics were examined. Regression analysis models were developed to represent the relationships between pavement conditions and hump characteristics. Generally, the results proved that the pavement conditions are greatly influenced by the presence of speed humps and hump characteristics.

Assessment Approach of Life Cycle of Vehicles Tyres on Egyptian Road Network

Recently the problem of used vehicle tires becomes in focus in Egypt. In this paper, the scope is to study life cycle of the yearly used tires by vehicles travelling on the Egyptian road network. For the first time, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach is performed for tires used by the Egyptian road transportation fleet. Global Warming Potential (GWP), health toxicity, and Aquatic acidification are the main impact categories considered. The Life Cycle Impact Assessment Methodology (IMPACT2002+) is implemented for LCA analysis to encompass the transportation process of the yearly needed amount of tires, and the usage of the tires. At the nexus, data about transport demand and activity have been collected. Also, modal split ratios have been incorporated. It was found that, Egyptian road tires contributes mainly to GWP on the midpoint effect and also contributes mainly to the damage regarding terrestrial acidification and nitrification. Regarding the normalized effect, it was found that the highest contribution of used tyres on Egyptian road network is in respiratory effects on human health with 3.52*104(person year/kg) followed by terrestrial acidification of 3.1*104(person year/kg).

Analysis of road traffic accidents and ranking of sites severity: a case study of EL Minia / Beni-suef Eastern Desert and Agricultural Roads, Egypt

Road traffic accident is a massive health hazard in Egypt and all over the world. Also, Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a major cause of global mortality and morbidity. Available funds are insufficient to solve problems in all accident locations at the same time. Consequently, accident locations need to be ranked according to its severity for best allocation of available funds to repair the most severe locations. El Minia-Beni suif east and Agriculture roads are of the roads that have a highly repetition of accidents. This study compares between accident characteristics on both roads. In addition, areas of high accident occurrence are ranked according to its severity. Accident data on both roads is abstained from General Authority of Roads, Bridges and Land transport (GARBLT) for the period from 2010-2014. Analysis proved that Agriculture road has the major part of accidents, death and injuries. The maximum number of accidents on both roads occurs at kilometers between 20 and 30. The road section length of highly accident location on both roads is divided into subsections with length 2 km. These subsections are ranked according to its severity using the accident weight methodology. Accident weight is estimated using the economic cost of death, injury and property damage. Black spots are determined using Critical Crash Rate approach. Analysis proved that two locations on the study area can be considered as black spots. One on each road at the same km (24-26) is considered as a black spot. The present study recommends starting modifications with these two black spots sites then other locations according to its rank of severity. Also, the research recommends that the methodology introduced in should be used on all Egyptian roads. © 2016. Marsland Press, Zhengzhou University Language: en