Maintenance Projects Research Articles

Causes and treatment of bridge cracks

With the large-scale construction and operation of highway bridges in China, the maintenance and repair work of bridges has become increasingly important. The treatment of bridge cracks is a crucial aspect of maintenance and repair. Improper analysis and treatment of cracks in maintenance and repair projects can pose significant safety hazards to bridges. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a detailed scientific analysis of the cracks in bridges and implement corresponding treatment measures. This paper summarizes common crack diseases in different bridge operation processes, analyzes their causes, and provides relevant references for later maintenance and repair, which has certain reference significance for the maintenance and repair of bridges.

Effect of aging level on the healing properties of an induction-heated ultra-thin wearing course and its mechanism

Electromagnetic induction heating can accelerate crack self-healing in asphalt concrete and extend its service life. In the maintenance project of existing pavements, induction heating and ultra-thin wearing course can be combined by paving functional induction heating wearing course. However, the ultra-thin wearing course is directly affected by the environment and loading, and undergoes aging in the service process. Thermo-oxidative aging is an irreversible and important mechanism that seriously affect the rheological and healing properties of asphalt. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to examine the impact of thermo-oxidative aging on the induction heating-healing of an ultra-thin wearing course mixture. Firstly, the AC-5 induction heated ultra-thin wearing course (IHUC) containing 1 % steel wool fiber by aggregate mass was prepared. Subsequently, the IHUC was aged to six different levels. Then, the induction heating and healing properties of the aged IHUC were evaluated. Simultaneously, the aged asphalt binder was extracted and its rheological characteristics and chemical alterations were studied. The outcomes showed that the heating rate of IHUC decreased, but the temperature gradient effect reduced at higher aging level. The optimal healing temperature of IHUC shifted to a higher temperature region and the healing rate decreased. Both heating cycles and thermo-oxidative aging reduce healing effectiveness, but the impact of heating cycles is less compared to aging. Rheology and chemical structure test results of extracted asphalt binder showed that the transformation of the molecular structure caused the fluidity and self-healing properties of asphalt were decreased. This ultimately decreased the healing rate of IHUC.

A New Wave Breaking Benchmark On Rubble Mound Breakwaters

The potential of predictive maintenance for critical port infrastructure, reducing risks and extending its life cycle, remains to be unlocked by suitable quantitative information that fosters predictive maintenance and sustained investments towards progressive climate-proofing of the infrastructure. The PI-BREAK (Predictive Intelligent system for BREAKwater maintenance) project will apply state-of-the-art monitoring and modelling techniques to the maintenance of the Punta Lucero rubble mound breakwater in the port of Bilbao, Spain. This critical infrastructure is crucial to the welfare of coastal communities and the project aims to demonstrate how predictive maintenance can enhance port safety and efficiency, while also supporting economic recovery through low carbon footprint adaptation to future scenarios. By combining short-term risk reduction (for service limit states) with long-term structural reliability (for ultimate limit states) PI-BREAK will develop a sequenced maintenance model to progressively extend the breakwater life span with controlled risk levels and impacts.

대구 달성 유적의 정비·활용(안)에 대한 비판적 검토와 제언

The Dalseong Site, Daegu consists of the fortress and a group of ancient tombs. Dalseong Fortress is an ancient earthen fortification that has been preserved relatively well, and its archaeological site is a representative example of a set of fortress and ancient tombs dating back to the Three Kingdoms Period, attracting attention since its discovery. A series of projects to maintain and utilize the site of Dalseong Fortress has been carried out recently; considering the importance of the site, it is believed that the projects will have a significant impact on the projects for other archaeological sites. Therefore, this study aimed to provide a critical review and a few suggestions of the plan to maintain and utilize the Dalseong Site. The plan (draft) related to the maintenance and utilization of the Dalseong Site was originally established in 2009 by focusing on the restoration and maintenance of the fortress. However, the plan (draft) reestablished in 2018 put emphasis on the maintenance and utilization of the fortress by connecting various values of Dalseong Fortress with its location. Based on the 2018 plan (draft), current status survey, geophysical exploration, and precision ground survey of the site of Dalseong Fortress were carried out recently. However, some parts needed to be reexamined and supplemented in the plan for the maintenance and utilization of the Dalseong Site. First of all, in order to restore the Dalseong Site, expanding the scope of the maintenance and utilization project to include the ancient tombs in the fortress is understood to be necessary, and the use of media art is suggested for the efficiency of the project while maintaining and utilizing the fortress itself. In addition, it is judged that the excavation and investigation work inside the fortress need to be limited to the area of Dongmulsa (zoo), and the participation of the university museum in the excavation work would lead to attracting the young generation’s interest in and vitalize research activities at the Dalseong Site. Furthermore, in order to restore the authenticity of Dalseong Fortress, the demolition of the Dongmulsa (zoo) and interest in trees, plants, and ecological species in the fortress are emphasized. Through these, various values of Dalseong Fortress will be fully recognized and utilized.

Advancing the understanding of successful technology implementation factors within state DOTs: a maturity model perspective

In an effort to improve the security, dependability, and quality of infrastructure systems, the implementation of complex transportation construction and maintenance projects is essential. Building upon a previous study that identified six crucial factors for effectively implementing new and emerging technologies in the State Department of Transportations (DOTs), this research aims to comprehensively explore six critical factors using a maturity model perspective. DOTs have shown increasing interest in adopting emerging and wireless technologies, as evident in various Federal Highway Administration Every Day Counts initiative. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, using survey responses from DOT personnel to evaluate the relative significance of technology implementation factors and subfactors. The six factors for successful technology implementation explored in this study are Organization Structure, Information Technology Infrastructure, Data Security, Information Workflow, Personnel Training, and Stakeholder Engagement. The study also evaluates the relative importance of People, Process, and Technology for each of these six factors. The paper focuses on providing detailed insights into the different criteria of each technology implementation factor and subfactor to guide agencies in successful technology deployment. Understanding these factors is critical to deploying emerging technologies successfully, which, in turn, leads to much-needed efficiency and productivity in highway construction and asset management. The findings of this study can help DOTs prioritize their technology investments and ultimately contribute to the development of a more advanced and sustainable transportation infrastructure system.

Resource-constrained project scheduling with multiple states: Bi-objective optimization model and case study of aircraft maintenance

This paper introduces a new resource-constrained project scheduling problem in which the project has multiple possible states and whether an activity can be performed at a certain time depends on the state at that time. We are motivated by aircraft maintenance projects where activities need to be performed in particular aircraft states, such as power on/off and jack on/off. We formulate a bi-objective optimization model for this problem, which determines the schedule of activities and the selection of states over the planning horizon, subject to resource constraints, precedence relationship, and state restrictions. The model concerns both the minimization of the project duration and the minimization of the number of state changes over time. A heuristic algorithm, which utilizes genetic algorithm techniques, is developed to obtain Pareto efficient solutions of the model. Its effectiveness is demonstrated through a comparison with CPLEX and an adaptation of NSGA-II. Furthermore, we conduct a case study about aircraft maintenance C-check projects in a major airline. The case study demonstrates that our optimization-based approach is applicable and beneficial to the project scheduling practice with the consideration of states.

재건축사업에 있어 재건축부담금이 사업소요기간에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to examine how the reconstruction levy system for housing reconstruction and maintenance projects affects the project period, review major procedures and contents that affect the project period by stage, analyze problems, and improve the system. We are trying to find a solution. Due to the influence of the reconstruction levy system, which has been reimposed since 2018, the total project period and the project period for each major stage of the reconstruction project are changing, making decision-making difficult, resulting in unreasonable results. This shows that changes in government systems and policies bring uncertainty to the overall project period, lowering predictability. Accordingly, in this study, we collected and reviewed empirical data related to the reconstruction charge for each business complex for reconstruction projects in Seoul, analyzed the impact of the reconstruction levy on the project period through statistical analysis such as t-test, and analyzed the impact of the reconstruction levy on the project period. We looked at the causes of unreasonable problems, such as delays in the project period for each major stage and difficulty in predicting. As a solution, it was proposed to revise, supplement, and improve the procedure for calculating the estimated contribution under the Urban Development Act. Forecasting the project duration in a reconstruction project is an important feasibility analysis indicator and decision-making tool. As the reconstruction burden affects the project period, in order to smoothly promote the reconstruction project, a system that can reasonably estimate and predict the project cost share and reconstruction burden is established, and the goal of the urban development project is to provide high-quality urban areas in the city center. We hope that by supplying housing, we will be able to achieve great results in improving the residential environment and stabilizing the housing market.

신속통합기획 및 공공정비사업의 사업 초기 저해요인이 사업 만족도에 미치는 영향 연구

In order to revitalize the housing improvement project, it is necessary to study the effect on business satisfaction of union members from the beginning of the project. This study analyzed the impact of legal, financial, and operational obstacles on project satisfaction in the early stages of the housing improvement project. In addition, the purpose is to provide basic data for revitalizing housing supply by analyzing the impact of the recently implemented rapid integrated planning and public maintenance projects on business satisfaction. The method of this study was to conduct analysis by applying a structural equation model based on data from a survey of union members. It was found that when financial obstacles within a union increase, it not only has a negative impact on business satisfaction, but also has the greatest impact on union member conflict. Accordingly, it was found that it was necessary to secure transparency in the cooperative's acquisition of operating expenses in the early stages of the project and to provide support from the government's housing improvement project support fund.

The use of energy management ISO 50001 to increase the effectiveness of water treatment plants: An application study on the Zai water treatment plant

This study sought to determine the impact of implementing the energy management system ISO 50001 on the Zai Water Treatment Plant's energy efficiency performance and demonstrate how this implementation affected the cost and rate of energy consumption. The proposed study model contained three dependent variables—energy consumption, energy efficiency, and the cost of energy consumption. It also contained an independent variable—the energy management system ISO 50001. All these variables were used to develop various questions to help accomplish the study's goals. Planning was done by selecting pumping stations, selecting the most energy-consuming type of pump, and finally, choosing a pump maintenance project to improve energy performance. The researcher used the case of the Zai water pumping station as an example where the ISO 50001 energy management system was applied along with the stages of the Deming Cycle of management. Four pumping units from the Zai water pumping station served as the research sample for the study.•Find the impact of implementing the ISO 50001 energy management system on the energy efficiency performance of the Zai water treatment plant.•The effects of implementing ISO 50001 energy management system on cost and energy consumption at the Zai water treatment plant.•What effect does the ISO 50001 energy management system affect the Zai Water Treatment Plant's energy efficiency?After applying the ISO 50001 energy management system, several conclusions were drawn. Energy costs and consumption rates in the pumping units dropped while the energy efficiency in the chosen pumping units increased.

Optimizing energy efficiency in data center cooling towers through predictive maintenance and project management

Optimizing energy efficiency in data center cooling towers is crucial for reducing operational costs and environmental impact. This review explores the integration of predictive maintenance and project management to achieve this goal. By leveraging predictive maintenance techniques, data center operators can anticipate and address potential issues before they lead to costly downtime or inefficiencies. Project management plays a key role in coordinating these efforts, ensuring that maintenance activities are carried out efficiently and effectively. Predictive maintenance relies on data analytics and machine learning algorithms to monitor the condition of cooling towers in real-time. By analyzing data such as temperature, pressure, and flow rates, these algorithms can detect anomalies and predict potential failures. This proactive approach allows data center operators to schedule maintenance activities during planned downtime, minimizing disruptions to operations. Project management practices, such as Agile or Waterfall methodologies, are essential for coordinating predictive maintenance efforts. Project managers oversee the planning, execution, and monitoring of maintenance activities, ensuring that they are completed on time and within budget. They also facilitate communication between stakeholders, including maintenance teams, data analysts, and management, to ensure that everyone is aligned and working towards the same goals. By integrating predictive maintenance with project management, data center operators can achieve significant improvements in energy efficiency. By addressing maintenance issues proactively, operators can reduce energy consumption, extend the lifespan of cooling equipment, and minimize downtime. Additionally, project management practices ensure that these efforts are coordinated and effective, maximizing the benefits of predictive maintenance. In conclusion, optimizing energy efficiency in data center cooling towers requires a holistic approach that combines predictive maintenance and project management. By leveraging predictive maintenance techniques and project management practices, data center operators can achieve significant improvements in energy efficiency, reduce operational costs, and enhance environmental sustainability.

Enhancing Project Performance: Particle Swarm Optimization for Optimal Budget Allocation and Maintenance Scheduling

This study aims to help project-oriented organizations manage their portfolios and arrive at an optimum budget allocation. In this study, the budget allocation process in a portfolio of projects is mathematically formulated. The interactions between the projects as well as the operational and budget constraints are considered. Then, the optimal budget allocation is determined using the particle swarm optimization algorithm. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, it is implemented on a portfolio of maintenance projects. In this article, we will explore the application of PSO in portfolio management and how it can help investors make better investment decisions. According to the results, the operational constraints and budget restrictions will significantly affect the optimum budget allocation solution and consequently the revenue of a portfolio. Lack of access to detailed information about the maintenance schedule of dam projects might be a limitation for future application of the proposed approach. It is believed that the proposed approach provides a powerful and efficient tool of optimal budget allocation in portfolio of projects. This research addresses several shortcomings of previous studies for optimal budget allocation.

Improving the scheduling of railway maintenance projects by minimizing passenger delays subject to event requests of railway operators

In the Netherlands, it is expected that passenger activities on railway networks will double by 2050. To manage the passenger demand, railway capacity planning needs to be adapted. One fundamental aspect of the railway capacity planning is the scheduling of large maintenance projects. These maintenance requests should not be scheduled during major events to avoid the disruption of service. To do so, passenger operators can submit event request, i.e., a time period and location in which no maintenance project should be scheduled. Currently, these event requests are considered as hard constraints and the flexibility in maintenance scheduling decreases resulting in conflicts. In this study, the focus is on scheduling maintenance projects to minimize passenger delays while relaxing the hard constraints of event requests. This problem is addressed by introducing a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) that minimizes passenger delays while scheduling maintenance projects, which includes capacity constraints for alternative services in event request areas during maintenance projects. The computational complexity of the proposed model is reduced by adding valid inequalities from the Single Machine Scheduling problem and using a simulated annealing meta-heuristic to find a favorable initial solution guess. Then, the MILP is solved to global optimality with Branch-and-Bound. A case study on the Dutch railway network shows improvements when event requests are not considered as hard constraints and an increase in the flexibility to schedule maintenance projects. This allows decision makers to choose from a set of optimal maintenance schedules with different characteristics.

Integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) for optimal lifecycle management of complex structures

A fundamental issue in the development and engineering industries is the efficient management of complex structures during their entire lifecycles. Traditional fragmented techniques have been used, and this has led to instances of poor communication and subpar performance, particularly in the context of repair and restoration initiatives. Building information modeling (BIM) emerged as a ground-breaking strategy that offers a digital representation of a building's attributes and facilitates effective collaboration among several stakeholders. The current study examines how BIM impacts complex building management throughout the course of a structure's existence. It focuses on how BIM helps to advance maintenance procedures, environmental initiatives, and project effectiveness. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), structural equation modeling (SEM), and literature research are the three phases of the study's methodology. A thorough investigation was carried out in Pakistan's Rawalpindi and Islamabad region utilizing a quantitative technique. The poll of 159 participants produced intriguing findings. The process of EFA serves to verify constructs and questions, ensuring their reliability and validity. On the other hand, SEM is used to assess the structural relationships between variables and their impact on BIM based lifecycle management. The findings suggest that the application of BIM is favorably influenced by each phase of a project, namely Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance, Renovation and Retrofitting, and End-of-Life Decisions. This highlights the need to implement a complete BIM strategy across all stages of a project's lifespan, which may enhance facility management, decrease expenses, and promote sustainability. The results of this study have significant consequences for professionals and politicians, highlighting the crucial need to provide incentives and regulations to promote the use of BIM in building projects.

Analysis of problems in university maintenance and renovation project management

Analysis of problems in university maintenance and renovation project management

Improved U-net network asphalt pavement crack detection method.

Road crack detection is one of the important parts of road safety detection. Aiming at the problems such as weak segmentation effect of basic U-Net on pavement crack, insufficient precision of crack contour segmentation, difficult to identify narrow crack and low segmentation accuracy, this paper proposes an improved U-net network pavement crack segmentation method. VGG16 and Up_Conv (Upsampling Convolution) modules are introduced as backbone network and feature enhancement network respectively, and the more abstract features in the image are extracted by using the Block depth separable convolution blocks, and the multi-scale features are captured and enhanced by higher level semantic information to improve the recognition accuracy of narrow cracks in the road surface. The improved network embedded the Ca(Channel Attention) attention mechanism in U-net's jump connection to enhance the crack portion to suppress background noise. At the same time, DG_Conv(Depthwise GSConv Convolution) module and UnetUp(Unet Upsampling) module are added in the decoding part to extract richer features through more convolutional layers in the network, so that the model pays more attention to the detailed part of the crack, so the segmentation accuracy can be improved. In order to verify the model's ability to detect cracks in complex backgrounds, experiments were carried out on CFD and Deepcrack datasets. The experimental results show that compared with the traditional U-net network F1-score and mIoU have increased by 13.6% and 9.9% respectively. Superior to advanced models such as U-net, Segnet and Linknet in accuracy and generalization ability, the improved model provides a new method for asphalt pavement crack detection. The model is more conducive to practical application and ground deployment, and can be applied in road maintenance projects.

Assessment Performance of Public Disbursement in Civil Maintenance Railway Projects (A Post Audit–Covid Pandemic)

This paper examined the impact of COVID-19 using a quantitative approach on disbursement of maintenance railway projects. Information was gathered by deploying questionnaire survey to practitioners who involved in railway maintenance projects. Primary factors effected to disbursement procedure were identified from 70 major railway maintenance projects (Civil, Mechanical and Electrical works). Thirty-two (32) factors effected to the disbursement procedure were then distributed in the form of questionnaire. A total 115 respondents were sent back and ranking the severity of effective factors to disbursement procedure. Findings revealed in submission stage that contractor’s failure to follow the procedures submitting invoices. contractor submits claims with errors and government prevention policies were mainly factors which effected the performance of submission. While, quarantine period and adverse weather factors were the main factor which effected the performance of inspection stage. Financial crisis and shortage of staff were main factors which effected the payment execution period. All mentioned factors effected to disbursement procedure were caused by contractors and engineers and owner staffs. It appeared factors effected to performance of disbursement procedure that were normally occurred in construction projects.

Application and testing technology of new road materials in highways

Abstract In the face of annual highway construction and highway maintenance projects, traditional road materials and road testing technology are difficult to meet the current highway construction needs. Based on this research background, the article first discusses the three-dimensional ground-penetrating radar nondestructive testing technology, analyzes the detection principle from the fluctuation equation of electromagnetic wave, the propagation characteristics of electromagnetic wave, and the propagation speed in the medium, and specifically analyzes its detection performance and application in the detection of the thickness of the structural layer. Finally, some sections of the Shanzhan Expressway are chosen as test objects and test experiments are designed and implemented. The test results show that the strength of the road material with water water-reducing agent increases compared to the material without water water-reducing agent. By using red mud instead of cement, road materials can have a relatively high strength. Therefore, using red mud as a substitute for conventional materials is entirely feasible and can save costs. The cracking rate of the highway was reduced by using the “leaching recycled” material, and the small cracks of less than 2mm were basically sealed, while the cracks of more than 2mm were alleviated. There is no water seepage on the pavement at 28 points of the 7 sections tested, so the “leaching regeneration” material has a better waterproof effect on the highway pavement.

Post-pandemic appropriation in an urban park: notes from an analysis of the use of urban furniture in Parque da Gare, in Passo Fundo/RS

The pandemic has established a contradiction in cities, where a public space, such as an urban park, which facilitates activities and social interactions, has also been the driving force behind the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Thus, this new dynamic may have had an impact on the user’s view of the city and its attributes, forcing facets of aversion into urban respiration. In this way, the aim is to investigate the process of use and appropriation of Parque da Gare, in Passo Fundo, in the north of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, based on the behavior and perception of users of the space, after the pandemic scenario. The methodology was applied in two stages: firstly, to map the process of users’ choices, the behavioral analysis method was applied, carrying out systematic observations. In the second step, observations were combined with the user’s perception through online questionnaires, contributing to a macro assessment. Discussing the results, it was possible to see that significant changes in the appropriation of urban furniture occurred, along with impacts on preference. It was noted that survey respondents do not feel safe using local furniture, which requires interventions in terms of management, maintenance and new project proposals in parks. With the work, observed preferences were spatialized, understanding patterns of attitudes and behaviors, contributing to the understanding of urban perceptions. It is concluded that these places of immense value in the city’s health require adjustments, to reconnect the user with the park’s infrastructure, guaranteeing more positive and safe sensations in this return to the city.

공공주도 도시정비사업이 주택공급확대에 미치는 영향요인분석

This study examined how public-led public redevelopment and public reconstruction projects were perceived, and as a result of conducting and analyzing the factors affecting the expansion of housing supply, the following conclusions were drawn.
 First, it was found that union repulsion was significant as a factor influencing public-led urban maintenance projects, and second, the impact of project costs was significant. Third, the impact of transportation infrastructure level was significant, and fourth, the impact of project period was found to be significant. Fifth, the floor area ratio was also significant, and sixth, the educational infrastructure was analyzed to be significant. Overall, it was found that the member repulsion and project cost had a negative effect on the amount of housing supply, while the level of transportation infrastructure, project period, floor area ratio, and educational infrastructure had a positive effect.
 Through the results of these studies, the government and local governments should legally and administratively support public redevelopment and reconstruction projects led by the public, and make efforts to establish policies by collecting opinions from residents. In addition, by inducing active participation of residents, the efficiency of the project can be increased, which can contribute to expanding the amount of housing supply.

A Framework for Implementation Public-Private Partnership in Roads’ Maintenance and Operating Projects in Jordan

This paper describes a systematic approach to assess and fund highways infrastructures project in Jordan. In essence, it focuses on building a framework to implement Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in roadways’ Maintenance and Operating (M&O) projects. It presents a methodology to assess the conditions of the highway infrastructures using structural and functional indices. The deterioration in the infrastructure condition with the age is presented, followed by M&O project period classification. Subsequently, identifying the problems confronted in the PPP (M&O) process and the associated factors affecting PPPs in service delivery, and proposing activities contributing to improvements of the M&O performance with the implementation of PPP. Thereafter, a framework to implement the PPP in highway maintenance projects is presented.