Many aspects of transportation infrastructure have benefited from the use of full-scale management systems to quantify condition and predict useful life estimates. Although culvert management models have been tested in the past, none has proven functional. In this study, a condition rating system for culvert repair or replacement was developed. Parameters that describe the condition of an existing culvert were tested for potential as predictors of overall culvert condition. These 33 parameters were recorded at 460 culverts distributed geographically throughout Montana. An ordered probit statistical model indicated that 9 of the initial 33 potential predictors were statistically significant. Measurements of these nine parameters can be used in the resulting model to classify a culvert into a 1-to-5 condition ranking, in which 5 is the best condition and 1 is the worst.
The development of an incident response team (IRT) program has been touted to improve incident response and clearance times, as well as to improve interdisciplinary cooperation. To determine the effectiveness of its IRT program, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) commissioned a comprehensive study that considered both quantified and perceived benefits. The average duration of incidents to which the IRTs responded was reduced by 20.6 min from 1994 to 1995. The ability to statistically attribute this reduction in incident duration to the IRT was limited because only 2 years of data were available (i.e., reduction may be attributable to temporal variations in incident characteristics). Nonetheless, the implications of this reduction can be quantified. This reduction results in a monetary savings of $20,600 to $61,800 per incident and an annual savings of $3.09 million to $9.27 million in King County. Comparing these monetary benefits to the IRT program, costs in the Northwest Region result in a benefit-to-cost ratio of 4.3:1 to 12.9:1. Given these values, even minor reductions in incident duration attributable to IRTs can justify the program. Public support for WSDOT’s incident response team program was high, with 62 percent of the respondents thinking it is a good idea. IRT program support from other response personnel was also high. WSDOT’s IRT was viewed as an important service for improving scene accessibility and improving the safety of both the motoring public and the incident responders. Despite the positive feedback, inconsistency in operation among individual IRT members makes it difficult to draw conclusions as to the effectiveness of different operating styles, for other response personnel to work effectively with IRT members, and to build a positive consensus among the motoring public for continued program support.
The Montana Department of Transportation (DOT) has completed a pilot project in which data from a statewide network of weigh-in-motion (WIM) sensors were used to assist in scheduling weight-enforcement activities of patrol personnel. The purpose of the project was to determine if one of the division’s objectives—reducing infrastructure damage from overweight vehicles—could be better realized by using WIM data when dispatching officers. Data for the project were obtained from Montana’s state truck activities reporting system (STARS), which consists of WIM sites deployed around the state to collect information for a spectrum of Montana DOT activities. In this case, the STARS data were processed to determine the pavement damage caused by overweight vehicles each month during the baseline year. The trends identified from this analysis were used in the subsequent year to direct patrol efforts each month to the five sites that historically had experienced the greatest pavement damage from overweight vehicles. Officers were directed to the specific vehicle configurations historically responsible for the damage, as well as to their direction of travel and time of operation. During this year of WIM-directed enforcement, pavement damage from overweight vehicles decreased by 4.8 million equivalent single-axle load miles, and the percentage of vehicles operating over weight decreased by 20% across all STARS sites (both enforced and unenforced). While changes in loading patterns were observed during the enforcement activities (fewer overweight and more weight-compliant vehicles), the effectiveness of the focused enforcement in producing long-term changes in loading behaviors was uncertain.
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