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5.2
2.7
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Infrastructures
Special Issues
Road Systems and Engineering
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Road Systems and Engineering

A special issue of Infrastructures (ISSN 2412-3811).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2024) | Viewed by 11641

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Mahdi Keramatikerman

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Guest Editor
Engineering & Technology Branch, Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Interests: highway engineering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Road infrastructure is a crucial component in the economic growth of every country, which requires holistic and well-developed planning from the perspective of various disciplines. An efficient road should address the requirements of various road users and be forgiving to its users. A road has different components, and many engineering disciplines are involved in the planning and design of a road system, from geometry, pavement, and structure to traffic and hydraulics. This Special Issue aims to gather works from practitioners involved in road infrastructure design, management, and construction.  

Dr. Mahdi Keramatikerman
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Infrastructures is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • road geometry
  • road safety
  • traffic
  • bridges
  • active transport
  • sustainability
  • geotechnic/pavement
  • drainage/flood
  • construction and maintenance
  • network operation
  • intelligent transport systems

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 6164 KiB  
Article
Developing Pavement Maintenance Strategies and Implementing Management Systems
by Li-Ling Huang, Jyh-Dong Lin, Wei-Hsing Huang, Chun-Hung Kuo, Yi-Shian Chiou and Mao-Yuan Huang
Infrastructures 2024, 9(7), 101; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures9070101 - 27 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1305
Abstract
The traffic volume and maintenance demand on Taiwan’s provincial highways have been steadily increasing. One of the most challenging issues in maintenance is determining the optimal timing and allocation of funds to avoid duplicative investments and maximize resource utilization. Currently, provincial highway maintenance [...] Read more.
The traffic volume and maintenance demand on Taiwan’s provincial highways have been steadily increasing. One of the most challenging issues in maintenance is determining the optimal timing and allocation of funds to avoid duplicative investments and maximize resource utilization. Currently, provincial highway maintenance units rely heavily on manual processes and paper-based records, using experiential methods to formulate maintenance strategies and conduct maintenance operations. This indicates a lack of objective maintenance strategies and pavement management systems in these units. This study aims to address this gap by integrating domestic and international literature on pavement maintenance decision-making. Existing approaches typically fall into two categories: “Pavement Indicator Rating” and “Pavement Maintenance Prioritization”. However, there has not been research integrating these methods for decision-making. Therefore, this research integrates these two approaches to establish a comprehensive maintenance strategy for Taiwan’s provincial highways. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is employed as the decision-making theory, involving expert interviews to calculate maintenance weights for different pavement maintenance indicators. The results show that the pothole count, International Roughness Index (IRI), and Pavement Condition Index (PCI) are the three most critical maintenance indicators. The first phase of the maintenance strategy uses the “Pavement Indicator Rating“ to directly assess the pothole count, IRI, and PCI to categorize pavement sections as “maintenance sections” or “observation sections”. The second phase employs “Pavement Maintenance Prioritization”, integrating maintenance weights for each indicator to calculate maintenance scores. This phase prioritizes maintenance activities based on the results of the first phase’s rating for “maintenance sections”. Additionally, a provincial highway pavement management system is proposed to implement these strategies, enhancing maintenance management efficiency and ensuring the overall quality and longevity of provincial highway maintenance efforts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Road Systems and Engineering)
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23 pages, 5978 KiB  
Article
Enhanced Road Safety with Photoluminescent Pedestrian Crossings in Urban Contexts
by Tomás de J. Mateo Sanguino, Manuel Joaquín Redondo González, Jose Miguel Davila Martin and José Manuel Lozano Domínguez
Infrastructures 2024, 9(3), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures9030060 - 15 Mar 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2753
Abstract
The safety of roads in urban areas is a major concern for governments, demanding innovative solutions to enhance pedestrian safety. This paper introduces a novel approach to crosswalks by integrating resin with photoluminescent additives, offering a significant boost to road safety. A thorough [...] Read more.
The safety of roads in urban areas is a major concern for governments, demanding innovative solutions to enhance pedestrian safety. This paper introduces a novel approach to crosswalks by integrating resin with photoluminescent additives, offering a significant boost to road safety. A thorough methodology was employed to assess its effectiveness, covering mechanical, lighting, and vibroacoustic aspects, alongside a photogrammetric analysis of real-world experiments. The material exhibited noteworthy mechanical properties, displaying consistent tensile strength, load capacity, and strain values with a remarkable Shore A hardness. After 20 min, luminance values peaked at 68 mcd/m2, surpassing standard vehicle headlights at 100 m. Additionally, vibroacoustic analysis highlighted a noticeable relationship between vehicle speed and sound bandwidth, indicating the system’s potential to alert pedestrians. Tests revealed that the proposed system significantly decreased the average vehicle speed by 36.96% compared to conventional crosswalks, with a 27.80% reduction when drivers yielded to pedestrians. Furthermore, a survey involving 35 participants, focusing on the knowledge of road safety regulations, behavior, signage, and visibility, found positive results regarding accident reduction. The estimations indicate potential decreases of 26.26% in injuries and 35.4% in fatalities due to improved road conditions, 26.58% in injuries and 53.16% in fatalities resulting from reduced average speeds, and 52.56% in injuries and 79.91% in fatalities through enhanced road education. This underscores the multifaceted impact of the system on urban road safety. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Road Systems and Engineering)
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17 pages, 1277 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Road Infrastructure and Traffic Factors Influencing Crash Frequency: Insights from Generalised Poisson Models
by Muhammad Wisal Khattak, Hans De Backer, Pieter De Winne, Tom Brijs and Ali Pirdavani
Infrastructures 2024, 9(3), 47; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures9030047 - 4 Mar 2024
Viewed by 3001
Abstract
This research utilises statistical modelling to explore the impact of roadway infrastructure elements, primarily those related to cross-section design, on crash occurrences in urban areas. Cross-section design is an important step in the roadway geometric design process as it influences key operational characteristics [...] Read more.
This research utilises statistical modelling to explore the impact of roadway infrastructure elements, primarily those related to cross-section design, on crash occurrences in urban areas. Cross-section design is an important step in the roadway geometric design process as it influences key operational characteristics like capacity, cost, safety, and overall functionality of the transport system entity. Evaluating the influence of cross-section design on these factors is relatively straightforward, except for its impact on safety, especially in urban areas. The safety aspect has resulted in inconsistent findings in the existing literature, indicating a need for further investigation. Negative binomial (NB) models are typically employed for such investigations, given their ability to account for over-dispersion in crash data. However, the low sample mean and under-dispersion occasionally exhibited by crash data can restrict their applicability. The generalised Poisson (GP) models have been proposed as a potential alternative to NB models. This research applies GP models for developing crash prediction models for urban road segments. Simultaneously, NB models are also developed to enable a comparative assessment between the two modelling frameworks. A six-year dataset encompassing crash counts, traffic volume, and cross-section design data reveals a significant association between crash frequency and infrastructure design variables. Specifically, lane width, number of lanes, road separation, on-street parking, and posted speed limit are significant predictors of crash frequencies. Comparative analysis with NB models shows that GP models outperform in cases of low sample mean crash types and yield similar results for others. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the relationship between road infrastructure design and crash frequency in urban environments and offers a statistical approach for predicting crash frequency that maintains a balance between interpretability and predictive power, making it more viable for practitioners and road authorities to apply in real-world road safety scenarios. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Road Systems and Engineering)
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15 pages, 3546 KiB  
Article
Drivers’ Steering Behavior in Curve by Means of New Indicators
by Gaetano Bosurgi, Miriam Di Perna, Orazio Pellegrino, Giuseppe Sollazzo and Alessia Ruggeri
Infrastructures 2024, 9(3), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures9030043 - 28 Feb 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1584
Abstract
The design of road geometry is based on a rather elementary assumption that the user strictly follows the lane axis. Based on this hypothesis, the ideal trend of some factors related to the driver’s performance, such as steering angle and speed, can be [...] Read more.
The design of road geometry is based on a rather elementary assumption that the user strictly follows the lane axis. Based on this hypothesis, the ideal trend of some factors related to the driver’s performance, such as steering angle and speed, can be derived to optimize the most appropriate design choices. In practice, driving behavior differs from the assumed one and produces trends in these variables, which are very different from the ideal functions. The purpose of this research is therefore to propose synthetic performance indicators useful for highlighting the real characteristics of users’ driving behavior during road travel. Toward this aim, some driving experiments along four different curves in a simulated environment were studied in order to evidence possible criticisms. The proposed indicators showed a remarkable ability to represent and synthesize even very complex performance function trends. The proposed performance indicators can have multiple uses, such as, for example, in statistical analyses—which are generally carried out at a later stage—or constitute sufficient information to guide the decisions of infrastructure managers. In the long term, in a “smart road” perspective, they can be used by road administrators for information exchange among users (with each other and with the infrastructure) to improve road operation and safety. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Road Systems and Engineering)
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29 pages, 6655 KiB  
Article
Development of a Network-Level Road Safety Assessment Procedure Based on Human Factors Principles
by Andrea Paliotto and Monica Meocci
Infrastructures 2024, 9(2), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures9020035 - 16 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2011
Abstract
Road safety is a central issue in the management and development of a road network. Road agencies must try to identify the most dangerous sections of their network and act on them to improve safety. The most used procedure for this purpose is [...] Read more.
Road safety is a central issue in the management and development of a road network. Road agencies must try to identify the most dangerous sections of their network and act on them to improve safety. The most used procedure for this purpose is about considering the indicators based on crashes. However, a mature road safety management system must be able to assess the safety of a road section before accidents occur. The European community is moving in this direction with the update of Directive 2008/96/EC (Directive 1936/2019). This paper proposes a new methodology for carrying out a network-wide road safety assessment on rural single-carriageways and two-lane two-way roads. This procedure accounts for the influence of road characteristics on drivers’ perceptions. The methodology has been developed based on the human factors concepts from PIARC, and it includes a series of checklists that guide an inspector in carrying out a visual inspection of single-carriageway roads. The results from the checklist are then processed into an algorithm, and the level of risk in the analyzed section is provided. The objectives of the procedure are (a) to account for the perceptive aspects that are one of the major causes of road accidents, (b) to provide a proactive procedure in line with the requirements of the European Directive, and (c) to provide a useful instrument that can be easily implemented by road agencies and integrated with other analysis procedures. The procedure has been applied and tested on a case study of six different stretches of two-lane, two-way rural highways in Italy, Germany, and Slovenia (about 65 km). The results show a high degree of concordance with a risk classification based on the accident rate, mainly considering high-risk sections. Therefore, the procedure demonstrated its potential to be a useful instrument to be included in network safety assessments. Road agencies should consider the use of this procedure in their network safety analysis and ranking. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Road Systems and Engineering)
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