Gkountis, I and Zayed, T (2015) Subway infrastructure condition assessment. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 141(12): 04015042, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Public transit infrastructures nowadays face extensive deterioration and require large amount of capital expenditure to regain sufficient performance levels. According to one official U.S. government assessment, transit infrastructure is assigned a grade of D, which means "poor condition." In the meantime, subway systems ridership is growing; therefore, it is crucial to assess the condition of such vital infrastructure, which greatly affects public safety. Transit providers need to create efficient management tools, including methodologies for the condition rating and performance evaluation of their assets. The objective of the present research is to develop a condition assessment model for subway stations and tunnels considering structural, electrical, and mechanical components. The condition is rated based on actual defects in which the Analytic Hierarchy and Networks Processes are utilized to estimate defect and component's weights. A fuzzy scale is proposed to interpret the various condition grades. A customized Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is utilized to develop an integrated infrastructure condition index for various components, stations, and tunnels. Data to determine weights were collected from experts through on-line surveys. The model is implemented in a case study, where the examined subway system reported good performance, and is tested through comparison with results obtained from existing models. This study is relevant to transit authorities, subway industry practitioners, and researchers.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | assessment; decision making; infrastructure management; quantitative methods; subways |
| Index terms: | survey, face, tunnel, public safety, deterioration, performance evaluation, preference, quantitative method, practitioner, capital expenditure, methodology, decision-making, public transit, topsis, infrastructure management, case study, estimate |
| Subjects: | emergency and crisis management, decision analysis, infrastructure and transport systems, decision-making and optimization, performance measurement, research methods, decision-making and reasoning, infrastructure engineering, psychology, data analysis and analytics, material degradation and durability, economic analysis, financial and cost management, data collection methods, practitioner |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Quality Management, Urban Studies, Risk Management, Roles and Professions, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Construction Materials, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Health and Safety |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here