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Rigid-flexible composite pavement has gained significant popularity in recent decades. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the research progress concerning rigid-flexible composite pavement, aiming to promote its application and address key issues while identifying future directions. The design theory and methodology of rigid-flexible composite pavement are discussed, followed by a description of its structural and mechanical behavior characteristics. The load stress, temperature stress, and their interactive effects between the asphalt layer and the rigid base were analyzed. It is clarified that the asphalt layer serves a dual role as both a “functional layer” and a “structural layer”. Typical distresses of rigid-flexible composite pavement, which primarily occur in the asphalt layer, were discussed. These distresses include reflective cracking, top-down cracking, rutting, and compressive-shear failure. Generally, the integrity of the rigid base and the interlaminar bonding conditions significantly impact the performance and distress of the asphalt layer. The technology for enhancing the performance of rigid-flexible composite pavement is summarized in three aspects: asphalt layer properties, rigid base integrity, and interlaminar bonding condition. The study concludes that developing high-performance pavement materials based on their structural behaviors is an effective approach to improve the performance and durability of rigid-flexible composite pavement. The integrated design of structure and materials represents the future direction of road design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent trends in road engineering have explored the potential of incorporating recycled solid wastes into infrastructures that including pavements, bridges, tunnels, and accessory structures. The utilization of solid wastes is expected to offer sustainable solutions to waste recycling while enhancing the performance of roads. This review provides an extensive analysis of the recycling of three main types of solid wastes for road engineering purposes: industrial solid waste, infrastructure solid waste, and municipal life solid waste. Industrial solid wastes suitable for road engineering generally include coal gangue, fly ash, blast furnace slag, silica fume, and steel slag, etc. Infrastructure solid wastes recycled in road engineering primarily consist of construction & demolition waste, reclaimed asphalt pavements, and recycled cement concrete. Furthermore, recent exploration has extended to the utilization of municipal life solid wastes, such as incinerated bottom ash, glass waste, electronics waste, plastic waste, and rubber waste in road engineering applications. These recycled solid wastes are categorized into solid waste aggregates, solid waste cements, and solid waste fillers, each playing distinct roles in road infrastructure. Roles of solid waste acting aggregates, cements, and fillers in road infrastructures were fully investigated, including their pozzolanic properties, integration effects to virgin materials, modification or enhancement solutions, engineering performances. Utilization of these materials not only addresses the challenge of waste management but also offers environmental benefits aiming carbon neutral and contributes to sustainable infrastructure development. However, challenges such as variability in material properties, environmental impact mitigation, secondary pollution to environment by leaching, and concerns regarding long-term performance need to be further addressed. Despite these challenges, the recycled solid wastes hold immense potential in revolutionizing road construction practices and fostering environmental stewardship. This review delves into a bird’seye view of the utilization of recycled solid wastes in road engineering, highlighting advances, benefits, challenges, and future prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Chongqing University of Technology (Natural Science) is the property of Chongqing University of Technology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Reducing the high incidence of corruption in the field of infrastructure investment is a significant research topic. China is committed to advancing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a path of integrity. This paper aims to analyze the effects and mechanisms of institutional improvement induced by China's foreign infrastructure investments. The study employs project data and survey questionnaire data from project locations. We find that China's foreign infrastructure investments can endogenously drive the improvement of property rights systems in the surrounding areas of the projects, with the institutional improvement effects mainly occurring during the project initiation and completion phases, and these effects are long-lasting. Heterogeneity analysis shows that commercialized projects are the core driving force behind the improvement of property rights systems through China's foreign infrastructure investments. Based on this, the paper proposes two suggestions for promoting the construction of the BRI as a path of integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of TURKAV Institute of Public Adminsitration Journal of Social Sciences / TÜRKAV Kamu Yönetimi Enstitüsü Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of TURKAV Institute of Public Adminsitration Journal of Social Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Urban highways are widely recognized to have devastating social, economic, and environmental consequences, locking in fossil energy dependence, racial and class segregation, and suburban sprawl. Today, as much of the infrastructure built during the peak of the midcentury road construction boom in the global North reaches the end of its lifespan, there is growing interest in removing highways and replacing them with parks, housing, and surface boulevards in the interest of economic development, repairing social divisions in urban space, and fostering more sustainable mobility. Based on preliminary research, this paper offers an empirically driven conceptual outline of highway removal projects in the United States and Spain. I argue that highway removal constitutes an opportunity for a "socioecological fix" for the emerging crisis of automobility, but in practice, highway removal projects may reinscribe the scalar contradictions of carbon-intensive urban-regional metabolisms. Through several empirical cases of highway removal projects, I examine three dimensions through which these contradictions can be understood: national policy changes in urban infrastructure planning and governance, material conflicts between demolition and tunneling and their implications for regional metabolisms, and local sustainable development politics and their distributional contradictions. Although the projects sketched here tend to fall short of their transformative promises, I emphasize that highway removal remains a critical arena of urban climate change politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proximity to roads is one of the main determinants of deforestation in the Amazon basin. Determining the construction year of roads (CYR) is critical to improve the understanding of the drivers of road construction and to enable predictions of the expansion of the road network and its consequent impact on ecosystems. While recent artificial intelligence approaches have been successfully used for road extraction, they have typically relied on high spatial‐resolution imagery, precluding their adoption for the determination of CYR for older roads. In this article, we developed a new approach to automate the process of determining CYR that relies on the approximate position of the current road network and a time‐series of the proportion of exposed soil based on the multidecadal remote sensing imagery from the Landsat program. Starting with these inputs, our methodology relies on the Least Cost Path algorithm to co‐register the road network and on a Before‐After Control‐Impact design to circumvent the inherent image‐to‐image variability in the estimated amount of exposed soil. We demonstrate this approach for a 357 000 km2 area around the Transamazon highway (BR‐230) in the Brazilian Amazon, encompassing 36 240 road segments. The reliability of this approach is assessed by comparing the estimated CYR using our approach to the observed CYR based on a time‐series of Landsat images. This exercise reveals a close correspondence between the estimated and observed CYR (rPearson=0.77). Finally, we show how these data can be used to assess the effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) in reducing the yearly rate of road construction and thus their vulnerability to future degradation. In particular, we find that integral protection PAs in this region were generally more effective in reducing the expansion of the road network when compared to sustainable use PAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Jurnal Ilmu Ekonomi Terapan is the property of Universitas Airlangga and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Civil infrastructure systems have traditionally been designed assuming stationarity in precipitation. However, climate change is making this assumption invalid, affecting both existing infrastructure designed assuming stationarity and the design of new infrastructure. Although many studies have analyzed potential increases in precipitation due to climate change, fewer have attempted to translate these changes into the impact of stream discharge in a way that could be incorporated into infrastructure design. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the potential impact of climate change on both rainfall and peak discharge to aid in bridge and road infrastructure design. Results showed that the median increase in model-derived rainfall intensity across the selected rainfall stations in Virginia was 10%–30% for the midcentury (centered on 2045) and 10%–40% for the end of the century (centered on 2085), with the higher increase for the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) scenario compared with the RCP4.5 scenario. A regression analysis was performed to relate peak discharge to watershed size for midcentury and end-of-century periods for the study area. In terms of peak discharge, smaller watersheds (<25 km2) had a percent increase for a given return period that was independent of the watershed size. Considering both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, for a 100-year return period, the increase was 39% and 49%, respectively, for the midcentury periods and 36% and 52%, respectively, for the end-of-century periods. For larger watersheds (>25 km2), the increase in peak discharge decreased as the watershed size increased, suggesting a dampening effect for larger watersheds in this coastal plain region of Virginia. For a watershed size of 1,700 km2 , the largest watershed included in the analysis, the percent increase in peak discharge for a 100-year return period was 14% and 39% during the midcentury, and 16% and 40% at the end of the century, for the two emission scenarios. These findings and the general methodology used in the study can aid transportation and water resources engineers in incorporating changing rainfall impacts into assessing current infrastructure and designing future infrastructure. They can also help to prioritize resources for more costly hydraulic analyses of potentially vulnerable infrastructure. The study aims to understand better how climate change will impact future precipitation and how this change in precipitation will impact peak discharge for watersheds of various sizes. Using Virginia as a study region, the median increase in precipitation intensity was found to be between 10% and 30% for the midcentury and 10%–40% for the end of the century across the state. Smaller watersheds (<25 km2) had an increase in peak discharge for a given return period that was independent of the watershed size. In comparison, larger watersheds (>25 km2) had an increase in peak discharge, but the percent increase in peak discharge decreased as the size of the watershed increased, especially for the RCP8.5 emission scenario. Regression equations were developed to provide a first approximation of peak discharge based on the watershed area, the emission scenario, and the return period to aid decision-makers in the region when including climate change impacts when assessing existing or designing new hydraulic structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansive soil swells significantly in the presence of moisture, which often leads to the failure of superstructures. Conventional stabilization techniques are applied in many instances, although environmental issues are of significant concern for such stabilization. Keeping this in mind, an attempt is made to apply a new approach for stabilizing different types of expansive soils, treated with a nonconventional binder geopolymer that utilizes fly ash as the main ingredient. A series of laboratory experiments are run to determine the engineering properties of treated soils with varying percentages of geopolymer from 0% to 30%. The experimental investigation involved tests such as unconfined compressive strength, compaction, Atterberg limits, and swelling pressure. Significant strength development occurs with increasing percentages of geopolymer, and their swelling pressures decrease considerably. Additionally, a series of California Bearing Ratio (CBR) tests were undertaken to assess the suitability for road construction. The optimum dosage of the stabilizing agent is found to be 20%, as justified by studies in the literature. Furthermore, scanning electronic microscope (SEM) images of the treated samples revealed microstructural changes in the soil matrix, which strongly correlate with the improvement of strength and swelling behavior. Hence, based on our experimental results, 20% geopolymer content is sufficient for enhancing the engineering properties of expansive soils, and the treated soils can directly be used as subgrade or sub-base material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shored mechanically stabilized earth (SMSE) walls have been increasingly applied in the projects of widening existing roads or new construction of roads on slopes because of their good carbon emission reduction and mechanical performance. In this paper, a scaled-down model test of SMSE wall with shoring wall batter of 1H:2V was conducted to study the load-bearing behavior of SMSE wall under this terrain condition, and the results including wall deformations, earth pressures, reinforcement strains, and potential failure surface were analyzed. The results show that although the backfill near the shoring wall was not directly compressed by the load, it still slipped along the backfill-shoring wall interface. The loading created a tensile pressure zone in the upper part of the backfill- shoring wall interface, which may lead to tensile cracking. The uppermost layer of geogrid was more prone to sliding, while the tensile deformation was smaller, and its strain value was overall smaller than the strain value of the geogrid below it. As the load increases, the potential failure surface changed from a Rankine failure surface to a bilinear potential failure surface. The potential failure surface did not pass through the heel of the SMSE wall under large loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composite of a phase change material (PCM) and bitumen or asphalt as a matrix is expected as a new, advanced material for road construction. The main motivation for this article was to show the new possibilities and perspectives of developing the pavement with the usage of PCMs. Incorporating PCMs into paving materials can improve their properties, including allowing the regulation of the pavement temperature, enhancement of the pavement durability, and avoiding the phenomenon of a heat-island on the road. The main purpose of this article was to evaluate contemporary investigations in the area of the application of PCMs in pavement materials, especially asphalt and bitumen; to summarize the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation of PCM for road construction; and to discuss further trends in this area. This manuscript explored the state of the art in this area based on research in the literature. It shows the possible material solutions, presenting their composition and discussing their key properties and the manufacturing technologies used. The possibilities for further implementations are considered, especially economic issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the modern urban economy is closely tied to road construction, with roads being one of the most crucial components in urban development. The use of high-resolution remote sensing images to monitor the road conditions in cities and surrounding towns has become a highly emphasized research focus in recent years. However, due to the complexity of the environment, this task still faces significant challenges. For instance, urban road structures are intricate, which involve multiple lanes, intersections, building obstructions, etc. Rural roads may consist of narrow paths or irregular dirt roads. In addressing these issues, this paper proposes a road extraction algorithm based on a Dual-Encoder-Decoder U- Net (DEDU-Net). The algorithm leverages a dual encoder-decoder network to extract multi-scale information from the image. It then employs a dual decoder network to restore the feature map to the original image, achieving precise road extraction. Additionally, a new module, the Global Fusion Module (GFM), is introduced. This module achieves global context information fusion by weighting features. In the experimental section, two publicly available datasets were used for testing: the CHN6-CUG dataset and the Gansu Mountain Road dataset. For example, for the Gansu Mountain Road and CHN6-CUG mixed dataset, the model achieved an Overall Accuracy (OA) of 94.947% and a mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) of 70.971%. The results indicate that compared to traditional methods, this proposed method exhibits higher accuracy and robustness. It can adapt to both urban and rural roads, delivering outstanding performance even in complex scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In highway reconstruction and expansion projects, the impact of the abandoned dreg body produced by the original highway on the new bridge project cannot be ignored. If the abandoned dregs are not handled properly, they will cause great threat to the operation of the new highway as well as to the safety of the surrounding environment and personnel. In this paper, based on a South China highway reconstruction and expansion project, a model of the abandoned dreg body, bridge pile and anti-slide pile is established with the help of finite difference software FLAC3D 5.0. The calculation results show that compared with burying the anti-slide pile, slope cutting is more effective for improving the stability of the abandoned dreg body. Under the action of vertical force intensity, the displacement of the top of the pile increases continuously, and the maximum bending moment of the pile body increases firstly and then decreases. The pile displacement and bending moment of the bridge pile increase significantly in the storm condition compared with the normal condition. In addition, the abandoned dreg body hazard prevention and control technical measures are studied. The impacts of different locations of anti-slide pile burial on bridge piles are analyzed and compared, and it is determined that the optimal location of anti-slide pile burial is the middle of the secondary slope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: This review concludes the advantages of heat pipe technology and its application in permafrost regions are summarized, which can also provide recommendations for permafrost protection measures. Permafrost spans approximately 23–25% of the land in the northern hemisphere, primarily found in Russia, Canada, USA, and China. Numerous engineering projects, particularly those related to transportation, are situated within these permafrost regions. Due to the impact of highway construction and global warming, the permafrost beneath the infrastructure is deteriorating, leading to significant damage. Two phases closed thermosyphon (TPCT) is a widely accepted green countermeasure against the problem in permafrost regions. Although it has been applied to prevent permafrost degradation, their application presents significant challenges on account of the stronger endothermic action of asphalt pavement. This paper focused on a review of the thermosyphon technology and application in the permafrost. Moreover, the article highlighted the excellent working performance of the TPCT that improves the stability of the infrastructures and prevents it degrading due its excellent efficiency in terms of heat transfer. The industrial applications of the TPCT were also summarized, along with their limitations. Ultimately, the findings presented in this paper can offer crucial insights for future TPCT design and development in permafrost areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript presents an examination of the impact of geometrical and physical parameters on highway design speeds, critical for traffic safety and efficiency. Originating from a classical dynamics discussion in an undergraduate automotive technology engineering class, an exploration of the consequences of different geometrophysical considerations on a vehicle's dynamics over pavement surfaces is developed. Considering various analytical models, an assessment of their principles and the significance of geometric and physical concepts involved in the problem is made, such as plane of motion and trajectory curvature radius, on safe (non slippage) operational speeds. The subsequent comparative study shows that one of the most accepted models in highway design regulations in México, when used as reference, yields percentage error differences respect to others of 0 ≲ % E M a x ≲ 5 , as well as a consistent trend for relatively underestimating safe highway operational speeds. A discussion of the immediate implications of these findings, emphasizing the necessity of experimental studies to validate theoretical predictions, is presented. This work contributes to the field by providing a detailed comparison of analytical models under a general applied science perspective, suggesting modifications to current highway design practices in México based on geometrophysical insights. In summary, this work's main aim is to shed light on the intricacies of determining safe design speeds from an applied sciences point of view, while also calling for a reevaluation of the existing guidelines to enhance highway design and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new stage in promoting the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt Core Area, and Xinjiang has been transformed from a relatively closed inland area into an open border. In order to promote the high-quality development of Southern Xinjiang and solve the imbalance contradiction between the development of the Northern Xinjiang and Southern Xinjiang, taking the four districts in Southern Xinjiang as the study area, constructing a high-quality development ecological niche index system of three levels, namely economic, social and ecological, adopting the entropy method to assign weights to the evaluation indexes, and measuring the ecological niche width and the degree of ecological niche overlap of this region in the period from 2011 to 2020. The results show that: Firstly, tourism has the greatest impact on the ecological niche of economic development in state N, with a weighting of 14.18%; Secondly, the ecological status width of economic development in state N demonstrates a structural characteristic of "low level and low gap". The average value of ecological niche width is at class III, indicating a low development status and weak regional influence; Thirdly, the ecological niche overlap of state N is significantly influenced by spatial factors. Regions Z and S are closer together, resulting in higher competition for resource utilization and an average ecological niche overlap at class II. The other two regions are at class III. According to the theory of ecological niche expansion and separation, a specialization separation strategy should be adopted for areas with "low width and high overlap", and a strengthening expansion strategy should be adopted for areas with "low width and low overlap", to optimize the structure of ecological niches and promote high-quality development of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Introduction: In urban traffic management, the timely detection of road faults plays a crucial role in improving traffic efficiency and safety. However, conventional methods often fail to fully leverage the information from road topology and traffic data. Methods: To address this issue, we propose an innovative detection system that combines Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), specifically Graph Convolutional Networks (GCN), Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Units (BiGRU), and self-attention mechanisms. Our approach begins by representing the road topology as a graph and utilizing GCN to model it. This allows us to learn the relationships between roads and capture their structural dependencies. By doing so, we can effectively incorporate the spatial information provided by the road network. Next, we employ BiGRU to model the historical traffic data, enabling us to capture the temporal dynamics and patterns in the traffic flow. The BiGRU architecture allows for bidirectional processing, which aids in understanding the traffic conditions based on both past and future information. This temporal modeling enhances our system's ability to handle time-varying traffic patterns. To further enhance the feature representations, we leverage self-attention mechanisms. By combining the hidden states of the BiGRU with self-attention, we can assign importance weights to different temporal features, focusing on the most relevant information. This attention mechanism helps to extract salient features from the traffic data. Subsequently, we merge the features learned by GCN from the road topology and BiGRU from the traffic data. This fusion of spatial and temporal information provides a comprehensive representation of the road status. Results and discussions: By employing a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) as a classifier, we can effectively determine whether a road is experiencing a fault. The MLP model is trained using labeled road fault data through supervised learning, optimizing its performance for fault detection. Experimental evaluations of our system demonstrate excellent performance in road fault detection. Compared to traditional methods, our system achieves more accurate fault detection, thereby improving the efficiency of urban traffic management. This is of significant importance for city administrators, as they can promptly identify road faults and take appropriate measures for repair and traffic diversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chemical composition and technological properties of clay polymineral raw materials from the northwest of the Orenburg region were studied. On the basis of the chemical composition, the raw material can be attributed to semi-acidic sanded clays with a high content of coloring iron oxide Fe2O3 (4.83%). The dependences of the viscosity of clay suspensions at sufficiently high concentrations (up to 0.16 vol.%) are defined; the linear character is confirmed by a high correlation coefficient and plasticity of the raw materials, studied in two ways — by pressing the balls and bending the bands. This indicates a high content of sand. Sintering in the temperature range from 600 to 1000°C did not occur, resulting in the sample cracking. Macroparameters of sintering and color parameters of samples under high temperature, as well as the phase composition, suggest unsatisfactory mechanical characteristics of ceramics from the studied raw materials. Low sorption properties of mineral raw materials with respect to copper and lead ions were established. It is shown that the use of this raw material in the ceramic industry is impractical. It is recommended that the materials be used in road construction, landscaping, and as thinning additives to reduce the plasticity and shrinkage of clays during drying and firing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development and advantages of renewable energy technologies mean that their areas of application are constantly expanding. The development of roads, transport systems, and electromobility also increases the demand for electricity. Roads occupy a certain area that could be used to install wind turbines or photovoltaic systems that could be used to power, among others, electric vehicle charging stations and road technical infrastructure facilities (travel service areas, tunnel lighting, road signs). There are many examples around the world where such solutions have been used. This critical review of existing solutions and the possibilities of their application in new places may contribute to further development and research in this area. Particular attention was paid to the possibility of using renewable energy systems in Poland, which can be successfully transferred to other countries with a similar climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing concern over the combustion cost and environment has made road engineers and scientists to explore the possible use of locally available materials for the construction of roads. The present study evaluated the strength and durability characteristics of five sites having locally available silty soils using lime and cement–sand stabilization technique. The test results showed that the cement–sand stabilization technique using 6% cement and 5% local sand resulted in higher strength and durability as compared to lime stabilization. There is also a significant increase in the value of the soaked California bearing ratio (CBR). As unconfined compressive strength (UCS) attained the threshold strength as prescribed by IRC SP 72 2015 for the granular sub-base (GSB) layer, by the use of sand cement stabilization, this technique of stabilization for local silty soils could be used for GSB for low volume road (LVR) construction. As observed from microstructural results which were performed by analysing SEM images, sand cement stabilisation leads to CSH gel and agglomerate formation thereby increasing strength and durability properties. The cost analysis for the replaced stabilized GSB layer showed that using sand–cement stabilization, the estimated cost can be reduced by 56% of the total cost as compared to the conventional method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, China's "Northwest Highway" was a major conduit for Soviet equipment to support the war effort against Japan. This article investigates the building and operation of the portion of this new motor route in Gansu province. While the Northwest Highway was a remarkable achievement in long-distance motorized logistics—and later became a lever for Nationalist state-building in the region—it came at a heavy cost in energy and labor and negatively impacted state–society relations. This article uncovers the multiple layers of energy inputs involved in the construction and operation of the highway, from organic human and animal power to the colossal fossil fuel demands of truck transportation. Many of these costs were imposed on civilian society in Gansu through corvée labor and requisitioning. To compound these burdens, this article argues, the Northwest Highway brought few positive spillover effects because of restrictions on civilian road use and the limitations of Gansu's wider transportation infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although roads are central to human society, they have many negative environmental impacts and create risk for traveling motorists. Our aim was to evaluate the spatiotemporal evolution of ungulate-vehicle collision (UVC) hotspots in response to major road construction. We examined two different locations and scales in the province of Alberta, Canada: (1) a highway bypass adjacent to a large city with 4.5 km of wildlife mitigation measures (wildlife fencing and two underpasses) and (2) 55 km of rural highway that was converted from a two-lane to a four-lane divided highway. Using government police collision and carcass data (2000-2021), beforeafter and control-impact analyses were used to assess changes in UVC rates. Our approach is novel in that we tested the paired use of a clustering method known as kernel density estimation plus and a spatiotemporal stepwise modification of this method to monitor UVC hotspots. By monitoring UVCs over space and time, we could identify stable vs. ephemeral UVC hotspots, a fence-end effect, and a barrier effect due to traffic volume, and we could explore hotspot stability before and after construction. The wildlife mitigation measures along the highway bypass resulted in 86% fewer UVCs compared to an unmitigated highway. At a larger scale, however, net benefits were affected by road density. The construction of a four-lane divided highway with no wildlife mitigation measures and an increase in the posted speed limit resulted in a slight increase in UVCs and the reemergence of the majority of historical UVC hotspots. Our analysis highlighted the need to incorporate wildlife considerations at a variety of scales throughout the transportation planning and mitigation evaluation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to address the challenges of resource utilization posed by construction waste, the substitution of natural aggregate (NA) with public fill (PF) contents was investigated for load reclamation and road grassroots applications. A comprehensive assessment of road performance for the recycled mixture was conducted, focusing on parameters such as unconfined compressive strength, splitting strength, compressive resilience modulus, dry shrinkage, and frost resistance. Additionally, the impact of incorporating PF at various types and replacement ratios on the microstructure of cement-stabilized aggregate (CSA) was analyzed. The results indicated that the unconfined compressive strength of cement-stabilized recycled mixture with varying PF contents meets the base strength requirements for heavy, medium, and light traffic pavement on secondary and sub-secondary roads in China. Notably, the unconfined compressive strength and resilience modulus follow a similar pattern, reaching their peak at a 25% PF content. Microscopic examination reveals that an appropriate PF content leads to the predominant formation of C(N)-A-S-H, hydrotalcite, Ca(OH)2, and CaCO3 as paste reaction products. As the replacement of public fill increases from 0% to 25%, there is a gradual stacking of gel products, which enhances the compactness of the microstructure by cementing together unreacted particles. Consequently, this process reduces dry shrinkage strain and effectively mitigates the formation of reflection cracks. Applying large quantities of public fill to road construction can effectively deal with various waste accumulation problems and produce a novel road material with significant social, economic, and environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the in situ soil stabilization, different chemical additives are used (ion exchange compounds, additives based on H2SO4 or vinyl polymers, and organic additives using lignosulfonates). One interesting alternative is the production of additives from various waste materials. The extensive testing of waste-based blends with soil was performed; the mechanical (unconfined compressive strength (UCS)) and hydraulic (capillary rise, water absorption, and frost resistance (FR)) soil properties were measured. The optimization process led to obtaining additive compositions ensuring high strength and sealing properties: by-pass ash from the ceramics industry, waste H2SO4, pyrolytic waxes/oils from waste mixed plastics, waste tires and HDPE, and emulsion from chewing gum waste. For sandy soil, the following additives were the most promising: emulsion from pyrolytic wax (EPW) from waste PE foil (WPEF) with the addition of waste H2SO4, pyrolytic-oil emulsion from waste tires, EPW from waste mixed plastics with the addition of "by-pass" waste ash and NaOH, EPW from WPEF with the addition of NaOH, and EPW from WPEF reaching up to 93% FR, a 79.6% 7-day UCS increase, and a 27.6% of 28-day UCS increase. For clay: EPW from WPEF with the addition of NaOH, EPW from WPEF with the addition of waste H2SO4, and solely EPW from WPEF reaching up to 7.5% FR, an 80.7% 7-day UCS increase, and a 119.1% 28-day UCS increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increasing development of highway reconstruction and expansion projects in China, many large-span highway tunnels are being constructed near existing highway tunnels. Tunneling underneath will inevitably cause variation in the surrounding rock displacement and may even lead to collapse. In this study, based on an analysis of extensive field monitoring data from the Gucheng tunnel, the variation law for the surrounding rock full-displacement and the influence of the tunnel-face spatial effect in a large-span mudstone tunnel are analyzed. The change in the full displacement experienced the following sequence: slow pre-displacement growth → rapid increase → slow increase → gradual stability. The displacement released by the excavation of the tunnel construction accounts for 40~60% of the total displacement, and the closer to the excavation contour, the more obvious the displacement release. The final convergence value of vertical displacement is obtained by hyperbolic function regression prediction analysis. Based on this value, Lee and Hoek equations are used for parameter analysis and field-data fitting. It is concluded that the larger the proportion of the early displacement of the surrounding rock before construction to the total displacement, the smaller the influence of the tunnel-face spatial effect on the surrounding rock. The numerical simulation results are compared with actual monitoring results, and good agreement is observed. The larger the burial depth of the tunnel, the smaller the influence range in the tunnel-face spatial effect, and the more concentrated the displacement release. The variation law and the influential range for the surrounding rock full-displacement described in this paper can provide a reference for predicting and controlling the deformation during the construction of future large-span mudstone tunnels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the emergence of various risks and hazards threatening large and infrastructure projects has become a concern for governments and governmentaffliated institutions. Thereby, Build-Operation-Transfer (BOT) contracts have been set up to prevent these risks at the national level, leaving the design, construction, and operation of the projects with all investments to a foreign or private company. Meanwhile, a multi-phase weighting based collective criteria approach and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) methodology are proposed under Dynamic Intuitionistic Fuzzy (DIF) set environment. In this respect, the weight of each criterion is determined by DIF-collective criteria method and also, the interdependent relation between criteria is computed by developed DIF-DEMATEL methodology to tune the criteria weights. In addition, the weights of experts are determined by the proposed DIFutility degree method to reach a precise solution. Moreover, the proposed approach of this study is extended based on last aggregation concept to reduce data loss. Then, the proposed methodology is implemented on a real case study and the results are compared with recent fndings in the literature to ensure the reliability of the obtained results. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is manipulated to find the most effective parameters that can change the obtained results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposed soils associated with active construction sites provide opportunities for erosion and sediment transport during storm events, introducing risks associated with excess sediment to downstream infrastructure and aquatic biota. A better understanding of the drivers of sediment transport in construction site runoff is needed to improve the design and performance of erosion and sediment control measures (ESCMs). Eleven monitoring locations on 3 active road construction sites in central Ohio were established to characterize runoff quality from points of concentrated flow during storm events. Grab samples were analyzed for total suspended solids (TSS), turbidity, and particle size distribution (PSD). Median TSS concentrations and turbidity levels across all samples were 626 mg/L (range 25–28,600 mg/L) and 759 NTU (range 22–33,000 NTU), respectively. The median PSD corresponded to a silty clay loam, mirroring the soil texture of much of Ohio's subsoils. TSS concentrations and turbidity were significantly positively correlated with the rainfall intensity 10 min prior to sample collection, suggesting that higher flow rates created greater shear stress on bare soil which resulted in more erosion. Conversely, rainfall duration was negatively correlated with particle size, indicating that prolonged moisture from rainfall promoted the dispersion of soil aggregates which mobilized smaller particles. Multivariable linear regression models revealed that higher rainfall intensities corresponded to higher turbidity values, while higher TSS concentrations were associated with higher rainfall intensities, depths, and durations. Results from this study highlight the importance of reducing raindrop impact and subsequent shear stress applied by concentrated flows through the use of ESCMs to limit sediment export from construction sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National Highway G559 is the first highway in Southeast Tibet into Motuo County, which has not only greatly improved the difficult situation of local roads, but also promoted the economic development of Tibet. However, rainfall-induced shallow landslides occur frequently along the Bomi–Motuo section, which seriously affects the safe operation and construction work of the highway. Therefore, it is urgent to carry out geological disaster assessment and zoning along the highway. Based on remote-sensing interpretation and field investigation, the distribution characteristics and sliding-prone rock mass of shallow landslides along the Bomi–Motuo Highway were identified. Three-dimensional stability analysis of regional landslides along the Bomi-Motuo Highway under different rainfall scenarios was carried out based on the TRIGRS and Scoops3D coupled model (T-S model). The temporal and spatial distribution of potential rainfall landslides in this area is effectively predicted, and the reliability of the predicted results is also evaluated. The results show that: (1) The slope structure along the highway is mainly composed of loose gravel soil on the upper part and a strong weathering layer of bedrock on the lower part. The sliding surface is mostly a circular and plane type, and the main failure types are creep–tensile failure and flexural–tensile failure. (2) Based on the T-S coupling model, it is predicted that the potential landslide along the Bomi–Motuo Highway in the natural state is scattered. The distribution area of extremely unstable and unstable areas accounts for 4.92% of the total area. In the case of extreme rainfall once in a hundred years, the proportion of instability area (Fs < 1) predicted by the T-S coupling model 1 h after rainfall is 7.74%, which is 1.57 times that of the natural instability area. The instability area (Fs < 1) accounted for 43.40% of the total area after 12 h of rainfall. The potential landslides were mainly distributed in the Bangxin–Zhamu section and the East Gedang section. (3) The TRIGRS and T-S coupling model is both suitable for predicting the temporal–spatial distribution of rainfall-induced shallow landslides, but the TRIGRS model has the problem of over-prediction. The instability area predicted by the T-S coupling model accounted for 43.30%, and 74% of the historical landslide disaster points in the area were correctly predicted. (4) In terms of rainfall response, the T-S coupling model shows higher sensitivity. The %LRclass (Fs < 1) index of the T-S coupling model is above 50% in different time periods, and its landslide-prediction effect (%LRclass = 78.80%) was significantly better than that of the one-dimensional TRIGRS model (%LRclass = 45.50%) under a 12 h rainfall scenario. The research results have important reference significance for risk identification and disaster reduction along the G559 Bomi–Motuo Highway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the changes in the mechanical properties of road subgrade in cold areas after the freezing and thawing of highways in cold areas, indoor mechanical tests were carried out to investigate the effects of the number of freeze–thaw cycles, freezing temperature, water content, and circumferential pressure on the mechanical properties of road subgrade soil in cold areas after thawing. The mechanical properties of road subgrade soil in cold areas after thawing were measured under different conditions. The test results show that, within the study range: (1) After 7 freeze–thaw cycles, the destructive stress of the subgrade soil decreased from 321.7 kPa to 289.9 kPa, a decrease of 9.9%, and the elastic modulus decayed by 19.9%. (2) When the freezing temperature was reduced from −5 °C to −15 °C, the destructive stress of the subgrade soil decreased from 303.9 kPa to 290.1 kPa, a decrease of 13.8 kPa, approximately 4.5%, and the decrease in modulus of elasticity was about 1.6%. (3) The water content increased from 6% to 12%, and the destructive stress decreased from 405.43 kPa to 288.4 kPa, a decrease of 29.1%, and the modulus of elasticity decreased approximately linearly, with an attenuation of 50.4%. (4) The peripheral pressure increased from 50 kPa to 150 kPa, and the destructive stress increased from 194.7 kPa to 367.7 kPa, a growth of 88.8%, and its modulus of elasticity increased with the increase in peripheral pressure, an increase of 154.1%. The results of this research can provide a reference for highway and engineering construction in the western silt–soil distribution area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of scenic roads is implemented as an integrative tourism and transportation policy in China. As an essential component of scenic road systems, rest areas provide spaces for people to interact with roadside landscapes, enhancing the quality of experiences of recreational motorists. However, the understanding of scenic road rest area usage still lacks empirical evidence. This study developed an empirical approach to explore the affordance actualisation mechanism focused on the context of motorist-rest area interaction. The results outlined a behavioural profile about the usage of rest areas on scenic roads and further revealed that: (1) inspired affordances and anticipated affordances, respectively, acted on people's experiences and satisfaction; (2) the perceptual dimension is more proactive in actualising affordances compared with the physical dimension. These findings contribute to the literature on affordance and the evidence-based planning and design for scenic roads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study explores the relationships among sustainability implementation barriers (resource, managerial and regulatory barriers), sustainability practices (sustainable construction materials, sustainable construction design, modern construction methods and environmental provisions and reporting) and sustainability performance (environmental, economic and social) in hill road construction (HRC). Design/methodology/approach: Primary data were collected from the 313 HRC practitioners with the help of a questionnaire, and research hypotheses were tested employing structural equation modeling. Findings: The findings reveal a mixed effect of sustainability implementation barriers. Resource (managerial) barriers are negatively related to all practices except environmental provisions and reporting (sustainable construction materials), while regulatory barriers only negatively impact modern construction methods. On the other hand, all sustainability practices positively impact environmental performance, whereas economic (social) performance is positively influenced by all practices, except environmental provisions and reporting (modern construction methods), and positively affects economic performance. Originality/value: In order to transform HRC toward sustainability, the barriers to sustainability implementation, sustainability practices and performance need to be understood by practitioners; however, the relationships have not previously been empirically assessed in extant literature. Besides, past research appears to be predominantly focused on the environmental aspect, thereby neglecting economic and social aspects. This study is a modest attempt to bridge these research gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable forest management systems require operational measures to preserve the functional design of forest roads. Frequent road data collection and analysis are essential to support target-oriented and efficient maintenance planning and operations. This study demonstrates an automated solution for monitoring forest road surface deterioration using consumer-grade optical sensors. A YOLOv5 model with StrongSORT tracking was adapted and trained to detect and track potholes in the videos captured by vehicle-mounted cameras. For model training, datasets recorded in diverse geographical regions under different weather conditions were used. The model shows a detection and tracking performance of up to a precision and recall level of 0.79 and 0.58, respectively, with 0.70 mean average precision at an intersection over union (IoU) of at least 0.5. We applied the trained model to a forest road in southern Norway, recorded with a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)−fitted dashcam. GNSS-delivered geographical coordinates at 10 Hz rate were used to geolocate the detected potholes. The geolocation performance over this exemple road stretch of 1 km exhibited a root mean square deviation of about 9.7 m compared to OpenStreetMap. Finally, an exemple road deterioration map was compiled, which can be used for scheduling road maintenance operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The statewide consumer transportation demand model analyzes consumers' transportation needs and preferences within a particular state. It involves collecting and analyzing data on travel behavior, such as trip purpose, mode choice, and travel patterns, and using this information to create models that predict future travel demand. Naturalistic research, crash databases, and driving simulations have all contributed to our knowledge of how modifications to vehicle design affect road safety. This study proposes an approach named PODE that utilizes federated learning (FL) to train the deep neural network to predict the truck destination state, and in the context of origin-destination (OD) estimation, sensitive individual location information is preserved as the model is trained locally on each device. FL allows the training of our DL model across decentralized devices or servers without exchanging raw data. The primary components of this study are a customized deep neural network based on federated learning, with two clients and a server, and the key preprocessing procedures. We reduce the number of target labels from 51 to 11 for efficient learning. The proposed methodology employs two clients and one-server architecture, where the two clients train their local models using their respective data and send the model updates to the server. The server aggregates the updates and returns the global model to the clients. This architecture helps reduce the server's computational burden and allows for distributed training. Results reveal that the PODE achieves an accuracy of 93.20% on the server side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research study aimed to evaluate the legibility of Arabic road signage using an eye-tracking approach within a virtual reality (VR) environment. The study was conducted in a controlled setting involving 20 participants who watched two videos using the HP Omnicept Reverb G2. The VR device recorded eye gazing details in addition to other physiological data of the participants, providing an overlay of heart rate, eye movement, and cognitive load, which in combination were used to determine the participants' focus during the experiment. The data were processed through a schematic design, and the final files were saved in.txt format, which was later used for data extraction and analysis. Through the execution of this study, it became apparent that employing eye-tracking technology within a VR setting offers a promising method for assessing the legibility of road signs. The outcomes of the current research enlightened the vital role of legibility in ensuring road safety and facilitating effective communication with drivers. Clear and easily comprehensible road signs were found to be pivotal in delivering timely information, aiding navigation, and ultimately mitigating accidents or confusion on the road. As a result, this study advocates for the utilization of VR as a valuable platform for enhancing the design and functionality of road signage systems, recognizing its potential to contribute significantly to the improvement of road safety and navigation for drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lateritic gravels are extensively used in road construction and other civil engineering structures. Depending on various parameters, genetic characteristics vary from one locality to another. Geological analyses were conducted to investigate their influence on the geotechnical properties of lateritic gravels developed on gneiss for their better use in road construction. Petrographical, mineralogical, and geochemical results show the existence of two types of lateritic gravels in the study area: yellowish to brownish lateritic gravels of humid savannah (LGHS) and reddish lateritic gravels of dry savannah (LGDS). These materials mostly content quartz, kaolinite, hematite, goethite, muscovite, gibbsite, anatase, Fe2O3, Al2O3, and SiO2. The hematite, goethite, Fe2O3, and Al2O3 content has a positive influence on the geotechnical behavior of the studied lateritic gravels, while the content of quartz, muscovite, and SiO2 has the opposite effect. The evaluation of alterologic parameters show that the degree of lateritization has a positive influence on CBR, maximum dry density, and the specific gravity. Three CBR models with determination coefficients R2 = 0.85, 0.87, and 0.88 were established by associating the genetic characteristics of the materials with geotechnical parameters. The outcomes of the present study show that geotechnical properties of lateritic gravels are significatively influenced by their genetic characteristics. Is therefore important to performed geological studies for a better use of lateritic gravels in road construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous advancement of large-scale high-grade highway construction and maintenance and repair projects, the demand for asphalt materials has been gradually increasing. As fossil materials are consumed, finding an alternative to petroleum asphalt materials has become an urgent need in the field of road engineering. This paper used corn stover tar as raw material and conducted resin treatment to prepare bio- bitumen. Based on the analysis of BOX-Behnken response surface, the resin yield was used as the evaluation index, the optimal process conditions for resin synthesis were as follows: phenolic molar ratio was 0.8, reaction time was 125 min, and straw tar addition was 10%. The results showed that with the increase of resinized products, the penetration degree of bio-bitumen also increased, which was higher than that of 70# petroleum asphalt. The ductility of B-PF bio-bitumen first increased and then decreased with the increasing of the content. However, the ductility of H-PF bio-bitumen decreased with the increasing of the dosage. Increasing the amount of bio-bitumen could reduce the softening point. The elongation and softening point of H-PF bio-bitumen were lower than 70# petroleum bitumen at 10% content, while the softening point and elongation of the bio-bitumen prepared at 20% content were lower than 70# petroleum bitumen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) has witnessed an impressive increase during the last decades. The need to explore this area is determined by the growing request for design and the optimization of more and more engineering problems in society, such as highway construction processes, food and agri-technologies processes, resource allocation problems, logistics and transportation systems, microarchitectures, suspension systems optimal design, etc. All of these matters refer to specific highly computational problems with a huge design space, hence the obvious need for evolutionary algorithms and frameworks, or platforms that allow for the implementing and testing of such algorithms and methods. This paper aims to comparatively analyze the existing software platforms and state-of-the-art multi-objective optimization algorithms and make a review of what features exist and what features might be included next as further developments in such tools, from a researcher's perspective. Additionally, it is essential for a framework to be easily extendable with new types of problems and optimization algorithms, metrics and quality indicators, genetic operators or specific solution representations and results analysis and comparison features. After presenting the most relevant existing features in these types of platforms, we suggest some future steps and the developments we have been working on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Reina del Cisne (Cuenca-Ecuador), a dynamic sliding process occurred due to a cut made at the beginning of 2018 on the hillside without technical considerations for the construction of an access road to a house in the sector. From January 2019 to June 2019, the period analyzed in this work, the landslide caused complete structural damage to dwellings near the hillside and partial damage to houses farther away. It also led to the total collapse of the path that initiated the landslide. Field visits and comparisons using CloudCompare of point clouds obtained from UAV flights between January 2019 and June 2019 highlighted the high activity of this landslide. The analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of this technique for early detection of landslides, enabling timely warnings for inhabitants to take immediate measures to avoid disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research evaluated the structural behavior of precast concrete box culverts (PCBCs) reinforced with glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars, both experimentally and theoretically. Four full-scale specimens with a span of 1500 mm (59.06 in.), a rise of 1500 mm (59.06 in.), and a joint length of 1219 mm (48 in.) were prepared, along with one specimen with a span of 1800 mm (70.87 in.). Four specimens were reinforced with GFRP bars, and one specimen with steel bars as a reference. The PCBCs were tested up to failure under a concentrated load over a contact area of 250 x 600 mm (9.8 x 23.6 in.) on the top slab. The load plate simulated the footprint of the truck wheel load (87.5 kN [19.67 kip] CL-625 truck) according to the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code. The investigated test parameters were the longitudinal reinforcement stiffness (GFRP versus steel), the longitudinal GFRP reinforcement ratios, specimen clear span, and slab thickness. Two-way shear failure was observed in all the tested specimens as a result of the concentrated load acting on the top slab. The test results revealed that increasing the longitudinal reinforcement ratio, as well as increasing the top-slab thickness, resulted in higher load-carrying capacity, lower deflection, and lower concrete and reinforcement strains. The experimental shear strengths were compared to the values predicted using current code provisions for two-way shear resistance equations. The results show that the punching-shear resistance equation in CSA S806-12 provided good yet conservative predictions of the shear capacity of the PCBCs' top slab. The Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code does not provide an equation for two-way shear design of FRP-reinforced concrete members. The two-way shear equation available for steel-reinforced concrete members was modified to take into account the characteristics of FRP bars. The modified equation produced predictions consistent with the experimental results. Moreover, the findings of this study demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of using GFRP bars as internal reinforcement for PCBCs as an alternative to steel bars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the behavior of bituminous mixtures is a very old subject in the specialized literature, many specialists in the field trying to explain the causes of the degradations, considering different factors. The bituminous mixtures were initially used in the construction of road structures for roads, so that a few years ago they also started to be used in the road structures of airport surfaces. The subject of the current research study is a priority worldwide and contributes, through the obtained results, to the enrichment of knowledge regarding the behavior of airport bituminous mixtures. The complexity of this study was based on the multitude of laboratory tests carried out on the designed airport bituminous mixture, BBA 16, using complex modern and high-performance equipment and equipment that lead to the determination of the stiffness modulus at different temperatures and frequencies both on trapezoidal samples and on prismatic samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]