Transportation Projects Research Articles

“The Coast Is Not Kenya”: Mwambao in a “Moment of Danger” in Lamu

Abstract This article examines the multiple, diverse renderings of the past that came to the fore in the Indian Ocean port city of Lamu at the groundbreaking of the Lamu Port, South Sudan, Ethiopia Transport and Economic Development Corridor (LAPSSET) project in 2012. This infrastructural project includes a megaport and a freight corridor that would make Lamu the Indian Ocean terminus for a rail-land bridge. In Lamu, the LAPSSET project produced anxieties and questions about the past, where different historical narratives—of belonging, sovereignty, and autochthony—bubbled up to the surface. Focusing on two groups in Lamu and the wider Swahili coast, the first a coalition of civil society organizations called Save Lamu and second, the Mombasa Republican Council, a secessionist group, this essay examines the resurgence of older modes of coastal nationalism or mwambao. This article argues that coastal nationalism enshrined notions of Indian Ocean belonging, where the “nation” was defined by the coast's history in the larger Indian Ocean rather than the Kenyan nation-state. These Indian Ocean imaginaries were at the center of cleavages between state and society when construction for LAPSSET began in 2012, gesturing to how sovereignty remains unsettled in coastal East Africa.

Barriers and Recommendations for Right-of-Way Acquisition Process

Right-of-way (ROW) acquisition consumes a large portion of a transportation project’s budget, and it continues to grow more expensive, complicated, and time-consuming for project execution. This paper identifies ROW acquisition challenges and barriers as a result of the 2006 eminent domain law change in the state of Minnesota. Additionally, the study identifies the root causes for the identified barriers and recommends actions to overcome them. Property owners are intended to be protected under the eminent domain legislation against the government seizing their property for an unfair price. Many practitioners, however, think the legal change has complicated the ROW acquisition process and led to a substantial cost surge. The study investigates the barriers associated with the ROW acquisition process, and conducted a statewide questionnaire, expert interviews, and analysis of individual projects. An extensive literature review and input from the Minnesota Department of Transportation technical advisory panel were used to identify initial barriers associated with the ROW acquisition process. The survey was distributed to all ROW acquisition professionals in Minnesota to collect data on the severity and impact of ROW acquisition barriers and practices. Additionally, the statewide survey was designed to collect data regarding unidentified ROW acquisition barriers and practices. The survey results were also used to conduct unstructured interviews with ROW professionals in urban counties in Minnesota because they face more condemnation cases when compared with ROW acquisition cases in rural areas. Additionally, the authors carefully selected individual projects to identify the barriers that affect the ROW acquisition process. This paper presents the root causes of ROW acquisition barriers and recommendations to address the negative impacts of those barriers on ROW acquisition. A total of 11 barriers and their root causes are identified based on the statewide questionnaire, expert interviews, and analysis of case studies. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by identifying ROW acquisition barriers and recommendations from which other state highway agencies can benefit.

Preliminary Cost Estimation of Highway Projects Using Statistical Learning Methods

Setting up workable budgets symbolizes the competence of state highway agencies (SHAs) in fulfilling their responsibilities, and unreliable cost estimates can cause economic and political complications. The unclear scope definition and scarcity of project information available at early stages make it hard to generate reliable preliminary estimates. Hence, based on the 1,249 projects retrieved from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) database, this research aimed to develop a cost estimation model using statistical learning methods for SHAs to forecast preliminary costs during the early stages of a transportation project to fulfill different cost control and managerial functions. However, the currently used methods have serious limitations. This study introduced alternative statistical learning approaches to the currently most used methods: least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and general regression neural network (GRNN). LASSO regression, for instance, has proved in other areas of science to be remarkably better in terms of variable selection, interpretability, and numerical stability. In addition, this study also accounted for economic factors in model development because economic conditions are influential on highway construction costs but have received limited attention. Using the same dataset, LASSO and GRNN models were developed, and then their performances were evaluated based on a set of criteria, e.g., the mean absolute error and mean absolute percentage error. In comparison to the current practice with state DOTs, this research contributes to the body of knowledge by introducing a series of objective modeling approaches that can prevent human errors, requiring no substantial experience in preliminary estimating. Besides the introduction of statistical learning methods, this study took economic indicators into account when developing the models because they are important factors but have been ignored in previous studies. In addition, these statistical learning methods can produce reliable estimates in a much faster and more consistent fashion, which is critical, particularly considering the massive workload faced by most SHAs and the allowable time to make a preliminary estimate.

Evaluating and Incorporating Utility Coordination Practices into the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Project Development Process

Utility relocations have been identified as one of the leading causes of delays in transportation projects. Over time, national perceptions about how state transportation agencies (STAs) should work with utility companies (UCs) have changed. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC), like other STAs, faces many challenges related to utility work. This paper presents the findings of a research project funded by KYTC, which aimed to evaluate the current KYTC utility coordination process to identify opportunities for improvement and propose a new approach for enhancing the alignment of this process and the highway design process. Researchers crafted this new approach based on the findings of a literature review, an evaluation of the current alignment between the utility coordination and highway design processes, and experiences and lessons learned from other STAs. This approach was developed iteratively in consultation with the project’s Study Advisory Committee. Research findings suggest viewing utility coordination as an opportunity to partner with UCs. In addition, the early identification of potential utility conflicts and minimizing utility-related project risks during the early stages of project development by avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating all utility conflicts when feasible are encouraged. Project findings were used to develop a guidance document to assist the implementation of a new approach and an associated Utility Coordination Training Program. This guidance document includes suggestions for identifying, managing, and mitigating utility-related risks using utility conflict management, provides information on the strategic use of subsurface utility engineering, and offers recommendations for managing consultant-led utility coordination.

OPTIMISATION OF TARGET INDICATORS OF THE PROJECT PORTFOLIO FOR TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS SUPPORT OF TOURIST CENTRES

The subject of the study is modelling the optimal target indicators of the portfolio of projects for transport and logistics support of tourist centres. The aim of the study is to improve the efficiency of portfolio management processes for the development of transport and logistics support for tourist centres. Tasks: 1) to develop a conceptual model for harmonising targets / parameters of project products for the portfolio of projects for the transport and logistics support of tourist centres; 2) to determine the mathematical description of the main indicators as functions of the parameters of transport and logistics support of tourist centres; 3) to develop a mathematical model for determining optimal and consistent targets for the portfolio of transport and logistics support of tourist centres. Research methods are: methodology and methods of system analysis, methods of operations research. The following results were obtained: the concept of "hierarchy of tourist centres" was introduced, which is a logistics system that is linked to the relevant transport hubs. To manage transport and logistics projects as part of the portfolio, a conceptual and appropriate mathematical model has been developed to determine the optimal and consistent target indicators of the portfolio of transport and logistics projects for tourism centres as part of the hierarchy. The coordination is formed at the level of tourist flows, taking into account their possible distribution among tourist centres, as well as a single source of funding. The model's control parameters are the necessary indicators of the increase in the capacity and quality of service of transport and logistics systems of tourist centres of the same hierarchy. The objective function of the model reflects the maximisation of the economic effect of implementing projects to improve capacity and quality. The constraints take into account funding opportunities, investment efficiency, goals for the development of tourist flows in each centre, and the conditions for coordinating tourist flows in the centres of the same hierarchy (or part of it). The results obtained take into account the peculiarities of forming economic indicators for the hierarchy of tourist centres and form the basis for assessing the value of transport and logistics projects for tourist centres. Conclusions: The results of the study are a conceptual and appropriate mathematical model that allows to form optimal and consistent parameters of the products of projects for the integrated development of transport and logistics support for tourist centres. The model takes into account the peculiarity of the parameters of transport and logistics support, but its structure and construction principle can be used to form models for optimising and coordinating the target indicators of portfolio projects whose products are interdependent.

Small things, big impact: The network-mediated spillover effect through a transport connectivity enhancement project

This study examines a 4.3 km expansion of Singapore's metro transit system. Despite a short line, it better connected existing lines and improved the connectivity levels of numerous stations across the city, as evidenced by connectivity indices. The improvement allowed residents living near those stations to access other places more easily, leading to greater convenience and higher home value in those stations' neighborhoods. Using difference-in-differences to compare housing price and connectivity changes in all neighborhoods with or without a station, we find that a 1% improvement in connectivity can increase local housing prices by 0.37%. The identification is anchored to the broad impact of the network reconfiguration, which was caused by the new transport infrastructure, on the connectivity changes in distant areas. Several techniques and tests enhance robustness. These include an estimation of the treatment boundary that defines proximity to stations, propensity score matching or weighting to mitigate sample imbalance, event study for the parallel trend, parameter sensitivity tests, etc. The research highlights that a small transport project can generate broad impacts on the whole city.

Statistical Analysis of Delay-Causing Factors in Indian Highway Construction Projects under Hybrid Annuity Model

National highways are major transportation projects that greatly contribute to the economic and overall development of India. For speedy construction of national highways, in 2016, the Indian government rejuvenated the public–private partnership (PPP) model and approved the hybrid annuity model (HAM). In the HAM, government and contractor share 40% and 60% of total project cost, respectively, which reduces the financial burden on both. But in the present scenario, more than 200 HAM highway projects are facing delay for various reasons. To investigate the causes of delay in HAM highway projects, this paper provides a questionnaire-based, detailed statistical study of 35 identified delay-causing factors. The severity of each delay factor is elicited from 384 HAM highway construction experts including 123 government/client, 159 concessionaire/contractor and 102 consultant employees. Besides, 14 delay factors are identified using principal component analysis (PCA). Based on PCA and various other statistical analysis methods, such as ranking of delay-causing factors, correlation analysis, and hypothesis testing, results of the study indicate that delay because of land acquisition; delay in issuing various approvals/clearances; change in government laws and regulations; and inefficient planning, scheduling and controlling of projects are four major delay-causing factors of HAM highway construction projects. Moreover, this paper also provides some important suggestions to prevent delay in HAM highway construction projects.

Socio-economic approach to transport investments evaluation

Background: Transport plays a crucial role in socio-economic and social processes. Despite the fact that transport can be considered as an independent industry, and transport development projects can be considered as independent business projects, the spectrum of transport influence has not yet been fully studied. A qualitative examination of the spheres of influence of transport shows its impact on all significant aspects of socio-economic relations in society.
 Nevertheless, classical methods of financial management are used to assess the effectiveness of investments in transport, which do not allow to fully reflect the effects arising from the implementation of such investments.
 As practice shows, the use of classical approaches does not allow us to reliably assess the effectiveness of investments in transport. The choice of approaches to assessment is directly dependent on the socio-economic model of the state. The capitalist model focuses on the income received from the implementation of any investment project, whereas the socially oriented model peculiar to Russia is initially focused on the formation of the public good.
 The latter approach, in our opinion, is strategically more advantageous on a national scale and requires wide dissemination for the purposes of financial and economic analysis
 Aim: to consider the list of methods for evaluating investments in transport and determine a set of factors that require consideration for a socially oriented economy.
 Materials and methods: the research methodology is based on the analysis of methods of financial and economic evaluation of investment projects, socio-economic analysis, as well as macroeconomic methods. The information base of the study is based on official legal and methodological information of the authorities of the Russian Federation.
 Results: as a result of the study, a list of factors that need to be taken into account when assessing the effectiveness of investments in transport within the framework of the paradigm of socially oriented public administration is determined.
 Conclusion: the study confirms that the methods currently used to assess the effectiveness of investments in transport do not fully reflect the effects arising from their implementation. The proposed approach to determining the list of socio-economic effects resulting from the impact of transport projects will improve the quality of management decisions in the transport sector.

The overlooked transport project planning process — What happens before selecting the Locally Preferred Alternative?

This study investigates the transport investment decision process of judging the robustness and viability of the selected option compared with the rejected alternatives.This paper adopted the Ridership to Cost Ratio (RCR), that is analogous to the Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) and contrasts the unit cost at which the proposed transit alternative can serve one additional transit patron, as the primary measure of assessing the relative advantage of alternatives.We found that on average the ‘do-minimum’ option generates a Ridership to Cost Ratio (RCR) nine times higher than the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA), and the average RCR produced by the second-best alternative is 86% higher than that of the LPA, indicating substantial opportunity costs of rejecting more economical course of action which could have likely managed prospective demand at much lower costs and delivered more services for more people at the same budgetary outlay. Second, we observed that the primary factor differentiating build alternatives is route alignment. However, ridership estimates for alternatives with different routes show narrow differences, raising concerns about whether the existing user benefit assessment framework can fully exploit potential values credited to each alternative option. Third, the number of alternatives considered in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement has gradually declined across the past three decades, informing that the identified transport problems are prone to be approached from confined terms of reference. Last, most projects only compared the preferred light rail mode against the traditional bus mode in the Transportation Systems Management (TSM) base option, attesting to concerns about selection bias and discrimination in early-stage appraisal and decision-making.

Assessment of Social Effects Generated by Railways

Currently, the efficiency of transport systems, both at national level and while developing regional and interregional trade and cooperation links, is considered to be among most important factors for successful and sustainable economic development. The enhancement of transport systems in many cases implies implementation of large infrastructure projects, supposing major investment and generating a series of economic and social effects. And if a few studies have already been devoted to the economic impact, the social sphere has not yet received due attention. The paper refers to an attempt to fill this gap. The scope of the study regards passenger rail transport that has being dynamically developed in many countries and that is paid much attention in strategic documents on development of transport industry in the Russian Federation. The objective of the study is to identify the positive and negative effects generated by projects for development of railways, and to propose approaches to their quantitative measurement. The methods engaged in the study comprise the analysis of academic sources and methodological materials already developed abroad and in Russia, as well as relevant regulatory documents, including the methodology for assessing the socio-economic effects of transport infrastructure construction projects. This made it possible to systematise the existing social effects of railway transport into groups. The shown examples of monetary assessment of these effects are based on the best foreign practices. The results could be useful to the investors and the public administration for making decisions on funding, as well as for evaluating the effectiveness of transport projects, which could ultimately allow to save budget funds, increase the return on investment and solve several social problems.

Yolanda Permanent Housing Projects Turnover Engagements towards Safe and Sustainable Shelter Foresight

Housing ensures that everyone in society has a place to live. This study explored the engagement of the Local Government Units (LGUs) in Capiz in the turnover of Yolanda Permanent Housing Projects (YPHP) toward safe and resilient shelter under the Participatory and Capacity Development framework. A descriptive-qualitative approach leaning on intrinsic case study design was utilized. Data collection was through Key Informant Interviews, Focus Group Discussions, and observations. The participants were three (3) Municipal Mayors, one (1) NHA Region VI Resettlement and Development Officer, and seven (7) Heads of Offices and Housing Coordinators of LGUs in Capiz. The LGUs’ readiness and acceptance of YPHP were linked to participation, capacitation, and engagement. LGUs participation was in the form of attendance at meetings, consultations, and dialogues. Turnover experiences were in planning, implementation, the administrative capacity of NHA, and stakeholders’ representation and participation. LGUs capacitation and engagement were drawn from the establishment and operationalization of the Local Housing Office and Local Inter-Agency Committee. The findings revealed that LGUs participated minimally, were non-agreeable to housing design, not consulted about the project, “Risgos” or risk-takers occupied the units, beneficiaries selling their units, project transition from the past administration, disagreements on beneficiaries’ listings, and limited NHA manpower. There were social and economic service provisions for beneficiaries like access to food, health, transport, fire, police services, and livelihood projects but no sustainability in economic services. A safe and sustainable shelter foresight framework, which the researcher developed, is recommended for further participation, capacitation, and engagement of the stakeholders in the housing projects.

Impact of Quito's first metro line on the accessibility to urban opportunities

One of the main challenges for cities is to provide equitable access to urban opportunities such as commerce, jobs, recreation, and other facilities and services. Several cities are planning and building mass public transport systems to overcome the accessibility gap derived from urban sprawl, spatial exclusion, and extreme land-use specialization. Nevertheless, there is no information on how these transportation projects will impact overall and relative accessibility for different population groups, especially those with current low accessibility. This study proposes a rigorous and replicable methodology to measure the impact of public transport projects on the overall accessibility and accessibility gap to urban opportunities for different socioeconomic groups. The methodology comprises three main phases: i) the characterization of accessibility to urban opportunities through public transport; ii) the measurement of the accessibility gap between socioeconomic groups, and iii) the impact of the metro's implementation on accessibility and the gap. All the procedures were implemented using open-source software and publicly available data, guaranteeing transparency and replicability. We applied this methodology to analyze the impact of implementing the First Metro Line (PLMQ) in Quito, Ecuador. The results show that the PLMQ will increase overall accessibility to urban opportunities, and this impact depends on travel time and current accessibility levels. The impact of the PLMQ on the accessibility gap will be more modest, and the benefits will be more important at long travel times. We argue that incorporating this kind of analysis on early planning phases of public transport projects will allow better planning and design decisions and inform public debate about significant investments in sustainable mobility.

Conceptual fuzzy-based decision support tool for soil improvement under highway embankment - a case study of HaNoi–HaiPhong expressway

ABSTRACT In this research, a fuzzy rule–based decision support (FRBDS) tool is developed to assist selection of ground treatment techniques for road embankments. Using input variables such as embankment height, geological condition and soft soil thickness, the FRBDS evaluates the ground treatment level, based upon which the highway engineer determines a suitable treatment method taking into account project constraints. In the case study, the FRBDS is applied for a 10-km package of HaNoi–HaiPhong expressway construction project and is evaluated in comparison to expert judgements. The results show that the treatment methods provided by the two approaches are similar for 36 out of 52 sections of the package, but the FRBDS provides more consistent and rational solutions. In particular, the FRBDS significantly reduces technological fragmentation. It can be concluded that the FRBDS is a useful tool that establishes structured innovative solutions to improve the quality of decision-making for large transportation projects.

Boulevard of broken dreams: public audit, mobility infrastructure deficits and the limits of correction in Germany

BackgroundTraffic and transport infrastructure is a vital prerequisite for social and economic development as well as the socio-spatial integration of countries and regions’ societal strata. It sets the course for the future of mobility and transport-related social and economic development and is thus inherently political. Deficiencies in traffic infrastructure provision, such as delays in project deployment and exceeding costs, increase the potential for public discontent. It is the mission of public audits to identify, diminish and remedy infrastructure deployment problems—and to encourage best practice models and policy learning. Despite their importance, shortcomings that audit offices identify as well as the reactions and follow-up measures of the addressees to official problem statements remain vastly under-researched. As the transport area is one of the core emitters of CO2 and at the heart of many transition policies to tackle climate change, lack of knowledge regarding transformative change opportunities in the mobility sector is detrimental to the success of these adaptations. One major policy issue in this respect are reform strategies regarding transport and traffic infrastructure planning and project implementation. Our systematic analysis of public audit reports in Germany on traffic and transport infrastructure project deployment contributes to a better understanding of this issue.ResultsWe detect patterns of compliance and resistance to audit office assessments by the executing administrations in traffic infrastructure project deployment. While we witness at least the partial compliance and announcement of corrections in 51% of the cases, in about 19% of the cases, the responsible authorities acknowledge the audit’s critique (partially), but do not signal concrete willingness for further corrections. In more than 20% of the identified audit statements, the audit’s assessments are even rejected without corrections to the further projects’ execution.ConclusionWe analyze the extents and limits of organizational learning and institutional adaptation of public control strategies in mobility and transport-related infrastructure provision. Our contribution discusses possible reasons for sustainable transport and traffic infrastructure development deficits as well as shortcomings in infrastructure planning and project deployment. We thus try to open new avenues for debate on improved sustainable infrastructure policy and planning.

Methodology for Mobile Toxics Deterministic Human Health Risk Assessment and Case Study

Air toxic emissions from on-road mobile sources are significant contributors to the degradation of air quality in urban and dense population centers. Research led by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified more than 1162 hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in the exhaust and evaporative emissions from on-road mobile sources. However, less than 70 hazardous air pollutants are monitored by regulatory agencies. HAPs emitted from Mobile Sources are known as Mobile Source Air Toxics (MSATs). The EPA estimates that approximately half of the cancer risk and 74% of noncancer health impacts from air toxics is attributed to mobile sources. The quantification of the risk associated with MSATs exposure remains limited to date, and only a few MSATs have ambient air quality standards to protect human health and welfare. This work presents a novel and validated methodology to quantify the myriad health risks associated with exposure to on-road mobile emissions. This methodology is introduced in the form of a pipelined analysis process, which may be employed in existing and new transportation projects. The proposed new methodology integrates results from three different types of models: on-road vehicle emissions inventory models such as MOVES and IVE, air dispersion models such as AERMOD and SCIPUFF, and risk estimate models for human and ecological receptors such as the 2005 Final U.S. EPA Human Health Risk Assessment Protocol for Hazardous Waste Combustion Facilities. The result of this research work is a new methodology that provides regulators and risk analysts with a more detailed awareness of the health impacts of MSATs. A case study of Saint Paul, Minnesota, validated the air dispersion modeled results against monitored data, and the agreement was acceptable (i.e., the estimates were within a factor of two of the observations). Three high-population locations in the Saint Paul area were evaluated for human health risk, with the observation that at two of these locations, the Saint Paul—Ramsey Health Center and Anderson Office Building, the calculated cancer risk is in excess of the target risk level of 1.0E-05 for benzo(a)pyrene. The methodology presented in this paper allows regulators, risk analysts, and air quality engineers to better estimate multi-pathway cancer and noncancer risk associated with acute and chronic exposure to MSATs. Moreover, this work provides a science-based aid to policy decision makers when considering factors that most significantly affect population health and ecology.

A Slope Structural Plane Extraction Method Based on Geo-AINet Ensemble Learning with UAV Images

In the construction of large-scale water conservancy and hydropower transportation projects, the rock mass structural information is often used to evaluate and analyze various engineering geological problems such as high and steep slope stability, dam abutment stability, and natural rock landslide geological disasters. The complex shape and extremely irregular distribution of the structural planes make it challenging to identify and extract automatically. This study proposes a method for extracting structural planes from UAV images based on Geo-AINet ensemble learning. The UAV images of the slope are first used to generate a dense point cloud through a pipeline of SfM and PMVS; then, the multiple geological semantics, including color and texture from the image and local geological occurrence and surface roughness from the dense point cloud, are integrated with Geo-AINet for ensemble learning to obtain a set of semantic blocks; finally, the accurate extraction of structural planes is achieved through a multi-semantic hierarchical clustering strategy. Experimental results show that the structural planes extracted by the proposed method perform better integrity and edge adherence than that extracted by the AINet algorithm. In comparison with the results from the laser point cloud, the geological occurrence differences are less than three degrees, which proves the reliability of the results. This study widens the scope for surveying and mapping using remote sensing in engineering geological applications.

Green Remittances: A novel form of sustainability finance

Lack of finance is a key barrier to sustainable development. Formal aid and private investment are insufficient and vulnerable to inefficient government-to-government interactions and fail to reach some populations. Remittances from 280 million migrant workers to families at home represent enormous complementary monetary inflows to low- and middle-income countries, and, at $600 billion globally, are three-times greater than “top-down” Official Development Assistance. While commonly intended to alleviate poverty, remittances are rarely targeted towards sustainable development, and can even lead to environmental degradation. There is significant potential to align remittances with sustainability goals, assisted by emerging technologies and digital-finance platforms. Proactive “green remittances” can take the form of cash, goods, or services. They can be targeted to households, transportation, agriculture, entrepreneurial purposes, or community-level infrastructure projects. Applications include renewable energy, energy-efficiency, and a range of climate change resilience and adaptation activities. The article provides a unique synthesis of the existing literature, highlighting the lack of focus on proactively directing remittances toward sustainability, and identifies and assesses early targeting efforts in eight countries. Key policy challenges include awareness-building among remittance providers and recipients, identifying and pooling applicable locally-available goods and services, assuring quality, reducing transaction costs, and scale-up.

Characterizing Data Sharing in Civil Infrastructure Engineering: Current Practice, Future Vision, Barriers, and Promotion Strategies

Data sharing between different organizations is critical in supporting decision making in civil infrastructure engineering projects (e.g., transportation projects). Understanding the characteristics of data-sharing-related factors in civil infrastructure engineering is crucial for the civil engineering community to identify the priorities in promoting data sharing. The ASCE Data Sensing and Analysis (DSA) Committee initiated an investigation on data-sharing barriers in civil infrastructure engineering. This work produced (1) a classification of data-collection and data-use contexts in the domain of civil infrastructure engineering; (2) a comprehensive classification of data-sharing barriers and data-sharing promotion strategies in this domain; and (3) a synthesis of the opinions about the current practices, future vision, barriers, and data-sharing promotion strategies from civil infrastructure professionals and researchers using an online survey. The survey results revealed that (1) more data-sharing activities are occurring within the organizations, such as academia, government agencies, and for-profit corporations, compared with data exchanges among these communities; (2) “if there is a cost sharing in the data sharing,” is the condition that makes data providers more willing to share data with others; and (3) compared with technology improvements, the protocol of data sharing in the business domain has more potential in promoting data sharing. Meanwhile, this research identified the top five priorities among 20 data-sharing promotion strategies, which are protocol in industry and organization, data-standard regulation, data validity, data security protection, and large-scale data-sharing technology. These five priorities play critical roles in a roadmap showing how policy, business models, and technical solutions should cooperate to promote data sharing in civil infrastructure engineering.

Local Governments’ Adoption of Innovative Infrastructure Finance Tool: Evidence From Pennsylvania Municipalities

State Infrastructure Banks (SIBs) are established to provide low-interest loans and credit enhancements to assist local governments in financing transportation projects. SIB loans, one of their core products, are low-cost and low-risk when compared to traditional capital finance tools. However, SIB loans are still rarely used by local communities. This study investigates the determinants of local government adoption of SIB loans among Pennsylvania municipalities from 2008 to 2015. Using limited dependent variable models, we discover that infrastructure demands, prior experiences, and neighboring adoptions are all positively associated with municipalities’ likelihood of applying for SIB loans as well as the intensity of loan usage, whereas fund balance reduces the probability of applying for SIB loans. We also find that as fund balance increases, the positive impact of infrastructure demands diminishes.

A Road Not Taken? Perceptions of the EU as an Actor in the Bar-Boljare Highway Project

This study set out to shed light on the viewpoints and actions of EU actors surrounding the Montenegrin public debt increase as a result of the Bar-Boljare highway project. Therefore, four EU civil servants and five non-EU experts were asked about their perceptions of the EU as an actor in this case, and which actions it has taken or should best take. By comparing their expert opinions and by connecting them with other sources on the project and related subjects, the importance of professional research for policy-making is underlined. The paper argues that the perceived EU salience for and attitudes towards this transport project vary strongly between respondents. Expert interviewees differ in opinion on the gravity of the issue, with a possible presence of political bias. Multiple EU goals for this case were found in one or both of the interviewee categories, with most being socio-economic in nature. Finally, several potential institutions or initiatives are proposed for EU intervention in this issue, although case resolution by the Union is mostly seen as unlikely. Future research should point out if these conclusions are also supported by interviews with other relevant actors.