Road Maintenance Services Research Articles

THE BENEFIT EVALUATION FRAMEWORK OF USING PERFORMANCE-BASED CONTRACTING IN URBAN ROAD MAINTENANCE

Performance-based contracts (PBC) have been adopted increasingly in various countries. However, establishing an objective and convincing benefit evaluation framework to facilitate promotion remains a significant challenge for those who wish to use PBCs. A recent study introduced PBC in the context of daily inspection and repair of urban roads. The pilot program in that study successfully addressed the needs of road users, road maintenance authorities, and contractors. Consequently, this study develops the benefit evaluation framework for this type of PBC for broader applications. The proposed benefit evaluation framework, consisting of one qualitative and eight quantitative performanceevaluation items, calculates the effectiveness of introducing PBC to verify its practicality. The validation results show that qualitative benefit evaluation using the Pavement Condition Index achieves a “satisfactory” rating. For the quantitative benefit evaluation, an overall benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 5.35 suggests that it is economically viable. The developed benefit evaluation framework can be used as a simple and easy-to-use evaluation tool for other organizations to assess whether to introduce PBC. This study fills this research gap by addressing the use of PBCs in the maintenance of all categories of toll-free roads, and contributes to expanding the application of PBCs in road maintenance services.

Heat Treatment of Seeds to Control Invasive Common Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), Narrow-Leaved Ragwort (Senecio inaequidens) and Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum)

The intended or unintentional transport of soil material contaminated with weed seeds is one of the most important drivers in the spreading dynamics of invasive alien plants (IAPs). This phenomenon can be observed at any kind of construction site. Typical transfer of soil contaminated with IAP seeds can be observed along with road construction (soil translocation) or road maintenance services (deposit of mown plant biomass). Thus, an effective inactivation of these seeds by heating can avoid the spread of IAPs substantially. In the present study, the effects of various thermal control techniques (dry air heating and wet heating with hot steam, hot water, and hot foam) on seed survival of the widespread European IAPs common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), narrow-leaved ragwort (Senecio inaequidens), and giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) are discussed. Dry and wet seeds which were either uncovered or covered with soil were tested for survival at different treatment temperatures and different exposure times. Results revealed that particularly dry seeds of all three species could withstand temperatures of 100 °C for at least 6 h in climate chambers. Dry seeds of common ragweed and narrow-leaved ragwort survived exposure times of up to 48 h. Wet seeds were significantly more susceptible to heat treatments. Giant hogweed seeds were completely killed after 12 h at 70 °C. The exposure of IAP seeds to hot water was generally more effective than the treatment with hot steam. The treatment with hot foam was only effective when seeds were lying unprotected on the soil surface. Dry seeds of all the three species survived hot foam application in the field when they were covered by vegetation and leaf litter or soil. Due to the robustness of the seeds, a preventive management of IAPs by an efficient control before seeds formation is substantial to avoid their further dispersal.

Computer Vision Based Pothole Detection under Challenging Conditions.

Road discrepancies such as potholes and road cracks are often present in our day-to-day commuting and travel. The cost of damage repairs caused by potholes has always been a concern for owners of any type of vehicle. Thus, an early detection processes can contribute to the swift response of road maintenance services and the prevention of pothole related accidents. In this paper, automatic detection of potholes is performed using the computer vision model library, You Look Only Once version 3, also known as Yolo v3. Light and weather during driving naturally affect our ability to observe road damage. Such adverse conditions also negatively influence the performance of visual object detectors. The aim of this work was to examine the effect adverse conditions have on pothole detection. The basic design of this study is therefore composed of two main parts: (1) dataset creation and data processing, and (2) dataset experiments using Yolo v3. Additionally, Sparse R-CNN was incorporated into our experiments. For this purpose, a dataset consisting of subsets of images recorded under different light and weather was developed. To the best of our knowledge, there exists no detailed analysis of pothole detection performance under adverse conditions. Despite the existence of newer libraries, Yolo v3 is still a competitive architecture that provides good results with lower hardware requirements.

“They just won't listen”—The role of blame in narratives of past extreme weather events for anticipating future crisis

AbstractThe phase before an extreme weather event is crucial for the actual reaction to the impacts of such an event. In this phase, professionals in the field of civil protection and emergency management anticipate the intensity and impact of the event and use these expectations for action. We argue that anticipation is—beyond others—shaped by the organizations’ shared narratives of past crisis that resulted from extreme weather events. The findings focus on the frame of ‘blame’ in the narration and are based on two fields of study, road maintenance services and forest fire control. Qualitative group discussions and semistructured interviews show two very different views on blame depending on the organization: human factors and fate. This contrast can be traced back to the character of the weather events itself, but also with the self‐image of the organization and perceived external expectations. Depending on the narrative plot and threshold of the event, narratives can affect and alter practices of anticipation through narrations of renewal. Findings contribute to the understanding of organizational sensemaking through narratives of blame and consequences.

Requirements for the use of impact-based forecasts and warnings by road maintenance services in Germany

Abstract. Impact-based forecasts and warnings (IBFs) are seen as important drivers for adequate anticipation and assessment of potential threats to public safety as they give a better understanding of the weather event's impacts. To prepare for impacts of weather events and prevent weather-related accidents, road maintenance services are actively using weather information in their daily work routine. This paper looks into the requirements that road maintenance services have for IBFs and how weather forecasts are used at the moment. The study is part of an interdisciplinary research project and follows a qualitative social science research approach. Findings show that the following factors are general user requirements: relevance of information, recognition of spatial and temporal requests, acceptability, comprehensibility, and technical demands. These are also applicable to IBFs with the extension to provide a benefit for road maintenance services in situations that rarely occur and where no embodied knowledge in the organization is existent.

Rockfall and Rainfall Correlation in the Anaga Nature Reserve in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain)

AbstractRockfalls are frequent and damaging phenomena that occur on steep or vertical slopes, in coastal areas, mountains and along coastal cliff. Water, in different forms, is the most common triggered factor of rockfalls. Consequently, we can consider that precipitation is the most influential factor for slope instabilities and it influences almost all other water parameters. Besides, the specific geology of the Anaga nature reserve in the volcanic island of Tenerife, together with its steep landscape, contributes to the instability of the slopes and frequent rockfalls. Recently, due to climate change and global warming, the annual precipitation/rainfall has declined but the number of heavy storms, associated with intense rainfall and strong winds, events that exceed precipitation thresholds in a brief period has increased which triggers slope movements. This paper describes the analysis of information on rainfall-induced rockfalls in Anaga, Tenerife (Canary Islands), to forecast rock failures of social significance and to improve the capability to respond and emergency decision making. To define reliable thresholds for a certain area, we analized information during the period 2010–2016, reconstructed the rockfall events, and statistically analyzed the historical rainfall conditions that led to landslides. The summary graph correlating precipitation to the probability of occurrence of an event was plotted. Statistical and probability graphs were made with the direct relationship between the number of rockfall events and total rainfall in that period by examining the maximum daily precipitation, not only on the day of the event but up to 3 days before. Hence, the results of this study would serve as a guide for the possible forecasting of rainfall-induced rockfalls, especially for road maintenance services, so that they can be on alert or mobilize the necessary resources in advance depending on the intensity of the expected rainfall.

METROLOGICAL SUPPORT OF GEODETIC WORKS IN THE ROAD ROUGHNESS MEASURING

Most of the transport and operational indicators that directly affect the road roughness depend on the roughness of coverage. Therefore, the control and timely monitoring of the road roughness is an extremely important issue that needs the attention of road maintenance services. At monitoring of the road roughness it is most expedient to use a technique of leveling of a covering. The method of leveling the coating provides more detailed information about the coating and allows you to determine the smallest deformations on the road coating, which may be at the first stage of their development, especially at that stage of their development, and show roughness and various parameters. One of the main tasks of measurements in the process of performing geodetic works is not only to obtain the measurement result, but also to assess its reliability. The required quality of instrumental measurement can not be achieved without adhering to the principles of unity and the required accuracy of measurements, so much attention should be paid to the metrological support of geodetic works. The purpose of this article is to analyze the metrological support of geodetic works in determining the pavement roughness and substantiation of the required accuracy of measuring the non-rigid pavement roughness. On the basis of dependences for determining the coefficient of dynamic load on pavement and the correlation between the pavement roughness and the coefficient of dynamic load and on the basis of experimental data, the necessary accuracy of measuring the non-rigid pavement roughness is substantiated. Based on the analysis, it was found that the accuracy of determining the height of the irregularities should not exceed 0.5 mm, for which it is necessary to use optical or electron-optical levels.

Exploring the associations between winter maintenance operations, weather variables, surface condition, and road safety: A path analysis approach

This paper aims to assess the effects of snow and ice control operations by investigating the interdependency between weather variables, maintenance operations, pavement friction, and collisions. Using a disaggregated event-based and location-specific framework, and employing the statistical techniques of Structural Equation Modeling and Path Analysis, all the significant direct and indirect effects of weather variables and maintenance operations on pavement friction and collision occurrence during snowstorms have been identified. It was revealed that precipitation, extremely low temperatures, and the potential of black ice formation all had significant negative direct effects on pavement friction and significant indirect negative effects on traffic safety. Moreover, the application of anti-icing agents and plowing operations have been shown to significantly improve pavement friction and in return improve traffic safety indirectly. To illustrate how the maintenance operations improve traffic safety, a hypothetical snowstorm example was considered. According to the model, anti-icing application was associated with a 14% reduction in collisions, plowing operations resulted in a 33% reduction in collisions, and combining the two tools reduced collisions per snowstorm by 42%. The findings of this paper can help transportation agencies make more informed decisions to promote an efficient mobilization of the existing winter road maintenance services and resources while improving the safety of the traveling public during the winter months.

Cuts to local government funding and stalling life expectancy

Cuts to local government funding and stalling life expectancy

Vatandaşların Yerel Hizmetlere Yönelik Memnuniyet Algıları Üzerine Bir Araştırma: Kars Belediyesi Örneği

Market-based public administration approaches that have emerged under the influence of neo-liberalism have recently increased their influence. Today, citizens are perceived as customers; and the criteria of efficiency, speed and quality are brought into the forefront in public services. However, new public management approaches concern local governments closely. This is because winning the local elections depends on the efficient, high quality and fast execution of the services. In this context, it is significantly important to determine the level of satisfaction of the citizens from the local services. The aim of this study is to determine the satisfaction levels of citizens from municipal services in the case of Kars Municipality. In this study, face-to-face interview technique and quantitative research method were used. In this framework, a total of 550 questionnaires were distributed to the participants; however, the questionnaires of the participants who meticulously answered the questions were evaluated. The data obtained from the questionnaires were analysed and interpreted using the SPSS 12.0 package program. According to some of the findings obtained from the research, the most important local problems of the city of Kars are the lack of clean streets and streets, lack of road construction and maintenance services and inadequate social facilities. While the local services that citizen are most satisfied with are public health inspections, cemetery and fire / ambulance services; services with the lowest level of satisfaction; street / street cleaning, environmental protection, afforestation, parking services and road construction and maintenance services. Based on these data and findings, it can be said that; there is a similarity between the satisfaction levels of citizens and the topics they perceive as a problem. Thus, what the participants accepted as a problem such as cleaning of the streets, lack of road construction and maintenance services, and insufficient social facilities are also among the topics that citizens have the lowest level of satisfaction with local services.

Exploring smartness in public sector innovation - creating smart public services with the Internet of Things

ABSTRACT The use of the term “smartness” in the context of public service delivery indicates an ambition of the public sector to become more agile and resilient through the adoption of emerging technologies. The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology that will be key to the realisation of smart public services. The research presented in this paper explored the role of IoT in public sector innovation through a qualitative study of how IoT technology can be leveraged to create and deliver smart winter road maintenance services. We use an existing smartness framework – based on the dimensions of efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and collaboration – to examine the consequences of introducing IoT-based innovation to road maintenance services. The findings suggest that IoT enables public sector innovation and that smartness is created through the combination of technology, people and organisations. The realisation of smartness in public sector innovation requires sufficient management capabilities and robust technology strategies, along with a willingness to explore and adopt new work practices rather than simply implement emerging technologies.

Competitive tendering, ownership and cost efficiency in road maintenance services in Sweden: A panel data analysis

Abstract This paper uses econometric methods to study the cost efficiency of road maintenance provision in Sweden for the first time. The novelty lies in the application of econometric techniques to a new and rich panel dataset (73 contracts; 11 years, 2004–2014) with a wide range of variables and approaches to controlling for heterogeneity (including weather variation). The analysis is applied in the context of a sector where all road maintenance contracts are subject to competitive tendering, but with a state-run provider competing against private firms. The key focus is whether, even after competitive tendering, efficiency differences remain between the state provider and private entrants. We find that the state-run provider has significantly higher costs (between 8 and 20%) than private firms despite holding 60% of the market. The results suggest that substantial savings are possible through opening up road maintenance to the private sector through competition for the market; but that in Sweden, the tendering process is still not working optimally. Further research is needed to understand why the current cost gap persists between public and private providers, despite competitive tendering having been present across the whole market for several years.

The effects of vehicle restraint systems on road safety

Key to understanding the needs and tools of road infrastructure management for preventing runoff-road crashes or minimising their consequences, is to identify the hazards and sources of hazards caused by wrong or improper use of road safety devices and identify errors in the design, structure, construction and operation of road safety devices. Studying such an extended scope of the problem required fieldwork and surveys with road authorities, designers, road safety auditors and road maintenance services. An outline of new guidelines could only be developed after understanding the effects of restraint systems, the design, additional elements, type of road and safety barrier location on a road or engineering structure and the road and traffic conditions on their functionality and safety. The paper will present the preliminary results of this research (research project – ROSE). One way to understand the functionality of road safety devices is to build numerical models and conduct simulation tests of virtual crash tests. The article presents the scope of work conducted as part of an effort to develop new vehicle restraint system guidelines.

Source reputation assessment in an IoT-based vehicular traffic monitoring system

Vehicular traffic safety relies, to a great extent, on traffic control and traffic offence detection. While this is currently in the domain of governmental and road maintenance services, many alternatives, such as crowdsensing-based approaches have emerged. We present a traffic event reporting scheme, focusing on event detection and data source reputation mechanisms. Proposed scheme is evaluated on a set of representative scenarios. Proposal is critically discussed and is followed by guidelines for future work.

The association between occupational standing and sedentary leisure time over consecutive workdays among blue-collar workers in manual jobs.

Blue-collar workers spend much leisure time sedentary, which is associated with numerous health impairments. The extensive sedentary leisure time among blue-collar workers could be caused by fatigue from physically demanding work, like stationary standing. Occupational stationary standing is prevalent in many blue-collar jobs and has been shown to induce fatigue. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between occupational standing and sedentary leisure time over several workdays among blue-collar workers. This study used data from 925 workers from Danish workplaces within cleaning, transportation, manufacturing, construction, road maintenance, garbage disposal, and health service. Eligible workers wore accelerometers for 2-5 consecutive workdays. A linear regression was used to investigate the association between percent of work time spent standing and leisure time spent sedentary. A multilevel growth model was used to assess the association between standing during work and sedentary leisure time over consecutive workdays. We found no association between percent of work hours spent standing and percent of leisure time spent sedentary (coef. = 0.01, p = 0.84). The results showed an increase in the workers' sedentary leisure time over a week (coef. = 0.70, p < 0.01). However, this increase was not associated with consecutive workdays exposed to occupational standing (coef. = 0.02, p = 0.42). In this study, we found no support of a positive association between occupational standing and sedentary leisure time. This lack of association could be attributable to a low variation in sedentary leisure time or the chosen definition and measurement of occupational standing.

Costs of performance based maintenance for local roads: Case study Albania

Abstract The provision and maintenance of road infrastructure is a major global business, consequently it is essential that road maintenance services are provided in the most cost effective manner. Without regular maintenance, roads can rapidly fall into disrepair, preventing realization of the longer term impacts of road improvements on development, such as increased agricultural production and growth in school enrollment, which is of particular importance for a network of local (access) roads. Inadequate local roads maintenance in Albania is proposed to be solved by implementing performance based maintenance approach for which the costing exercise is presented within the paper.

Assessment model of levels for winter road maintenance

The limited funding for the road industry leads to economizing in the planning of road network maintenance, to identifying the appropriate priorities of the activities with the greatest benefit for the society. The level of maintenance is the direct assessment of the road operation and maintenance service provided to the road users; it directly affects the road maintenance and for road users costs the better is road maintenance, the road users incur the fewerexpenses and vice versa. Insufficient road maintenance in the winter time causes not only the danger of traffic accidents but also worsens the driving conditions, increases the fuel consumption, vehicle depreciation, transportation becomes more expensive. Many results of studies showed that the current choice of maintenance levels in the winter time taking into account only the road category and traffic volume does not ensure the indicators of the most advanced world countries and road functional purpose. The principle of the minimal expenses for the society should be the main criterion in identifying the optimal levels of winter road maintenance. The experience of Lithuania and foreign countries helped in creating the model of assessment of winter maintenance levels for Lithuanian roads of national significance, which can be applied in the other foreign countries as well. This model could be an effective tool for the selection of the optimal maintenance levels, which would economically substantiate the winter road maintenance strategy, that best corresponds to the needs of the society.

Capability versus efficiency: contracting out park and road services in Norway

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the extent of, rationales for and outcomes of contracting out in the local road and park sectors in Norway. For understanding the use of contracting out in local governments, it highlights the relevance of the capability perspective in organisational literature as an alternative to the standard efficiency perspective.Design/methodology/approach– The paper draws on four expert interviews and survey data gathered from park and road managers in Norwegian municipalities in 2015.Findings– The study suggests that Norwegian municipalities primarily contract out park and road maintenance services when they do not have the capability to perform these services themselves. Cost concerns are also highlighted but of less importance. Moreover, lack of competition renders the use of contracting out as a potentially costly and less satisfying arrangement for organising service delivery.Research limitations/implications– While the scope is limited to one country, Norway, future research may benefit from the theoretical perspectives, which have been used.Practical implications– Policy guidelines should support a flexible use of various arrangements for service provision.Originality/value– The dominating view among proponents of marketisation in the public sector suggests that contracting out to private contractors is undertaken to enhance economic efficiency compared to keeping service production in-house. This study suggests that this is not always the case – even in “most likely” sectors such as park and road maintenance.

Dynamic arc routing problem in road maintenance service with uncertain travel and service times

This paper describes a dynamic arc routing problem motivated by daily maintenance operations on road networks to improve the maintenance efficiency. Uncertain service and travel times on road segments are considered and defined using discrete stochastic distribution. An algorithm based on the multiple scenario approach (MSA) is developed to deal with the uncertainty of the network. The MSA scheme is triggered to update the maintenance routing by an event-driven mechanism. The computational experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Calibration and validation of rockfall modelling at regional scale: application along a roadway in Mallorca (Spain) and organization of its management

The Tramuntana range, in the northwestern sector of the island of Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain), is frequently affected by rockfalls which have caused significant damage, mainly along the road network. In this work, we present the procedure we have applied to calibrate and validate rockfall modelling in this region, using 103 cases of the available detailed rockfall inventory (630 rockfall events collected since the eighteenth century). We have exploited STONE (Guzzetti et al. 2002), a GIS-based rockfall simulation software which computes 2D and 3D rockfall trajectories starting from a DTM and maps of the dynamic rolling friction coefficient and of the normal and tangential energy restitution coefficients. The appropriate identification of these parameters determines the accuracy of the simulation. To calibrate them, we have selected 40 rockfalls along the range which include a wide variety of outcropping lithologies. Coefficients values have been changed in numerous attempts in order to select those where the extent and shape of the simulation matched the field mapping. Best results were summarized with the average statistical values for each parameter and for each geotechnical unit, determining that mode values represent more precisely the data. Initially, for the validation stage, 10 well-known rockfalls exploited in the calibration phase have been selected. Confidence tests have been applied to their modelling results taking into account not only the success but also the mistakes. The best accuracy is obtained when the rockfall has a preferential trajectory and worse results when the rockfall follows two or more trajectories. Additionally, the greater the rockfall runout length, the less precise the simulation is. We have further validated the calibrated parameters along the Ma-road (111 km), the main transportation corridor in the range, using 63 rockfall events that occurred during the past 18 years along the road. Of the rockfalls where source areas were properly identified, 81.5 % are well represented by STONE modelling, as the travel paths and the depositional areas are successfully ascertained. Results of the analysis have been used by the Road Maintenance Service of Mallorca to assess hazard and risk posed by rockfall at regional scale to design the road management plan.