Institute for Transportation

About the research

Striping operations generate a significant workload for MoDOT maintenance operations. The requirement for each striping crew to replenish its stock of paint and other consumable items from a bulk storage facility, along with the necessity to make several passes on most of the routes to stripe all the lines on that road, introduce the potential for inefficiencies in the form of deadhead miles that striping crew vehicles must travel while not actively applying pavement markings. These inefficiencies generate unnecessary travel, wasted time, and vehicle wear.

Phase 2 updates a 2015 project that developed a decision support tool for scheduling and routing road striping operations. The updates presented in the final report improve the optimization model, which generates more user-friendly outputs.

Funding Sources:
Midwest Transportation Center
Missouri Department of Transportation ($20,000.00)
USDOT/OST-R ($20,000.00)
Total: $40,000.00

Contract Number: DTRT13-G-UTC37

About the research

Striping operations generate a significant workload for state department of transportation (DOT) maintenance operations, including Missouri’s (MoDOT), which co-sponsored this project. The requirement for each striping crew to replenish its stock of paint and other consumable items from a bulk storage facility, along with the necessity to make several passes on most of the routes to stripe all of the lines on each road, can lead to deadhead miles that striping crew vehicles must travel while not actively applying pavement markings. These deadhead miles generate extra travel, wasted time, and vehicle wear.

The goal of this project was to develop a decision-support tool that utilizes optimization models to increase the efficiency of striping operations. This project addressed the scheduling of striping operations for a subset of MoDOT roads, those located in the Central District of Missouri, with a focus on minimizing deadhead miles. A computer program was developed for scheduling and routing road striping operations.

The research detailed through this project provides an optimization-based approach to determining a striping schedule that minimizes deadhead miles. Despite the fact that some factors remain unrepresented in the model (e.g., highway ramps that require striping), the current results of our model can be used to help MoDOT more quickly calculate a striping schedule and dynamically respond to unexpected conditions, such as schedule disruptions that occur (e.g., chip seal operations that were not completed on the scheduled date).

Even though MoDOT does not have records to compare and evaluate the current versus the proposed system, the advantage of implementing genetic algorithm (GA) techniques is apparent in alleviating the time and effort to develop a striping schedule.

This model provides an ability to significantly eliminate the effort necessary to produce the striping schedule as well as test what-if scenarios to examine the impact of changing resource levels, policies, etc.

Deadhead mile inefficiencies are manifested not only in additional, unnecessary miles traveled by striping crews, but also in crew and equipment capacity. Were a more-efficient utilization of road striping equipment possible, MoDOT could potentially reduce costs by decreasing its inventory of road striping assets without reducing the frequency with which it reapplies pavement markings to Missouri highways. In this regard, the what-if capabilities of our model could be useful beyond the creation of striping operations schedules.

In operations network optimization terms, the research involved our modification of what is called the “rural postman problem” to satisfy the conditions of the “slow-moving multi-pass postman problem with overnighting.” This constituted the formulation of a logistics model absent from the literature. As such, this formulation could be useful in the evaluation of other systems.

The focus with this project was on how increasing efficiency in striping operations represents a substantial opportunity for MoDOT and other state DOTs to reduce their annual expenses.

Funding Sources:
Midwest Transportation Center
Missouri Department of Transportation ($60,000.00)
USDOT/OST-R ($60,000.00)
Total: $120,000.00

Contract Number: DTRT13-G-UTC37

About the research

State highway agencies are increasingly intersted in using recycled asphalt shingles (RAS) in hot mix asphalt (HMA) applications, yet many agencies share common questions about the effect of RAS on the performance of HMA. Previous research has allowed for only limited laboratory testing and field surveys. The complexity of RAS materials and lack of past experiences led to the creation of Transportation Pooled Fund (TPF) Program TPF-5(213). The primary goal of this study is to address research needs of state DOT and environmental officials to determine the best practices for the use of recycled asphalt shingles in hot-mix asphalt applications.Agencies participating in the study include Missouri (lead state), California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Federal Highway Administration. The agencies conducted demonstration projects that focused on evaluating different aspects (factors) of RAS that include RAS grind size, RAS percentage, RAS source (post-consumer versus post-manufactured), RAS in combination with warm mix asphalt technology, RAS as a fiber replacement for stone matrix asphalt, and RAS in combination with ground tire rubber. Field mixes from each demonstration project were sampled for conducting the following tests: dynamic modulus, flow number, four-point beam fatigue, semi-circular bending, and binder extraction and recovery with subsequent binder characterization. Pavement condition surveys were then conducted for each project after completion.

The demonstration projects showed that pavements using RAS alone or in combination with other cost saving technologies (e.g., WMA, RAP, GTR, SMA) can be successfully produced and meet state agency quality assurance requirements. The RAS mixes have very promising prospects since laboratory test results indicate good rutting and fatigue cracking resistance with low temperature cracking resistance similar to the mixes without RAS. The pavement condition of the mixes in the field after two years corroborated the laboratory test results. No signs of rutting, wheel path fatigue cracking, or thermal cracking were exhibited in the pavements. However, transverse reflective cracking from the underlying jointed concrete pavement was measured in the Missouri, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, and Minnesota projects.

About the research

This project will develop an experimental plan utilizing the most recent working knowledge on permeability measurements of asphalt pavements. The researchers will then conduct testing of in situ field mixtures and cores at random locations identified for core sampling as part of the current MoDOT QA/QC specifications.

About the research

• Develop an instrumented pile capable of monitoring the thermal and seismic behavior at a bridge foundation
• Deploy an instrumented pile under simulated field conditions
• Assess the effectiveness of the remote monitoring system for asset management

Abstract

A key challenge to managing fixed assets such as bridges and other transportation infrastructure is monitoring their condition over time. Under typical service conditions, deterioration resulting from traffic loading and difficult environmental conditions can result in a reduction or loss of service of a particular asset, or even life threatening and dangerous failures. Extreme events such as earthquakes and floods present a still greater challenge in that the service condition of the asset may change abruptly and without warning, leaving managers without key information they need to respond to the event. The goal of this project is to develop remote health monitoring technology that will provide managers and owners with timely information on the condition of civil infrastructure assets. This will be achieved through the development of an instrumented pile that will provide real-time data on bridge scour and seismic activity, allowing for the remote monitoring of bridge conditions by key managers and engineers.

Potential Benefits of the Project:

• Enable widespread remote monitoring of more than 26,000 scour critical bridges in the U.S.
• Provide foundation for remote health monitoring systems for culverts, tunnels and highway bridges in general

Funding Sources:
Midwest Transportation Consortium
Missouri Department of Transportation
University of Missouri – Columbia

About the research

Develop an optimization-based decision support system to address depot and fleet management issues associated with typical DOT maintenance system operations. Sub-objectives include:

• Develop a protocol for determining the desired level of service and the required constraints.
• Develop an integrated model and efficient algorithms for large scale applications.
• Validate the model/algorithms and apply results to the state of Missouri.

Abstract

Most DOTs have multiple maintenance depots or sheds to provide public services such as winter snow removal, roadway striping, mowing, and herbicide application. The location of these sites has typically been based on geographical dispersion to provide the best coverage from a distance perspective. Each depot has a fleet of trucks to cover an assigned service sector. The location of depots as well as the fleet assignment is usually determined by the managers and engineers based on their experience, not on scientific evaluation processes. This research proposes, through systems analysis, to design a decision support system that provides DOT decision makers with efficient management tools for depot location and fleet assignment operations.

Potential Benefits of the Project

The decision support system will be able to evaluate any given scenarios and compute the optimal numbers of depots and trucks. These solutions can then be used directly or used as part of a decision support system for the asset management aspects of this important problem.

Funding Sources:
Midwest Transportation Consortium
Missouri Department of Transportation

About the research

This project involves the development of a comprehensive approach to access management for the state of Missouri, including all necessary classification schemes, standards, guidelines, and administrative processes, a research base for planning and marketing access management, as well as training for key Missouri DOT staff and others (e.g. metropolitan area planning organization and city staff). These will all be based on best practices from other states modified to meet Missouri?s needs and conditions. At the conclusion of the three phases, Missouri DOT should be ready to proceed with a comprehensive access management effort. This should ultimately result in significant safety and operational benefits for Missouri citizens. Local jurisdictions that choose to should also be able to implement access management plans on roadways they have jurisdiction over.

About the research

None available for this project

About the research

None available for this project