Highway Cost Research Articles

A new highway cost allocation framework in the day of connected and autonomous vehicles

The objectives of the present study are to explore potential changes expected in highway infrastructure expenditures and revenues, and develop a robust framework that will facilitate highway cost allocation when connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) are in operation. The scope of this study covered both federal and state expenditures and revenue sources. The highway cost allocation elements covered in the paper include vehicle miles of travel, highway expenditures highway revenues, and equity analysis. In the day of CAVs, significant changes are expected in all these elements, and these changes are incorporated into the proposed highway cost allocation framework. Pavement-related expenditures would increase due to the addition of CAV-related infrastructure integrated into the pavement infrastructure to ensure it is an intelligent pavement. Bridge-related expenditures are expected to increase due to the infrastructure technologies on the bridges making them smart bridges, and the design loads of these bridges may have to be increased due to potential platooning on long span bridges. It is expected that many of the CAVs on the road will be electric vehicles. All these changes are incorporated into the proposed highway cost allocation framework.

Development of a Mechanistic-Empirical-Based Highway Cost Allocation Model for Flexible Pavements

Construction, operation, and maintenance of a pavement network requires funding, partially sourced from road user taxes. Recent studies showed that lightweight vehicles are typically taxed higher compared with heavy trucks that damage the roads the most. To facilitate the equity and fairness of the allocated costs to different vehicles in the United States (U.S.), Highway Cost Allocation Studies (HCAS) were performed using various pavement performance prediction models. Reviewed literature showed the lack of mechanistic-empirical (ME)-based HCAS models for the flexible pavement network. In this study, a national-level ME-based HCAS model was developed, and the damage shares of different vehicle classes have been estimated for 67,583 pavement sections in the U.S. Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) database. The proposed HCAS model was compared with the existing Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) HCAS model (i.e., National Pavement Cost Model [NAPCOM]). The analysis of the traffic data showed that two-axle single-unit trucks (SU2) and tractor-semitrailers with two tandem and one single axle (CS5T) were the most frequent users of the pavement network. The results showed that the damage share of SU2 is dominant in minor roadways, while the damage share of the heavier vehicles in the CS5T class is dominant in major arterials and interstates. In addition, it was found that, although the geographical location and environmental condition of the pavement section affects the magnitude of the pavement distresses, the distribution of the damage shares remains almost the same. This can be attributed to the similarities in the traffic data, for example, vehicle class distribution and axle load spectra.

Conceptual cost estimation of highway bid items – A systematic literature review

PurposeChallenges associated with ensuring the accuracy and reliability of cost estimation of highway construction bid items are of significant interest to state highway transportation agencies. Even with the existing research undertaken on the subject, the problem of inaccurate estimation of highway bid items still exists. This paper aims to assess the accuracy of the cost estimation methods employed in the selected studies to provide insights into how well they perform empirically. Additionally, this research seeks to identify, synthesize and assess the impact of the factors affecting highway unit prices because they affect the total cost of highway construction costs.Design/methodology/approachThis paper systematically searched, selected and reviewed 105 papers from Scopus, Google Scholar, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Transportation Research Board (TRB) and Science Direct (SD) on conceptual cost estimation of highway bid items. This study used content and nonparametric statistical analyses to determine research trends, identify, categorize the factors influencing highway unit prices and assess the combined performance of conceptual cost prediction models.FindingsFindings from the trend analysis showed that between 1983 and 2019 North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East contributed the most to improving highway cost estimation research. Aggregating the quantitative results and weighting the findings using each study's sample size revealed that the average error between the actual and the estimated project costs of Monte-Carlo simulation models (5.49%) performed better compared to the Bayesian model (5.95%), support vector machines (6.03%), case-based reasoning (11.69%), artificial neural networks (12.62%) and regression models (13.96%). This paper identified 41 factors and was grouped into three categories, namely: (1) factors relating to project characteristics; (2) organizational factors and (3) estimate factors based on the common classification used in the selected papers. The mean ranking analysis showed that most of the selected papers used project-specific factors more when estimating highway construction bid items than the other factors.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the body of knowledge by analyzing and comparing the performance of highway cost estimation models, identifying and categorizing a comprehensive list of cost drivers to stimulate future studies in improving highway construction cost estimates.

The statistical sensitivity of highway project cost to geo-heterogeneity in the tropics

PurposeThe study is carried out to analytically reconnoiter geotechnical index properties of subgrade soils as key variables that shape the cost profile of road infrastructure projects in a tropical geographic setting with starkly heterogenous ground conditions.Design/methodology/approachUsing the Niger Delta region, as a point of reference, data on geotechnical index properties of subgrade soils at spatially dispersed locations for 61 completed highway projects are collated. Exploratory statistical tests were carried out to infer significant associations with final project costs before regression analysis. Regression analysis is principally deployed as an explanatory analytical tool, relevant to quantify the sensitivity of highway project costs to the individual and collective impact of geotechnical variables.FindingsSeveral parameters of expansivity and compressibility exhibited significantly strong associations with the final costs recorded on the highway projects. The statistical analysis further established a cause-effect relationship, whereby small changes in the geotechnical properties of sub-grade soils at project locations, would result in disproportionately large changes in the cost of road construction.Practical implicationsThe study findings provide insight into the sensitivity of road construction costs to geotechnical variables, which can serve as a useful input in financial risk analysis for development appraisal and the generation of location adjustment factors.Originality/valueThe study statistically demonstrates location-induced construction cost profiles, triggered in response to the spatial geotechnical variability and occurrence of problem subgrade soils in the humid tropics, which may be different from those traditionally established in studies of cold and temperate climate soils.

Risk Assessment of Highway in the Upper Reaches of Minjiang River under the Stress of Debris Flow

The southwest mountainous area is a frequent debris flow disaster area in China, which poses a serious threat to the regional roads and greatly affects the normal traffic operation and the safety of residents’ lives and property. The debris flow risk assessment of highway can quantify the threat degree of debris flow to the roads. In this paper, from the perspective of villages and towns, taking the upper reaches of Minjiang River as the research area, four factors including road network density, highway disaster resistance capacity, population density and highway cost are selected, and the weight is obtained by using entropy weight method, and the debris flow vulnerability evaluation results of highway are obtained by weighted calculation. Four indexes of debris flow density, shape factor, relative height difference and annual rainfall are selected to evaluate the debris flow hazard of highway by using the information method. Based on the vulnerability and hazard evaluation results, the risk of highway debris flow is evaluated, and the results are classified and discussed. The results show that: the risk of debris flow on the upper reaches of Minjiang River is relatively low, the overall spatial distribution shows a trend of high in the East and low in the west, and the overall risk of township roads in Wenchuan county is the highest; The risk of debris flow is generally high within -10 to 30 km from the central fault zone of Longmenshan.

Demand monotonicity of a pavement cost function used to determine Aumann-Shapley values in highway cost allocation

Pavement thickness and traffic lanes are two essential requirements affecting the cost of a highway design project. The traffic loadings on a pavement are typically measured in 18-kip equivalent single axle loads (ESALs). In this paper, both ESALs and lanes are treated as two types of players and a pavement cost function is developed to determine the average marginal cost for each type of players. These averages are known as the Aumann-Shapley (A-S) values and are used to allocate the highway cost among all vehicle classes. The proposed pavement cost function is proved to be monotonically increasing as the traffic loadings (ESALs) are increased, a necessary condition for the function to be acceptable for computing Aumann-Shapley values. A severe limitation of the procedure to calculate marginal costs for the traffic-loading players is the extremely large number of permutations since the number of players is enormously high. To overcome this limitation, this article derives a compact form for the discrete A-S values of ESALs and lanes that allows the Aummann-Shapely values to be calculated in a computationally effective manner.

Highway Cost Prediction Based on LSSVM Optimized by Intial Parameters

The cost of highway is affected by many factors. Its composition and calculation are complicated and have great ambiguity. Calculating the cost of highway according to the traditional highway engineering estimation method is a completely tedious task. Constructing a highway cost prediction model can forecast the value promptly and improve the accuracy of highway engineering cost. This work sorts out and collects 60 sets of measured data of highway engineering; establishes an expressway cost index system based on 10 factors, including main route mileage, roadbed width, roadbed earthwork, and number of bridges; and processes the data through principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is used to obtain the optimal parameter combination of the regularization parameter and the kernel function width coefficient in least squares support vector machine (LSSVM). Results show that the average relative and mean square errors of the PCA-PSO-LSSVM model are 0.79% and 10.01%, respectively. Compared with BP neural networks and unoptimized LSSVM model, the PCA-PSO-LSSVM model has smaller relative errors, better generalization ability, and higher prediction accuracy, thereby providing a new method for highway cost prediction in complex environments.

Highway Cost Analysis for Platooning of Connected and Autonomous Trucks

If connected and autonomous vehicles use highways under current lane management policy, only partial benefit can be reaped from the platooning of advanced vehicles. Agencies may have to update the existing policy in the near future because of the regular presence of connected and autonomous vehicles on the highways. The probable management approaches are likely to affect highway construction, rehabilitation, and fuel consumption cost. This paper studied a range of lane management approaches in terms of truck platooning and estimated construction and rehabilitation costs using existing models. It also developed a probabilistic approach of generating varying degrees of vehicle platooning to estimate fuel consumption in a simulated environment of highway segment. The results showed that, compared with a no-platoon approach, most of the approaches considered reduce construction cost but increase rehabilitation cost for a unit length of a highway. Fuel consumption cost decreases due to truck platooning with all possible approaches. If truck platooning is achieved by adding a separate truck-only lane, the fuel consumption benefits are considerably higher.

Inclusion of design variability in flexible highway pavement life-cycle cost analysis

This research presents a method that accounts for variability in the principal design input variables for fully flexible highway pavements and assesses their effect on pavement performance. Variability is described by statistical terms such as mean and standard deviation and by its probability density distribution. Statistical characterisation of the variation of asphalt layer thickness, asphalt stiffness and subgrade stiffness is addressed. A model is then proposed that represents an improvement on the method of equivalent thickness for the rapid and repeated calculation of performance life. A Monte Carlo analysis is used to estimate pavement performance life to account for uncertainty of input variables and to calculate the probability of failure of a pavement structure. The output is a statistical assessment of the estimated pavement performance. Rather than the single deterministic result that would be derived by considering average values of input variables, a range of values and probabilities is found for any particular outcome. The probabilistic approach offers a way of incorporating risk assessment considerations that are vital for whole-life-cycle economic analysis and decisions. The paper investigates how variability affects the life-cycle cost of a pavement over a 60-year analysis period.

Solution to Toll Highway Cost Allocation Based on Shapley Value

Cooperative games theory has been widely used in the solution of Multi-participant cost allocation problem. This paper reports on the application of Shapley Value to procedure of finding the optimal solution to cost allocation problem among local governments at various levels in China. Based on the analysis of relationship among vehicle flowrate in different segments of highway, we deduce the formula to find a stable solution and raise reasonable solutions to cost allocation of roll highway among various governments involved. Eventually we put forward proper proposals for central government considering its dominant function.

DROUGHTS IN THE TIETÊ-PARANÁ WATERWAY: IMPACTS ON THE DIRECT, INDIRECT AND HIDDEN COSTS IN THE TRANSPORTATION OF SOYBEAN

Brazil's agricultural economy is growing and increasing productivity. Therefore, it has required transportation systems with high load capacity and lower transportation costs. However, with the drought in the Southeast region of Brazil, the waterway Tiete-Parana closed since May 2014 generating a loss of more than 30 million last year. Thus, this study investigates the impacts on direct, indirect and hidden costs resulting from this change of route for soy transport. The methodology consists of an exploratory, descriptive and bibliographic research that seeks to raise the main costs. The results show that failing to ensure the production of soybeans by the Tiete-Parana waterway and using the highway transportation costs for waterway users are increased by US$ 37,760,146.86.

Updating State and Local Highway Cost Allocation and Revenue Attribution: A Case Study for Indiana

This study investigated the responsibility for the cost of upkeep of the highway infrastructure and the contribution of revenue from highway users on that upkeep. The costs consisted of actual expenditures on the construction, preservation, maintenance, and operation of the infrastructure at both the state and the local levels. The revenues from the federal, state, and local levels were assessed and considered. The types of assets included were pavement, bridge, safety, and mobility assets. The highway users were represented by the 13 FHWA vehicle classes, and the study was based on data on the expenditures made and the revenues collected from 2009 to 2012. The study framework duly recognized the dichotomy between attributable and common costs: for allocation of the attributable costs to the vehicle classes, equivalent single-axle loads, AASHTO load equivalency factors, and passenger car equivalents were used, and for allocation of common costs, the number of vehicle miles traveled adjusted for vehicle width was used. Of the 13 vehicle classes, Vehicle Classes 1 to 4 (passenger vehicles) were found to be overpaying their cost responsibilities, whereas Vehicle Classes 5 to 13 (trucks) were found to be underpaying. In particular, Vehicle Class 2 (automobiles) was found to overpay its cost responsibility by 10%, whereas Vehicle Class 9 (five-axle trucks) was found to underpay by 19%. The product of this study facilitates assessment of the appropriateness of the types and rates of current taxes and fees and provides a data-based and objective platform for devising future funding mechanisms and establishing appropriate user rates to meet Indiana’s future financing needs.

Contract and procurement design for PPPs in highways: the road ahead

We review international practice in concession-based public private partnerships (PPPs) for highways, in the light of the economic theory of incentives, procurement and regulation. In particular, we analyse alternative funding mechanisms to cover highway costs, and their impact on demand risk allocation, incentives, cost of capital, and likelihood of renegotiation. We note how real tolls must pursue a number of contrasting objectives, which may be best served by introducing tariff discrimination. We discuss alternative tariff regulations used in practice and warn against tariff mechanisms that transfer demand risk to users and depart from the principles of price cap regulation. We highlight that it is desirable to transfer some traffic risk to the concessionaire but the level of risk transfer should be lower at the beginning of the contract, especially for greenfield projects where little demand information is initially available. We discuss the procurement of highway PPPs, focusing on the choice of the bidding variables, and on the distortions that renegotiations introduce at bidding stage. We stress the importance of strong institutions and absence of political interference in regulatory matters, and we highlight the benefit of respecting and standardizing contract terms.

Contract and Procurement Design for PPPs in Highways: The Road Ahead

We review international practice in concession‐based public private partnerships (PPPs) for highways, in the light of the economic theory of incentives, procurement and regulation. In particular, we analyse alternative funding mechanisms to cover highway costs, and their impact on demand risk allocation, incentives, cost of capital, and likelihood of renegotiation. We note how real tolls must pursue a number of contrasting objectives, which may be best served by introducing tariff discrimination. We discuss alternative tariff regulations used in practice and warn against tariff mechanisms that transfer demand risk to users and depart from the principles of price cap regulation. We highlight that it is desirable to transfer some traffic risk to the concessionaire but the level of risk transfer should be lower at the beginning of the contract, especially for greenfield projects where little demand information is initially available. We discuss the procurement of highway PPPs, focusing on the choice of the bidding variables, and on the distortions that renegotiations introduce at bidding stage. We stress the importance of strong institutions and absence of political interference in regulatory matters, and we highlight the benefit of respecting and standardizing contract terms.

Pavement damage cost estimation: a synthesis of past research

In order to generate the funds needed for preserving highway infrastructure, highway agencies impose various types of fees on road users. For purposes of efficiency and equity, user fees must reflect appropriately the share of pavement damage occasioned by each vehicle class. This paper presents a review of the state of practice of pavement damage cost estimation, identifies the drawbacks in past approaches and makes suggestions for enhancement. The paper explains how past highway pavement damage cost estimation studies were plagued with a number of debilitating limitations, ranging from the lack of appropriate data or unrealistic or impractical assumptions, to inadequate consideration of criteria that influence such costs. The paper demonstrates that, for the equitable and efficient estimation of pavement damage cost, the methodology used should be comprehensive. In other words, it should clearly distinguish between strength-driven and capacity-driven expenditures; make use of relevant historical agency cost and traffic data spanning a sufficient length of time; incorporate realistic highway agency maintenance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction practices; and recognise that pavements in any network are not uniform but rather have different ages, surface types and functional classes. Other desirable features of a pavement damage cost estimation study include the use of an appropriate road use measure, due consideration of all the relevant costs associated with pavement damage and incorporation of the effectiveness of maintenance and rehabilitation treatments.

Geographic Information System Tool for Enhancing Administration of Overweight-Vehicle Permits

Highway agencies impose permit fees for overweight vehicles both to recuperate (partially) the consumption cost and to encourage the use of less-damaging loading patterns and vehicle configurations. To provide information for such policies, numerous state and national studies have investigated the impacts of overweight vehicles on the physical and operational condition of highway infrastructure, including the consumption (damage) because of overweight vehicles. These studies, which largely addressed truck size and weight, highway cost allocation, or damage cost estimation, have alluded to the onerous challenge of collating permit data with existing pavement and bridge inventory data. Most previous research has relied on aggregate data to overcome this difficulty. The current study details the use of a geographic information system (GIS) tool developed to determine the infrastructure consumption at a disaggregate level. The tool was used to estimate the infrastructure consumption for individual permit records as part of a larger study that analyzed highway infrastructure consumption and revenue generation associated with overweight-vehicle operations in Indiana. The tool may be used in other contexts to administer overweight-vehicle permits, in addition to its use in impact evaluation. Finally, benefits and implications of using GIS technology in the administration of overweight-vehicle permits are discussed.

Contract and Procurement Design for PPPs in Highways: The Road Ahead

We review international practice in concession-based public private partnerships (PPPs) for highways, in the light of the economic theory of incentives, procurement and regulation. In particular, we analyse alternative funding mechanisms to cover highway costs, and their impact on demand risk allocation, incentives, cost of capital, and likelihood of renegotiation. We note how real tolls must pursue a number of contrasting objectives, which may be best served by introducing tariff discrimination. We discuss alternative tariff regulations used in practice and warn against tariff mechanisms that transfer demand risk to users and depart from the principles of price cap regulation. We highlight that it is desirable to transfer some traffic risk to the concessionaire but the level of risk transfer should be lower at the beginning of the contract, especially for greenfield projects where little demand information is initially available. We discuss the procurement of highway PPPs, focusing on the choice of the bidding variables, and on the distortions that renegotiations introduce at bidding stage. We stress the importance of strong institutions and absence of political interference in regulatory matters, and we highlight the benefit of respecting and standardizing contract terms.

Research on the Highway Engineering LCC Estimation Modular Platform

The highway engineering is an important area for investment in infrastructure construction in China, in the stage of engineering design, to solve the difficult problem of life cycle cost estimates, the paper builds the highway engineering life-cycle cost estimation modular conceptual model, and develops the highway engineering LCC estimation modular platform under the model. It provides a practical way for the highway life cycle cost measuring, and presents a new idea for life cycle cost estimation model.

Empirical Model with Environmental Considerations in Highway Alignment Optimization

The highway alignment optimization (HAO) process is a complex combinatorial optimization problem in which several conflicting factors, such as highway costs, user preferences, and environmentally sensitive factors, must be simultaneously considered. In previous studies, single-level and bi-level optimization approaches were developed to optimize three-dimensional highway alignments. One drawback of previous approaches is that environmental factors, such as vehicular emissions, were not adequately considered in conjunction with other factors (such as user preferences and highway costs) in the optimization process. This paper builds on our previous studies and proposes two separate approaches for considering environmental emissions in the HAO process. The first approach involves a separate analysis of user and decision-maker preferences, in which a conceptual formulation of various environmental factors is presented. In the second approach, a novel tri-level optimization framework is proposed for optimizing highway alignments. At the upper level, optimization is performed using the traditional criteria of cost minimization. At the intermediate level, total systems emission is calculated. Finally, at the lower level, the user equilibrium traffic flow is optimized. The developed approaches are illustrated through case study examples. The proposed approaches will be beneficial for designing highway alignments when considering environmental emissions. Future studies may make additional refinements to the formulation and sensitivity analyses.

Research on Influencing Factors Model of Highway Engineering Cost Based on Pathway Analysis

For the relative lack study of quantitative analysis of influencing factors of highway construction cost, this paper selects influencing factors through the horizontal comparison based on the data of section two of the north seaside avenue, south extension of seaside avenue and Nangang expressway, then selects pathway analysis to construct the project cost analysis model. This paper can quantity the direct effects and indirect effects from the microscopic perspective of characteristics and influencing factors of the project cost and quantitatively describe the direct effects and indirect effects that have impact on the engineering cost in order to better control the highway project cost for construction projects.