Alfar, E (2016) GIS-based pavement maintenance management model for local roads in the UK. PhD thesis, University of Salford, UK.
Abstract
Roads represent a major long-term infrastructure investment. A well-managed and maintained road is therefore fundamental to the safety and availability of the road network as a whole. In carrying out pavement maintenance functions, Local Road Authorities face growing pressures arising from inadequate budgets and greater accountability, when many of the existing roads have reached the upper limits of their design life spans while being subjected to increasing traffic. There are many factors that influence the decision making process in pavement maintenance management, including road surface conditions, safety, traffic loading, cost, funding and prioritisation decisions, hence an efficient approach is vital to ensure optimisation and a satisfactory trade-off between conflicting factors. A Multi-criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach is used to handle the trade-off between conflicting factors. It is processed in the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) using Excel software, and the database developed in Excel is then imported into GIS in order to allow ease of query, analysis and visualisation of results. The main key output of this research will be the development of a GIS-based pavement maintenance management model to support decision making in pavement maintenance management. The most important factors influencing decision making in pavement maintenance management are established through a nationwide questionnaire survey, which is undertaken among the UK Local Authorities' pavement maintenance experts. 14 factors were identified, which are: Remaining Service Life, Road Condition Indicator (RCI), Type of Deterioration, Observed Deterioration Rate, Traffic Diversion, Importance of Road/Classification, Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT), Possible Conflict or Overlap with Other Road Works, Risk of failure, Safety Concern, Accident Rate (related to surface condition), Scheme Cost, Available Budget/Funding and Whole Life-Cycle Cost. Interviews were also conducted with experts in pavement maintenance within different Local Road Authorities to justify the rated factors affecting pavement maintenance prioritisation. The case study approach was adopted, based on Runnymede District roads within the Surrey County Council, for developing and testing the GIS-based decision support model. The output model was validated through interviews with four experts in pavement maintenance as target end-users, and the model was judged as a rational, simple and usable appropriate tool for network analysis as GIS. However, a risk of inadequate budgets might limit the practicability of the model.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | accountability; analytical hierarchy process; case study; decision support; geographic information systems; infrastructure; interview; investment; maintenance management; network analysis; optimisation; pavement; questionnaire survey |
| Index terms: | questionnaire, decision-making, visualization, decision support, interview, deterioration, accountability, survey, local authority, face, funding, loading, analytical hierarchy process, geographic information system, testing, case study, maintenance management, network analysis, service life, infrastructure investment, database, decision-making process |
| Subjects: | professional practice, construction operations, economic analysis, psychology, decision-making and optimization, liability law, geographical techniques and analysis, asset management, maintenance engineering, data analysis and analytics, material degradation and durability, data collection methods, data management, decision analysis, sociology, design practice |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Procurement, Risk Management, Digital Applications, Design Practice, Organizational Design, Site Management, Construction Materials, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Stakeholder Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
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