Municipal Road Research Articles

The Problems of Maintenance of Drainage Devices Within Municipal and District Roads

Abstract The article presents technical aspects of maintenance of proper condition of drainage devices of public roads, and municipal and district roads in particular. The importance of road drainage is discussed, basic surface drainage devices discussed together with their location within the road. With use of actual examples we indicated the typical errors made during repairs and overhauls of the road, that have the consequence of disrupted continuity of drainage or the risk of quick loss of functions of drainage devices. The results of survey of technical condition of roadsides and the drainage device within a selected rural municipality were presented, indicating main problems of road keepers connected with keeping the drainage infrastructure in appropriate condition. The need of growing awareness in planning and designing road investment was indicated in the field of consequences of performing insufficient drainage.

Energy Savings in Municipal Road Lighting: The Case of the Municipality of Hersonissos

Energy Savings in Municipal Road Lighting: The Case of the Municipality of Hersonissos

Energy consumption and utilization rate analysis of automatically snow-melting system in infrastructures by thermal simulation and melting experiments

The automatically snow-melting system with the electric heating pipes (AS-EHP) is applied in infrastructures (concrete pavement, parking apron, garage entrances and municipal road) in cold regions to mitigate the accumulated snow problem. In order to reduce the energy consumption (EC) and improve the energy utilization rate (EUR) of AS-EHP, the analysis about EC and EUR is investigated. The melting process of AS-EHP is divided into two phases which include preheating the infrastructures and melting. The influence and sensitivity analysis between the inputs (the pipes' embedded spacing and embedded depth, heating power and wind velocity) and the outputs (EC and EUR) are found and compared in two phases by thermal simulation. The applicability and rationality of the simulation are verified by snow melting experiments. According to the simulation, decreasing embedded spacing and depth in phase 1 and phase 2 could reduce EC and improve EUR. In the two phases, the heating power is suggested to be 100W/m-140W/m under the condition that the heating pipe’ embedded spacing is 0.10m–0.25m, the depth is 0.06m–0.12m, and the wind velocity is 0m/s–15m/s. The results and suggestions could be used to efficiently guide the scheme design and operation control of AS-EHP in infrastructures.

Identifying the spatial pattern and importance of hydro‐geomorphic drainage impairments on unpaved roads in the northeastern USA

AbstractRoads have been widely studied as sources of runoff and sediment and identified as pollutant production sources to receiving waters. Despite the wealth of research on logging roads in forested, upland settings, little work has been conducted to examine the role of extensive networks of rural, low‐volume, unpaved roads on water quality degradation at the catchment scale. We studied a network of municipal unpaved roads in the northeastern US to identify the type and spatial extent of ‘hydro‐geomorphic impairments’ to water quality. We mapped erosional and depositional features on roads to develop an estimate of pollutant production. We also mapped the type and location of design interventions or best management practices (BMPs) used to improve road drainage and mitigate water quality impairment. We used statistical analyses to identify key controls on the frequency and magnitude of erosional features on the road network, and GIS to scale up from the survey results to the catchment scale to identify the likely importance of unpaved roads as a pollutant source in this setting. An average of 21 hydro‐geomorphic impairments were mapped per kilometer of road, averaging 0.3 m3 in volume. Road gradient and slope position were key controls on the occurrence of these features. The presence of BMPs effectively reduced erosion frequency. Scaled up to the watershed and using a conservative estimate of road–stream connectivity, our results for the Winooski River watershed in the northeastern US suggest that roughly 16% and 6% of the average annual sediment and phosphorus flux, respectively, of the Winooski River may be derived from unpaved roads. Our study identifies an under‐appreciated source of water quality degradation in rural watersheds, provides insights into identifying ‘hot spots’ of pollutant production associated with these networks, and points to effectiveness of design interventions in mitigating these adverse impacts on water quality. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

REDUCING ROAD SALT APPLICATION BY CONSIDERING WINTER MAINTENANCE NEEDS IN PARKING LOT DESIGN

INTRODUCTION Winter snow and ice can have a significant impact on our mobility, whether on foot or by car. Alongside plowing, arguably the greatest tool in combating snow and ice is salt. The most commonly used salt for winter maintenance is Sodium Chloride (NaCl), the same salt used in food and water softeners, is applied to roads, sidewalks, and parking lots as it is an effective deicer when temperatures are between 0°C and −12°C. Studies have shown that deicing with salt reduces accidents by 88% and injuries by 85% (Salt Institute 2017). The effectiveness of road salt, as well as its relative affordability, means that as much as four million tonnes may be applied annually in Canada for deicing (Environment Canada 2012). However, while salt is relatively inexpensive to purchase, there are a number of external costs that are becoming increasingly apparent. These include corrosion of vehicles and infrastructure like concrete, bridges, and water mains; damage and staining to the interior and exterior of bu...

Re-estimating CO2 emission factors for gasoline passenger cars adding driving behaviour characteristics——A case study of Beijing

The transportation sector is one of the largest sources of energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The most important and difficult step in estimating transportation CO2 emissions is to accurately estimate vehicle CO2 emission factors (EFs). Most of the conventional methods draw less attention to driving behaviours. Based on a questionnaire survey, this study built a three-layer modified progressive regression model which included driving behaviours, and integrated vehicle and traffic characteristics. The results showed that for gasoline passenger cars with 7 seats or fewer in Beijing，EFs were significantly affected by engine displacement (D), vehicle age (G), producing country, the proportion of annual total mileage on national, provincial and municipal roads except freeways (P), waiting mode for a red light when the waiting time is more than 1min (W), and whether the windows were open while driving faster than 60km/h (E). The influence order is: D (.908)>W(−.199)>E(.080)>P(.063)>producing country (−.048, .042, <.001 for J, A and C respectively). More than 60s flame out waiting time and closing windows while velocity more than 60km/h can reduce 23.38g CO2/km and 8.93g CO2/km, respectively. The method to estimate vehicle EFs in this study can be used in other countries, and can provide scientific support for policymakers to implement traffic-control and CO2-reduction measures.

Exposure of urban agglomeration population to the selected components of PM1emitted from low emission sources

The sources of gaseous and particulate (PM) pollutants in Polish cities are mainly: municipal sector, industry, emissions from the road transport and the upstream emission (pollution “flowing” to the cities, derived from emission sources located outside of cities). The residents of the cities are mainly exposed to air pollutants from low-emission sources (i.e. municipal sector and road traffic). In the paper, the results of the study from field campaign, conducted in January of 2016 in Wroclaw will be presented. During the field campaign the 24-h concentrations of submicron particulate matter (PM1 ) and 24-h concentrations of selected PM1 -bound heavy metals were determined. The cancer risk associated with inhalation exposure to arsenic, nickel, and cadmium to the city’s residents, based on the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) standards methodology including the so-called lifelong chronic exposure of adult and child, was calculated. Measurements results showed that in Wroclaw during the winter season in 2016 the 24-h concentrations of PM1 -bound arsenic, nickel and cadmium ranged from 0.51 to 4.26 ng/m3 , 0.21–52.89 ng/m3 and 0.08–1.01 ng/m3 , respectively. Obtained calculations results of cancer risk values for inhalation exposure to arsenic were: for men: 6.11·10−6 , women: 7.30·10−6 , children: 14.90·10−6 , to nickel: for men: 1.91·10−6 , women: 2.29·10−6 , children: 4.67·10−6 , to cadmium: for men: 0.37·10−6 , women: 0.44·10−6 , children: 0.91·10−6 . The values obtained for inhalation exposure among children indicated the high potential risk of cancer, mainly for arsenic exposure.

Холодная регенерация конструктивных слоев при устройстве покрытий на муниципальных дорогах

Холодная регенерация конструктивных слоев при устройстве покрытий на муниципальных дорогах

W・K・バルトンが濃尾地震後に大垣で撮影した写真と撮影地点について

This article considered the photograph which W. K. Burton photographed after the Nobi earthquake in Ogaki of the stricken area, and following points become clear. The photograph which Burton photographed after the Nobi earthquake in Ogaki has 2 pieces of photograph (1) and photograph (2) put in “THE GREAT ERTHQUAKE IN JAPAN, 1891.”, 4 pieces of photograph (3)～(6) which was put in the Imperial Household Agency without being put in that book, I can confirm 6 pieces of existence in total at least. In photograph (1), Tenjinsya and its south side site were photographed, looked to the north-northwest direction on the municipal road of east side of the Tenjinsya, at Shinmachi in Ogaki city. Photograph (2), Burton looked to the northwest direction from the Tenjinsya neighboring site and photographed fried lost territory, Ogaki Castle, Ikeda mountains of the rear. Photograph (3), (4), he turned to the north from the Tenjin bridge southern coast and photographed the ruin of a fire of Jyoren-ji temple. Photograph (5), he overlooked the east side from Ogaki Castle tower and photographed it, and the Western-style building on the right side of screen is equal to the building of photograph (6). Photograph (6), he overlooked the former Rokugai-gakko school at Kuruwamachi and photographed it from the east bank of the moat.

Implementing textural features on GPUs for improved real-time pavement distress detection

The condition of municipal roads has deteriorated considerably in recent years, leading to large scale pavement distress such as cracks or potholes. In order to enable road maintenance, pavement distress should be timely detected. However, manual investigation, which is still the most widely applied approach toward pavement assessment, puts maintenance personnel at risk and is time-consuming. During the last decade, several efforts have been made to automatically assess the condition of the municipal roads without any human intervention. Vehicles are equipped with sensors and cameras in order to collect data related to pavement distress and record videos of the pavement surface. Yet, this data are usually not processed while driving, but instead it is recorded and later analyzed off-line. As a result, a vast amount of memory is required to store the data and the available memory may not be sufficient. To reduce the amount of saved data, the authors have previously proposed a graphics processing units (GPU)-enabled pavement distress detection approach based on the wavelet transform of pavement images. The GPU implementation enables pavement distress detection in real time. Although the method used in the approach provides very good results, the method can still be improved by incorporating pavement surface texture characteristics. This paper presents an implementation of textural features on GPUs for pavement distress detection. Textural features are based on gray-tone spatial dependencies in an image and characterize the image texture. To evaluate the computational efficiency of the GPU implementation, performance tests are carried out. The results show that the speedup achieved by implementing the textural features on the GPU is sufficient to enable real-time detection of pavement distress. In addition, classification results obtained by applying the approach on 16,601 pavement images are compared to the results without integrating textural features. There results demonstrate that an improvement of 27% is achieved by incorporating pavement surface texture characteristics.

GPU-Enabled Pavement Distress Image Classification in Real Time

Pavement assessment is a crucial process for the maintenance of municipal roads. However, the detection of pavement distress is usually performed either manually or offline, which is not only time-consuming and subjective, but also results in an enormous amount of data being stored persistently before processing. State-of-the-art pavement image processing methods executed on a CPU are not able to analyse pavement images in real time. To compensate this limitation of the methods, we propose an automated approach for pavement distress detection. In particular, GPU implementations of a noise removal, a background correction and a pavement distress detection method were developed. The median filter and the top-hat transform are used to remove noise and shadows in the images. The wavelet transform is applied in order to calculate a descriptor value for classification purposes. The approach was tested on 1549 images. The results show that real-time pre-processing and analysis are possible.

Diagnóstico e reabilitação agroambiental de trecho de bacia hidrográfica por sensoriamento remoto e turbidez da água

Resumo O objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar erosões em bacia hidrográfica e avaliar práticas conservacionistas de manejo do solo para a recuperação da degradação, por meio do monitoramento de indicadores de qualidade de água e por imagens de satélites. O monitoramento, por um período de 14 anos, foi realizado em 14.076 ha da bacia do Rio do Peixe, selecionada por ser a mais degradada do Estado de São Paulo, que abrangem 176 propriedades agrícolas exploradas basicamente com pastagens e café. Destas, 82 apresentaram algum tipo de erosão, além de 12 trechos de estradas municipais que contribuíram com processos erosivos nas áreas agrícolas. As práticas de manejo conservacionista do solo e da água implantadas em 86 propriedades da bacia permitem alteração positiva da paisagem e de rendimento da atividade agrícola, mudança comprovada pelas imagens aéreas e pelos indicadores de qualidade da água. A metodologia apresentada de monitoramento e de reabilitação agroambiental é viável e pode contribuir para o manejo e o monitoramento de microbacias.

Marketization trajectories in the Danish road and park sectors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of the evolution of marketization in the public sector as a process of institutional change. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a study of marketization and gradual changes in the involvement of private contractors (as providers of maintenance services) in the municipal road and park sectors in Denmark over the past 30 years. The study draws theoretically on historical institutionalism as an interpretive framework and empirically on findings from earlier research, register data from municipal accounts as well as new survey data. Findings – Marketization within the road and park sectors has historically taken place through gradual changes, in particular by processes of layering and displacement, which has added up to substantial transformations in both sectors. Transformations relate to the levels of private sector involvement, the purpose of using private contractors, the extent of competition and the design of contractual arrangements. The road sector has been a frontrunner in this marketization process, while the park sector increasingly has been “catching up.” Originality/value – The paper contributes to the understanding of the historical development and differential pathways of marketization within the public sector. In particular, the study highlights how pathways of gradual change, spurred by the influx of long-term policy pressures, over time can lead to substantial institutional transformations.

Assessment of the forest landscape along selected motor vehicle routes

Abstract This paper presents the results of research that aims to analyse and evaluate the attractiveness of the forest landscape in the vicinity of selected motor vehicle routes that differ in terms of technical parameters, such as motorways, regional roads and local (municipal) roads. The diversity of landscape units was used as the measure of landscape attractiveness. Landscape diversity analysis allows to establish the details related to specific parts of the road and the options for configuring the road environment. These options relate to the way the forest is managed and mainly involve aspects of infrastructure and cultivation. They include activities such as afforestation work and rebuilding the species composition of forest stands. According to the research, the lower the technical class of a road, the greater is the need to take action to adapt the structural-tree stand system to meet the safety requirements of road users.

NOVOROSSIYSK SYSTEM OF TRANSPORT FLOWS REGULATION

[For the English abstract and full text of the article please see the attached PDF-File (English version follows Russian version)].ABSTRACT The authors show characteristics of the transport load on the road network of the port city of Novorossiysk, and the reasons for a long stay of road trains within the boundaries of the municipality. Results of study of traffic flows by type of vehicles, traffic intensity on streets, the nature of interaction with port infrastructure, maritime terminal are given. The authors offer a solution to the problem of congestion of municipal roads through introduction of a notification and permitting traffic control system by a single operator and a block diagram of conceptual algorithm of integration of vehicles into its structure. REFERENCES 1.Administration of the municipality of the city of Novorossiysk.Official web-site (in Russian).[Electronic resource]: http://admnvrsk.ru/o-gorode/elektronnyy-ekonomicheskiy-katalog/ infrastrukturnaja-obespechennost/transportnaja-infrastruktura/.Last accessed 08 .09.2015. 2.Sintserov, L.Transport and communication paradigm of global development [Transportno-kommunikacionnaja paradigma mirovogo razvitija].Mirovaja ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnoshenija, 2011, Iss.5, pp.122-128. 3.Lebedev, E.A., Golovanov, B. V.Regulation of transport flow in the logistics of the region [Regulirovanie transportnogo potoka v logistike regiona].Ensuring effectiveness and safety of road transport: Proceedings of All-Russian 65th scientific and practical conference.Omsk, SibADI, 2011, pp.51-55. 4.Mirotin, L. B.Logistics approaches in dealing with transport support during the crisis [Logisticheskie podhody v reshenii transportnogo obespechenija v period krizisa].Progress of transport vehicles and systems: Proceedings of the international scientific-practical conference, Volgograd, 2009, pp.60-64. 5.Lebedev, E. A.Improvement of a goal of creating transport systems [Sovershenstvovanie celi formirovanija transportnyh system].Transport: nauka, tehnika, upravlenie, 2011, Iss.11, pp.65-67. 6.Mirotin, L.B., Lebedev, E.A., Levitsky, M. O.Integration of regional transport communications.World of Transport and Transportation, Vol.12, 2014, Iss.4, pp.118-123. 7.Lebedev, E.A., Levitsky, M.O., Nedashkovskaya, A. O.Integration of transport-technological systems in intermodal transportation [Integracija transportno-tehnologicheskoj sistemy v intermodal’nyh perevozkah].Transport and transport-technological systems: proceedings of the international scientific-practical conference, Tyumen, TyumGITU, 2014, pp.139-144. 8.Kusnetsov, A.L., Galin, A. V.Genesis of development of the ports’ models in modern transport science [Genezis razvitiya modeley portov v sovremennoy transportnoy nauke].Vestnik gosudarstvennogo universiteta morskogo i rechnogo flota im.admirala S. O.Makarova, 2015, Iss.2, pp.141-153.

The Buffering analysis to identify common geographical factors within the vicinity of severe injury related to motor vehicle crash in Malaysia.

The main objective was to identify common geographical buildup within the 100-meter buffer of severely injured based on injury severity score (ISS) among the motor vehicle crash (MVC) victims in Malaysia. This was a prospective cohort study from July 2011 until June 2013 and involved all MVC patients attending emergency departments (ED) of two tertiary centers in a district in Malaysia. A set of digital maps was obtained from the Town Planning Unit of the district Municipal Office (local district map). Vector spaces were spanned over these maps using GIS software (ARCGIS 10.1 licensed to the study center), and data from the identified severe injured cases based on ISS of 16 or more were added. Buffer analysis was performed and included all events occurring within a 100 -meter perimeter around a reference point. A total of 439 cases were recruited over the ten-month data collection period. Fifty two (11%) of the cases were categorized as severe cased based on ISS scoring of 16 and more. Further buffer analysis looking at the buildup areas within the vicinity of the severely injured locations showed that most of the severe injuries occurred at locations on municipal roads (15, 29%), straight roads (16, 30%) and within villages buildup (suburban) areas (18, 35%). This study has successfully achieved its objective in identifying common geographical factors and buildup areas within the vicinity of severely injured road traffic cases.

Evaluation of Bicycling Environment for Urban Mobility: A Case of Selected Roads in Khulna Metropolitan City

Bicycle is considered as one of the sustainable, and active modes of transportation. However, in the urban milieu bicycling has not been prioritized yet, and not been integrated with the other forms of transportation modes. This scenario is more ubiquities for a developing country like Bangladesh. Khulna is the third largest city, and with industrial setup has noticeable number of bicycle users. Unfortunately, the bicycling environment for this particular group of travelers in the city is not up to the standard. From this realization, this study has been conducted to explore the bicycling environment of selected roads on the basis of fourteen established criteria of evaluating bicycling environment. Six roads have been studied for this purpose. It has been found that all of the roads are not up to the standard for bicycling, though numbers of bicyclists have been observed in all of the roads. Each of the roads has been critically assessed by conducting physical, and user opinion survey. Scores have been compared of the selected six roads to give the ranks of the roads. The results from user perspective, and evaluation criteria slightly differ in outcomes. According to the assessment of evaluation criteria Ahsan Ahmed Road is only providing 17% suitable environment to the bicyclists. On the other hand, according to user opinion Municipal road is providing better services than the rest five roads. Evaluation of bicycling environment has given a detail scenario of how different roads are serving to bicyclists. It has been cleared that none of the roads (studied roads) has been giving optimum services to the bicycle user. To promote, and improve the situation for bicycling planned intervention is mandatory according to the situational analysis. This study is providing an insight to think about the bicycling planning at city level.

Automatic Extraction of Route Information from Road Sign Imagery

With the advances of the big-data process technology, acquiring the real-time information from the massive image data taken by a mobile device inside a vehicle will be possible in the near future. Among the information that can be found around the vehicle, the route information is needed for safe driving. In this study, the automatic extraction of route information from the road sign imagery was dealt with. The scope of the route information in this study included the route number, route type, and their relationship with the driving direction. For the recognition of the route number, the modified Tesseract OCR (Optical Character Recognition) engine was used after extracting the rectangular-road-sign area with the Freeman chain code tracing algorithm. The route types (expressway, highway, rural highway, and municipal road) are recognized using the proposed algorithms, which are acquired from colour space analysis. Those road signs provide information about the route number as well as the roads that may be encountered along the way. In this study, such information was called “OTW (on the way)” or “TTW (to the way)” which between the two should be indicated is determined using direction information. Finally, the route number is matched with the direction information. Experiments are carried out with the road sign imagery taken inside a car. As a result, route numbers, route number type, OTW or TTW are successfully recognized, however some errors occurred in the process of matching TTW number with the direction.

Climate Change, Soil Salinity and Road Maintenance Costs in Coastal Bangladesh

The potentially-adverse impact of salinity on paved roads is well-established in the engineering literature. The problem seems destined to grow, as climate-related changes in sea level and riverine flows drive future increases in soil salinity. However, data scarcity has prevented systematic analysis for poor countries. This paper assesses the impact of soil salinity on road maintenance expenditures in the coastal region of Bangladesh. The assessment draws on new panel measures of salinity from 41 stations in coastal Bangladesh, and road maintenance expenditures, income, road network length and road surfaces from 20 coastal municipalities. In a model relating to maintenance expenditure for paved roads to soil salinity, municipal income and road network length, large and significant effects are found for salinity. The regression model is used to predict the effect of within-sample salinity variation on road maintenance expenditure share, holding municipal income and road length constant at sample mean values. Increasing salinity from its sample minimum to its sample maximum increases the predicted road maintenance expenditure share by 252%. The implied welfare impact may also be substantial, particularly for poor households, if diversion of expenditures to road maintenance reduces support for community sanitation, health and other infrastructure-related programs.

Influence of Atmospheric Deposition on the Selected Areas of Eastern Slovakia – Košice and Krompachy

The contribution deals with the selected components of atmospheric bulkdeposition in the eastern part of the Slovak Republic, in the Krompachy area. Theatmospheric deposition (AD) is a significant source of many toxic pollutants and their major input into the surface and other components of environment. The monitoring was focused on the deposition fluxes of solid particles, trace metal elements (Fe, Mn, Pb, Cu, Cd and As), on their seasonal variations, origin and presence in water soluble and insoluble phases in the rural area close to the copper smeltery in Krompachy. Significantly higher abundance of all elements besides the Fe was found in the soluble phase in the area of Krompachy. The Košice city lies in the eastern part of Slovakia. Except emissions arising from small industrial and municipal sources, road traffic and civil engineering, two large industrial sources of pollutants are located in its vicinity,directly in the town.