Highway In China Research Articles

The Problems in Regulating the Transfer of Rights and Interests of Toll Highways in China and the Countermeasures for Them

The Problems in Regulating the Transfer of Rights and Interests of Toll Highways in China and the Countermeasures for Them

Application of a random effects negative binomial model to examine crash frequency for freeways in China

The freeway system of China is the longest in the world and planned to expand in the following years. However, the safety conditions of freeways are drawing increasing concerns both from the authorities and the public in the country. The safety design and management for freeways are urgently needed considering the current safety situation and great demands of new freeways. The study presented in this paper thoroughly investigated factors affecting safety using detailed data of crashes, traffic characteristics and freeway geometry. A random effects negative binomial (RENB) model was applied to account for spatial variations within groups together with a negative binomial (NB) model. The results indicated a better goodness of fit of RENB model than the NB model. In addition, a good number of factors significantly contributed to crash, such as truck proportion, presence of climbing lane, median barrier offset, curvature and longitudinal grade, were identified. This study was expected to provide a better understanding of how traffic condition and freeway design affect safety and should be useful to freeway engineers to design safe freeways, or develop effective safety countermeasures.

An investigation on fatality of drivers in vehicle-fixed object accidents on expressways in China: Using multinomial logistic regression model.

This study aims to identify the effects of characteristics of vehicle, roadway, driver, and environment on fatality of drivers in vehicle-fixed object accidents on expressways in Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan district of Hunan province in China by developing multinomial logistic regression models. For this purpose, 121 vehicle-fixed object accidents from 2011-2017 are included in the modeling process. First, descriptive statistical analysis is made to understand the main characteristics of the vehicle-fixed object crashes. Then, 19 explanatory variables are selected, and correlation analysis of each two variables is conducted to choose the variables to be concluded. Finally, five multinomial logistic regression models including different independent variables are compared, and the model with best fitting and prediction capability is chosen as the final model. The results showed that the turning direction in avoiding fixed objects raised the possibility that drivers would die. About 64% of drivers died in the accident were found being ejected out of the car, of which 50% did not use a seatbelt before the fatal accidents. Drivers are likely to die when they encounter bad weather on the expressway. Drivers with less than 10 years of driving experience are more likely to die in these accidents. Fatigue or distracted driving is also a significant factor in fatality of drivers. Findings from this research provide an insight into reducing fatality of drivers in vehicle-fixed object accidents.

Evaluating Highway Traffic Safety: An Integrated Approach

This paper presents a novel methodology for determining the overall highway safety level by integrating statistical analysis and analytic network process (ANP) with set pair analysis (SPA) which is applied in the evaluation of the overall highway safety for the first time. The methodology accounts for both quantitative and qualitative factors that contribute to traffic safety. The statistical analysis uses crash, alignment, intersection, and other data to determine the significant indices (variables) that affect safety. These indices are then combined with the planning (qualitative) indices to determine the weights of all indices based on expert opinions using ANP. Finally, the overall safety level of the highway is determined using SPA. The methodology is illustrated using data collected from two highways in China. The results demonstrate that the proposed methodology is sound and reliable. The methodology is applicable to existing or new highways and can help to effectively evaluate the overall safety of a highway and develop long-term strategies for safety improvements.

A new approach to assessing vulnerability of mountain highways subject to debris flows in China

Mountain highways in China are located in various natural geographical areas with intense tectonic activity, steep topography and a high frequency of extreme precipitation events. These conditions make the highways vulnerable to the occurrence of multiple large debris flows simultaneously during heavy rainfall. To manage this hazard risk, a broader understanding of the hazard effects of debris flows and the vulnerability of highways is needed to reduce the losses resulting from these hazardous events. Accordingly, we analysed the effects of debris flow hazards on mountain highways and established an updated systematic indicator system to describe the vulnerability of highway infrastructure and movable hazard-affected objects. Next, we proposed a new integrated model of highway vulnerability based on the environmental sensibility, structural properties and functional effects of the highway infrastructure and on the exposure probability and quantity of movable hazard-affected objects. By analysing the characteristics of elements affected by debris flows, we developed a systematic and quantitative method of vulnerability assessment for mountain highways. Finally, this implemented method was applied to a case study in the Xiqu section of the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, an area seriously affected by debris flows during each rainy season. The hazard characteristics of disasters were analysed, and the affected highway sections were divided into four vulnerability levels. The analysis of the results indicated that the calculated vulnerability coincides with the actual effects of the disaster, which strongly suggests that the vulnerability assessment generated by the proposed method can serve as a pertinent guide for route selection, road rehabilitation and hazard mitigation of highways affected by debris flows in mountainous regions.

Hazard regionalization of debris-flow disasters along highways in China

Regional differences in China’s natural landscape involve significant differences in the distributions of debris-flow disasters along highways (DFDHs), which makes it very difficult to forecast, identify, and provide early warnings for such disasters. Previous research mainly focused on single-gully debris-flow disasters or a number of debris-flow disasters with similar morphological characteristics, which could not reflect the inherent mechanisms leading to the occurrence of DFDHs. Hazard regionalization of DFDHs in China can clarify the priorities and protection standards for different areas in China, and provide a theoretical basis for macro-policy formulation. We identify the hazard sources of DFDHs, extract hazard assessment indicators, and calculate the weight of each indicator using a cloud model-improved analytic hierarchy process. We draw basic maps of assessment indicators and perform a spatial analysis of hazard of DFDHs using ArcGIS, and a hazard regionalization scheme for DFDHs in China is developed. The results show that the degree of hazard of DFDHs in China ranges from 1.000 to 7.900. China is divided into low, moderate, severe, and extremely severe hazard areas. The extremely severe hazard areas are the Loess Plateau (north part of the QinBa Mountain area), the Taiwan–Wuyi Mountain area, the Sichuan–Yunnan Mountain area, and the Tianshan–Kunlun Mountain area.

Driving style estimation by fusing multiple driving behaviors: a case study of freeway in China

Traffic accident is one of the most serious issues in traffic problems. In China, more than 50 thousand people die in each year from traffic accidents. To alleviate the incidence of traffic accidents, this paper proposes a driving style estimation method by fusing multiple driving behaviors for Chinese drivers. Firstly, we invite Chinese volunteers to operate a driving simulator. Massive driving data are collected by the simulator. Then, a driving dataset is set up by the collected data. Furthermore, we adopt the collected driving data to represent behaviors by using SVM. Last but not least, a novel classification method is proposed to estimate driving styles, which is called multiple decision tree. The method can fuse multiple behaviors and explore the relationship between driving styles and behaviors. As a result, 20 volunteers and a freeway in China is selected for case study. After test, the proposed method has a 95% accuracy for style estimation. However, about 25% volunteers have a Risk style and these volunteers should change their driving habits. It also reveals the high incidence of accidents in China. Hence, the proposed method can alert the driver with bad styles and is helpful to ease traffic accidents.

A combined method to predict the long-term settlements of roads on soft soil under cyclic traffic loadings

In order to investigate the mechanism of the long-term settlement of road on the soft soil, an in situ measurement of a highway in southeast China was conducted during both the construction and post-construction stage. In the theoretical analysis, the long-term settlement of the pavement on thick soft soils was divided into three main components: the consolidation settlement, the creep deformation and the traffic load-induced deformation. The equivalent time line model based on the viscous–elastic–plastic theory was adopted to simulate the road settlement caused by the consolidation and creep of the subsoil. A cyclic strain accumulation model, which was obtained from laboratory tests of soil elements, was adopted to consider the road settlement induced by cyclic traffic loadings. A pavement dynamic response model was used to calculate the dynamic stresses in the subsoil generated by moving traffic loads when the road was open to service. It was found that the equivalent time line model combined with the cyclic strain accumulation model could predict the road settlement accurately at both the construction and post-construction stage. Numerical results showed that the traffic speed had limited effect on the post-construction road settlements for the speed range considered. The post-construction settlement of the road, mainly composed of the traffic-induced settlement and soil creep deformation, could be reduced significantly by increasing the embankment surcharge during the construction stage. The creep component accounted for over 10% of the total post-construction settlement, while the percentage of the creep deformation in total post-construction settlement decreased rapidly as the embankment surcharge increased.

Extrapolation of extreme traffic load effects on a cable-stayed bridge based on weigh-in-motion measurements

The steadily growing traffic loading may become a hazard for the bridge safety. Compared to short and medium span bridges, long-span bridges suffer from simultaneous presence of multiple vehicle loads. This study presents an approach for extrapolating probabilistic extreme effects on long-span bridges based on weigh-in-motion (WIM) measurements. Three types of stochastic traffic load models are simulated based on the WIM measurements of a highway in China. The level-crossing rate of each stochastic traffic load is evaluated and integrated for extrapolating extreme traffic load effects. The probability of exceedance of a cable-stayed bridge is evaluated considering a linear traffic growth model. The numerical results show that the superposition of crossing rates is effective and feasible to model the probabilistic extreme effects of long-span bridges under the actual traffic loads. The increase of dense traffic flows is sensitive to the maximum load effect extrapolation. The dense traffic flow governs the limit state of traffic load on long-span bridges.

Transport Infrastructure, City Productivity Growth and Sectoral Reallocation: Evidence from China

This paper examines the impact of highway expansion on aggregate productivity growth and sectoral reallocation between cities in China. To do so, I construct a unique dataset of bilateral transportation costs between Chinese cities, digitized highway network maps, and firm-level census. I first derive and estimate a market access measure for cities in China from 1995 to 2005. I then examine the channels through which the highway infrastructure affected economic outcomes. The results suggest that highways promoted aggregate productivity growth by facilitating the entry of new firms and reallocation among existing firms. I estimate the aggregate economic impact of China's national highway system and find that eliminating all highways in China would decrease aggregate productivity by 3.2%. There is also evidence that the national highway system led to a sectoral reallocation between cities in China.

Extrapolation of extreme traffic load effects on a cable-stayed bridge based on weigh-in-motion measurements

The steadily growing traffic loading may become a hazard for the bridge safety. Compared to short and medium span bridges, long-span bridges suffer from simultaneous presence of multiple vehicle loads. This study presents an approach for extrapolating probabilistic extreme effects on long-span bridges based on weigh-in-motion (WIM) measurements. Three types of stochastic traffic load models are simulated based on the WIM measurements of a highway in China. The level-crossing rate of each stochastic traffic load is evaluated and integrated for extrapolating extreme traffic load effects. The probability of exceedance of a cable-stayed bridge is evaluated considering a linear traffic growth model. The numerical results show that the superposition of crossing rates is effective and feasible to model the probabilistic extreme effects of long-span bridges under the actual traffic loads. The increase of dense traffic flows is sensitive to the maximum load effect extrapolation. The dense traffic flow governs the limit state of traffic load on long-span bridges.

Dynamic Estimation on Output Elasticity of Highway Capital Stock in China

By using the Perpetual Inventory Method to calculate the capital stock of highway in China from 1988 to 2016, the paper builds the State Space Model based on Translog Production Function, according to the Ridge Regression and Kalman Filter Method, the dynamic estimation results of output elasticity are measured continuously and analyzed. The conclusions show that: Firstly, China’s growth speed on highway industry capital stock are divided into three stages which are respectively from 1988 to 2000, from 2001 to 2009 and from 2010 to 2016, during which shows steady growth, between which reflect rapid growth; Secondly, the output elasticity of highway capital stock, being between 0.154 and 0.248, is slightly larger than the output elasticity of human input factor, lower than the output elasticity of the technical level, shows positive effect on transport economy and rises steadily, but the output efficiency is low on the whole; Thirdly, around the year of 2010, the scale pay on highway industry begins to highlight the characteristic of increase.

Studying early stage slope protection effects of vegetation communities for Xinnan Highway in China

Highway slope landscape design in China usually specifies a single type of grass or uses randomly mixed native plants. This approach has limited slope protection effects considering plants’ early growth capacity, species diversity, vegetation succession, and other factors. To address this limitation, this paper proposed a cross-disciplinary approach. First, the runoff plot method was used to study the early stage slope protection effects of seven different vegetation communities (VCs) selected for Xinnan Highway, which has steep slopes ranging from 30° to 33°. The results showed that i) the VCs that resulted in the least soil erosion contain only herbaceous plants or a mixture of herbs and shrub; and ii) the herb-vine combination had the worst performance. Hierarchical cluster analysis then classified the tested VCs into groups with similar slope protection effects and revealed that VCs with either the same or different community structures could cluster together. Further, the correlation analysis found significant relationships between soil erosion and multiple input variables, including rainfall amount and intensity, vegetation coverage, growth rates of herbs and bushes, above-ground biomass, and soil hydraulic conductivity. Lastly, based on 442 data points collected in the experiment, fine-tuned artificial neural network models were developed to predict soil erosion and achieved high accuracy with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.9713 to 0.9776. Collectively, the results of this research provide not only insights but also a practical tool for designing plant communities that can potentially achieve the best slope protection effects, especially in the early stage of slope restoration.

Spacing and geometric design indexes of auxiliary lanes on two-lane highway in China

Auxiliary lanes on two-lane highway are lanes setting on the right side of highway for the slow vehicles, and they can provide safe overtaking chances for cars using the original lane instead of the opposite lane. Based on the principle that the net benefit is greater than zero, the calculation model of the minimum spacing of auxiliary lanes on two-lane highway is established. After calibrating the model parameters, recommended minimum spacing values for auxiliary lanes are given corresponding to different highway classes, design speeds, and terrains. Based on traffic simulation data, the relationship model is established among the length of auxiliary lane section with uniform widths, traffic volumes, and driving speeds. By analyzing the design capacity of two-lane highway, suggestion values of the length of auxiliary lane section with uniform widths are given for two-lane highway with different design speeds and terrains. Based on driving safety and questionnaire survey on lateral vehicle spaces, calculation formula and suggestion values are presented for the width of auxiliary lanes on two-lane highway.

Following Safely on Curved Segments: A Measure with Discontinuous Line Markings to Increase the Time Headways

Statistics have indicated that rear-end collisions are more likely to happen on curved segments than on straight segments. In this study, we proposed a kind of yellow ‘discontinuous line markings’ with consideration of drivers’ visual information on ground surface and exhibited them in a real-world expressway in China. The results demonstrated that (1) the time headways on curved segments were found to be significantly smaller than that on straight segment, and a smaller radius of curved segment resulted in a smaller time headway, (2) the time headways were significantly increased after the installation of the discontinuous line markings, and (3) the time headways were gradually increased as the drivers passed through the area installed with the discontinuous line markings. Furthermore, the results were explained from drives’ distance perception, speed perception, and time-to-collision (TTC) estimation. The findings of this study may provide decision makers and engineers new insights and a substantial measure in coping with collision issues on curved segments of highways.

China's Silk Road and Kazakhstan's Bright Path: Linking Dreams of Prosperity

In 2013, President Xi Jinping announced China's Silk Road Economic Belt-the land-based component of the Belt and Road Initiative-during his visit to Astana. The choice of the venue did not seem accidental. Kazakhstan had already become a prime partner for China in Eurasia, with various connecting infrastructure projects completed or underway and with bilateral cooperation diversifying and blooming. The announced Silk Road Economic Belt Initiative promises better continental and intraregional connectivity and can only add wind into the sails of China-Kazakhstan cooperation.This essay will give a brief overview of energy and transportation infrastructure already connecting China and Kazakhstan to show that cooperation between the two countries considerably predates the Belt and Road Initiative. Then I will discuss the complementarity of their interests and current visions for development and prosperity: China's Silk Road Economic Belt and Kazakhstan's Bright Path (Nurly Zhol). It is important to address the gap in perceptions of Chinese investments by the Kazakhstani ruling elites and the public at large, which will be the subject of the next section. Finally, I will analyze the implications of growing cooperation between China and Kazakhstan for the latter's political and economic development. I will also reflect on the geopolitical aspect of the Belt and Road Initiative and raise concerns about its sustainability and potential impact on governance in Eurasia.China and Kazakhstan: Existing Energy and Transportation InfrastructureIn the energy sector, bilateral cooperation has been advancing since the 1990s due to the complementary objectives and geographic proximity of resource-rich Kazakhstan and energy-thirsty China. In 2009 the two countries launched a pipeline linking oil fields in western Kazakhstan with Xinjiang in China. The Central Asia-China gas pipeline, which supplies China with half of its natural gas imports, was first agreed upon by Beijing and Astana and later was negotiated with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.1There have also been long-term efforts to build better transportation infrastructure connecting the two countries. Unlike Russia, China's traditional land gateway to Europe, Kazakhstan is unreservedly enthusiastic about serving as a transit area for trade between Europe and Asia.2 In fact, becoming the bridge between East and West has been its official strategic development project since the early years of independence. The first railway link from Dostyk in Kazakhstan to Alashankou in China was launched in 1991. The second link at Khorgos, where the two sides began building an ambitious multi-modal logistical hub, dry port, and special economic zone (SEZ), the Khorgos-Eastern Gate, was launched in 2012.In 2008, Kazakhstan began construction of the West Europe-West China Highway, which will stretch from the Lianyungang port on the Yellow Sea to St. Petersburg on the Baltic Sea. By 2016, China and Kazakhstan had completed their parts of the project, and Kazakhstani president Nursultan Nazarbayev had to call on Russia to finish its section.2 The highway is also connected to the Khorgos-Eastern Gate SEZ. In 2014 the parties also signed an agreement on building a joint logistics terminal at Lianyungang, giving landlocked Kazakhstan its window to the sea.From the Kazakhstani government's perspective, enhancing the country's transit potential should help develop the national transportation and communication infrastructure, which is not an easy task for a country the size of Western Europe. For example, Astana's key motivation for joining the Central Asia-China gas pipeline project was to satisfy domestic gas consumption needs by connecting the country's energy-rich west with the densely populated south.The Silk Road Economic Belt and the Bright Path: Complementary VisionsIn December 2015, Presidents Xi and Nazarbayev announced plans to link the Silk Road Economic Belt and Kazakhstan's Bright Path economic policy. …

Gaussian process model of water inflow prediction in tunnel construction and its engineering applications

Due to the extremely complicated hydrogeological environment, significant symptoms of water inrush can not be detected accurately using normal exploratory methods, which produces hundreds of water inrushes occurred during tunnel construction in karst area. This study aims to present a new water inflow prediction technique without considering the relationship between hydrogeological features and water discharge rate. Therefore, the nonlinear regression Gaussian process analysis is applied to develop a model for predicting water inflow into tunnels. In order to meet the requirement of the data format of Gaussian process regression model (GPR), the basic evaluation index system of water inflow into tunnels and corresponding criterion are set up and quantified based on the statistical information of water inrush cases. To verify its feasibility, The GPR model is applied to Zhongjiashan tunnel on Jilian highway in China. The results of the comparisons indicate that the prediction results obtained from the GPR model are generally in a good agreement with the field-observed results. The proposed Gaussian process, on the whole, performs better than the support vector machine (SVM) and artificial neural network (ANN) in predictive analysis of water inflow into tunnels.

Research on Evaluation of resource allocation efficiency of transportation system based on DEA

In this paper, we select the time series data onto 1985-2015 years, construct the land (shoreline) resources, capital and labor as inputs. The index system of the output is freight volume and passenger volume, we use Quantitative analysis based on DEA method evaluated the resource allocation efficiency of railway, highway, water transport and civil aviation in China. Research shows that the resource allocation efficiency of various modes of transport has obvious difference, and the impact on scale efficiency is more significant. The most important two ways to optimize the allocation of resources to improve the efficiency of the combination of various modes of transport is promoting the co-ordination of various modes of transport and constructing integrated transportation system.

Study on Risk Assessment of Highway PPP Project

In recent years, PPP (Public-Private-Partnership) mode has been more and more applied in China's highway construction for financing, but because of its characteristics, the mode has a lot of risks in the process of implementing. This paper established a risk evaluation indexes system of highway PPP project, combined qualitative and quantitative methods legitimately and estimated the risk of Hunan Litan expressway project by using multilevel grey evaluation method, the result proved to be scientific and reliable, so it provide an effective solution for Expressway PPP project risk assessment.

Potential of South African road technology for application in China

Abstract One of the main problems with roads and highways in China is the reflection cracking caused by the cement stabilized subbase layers passing through the overlying asphaltic layers. The cracks permit the ingress of moisture which softens the layers below the subbase resulting in loss of support and accelerated breakdown of the subbase layer and reduction in the riding quality. The aim of this paper is to present the use of South African pavement design approach of deep structure and thin surfacing to overcome the existing problems. The deep pavement structure provides good long-term support and avoids the influence of moisture ingress, which means that only surfacing damage needs to be repaired. An unbound crushed stone base layer which is an integral component of the pavement structure limits reflection cracking. The paper first deals with the South African pavement design procedure and contrast this with the Chinese pavement design method. The inherent weaknesses of these methods are discussed and flowing from this discussion proposals for adapting the South African approach to China is presented. The resultant proposals have a high likelihood of success and will counteract the influences of extreme climate and rampant overloading that occurs on the Chinese roads.