Important Highway Research Articles

Assessment of the influence of natural thermal cycles on dolomitic limestone rock columns: A 10-year monitoring study

Rock instabilities hazards can lead to major risks. Even if different external factors such as precipitation, seismic activity or freezing, are known to trigger rockfalls, it is more and more assumed that thermal cycling has a role in rock mass deformation, displacement and, moreover cracking initiation or propagation. Here we present 10 years monitoring of a 50-meter-high dolomitic cliff, located above an important highway in the south of France to support this thinking. Local rock surface temperature and joint apertures were recorded on eleven sensors. Their evolution is studied separately and together to characterise the influence of temperature variation on joint apertures. During small time periods, a reversible and proportional behaviour is observed, that can be attributed to thermoelasticity, but over the whole period, a significant drift in displacements is measured, meaning that at least a viscoplastic or fatigue behaviour should be considered.

Electric Vehicles Charged with Solar-PV: A Brazilian Case Study for 2030

Electric vehicles and photovoltaic power stations can play an important role in replacing fossil fuels. This article presents a case study on the placement of charging stations powered by photovoltaic energy along an important highway in Brazil. A demand model was adopted to elaborate three scenarios for 2030 with different participation levels of electric vehicles in the Brazilian market. An optimized allocation model was used to derive the location and number of charging stations required to meet the charging demand. The results provided a list of adequate locations for installing the charging stations and offered insights into the consumed electricity and greenhouse gas emissions that could be mitigated by these actions. A financial analysis was conducted, and it was determined that the charging costs, based on the Internal Rate of Return calculation, were 10%. These costs were compared to the fueling costs of other traditional vehicles. The results showed that the costs can be 72% lower than the cost of refueling current conventional automobiles. The results of this study can serve as a reference in the public policy debate, as well as for investors in fast charging stations.

ARCHITECTURAL SPECIFICATION OF SERVICE FACILITIES LOCATED AT TRANSPORT AND TRANSFER NODES

The article examines the advantages of high-rise construction at significant transport and interchange nodes at the entrance to cities using the example of the analysis of the Urban Planning Concept for the Placement of High-rise Buildings and Structures in Kyiv, developed by the Ukrainian Academy of Architecture and Projects of Kyiv Architects. According to the concept developed under the leadership of the president of UAA V.G. Stolka, the placement of new high-rise dominants should be aimed first of all at creating a clear architectural and urban planning and volume-spatial composition of the main urban planning nodes at the intersection of city highways.
 The method of forming the dominant composition of the buildings of the transport and transfer hub is considered, using the example of the environment of the metro station "Livoberezhna". Brovarsky Avenue is an important highway for entering and leaving Kyiv. Modern investors in Ukraine consider increasing the number of floors of buildings in order to rationally develop territories. In the urban planning aspect, high-rise compositions emphasize important planning nodes. The construction regularities of the volumetric-spatial composition of high-rise buildings are divided into types and the characteristics of each of them are given. The historical aspect of the formation of compositional ensembles is taken into account on the example of the Livoberezhna metro station in Kyiv. The regularities of the construction of the volumetric-spatial composition of high-rise buildings are divided by type: a single object; a high-rise complex with several tower-type buildings connected by horizontal volume-spatial parts; a building in a group of volumes of different shapes and heights, spatially connected and located at a certain distance from each other. The search for iconic compositional and artistic qualities of high-rise buildings and optimal functional and planning solutions requires architects to use and combine various planning techniques, one of which is the design of atriums in the structure of high-rise buildings in extended stylobates, etc. The historical analysis of one of the nodes showed how the relationship to the stylistic characteristics of architecture changes in connection with the development of certain stylistic currents in the world.

Chinese High Resolution Satellite Data and GIS-Based Assessment of Landslide Susceptibility along Highway G30 in Guozigou Valley Using Logistic Regression and MaxEnt Model

Landslide disasters frequently occur along the highway G30 in the Guozigou Valley, the corridor of energy, material, economic and cultural exchange, etc., between Yili and other cities of China and Central Asia. However, little attention has been paid to assess the detailed landslide susceptibility of the strategically important highway, especially with high spatial resolution data and the generative presence-only MaxEnt model. Landslide susceptibility assessment (LSA) is a first and vital step for preventing and mitigating landslide hazards. The goal of the current study was to perform LSA for the landslide-prone highway G30 in Guozigou Valley, China with the aid of GIS tools and Chinese high resolution Gaofen-1 (GF-1) satellite data, and analyze and compare the performance of the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model and logistic regression (LR). Thirty five landslides were determined in the study region, using GF-1 satellite data, official data, and field surveys. Seven landslide conditioning factors, including altitude, slope, aspect, gully density, lithology, faults density, and NDVI, were used to investigate their existing spatial relationships with landslide occurrences. The LR and MaxEnt model performance were assessed by the receiver operating characteristic curve, presenting areas under the curve equal to 0.85 and 0.94, respectively. The performance of the MaxEnt model was slightly better than that of the LR model. A landslide susceptibility map was created through reclassifying the landslides occurrence probability with the classification method of natural breaks. According to the MaxEnt model results, 3.29% and 3.82% of the study region is highly and very highly susceptible to future landslide events, respectively, with the highest landslide susceptibility along the highway. The generated landslide susceptibility map could help government agencies and decision-makers to make wise decisions for preventing or mitigating landslide hazards along the highway and design schemes of highway engineering and maintenance in Guozigou Valley, the mountainous areas.

How distinctive are flood-triggered turbidity currents?

ABSTRACT Turbidity currents triggered at river mouths form an important highway for sediment, organic carbon, and nutrients to the deep sea. Consequently, it has been proposed that the deposits of these flood-triggered turbidity currents provide important long-term records of past river floods, continental erosion, and climate. Various depositional models have been suggested to identify river-flood-triggered turbidite deposits, which are largely based on the assumption that a characteristic velocity structure of the flood-triggered turbidity current is preserved as a recognizable vertical grain size trend in their deposits. Four criteria have been proposed for the velocity structure of flood-triggered turbidity currents: prolonged flow duration; a gradual increase in velocity; cyclicity of velocity magnitude; and a low peak velocity. However, very few direct observations of flood-triggered turbidity currents exist to test these proposed velocity structures. Here we present direct measurements from the Var Canyon, offshore Nice in the Mediterranean Sea. An acoustic Doppler current profiler was located 6 km offshore from the river mouth, and provided detailed velocity measurements that can be directly linked to the state of the river. Another mooring, positioned 16 km offshore, showed how this velocity structure evolved down-canyon. Three turbidity currents were measured at these moorings, two of which are associated with river floods. The third event was not linked to a river flood and was most likely triggered by a seabed slope failure. The multi-pulsed and prolonged velocity structure of all three (flood- and landslide-triggered) events is similar at the first mooring, suggesting that it may not be diagnostic of flood triggering. Indeed, the event that was most likely triggered by a slope failure matched the four flood-triggered criteria best, as it had prolonged duration, cyclicity, low velocity, and a gradual onset. Hence, previously assumed velocity-structure criteria used to identify flood-triggered turbidity currents may be produced by other triggers. Next, this study shows how the proximal multi-pulsed velocity structure reorganizes down-canyon to produce a single velocity pulse. Such rapid-onset, single-pulse velocity structure has previously been linked to landslide-triggered events. Flows recorded in this study show amalgamation of multiple velocity pulses leading to shredding of the flood signal, so that the original initiation mechanism is no longer discernible at just 16 km from the river mouth. Recognizing flood-triggered turbidity currents and their deposits may thus be challenging, as similar velocity structures can be formed by different triggers, and this proximal velocity structure can rapidly be lost due to self-organization of the turbidity current.

Single-Cell Transcriptomics of Liver Cancer: Hype or Insights?

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is characterized by its high degrees of both inter- and intratumoral heterogeneity. Its complex tumor microenvironment is also crucial in promoting tumor progression. Recent advances in single-cell RNA sequencing provide an important highway to characterize the underlying pathogenesis and heterogeneity of HCC in an unprecedented degree of resolution. This review discusses the up-to-date discoveries from the latest studies of HCC with respect to the strength of single-cell RNA sequencing. We discuss its use in the dissection of the landscape of the intricate HCC ecosystem and highlight the major features at cellular levels, including the malignant cells, different immune cell types, and the various cell-cell interactions, which are crucial for developing effective immunotherapies. Finally, its translational applications will be discussed. Altogether, these explorations may give us some hints at the tumor growth and progression and drug resistance and recurrence, particularly in this era of personalized medicine.

Fatigue safety assessment of longitudinal and transverse reinforcements for concrete girder bridge designs

Highway concrete bridges are subjected to fatigue, with stress cycles from the traffic defining the fatigue lives of reinforcement and concrete. Most existing studies on fatigue reliability of bridges address bending, ignoring the fatigue effect on stirrups. This paper evaluates the service life and reliability indexes, from the fatigue point of view, of longitudinal and transverse reinforcements of several concrete girders (prestressed and reinforced) for new bridge designs. Traffic loads are considered as measured by a high-speed weigh-in-motion system at an important highway in Brazil. It is found that reliability indexes for longitudinal reinforcements tend to decrease with the increase of “span length/girder height” ratio and reliability indexes for stirrups tend to increase with the introduction of intermediate crossbeams. Safety levels of stirrups are usually found to be lower than those of longitudinal rebars and tendons, especially for reinforced girders. It is found that deterministic fatigue live estimates lower than 50 years correspond to unsatisfactory reliability indexes (probabilistic analysis).

A comparative analysis of attabad landslide on january 4, 2010, using two numerical models

This study determines the runout behavior (Attabad landslide, Hunza, Pakistan) of one of the biggest landslides in Pakistan's history, along the highest and strategically most important highway of the world. On January 4, 2010, at 08:36 local time, 45 Mm3 of rock mass flowed down the hill slope for 1060 m and fell in Hunza River, thus blocking the river's flow and making an artificial dam. This paper examines the landslide's failure process based on seismic data obtained from a published paper. The average velocity of the slide was found to be 14.32 m/s. To better understand the landslide dynamics and failure phenomena, a numerical simulation was conducted using DAN3D to simulate displaced materials' runout behavior. Simulation results indicate that the slope's failure lasted for 70 s, which is in good agreement with seismic wave recordings of 70 s. The combined frictional–Voellmy model obtained the most accurate results for simulation. Further, to verify the results, another simulation was run using RAMMS debris flow software; it was found that the results of both the software's are in good agreement. It is expected that the selected model and its parameters will help understand similar kind of rock avalanches in the area, which will help concerned agencies improve landslide prediction along Karakoram Highway.

Dijkstra Algoritması Kullanılarak İpek Yolu Koridorları Arasında En Kısa Ulaştırma Güzergâhının Belirlenmesi

Çin, çok taraflı ulaştırma politikaları ve 21. yy. İpek Yolunu oluşturma hedefi kapsamında 2013 yılında tarihi bir adım atmıştır. “Kuşak ve Yol” sloganı ile Pekin’ den Londra’ ya ulaşan yeni bir ticaret yolunun projesini açıklamış ve güzergâh ülkelerine iş birliği çağrısına bulunmuştur. Modern İpek Yolu olarak da adlandırılan bu proje; kara, deniz ve demiryolu taşımacılığının kullanılarak Çin ile güzergâhtaki 65’den fazla ülkeyi birbirine bağlanmayı, bu ülkelerde dengeli ve sürdürülebilir ekonomik kalkınmaları hedeflemektedir. Türkiye coğrafi ve jeopolitik konumu sayesinde en önemli güzergâh ülkelerinden birisi olarak bu iş birliğinden en fazla beklentisi olan ülke durumundadır. Dolayısıyla Türkiye; demiryolu, karayolu, tüp geçitler ve boğaz köprüleri başta olmak üzere birçok önemli yatırıma imza atmıştır. Literatürde sosyal bilimler alanlarında İpek Yolu ile ilgili birçok çalışma mevcuttur. Fakat bu çalışmada konuya mühendislik uygulamaları yaklaşımıyla, tüm sosyal ve politik koşullardan bağımsız olarak optimal bir sonuç elde etme amacı güdülmüştür. Bu amaçla İpek yolu Koridorlarında Pekin’den Londra’ya ulaşan demiryolu ağı için toplam 26 düğümden oluşan bir graf oluşturulmuş ve en kısa yolun hesaplanması için Dijkstra algoritması Python programlama dilinde kodlanarak çözülmüştür. Modern İpek Yolu veya Orta Koridor olarak adlandırılan güzergâhın Pekin-Londra arası en kısa demiryolu güzergâhı olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

The Role Of The Great Silk Road In The Formation, Development And Support Of Interethnic And Intercultural Dialogue And Exchange

The article examines the role of the Great Silk Road in the formation, development and maintenance of interethnic and intercultural relations with other peoples in the context of trade and economic relations. This article attempts to reveal the role of the Great Silk Road as the main and important trans-European highway, which has contributed to the improvement of cultural ties over the years.

A spatial genomic approach identifies time lags and historical barriers to gene flow in a rapidly fragmenting Appalachian landscape

The resolution offered by genomic data sets coupled with recently developed spatially informed analyses are allowing researchers to quantify population structure at increasingly fine temporal and spatial scales. However, both empirical research and conservation measures have been limited by questions regarding the impacts of data set size, data quality thresholds and the timescale at which barriers to gene flow become detectable. Here, we used restriction site associated DNA sequencing to generate a 2,140 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data set for the copperhead snake (Agkistrodon contortrix) and address the population genomic impacts of recent and widespread landscape modification across an ~1,000-km2 region of eastern Kentucky, USA. Nonspatial population-based assignment and clustering methods supported little to no population structure. However, using individual-based spatial autocorrelation approaches we found evidence for genetic structuring which closely follows the path of a historically important highway which experienced high traffic volumes from c. 1920 to 1970 before losing most traffic to a newly constructed alternative route. We found no similar spatial genomic signatures associated with more recently constructed highways or surface mining activity, although a time lag effect may be responsible for the lack of any emergent spatial genetic patterns. Subsampling of our SNP data set suggested that similar results could be obtained with as few as 250 SNPs, and a range of thresholds for missing data exhibited limited impacts on the spatial patterns we detected. While we were not able to estimate relative effects of land uses or precise time lags, our findings highlight the importance of temporal factors in landscape genetics approaches, and suggest the potential advantages of genomic data sets and fine-scale, spatially informed approaches for quantifying subtle genetic patterns in temporally complex landscapes.

Formulation of landslide risk scenarios using underground monitoring data and numerical models: conceptual approach, analysis, and evolution of a case study in Southern Italy

Understanding the mechanism of a landslide and its evolution is of fundamental importance in the risk management process. This work introduces an articulated approach to the problem, applying it to a specific case in the south of Italy where a gravitational movement insists on a section of an important highway. In recent years, the site has been investigated from a geomorphological and a lithological point of view, and a comprehensive geomechanical characterization has been carried out by means of on-site and laboratory tests. The area has been instrumented with a monitoring system composed of automatic inclinometers, piezometers, a rainfall station, and time domain reflectometry (TDR) cables. These sensors have monitored the deformation processes and their correlation with groundwater fluctuation. A 2D finite differences model (FDM) of the slope has been created, calibrated, and validated through back analysis, carried out using the monitoring data available. A secondary creep phenomenon, barely influenced by the water level rise due to occasional rainfall, has been identified and modeled using the Burgers viscoelastic constitutive model. Variations in the piezometric level were introduced and their effect accounted for the numerical model refinement. Once the improvements had been completed together with the reproduction of past events, a predictive analysis was carried out in order to forecast the most probable slope behavior relative to the incoming year. At the end of this phase, the infrastructure supervisor should have information about possible deformations to be compared with the near real-time monitoring outcomes and design assumptions. This procedure allows real-time monitoring of the compatibility of slope deformations with highway safety.

Employing a Traffic Data Processing Software to Efficiently Design Road Pavements

The main purpose of this paper is to propose a procedure intended to improve the efficiency of the analytical road pavement design method, by employing the necessary courses according to the effective traffic volume, composition and axle load spectra on a road sector. The approach is based on measuring traffic data using a weigh-in-motion (WIM) system, for 36 months, on an important multilane highway in Romania. A designed application software was an essential traffic data processing tool. Pavement design was carried out using the Romanian standardised procedure, as well as using coefficients calculated with the employed software, based on collected traffic data. The latter represents the proposed design methodology, which led to a 15% reduction in asphalt thickness and a 10% thickness reduction for the stabilised course. The obtained results emphasised the technical, economic and environmental advantages of the proposed design approach.

SEDIMENTATION, TRANSPORT UND EROSION AN DER NORDKÜSTE KOLUMBIENS ZWISCHEN BARRANQUILLA UND DER SIERRA NEVADA DE SANTA MARTA

The coast of Northern Colombia between Barranquilla and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta has been subject to swift morphological alterations in the near geological past. The Magdalena River mouth into the Caribbean Sea is actually in the western end of the region and has formed deltas in three phases during the recent Quaternary. The two older ones were destroyed by erosion ad can only be detected by submarine morphology. The second phase is represented by a delta, that reached its widest dimensions approximately 2.400 years ago. The then starting destruction continues untill today and is not yet finished. The recent mouth foresets the youngest delta of the Magdalena River. A westbound longshore current along the not always even shoreline is produced by north-eastern tradewinds. This current transports the eroded sediments of the second oldest delta to the mouth of the Magdalena River. Part of them helps to build its new delta, and part of them glides through submarine cañons to the deep sea. Besides the morphological evidence, sedimentary analysis of the shore sands shows: 1. a longshore drift of sediments from east to west. 2. a change in the balance of energy: sedimentation in the east; erosion in the west (placers of heavy minerals). The very important highway from Barranquilla to Santa Marta ist thus endangered by erosion in the near future. 3. the sources of the upper sedimentlayers in the shore area: in the oldest delta their provenance is the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta; in the younger deltas the area of affluents of the Magdalena River.

PERIPHERIES AND PRACTICES OF CONSUMPTION IN THE NAPLES METROPOLITAN AREA

The article analyzes the impact of the new attractors of shopping and leisure in the suburbs of the Metropolitan Area of Naples. After an introduction on the different features of today’s suburbs, the focus shifts on the transformations in the area to the north of Naples along an important axial highway (the Circumvallazione, officially the SP1). This axial road, as well as the so-called “median axis” (Asse Mediano), are analyzed as retail and consumption spaces. This case study demonstrates the complex reality of a suburb too hastily considered as uniform and anonymous: although in this area there is chaos, decay and forms of illegality, it is also characterized by a relative centrality thanks to new retail and consumption spaces which represent key-places for their users, places where the rhythm of life is slowed down and socialisation is somewhat recovered.

Characterization of the PCDD/F in the Province of Trento

This paper aims to improve the already existing literature data on air concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs). Four monitoring campaigns were carried out between 2002 and 2010 near Trento, a town in the North of Italy. These campaigns showed relatively low PCDD/F concentrations, in line with the values found in other Italian urban and industrial sites. Typical values for agricultural regions were measured in rural areas, with an increase during winter, possibly due to biomass burning. No critical situations were detected along an important highway, in spite of the non-negligible emission factors for traffic reported in the literature.

Autostrady na Euro 2012

The decision to organize Euro 2012 in Poland was a challenge in the sphere of construction of economic infrastructure. Particular emphasis was put on construction and modernization of road network. The highway construction program that begun in 2006 was sped up and its priorities were slightly changed. However, when the Euro 2012 approached financial, environmental and construction problems were noticed. Many contracts were not realistic which caused arguments between the authorities and the building contractors. As a result the important and prestigious highway between Łódź and Warsaw was conditionally operational two days before the fi rst match. In spite of addition of 500 km of roads between 2011–2012 the highway construction program was not finished according to the plans. There were 423 km of A1 highway (Gdansk–border with Czech Republic) planned but 315 km were not build on time. Situation was similar on the A4 highway (German border–Ukrainian border) were instead of 297 km of roads only 74 km were finished. The only fragments that were finished as planned were 197 km on the A2 highway (German border–Warsaw) and 22,4 km of the A8 highway (Wrocław beltway).

Lead adsorption capacity of some moss species used for heavy metal analysis

Mosses, covering about 23,000 species of all land plants in the world, have been widely used as an indicator of heavy metal pollution in many studies. A crucial part in these researches is to regularize the adsorption capacities of different moss species obtained from different regions to objectively compare the pollution levels. In this study, we have first analyzed the lead adsorption capacities of six different moss species by means of using column filled with Amberlite XAD-2000 resin method. The adsorption capacities of the studied six mosses are found in descending order as Eurhynchium striatum, Hypnum cupressiforme, Pleurozium schreberi, Eurhynchium striatulum, Homalothecium sericeum and Thuidium tamariscinum. Then, we have regularized the Pb adsorption levels for the moss species obtained from different regions along one of the important coast highway in Turkey, namely Sarp-Samsun highway, with respect to the determined adsorption capacities.

Highway Illumination Project Design Discussion

In recent years, with the rapid development of transportation industry, lighting installations were installed in the toll station and some important highway with dense traffic. Illumination plays an important role in the highway. This paper first introduced the illumination, lamps and lanterns, light source selection. Then the lighting power supply system was analyzed.

Seismic source effects on the vulnerability of an irregular isolated bridge

The first isolated bridge built in Mexico is part of an important highway that connects central cities of the country to the Pacific Coast. The bridge is located in a geographic zone affected mainly by two types of earthquakes: subduction and deeper inslab seismic sources. The seismic vulnerability studies are frequently conducted by mixing a family of real earthquakes from several seismic sources. Normally, the selection of the seismic records is based on the relative location of the structures to the seismic faults without any distinction among the source type. In this paper, it is analyzed the influence of two earthquake sources with different fault characteristics to assess the seismic vulnerability of an important isolated bridge. The structure demands were determined by using several strong motion movements recorded close to the bridge combined with the results of a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis at the site location. Numerical models were developed to assess the demand and capacity of the structure. The capacity of the piers and cylinders were determined based on their geometrical characteristics and the reinforcing bars of the elements with the use of analytical moment–curvature relationships. Results showed that the effect of the fault type on the seismic vulnerability of the bridge was significant, in spite of the similar pseudo-acceleration response spectra shape of the subduction and deeper inslab seismic records. The expected damage for an equal seismic intensity can be substantially different if the bridge is subjected to accelerograms of one or the other seismic source.