Trunk Highway Research Articles

Analysis of the Application of Micro Steel Pipe Pile Technology in Emergency Maintenance of Ordinary National and Provincial Trunk Highway Subgrade

A provincial road in Guizhou Province experienced cracking and bursting of retaining walls, roadbed subsidence, and road surface cracking, with a rapid trend of disease development. After multiple on-site inspections, it was decided to implement emergency maintenance of the roadbed. For sudden disaster sections that affect traffic safety, emergency plans should be initiated and emergency maintenance and repair work should be carried out in a timely manner. The treatment plan adopts micro steel pipe piles to reinforce the roadbed, demolish and rebuild the original retaining wall, and finally restore the road surface, drainage, and traffic safety facilities.

BGCP-based traffic data imputation and accident detection applications for the national trunk highway

Facing the currently large quantity of intelligent transportation data, missing ones is often inevitable. Some previous works have shown the advantages of tensor decomposition-based approaches in solving multi-dimensional data imputation problems. However, a research gap still exists in examining the effect of applying these methods on imputation performance and their application to accident detection. Thus, referring to a two-month spatiotemporal traffic speed dataset, collected on the national trunk highway in Shandong, China, this paper employs the Bayesian Gaussian CANDECOMP/PARAFAC (BGCP) to impute missing speed data in different missing rates and missing scenarios. Moreover, the dataset is built while considering both the temporal and the road functions. Applying the generated results of data imputation in accident detection is also of the main targets of this work. Thus, while combining multiple sources of data, such as traffic operation status and weather, eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) is deployed to build accident detection models. The generated results show that the BGCP model can produce accurate imputations even under temporally correlated data corruption. Added to that, it is also suggested that, when there are continuous periods of missing speed data (missing rate greater than 10%), pre-processing of data imputation is imperative to maintain the accuracy of accident detection. Thus, the objective of this work is to provide insights into traffic management and academics when performing spatiotemporal data imputation tasks.

Deep learning for estimating pavement roughness using synthetic aperture radar data

Because of the high costs of ground-based pavement condition methods used to monitor pavement condition, transportation agencies often limit distress surveys to their major roads. As a result, the condition of local and ancillary roads remains unknown to decision-makers. This study addresses this gap by exploring the capabilities of publicly available Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to estimate pavement roughness. This paper introduces a novel framework to address the challenges of using SAR images in evaluating pavement condition. The trunk highway network in Minnesota is analyzed to develop deep learning models that predict International Roughness Index (IRI) and associated prediction intervals. This analysis found that SAR images have a strong potential in quantifying pavement condition. The deep learning models were able to predict IRI with a mean absolute error of 14.6 in./miles and provide intervals of pavement condition that capture actual IRI values with an accuracy of 81%.

Impacts of COVID-19 Travel Restriction Policies on the Traffic Quality of the National and Provincial Trunk Highway Network: A Case Study of Shaanxi Province.

According to recent research, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted road traffic quality. This study aims to analyze the impacts of COVID-19 travel restriction policies on the traffic quality of the national and provincial trunk highway network (NPTHN) in Shaanxi Province. We collected the traffic data of the NPTHN for three consecutive years (from 2019 to 2021), before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, including weekly average daily traffic, weekly traffic interruption times, weekly traffic control time, weekly traffic accidents, weekly traffic injuries, and weekly traffic deaths. Using descriptive statistics and dynamic analysis methods, we studied the safety and service levels of the NPTHN. We set up an assessment model of the NPTHN operational orderliness through dissipative structure theory and entropy theory to study the operational orderliness of the NPTHN. Results show that in 2020, the service level, safety level, and operational orderliness of the NPTHN dropped to the lowest levels. The pandemic was gradually brought under control, and the travel restriction policies were gradually reduced and lifted. The adverse impacts on the operational orderliness of the NPTHN decreased, but the operational orderliness did not yet recover to the pre-pandemic level. Meanwhile, the service and safety levels of the NPTHN did not recover. Taken together, the COVID-19 travel restriction policies had adverse impacts on the traffic quality of the NPTHN in Shaanxi Province.

Scalar tensions and the missing link crisis in China’s National Trunk Highway System

ABSTRACT Studies of scalar politics have acknowledged the hierarchical nature of inter-scalar state agent relations as a source of tensions for infrastructural failure. Few scholarly inquiries have given equal emphasis to the vertical and horizontal power relations, as well as the interplay of scalar verticality and horizontality which frames the power topologies in the regulation of infrastructural development. Informed by a political assemblage approach, this article explores the entanglement of scalar tensions and missing link crisis in China by “blending” the verticality and horizontality of scalar power geometries into a relationalized analytical framework. Using a data set of missing links in China’s National Trunk Highway System (NTHS), this article estimates the relational effect of inter-scalar and intra-scalar intergovernmental linkages on the territorial pattern of missing links in the NTHS through a gravitational spatial interaction model, which contributes to the scholarship of missing links through the methodological crossover of spatial econometric modeling and scale theories. Results indicate the following: vertically, the involvement of provincial governments in the realization of the NTHS link increases the probability of a missing link; whereas horizontally, the presence of a (vice-)provincial city government heightens the risk of a missing link.

How transportation infrastructure affects firm Productivity?Evidence from China

The national trunk highway system (NTHS), consisting of five vertical and seven horizontal national trunk highways, is taken as a natural experiment to study the impact of transportation infrastructure on firm productivity. It is found that the NTHS has led to the agglomeration of production resources of county-level enterprises along the system to large cities, and the degree of agglomeration has industry-level heterogeneity. Although the NTHS has promoted the division of labor among county-level enterprises, it is difficult for these enterprises to compete with those in big cities and share efficiency and economic benefits from the deepening of the division of labor.

Discussion on Comprehensive Three-dimensional Maintenance of Trunk Highway

Discussion on Comprehensive Three-dimensional Maintenance of Trunk Highway

Discussion on Quality Management of Integration Project of Construction and Maintenance of Common National and Provincial Trunk Highways

Discussion on Quality Management of Integration Project of Construction and Maintenance of Common National and Provincial Trunk Highways

AHP-DEMATEL Based Research on the Influencing Factors of the Daily Maintenance Costs of China's National and Provincial Trunk Highways

Highway maintenance is equally crucial across borders; this paper first conducts statistics and case study research on daily federal and provincial highway maintenance costs in China's principal influencing factors. Finally, it looks at those results with the tools of AHP-DEMAT. Yet, the overall degree of influence of each factor of influence is collected to classify the significant influence factors. The results found that: the main factors influencing the daily maintenance costs of national and provincial trunk highways are: highway grade, traffic flow, service life, structure type, topography, pavement thickness, and pavement width; the influence of climate factors on costs can be adequately considered when formulating standards for daily maintenance costs for provinces/regions with a broad geographic range.

Estimation of the SOA Formation Potential of the National Trunk Highway in Central Plains Urban Agglomeration

Secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) are among the main components of air pollution. Accurately estimating SOAs formed from automobile exhaust is crucial for controlling and mitigating traffic air pollution. Sufficient monitoring data is difficult for regional analysis owing to limited monitoring data over a small area or few observation stations. Indirect methods may be used to estimate SOA using data on the number and types of vehicles. A linear reference system of Central Plains urban agglomeration was built from the national trunk line network system and the traffic survey data of transportation. The numbers of different types of vehicles were assigned to road segments as the traffic flow according to the represented length between monitoring stations. Then, VOCs emissions were calculated through the emission coefficient method based on the previous traffic flow data. Moreover, further estimations of the SOA formation potential were made by the fractional aerosol coefficient approach. Through kernel density analysis, discrete point data of the observer station were transformed into line segments and expanded to a continuous spatial distribution for quantitative and spatial variation analysis of the SOA in the study area. The results show that ① toluene has the highest SOA generation potential, 1,4-diethylbenzene has the strongest ability to form SOA, and aromatic hydrocarbons exhibit higher SOA formation capacity than alkanes; ② small and medium gasoline passenger cars generate the most SOA and account for about 1/3 of the total SOA, but small gasoline trucks exhibit the strongest capacity for SOA formation; ③ regarding the capacity of SOA formation for vehicles using different fuel types, gasoline vehicles have a higher capacity than diesel vehicles, and passenger cars have a slightly higher capacity than trucks; ④ in Central Plains urban agglomeration, the spatial distribution of SOA intensity data shows a trend of convergence to the center of Zhengzhou city. Gasoline vehicles exhibit a similar pattern overall, but diesel vehicles exhibit a weaker trend that decreases distinctly. SOA intensity along the north-south direction is much higher than that of the east-west direction around the center of Zhengzhou crossing.

Do rural highways narrow Chinese farmers’ income gap among provinces?

To achieve complete poverty alleviation, the improvement of infrastructure and living conditions is fundamental. Promoting the flow of factors through infrastructure investment, thereby reducing the income gap among residents, has become an important focus of poverty alleviation. Because of the high amount of investment in transportation infrastructure, greater attention has been paid to the income distribution effect it brings, but few studies have analysed the effect of rural highways on the income gap of farmers. Based on the panel data pertaining to 30 provinces in China from 1993 to 2013, this paper uses a fixed-effect model to test the impact of rural highways supply on the income gap of farmers. The empirical results show that: (1) The effect of Chinese rural highways on the farmers’ income gap among provinces is “U-shaped”. (2) Chinese national and provincial trunk highways are helpful in narrowing the farmers’ income gap among provinces. (3) The level of education, household productive fixed assets investment, level of urbanization, and level of regional economic development have multiple effects on the farmers’ income gap among provinces. Then, based on the empirical analysis, the paper analyzes the mechanism of rural highways affecting the income gap of farmers from a theoretical perspective and focuses on the causes of the “U-shaped” relationship between rural highways supply and farmers’ income gap.

Application of asphalt rubber cape seal as asphalt pavement surface course for rehabilitated trunk highway in east Gansu

Although been frequently used as a preventative maintenance measure for asphalt pavements, the Cape seal process has not been widely adopted as a possible alternative for rehabilitated pavement. This research evaluated the feasibility of applying asphalt rubber Cape seal structure into the surface course of reconstructed highway in west China. The Cape seal is composed of 11-16 mm chips spread over asphalt rubber membrane sprayed in advance, by which followed a micro surfacing layer with SBR latex modified asphalt emulsion. Based on a test section in the Banxiao highway project, the construction of asphalt rubber Cape seal and micro-surfacing were investigated experimentally. In addition, to guide the engineers, major issues during construction of the Cape seal were discussed and corresponding countermeasures were suggested.

AHP-DEMATEL Based Research on the Influencing Factors of the Daily Maintenance Costs of China's National and Provincial Trunk Highways

AHP-DEMATEL Based Research on the Influencing Factors of the Daily Maintenance Costs of China's National and Provincial Trunk Highways

STUDY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF HIGH-MODULUS ASPHALT CONCRETE PAVEMENT IN EXTREME CURVES OR STEEP SLOPES OF TRUNK HIGHWAY

With the purpose of the project, we determined the performance of high modulus asphalt concrete (HMAC) pavement in sharp curves or steep slopes of the trunk highway. We selected bending of road surface, bending and stretching strain at the bottom of surface layer, vertical compressive strain at the bottom of surface layer as research parameter index. By using the three-dimensional model analysis function of the finite element software ANSYS, the mechanical models of asphalt pavement with three different structures under the action of steep slope and heavy traffic are established. Firstly, the conventional asphalt pavement consists of 4cmAC-13 bituminous pavement (the top layer) and 6cmAC-20 bituminous pavement (the bottom layer). Then, the HMAC pavement 1 consists of 4cmAC-13 bituminous pavement (the top layer) and 6cmAC-EME14 bituminous pavement (the bottom layer).The HMAC pavement 2 consists of 6cmAC-EME14 bituminous pavement (the top layer) and 4cmAC-13 bituminous pavement (the bottom layer). Then we tried it out that for the deflection value, the HMAC pavement 1 was 5.34 percentage point reduced than the conventional asphalt pavement. At the same time, the HMAC pavement 2 was 6.95 percentage point reduced than the conventional asphalt pavement. So, it can significantly reduce the bending strain at the bottom of the surface layer by using HMAC as asphalt pavement structure. For the resistance to shear strain and vertical compressive strain at the bottom of the surface layer, the HMAC pavement 1 is the best. Then the HMAC pavement 2 follows and then the conventional asphalt pavement. The results show that the HMAC can significantly improve the overall stiffness of the pavement and reduce the bending, shearing and vertical strain. Meanwhile, it can also reduce the occurrence of wheel rut, upheaval, fatigue crack and other common diseases.

Success factors for financial sustainability of toll road projects: empirical evidence from China

Toll roads are believed to have a high ability to attract private investment since they are able to recover directly the costs of their operation and construction through toll charges. However, toll road development can only be attractive to investors and lenders if the long-term sustainability is achieved. This paper identifies and discusses various issues that government and project developers have to deal with from selected case studies. The seven selected toll road projects are priority sections of the National Trunk Highway System (NTHS) and located in strategic provinces in China. The issues examined are related to policy support, regional development, the fund-raising model, project development and the financial structure. This study reveals critical success factors to achieve sustainable toll road projects in the planning stage and to control and enhance the financial sustainability in the executing stage.

Transport, Infrastructure and Growth: Evidence From Chinese Firms

Transportation infrastructure is a way for governments to achieve development goals by connecting peripheral areas to urban centers. This is particularly important in a country like China where income is highly unequally distributed across space. Yet understanding the gains from transportation infrastructure is difficult because the placement and timing of transportation projects are not random. This paper studies the effects of China's National Trunk Highway System (NTHS) on firms in the peripheral regions. I construct a novel data set of completion times of every segment of the highway system and combine it with a comprehensive data set of Chinese manufacturing firms. To address the endogeneity of placement and timing of the highway construction, I develop a novel time-varying instrumental variable based on a civil engineering model of least-cost construction and local completion rates. The IV results show that firms connected in the peripheral regions experience faster growth in output and sales. To understand the mechanism, I study firms' input choices. Highway connection increases the firms' growth in intermediate inputs and capital, while the growth of labor actually declines. This is consistent with a decline in the prices of capital and intermediate inputs due to access to outside markets. Using panel data is crucial for demonstrating these effects. When using methods similar to previous studies, I find null or opposite results.

Does leaching of naturally occurring radionuclides from roadway pavements stabilised with coal fly ash have negative impacts on groundwater quality and human health?

We assessed the potential impact of using coal fly ash to stabilise roadway pavements on groundwater quality and human health. The leaching potential of naturally occurring radionuclides (NORs) typically present in the fly ash was assessed with the HYDRUS-1D code and data representative of a segment of the Wisconsin State Trunk Highway 60 as a case study.Our assessment suggests that the impact would be mainly from the chemical toxicity of uranium (U). In our particular case study, U concentration in the leachate exceeded the maximum contaminant level for this element (MCL = 30 μg L−1) in almost all the scenarios. In the groundwater, the MCL was only exceeded under conditions of high leaching and low dilution in the aquifer. The radiological toxicity from the consumption of the contaminated groundwater by a hypothetical adult, however, was at maximum 43% of the individual dose criterion (IDC = 0.1 mSv y−1).The results also highlight the need to consider site-specific conditions such as climate and hydrogeology when assessing the environmental impacts of utilising fly ash in roadway construction applications since they could have profound effects on the assessment findings. There is also a pressing need for reliable and representative data to support realistic assessments.

Hazard zoning of trunk highway slope disasters: a case study in northern Shaanxi, China

The fragile natural environment of the northern Shaanxi Province in China is susceptible to ambient conditions. Highway slope disasters and the frequent occurrence of highway hazards that different in type, possible outcomes, and scale by region cause severe adverse effects on the construction and operation of trunk highways in the province. Therefore, conducting hazard zoning of highway slope disasters is essential in order to mitigate and manage highway slope disasters and to analyze the distribution regularities of hazards in northern Shaanxi. In this study, a hazard assessment model based on the principle of disaster-causing factor superposition was established. Five hazard assessment indexes, namely terrain gradient, ravine density, annual average days with precipitation more than 25 mm, geotechnical types, and vegetation coverage, were selected to analyze the types of highway slope disasters and disaster-causing factors. The distribution of assessment indexes and the degree of the highway slope disaster hazard were presented using an assessment model and geographic information system (GIS). The hazard zoning of highway slope disasters in northern Shaanxi is classified into slight, moderate, and severe according to hazard characteristics and trunk highway network distribution. Results show that the hazard zoning of highway slope disasters in northern Shaanxi is consistent with the actual distribution.

Estimation of red-light running frequency using high-resolution traffic and signal data

Red-light-running (RLR) emerges as a major cause that may lead to intersection-related crashes and endanger intersection safety. To reduce RLR violations, it’s critical to identify the influential factors associated with RLR and estimate RLR frequency. Without resorting to video camera recordings, this study investigates this important issue by utilizing high-resolution traffic and signal event data collected from loop detectors at five intersections on Trunk Highway 55, Minneapolis, MN. First, a simple method is proposed to identify RLR by fully utilizing the information obtained from stop bar detectors, downstream entrance detectors and advance detectors. Using 12 months of event data, a total of 6550 RLR cases were identified. According to a definition of RLR frequency as the conditional probability of RLR on a certain traffic or signal condition (veh/1000veh), the relationships between RLR frequency and some influential factors including arriving time at advance detector, approaching speed, headway, gap to the preceding vehicle on adjacent lane, cycle length, geometric characteristics and even snowing weather were empirically investigated. Statistical analysis shows good agreement with the traffic engineering practice, e.g., RLR is most likely to occur on weekdays during peak periods under large traffic demands and longer signal cycles, and a total of 95.24% RLR events occurred within the first 1.5s after the onset of red phase. The findings confirmed that vehicles tend to run the red light when they are close to intersection during phase transition, and the vehicles following the leading vehicle with short headways also likely run the red light. Last, a simplified nonlinear regression model is proposed to estimate RLR frequency based on the data from advance detector. The study is expected to helpbetter understand RLR occurrence and further contribute to the future improvement of intersection safety.

Impacts of highway construction and operation on carbon footprint in China: A case study of Jiangsu Province

Transportation sector has been one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas in China and the world. Highway has been one of the vital means of transport in China, which is significantly beneficial to promote economic development, energy saving, and carbon mitigation. This study investigates the ecological value of highway at regional scale by developing carbon footprint evaluation system of highway, based on expert knowledge and by focusing on the Jiangsu Province of China. Different parts of carbon footprint (CF) are estimated by five indicators, including carbon footprint of construction, carbon footprint of management, carbon footprint of driving, carbon footprint of traffic condition change, and carbon footprint of land use and cover change. The characteristics of and spatial and temporal change in the total carbon footprint for nine trunk highways in Jiangsu Province from 2000 to 2050 were analyzed, and the key factors impacting the recovery period of carbon (RC) of the highways were identified. The results show that an overall condition of CF of highways in Jiangsu Province is helpful to reduce CO2 emissions and recover their carbon emissions in 2031. G25 has the highest value in ecology, whereas G15 has the lowest at the individual level. This study also demonstrates that traffic demand is the fundamental determinant of RC and there is synchronization between RC and recovery period of investment (RI). These findings are helpful for policy makers in mitigating carbon emissions in planning and construction of highway. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 1468–1475, 2016