Vehicle Routing Models and Algorithms for Winter Road Spreading Operations

2011 ◽  
pp. 15-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Perrier ◽  
James F. Campbell ◽  
Michel Gendreau ◽  
André Langevin
Keyword(s):  
Vehicle Routing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Road Maintenance ◽  
Winter Maintenance ◽  
Solution Strategies ◽  
Snow Plowing ◽  
Dynamic Operating ◽  
Winter Road ◽  
Operating Constraints ◽  
Routing Models

Winter road maintenance operations involve challenging vehicle routing problems that can be addressed using operations research (OR) techniques. Three key problems involve routing trucks and specialized vehicles for spreading chemicals and abrasives on roadways, snow plowing, and snow disposal, all of which are undertaken in a very difficult and dynamic operating environment with stringent level of service constraints. This chapter provides a survey of recent optimization models and solution methodologies for the routing of vehicles for spreading operations. The authors also present a detailed classification scheme for spreader routing models developed over the past 40 years. Key trends in recent model developments include the inclusion of more details of the practical operating constraints, the use of more sophisticated hybrid solution strategies and consideration of more comprehensive models that integrate vehicle routing with models for other related strategic winter maintenance problems. They highlight some factors that may be limiting the application of OR models in practice and discuss promising future research trends.

scholarly journals A case study of combined winter road snow plowing and de-icer spreading

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (12) ◽  
pp. 1005-1013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Quirion-Blais ◽  
André Langevin ◽  
Martin Trépanier
Keyword(s):  
Neighborhood Search ◽  
Problem Analysis ◽  
Winter Maintenance ◽  
The Road ◽  
Snow Plowing ◽  
Winter Road ◽  
Turn Restrictions ◽  
Maintenance Problem

In this article, we address a winter maintenance problem where the streets need to be plowed and gritted in a sequence that depends on the class of the road. The maintenance fleet includes vehicles equipped for plowing, some for spreading, and some for both at once. The objective is to complete the operations as rapidly as possible while considering street hierarchy, turn restrictions, heterogeneous speeds, and street–vehicle compatibility. An adaptive large neighborhood search framework is developed to solve the problem. Analysis of the results obtained can provide both a good basis for vehicle routing and help managers plan long-term policies and investments.

scholarly journals Payment mechanisms for winter road maintenance services

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 18-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adel Abdi ◽  
Hans Lind ◽  
Björn Birgisson
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Road Maintenance ◽  
Survey Analysis ◽  
Cost Overruns ◽  
Winter Maintenance ◽  
Annual Budget ◽  
Winter Road ◽  
Data Statistics ◽  
Winter Road Maintenance

In countries with severe winters a major part of the annual budget for road maintenance is allocated on performance of winter road maintenance tasks. Finding appropriate remuneration forms to compensate entrepreneurs for performed road measures during winter is not an easy task in order to minimise or eliminate disputes and satisfy both client organisations and contractors. On the other hand improper reimbursement models lead either to the client’s annual budget imbalance due to unnecessary cost overruns or affect contractor’s cash-flow. Such cases in turn affect just-in-time winter road maintenance and then traffic safety. To solve such problems, a number of countries in cold regions like Sweden have developed different remuneration models based more on weather data called Weather Index. Therefore the objective of this paper is to investigate and evaluate the payment models applied in Sweden. The study uses a number of approaches namely; domestic questionnaire survey, analysis of a number of contract documents, a series of meetings with the project managers and an international benchmarking. The study recognised four remuneration models for winter maintenance service of which one based on weather data statistics. The study reveals the payment model based on weather data statistics is only applied for the roads with higher traffic flow and the model generates most uncertainty.

Optimization of snow plowing cost and time in an urban environment: A case study for the City of Edmonton

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (7) ◽  
pp. 667-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Liu ◽  
Yongfeng Ge ◽  
Tony Z. Qiu ◽  
Hamid R. Soleymani
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Optimization ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Road Maintenance ◽  
Routing Problem ◽  
Roadway Safety ◽  
Snow Plowing ◽  
Winter Road ◽  
Operational Constraints ◽  
The City

Each winter, Canadian municipalities deploy significant capital for snow plowing. Any improvements to snowplow operations not only results in significant capital savings for municipalities and road agencies, but also improves roadway safety and user mobility. In the existing research, routing snowplow operations is generally considered a network optimization problem; however, the formulations and solutions can be very diverse, as each urban area has unique environmental conditions and operational constraints. For a specific district and depot, the problem is determining a set of routes that ensure that all road links are serviced, all operational constraints are satisfied, and total operational costs are minimized. This study used a mathematical optimization model based on the capacitated arc routing problem (CARP) to minimize the total travel distance for snowplow operations in the City of Edmonton. Depot location and route number are critical input parameters to the operation cost control. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to not only derive snowplow routing strategies using the CARP methodology, but also draw useful conclusions for winter road maintenance planners.

scholarly journals Map support of winter road maintenance

Geografie ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 218-229
Author(s):  
David Konečný
Keyword(s):  
Road Maintenance ◽  
Winter Maintenance ◽  
The Road ◽  
Weather Information ◽  
Maintenance System ◽  
Road Condition ◽  
System Operator ◽  
Winter Road ◽  
Weather Stations ◽  
Maintenance Activities

The aim of this paper is to present road weather information system and map sources which can be used by winter maintenance system operator to clarify his perception of road meteorological situation in order to be able to take well-founded decision while managing maintenance activities. Presently the so-called status map showing current warnings from road weather stations is the principal map in winter maintenance. In its new version displaying the map of any feature measured by outstations as well as layer handling and zooming will be available. Map outputs of the model forecasting the road condition and temperature are described in the last chapter.

scholarly journals The Winter Maintenance Optimization by Graph Theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-110
Author(s):  
Jiri Cejka ◽  
Rudolf Kampf
Keyword(s):  
Graph Theory ◽  
Present State ◽  
Maintenance Optimization ◽  
Road Maintenance ◽  
Chinese Postman Problem ◽  
Winter Maintenance ◽  
Chinese Postman ◽  
Winter Road ◽  
Winter Road Maintenance

The article is concerned with optimization of the winter maintenance of the selected stretch of roads within the Strakonice district by applying the graph theory. The graph theory and the Chinese postman problem are applied in case of the winter maintenance of the specific selected section of roads. The article also includes the evaluation of performing the winter road maintenance so far. The results of optimization are compared with the present state and economically evaluated at the end.

Winter Road Surface Conditions Classification using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN): Visible Light and Thermal Images Fusion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ce Zhang ◽  
Ehsan Nateghinia ◽  
Luis Miranda-Moreno ◽  
Lijun Sun
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Visible Light ◽  
Convolutional Neural Network ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Road Surface ◽  
Thermal Images ◽  
Winter Maintenance ◽  
Surface Conditions ◽  
Snow Plowing ◽  
Winter Road

In winter, road conditions play a crucial role in traffic flow efficiency and road safety. Icy, snowy, slushy, or wet road conditions reduce tire friction and affect vehicle stability which could lead to dangerous crashes. To keep traffic operations safe, cities spend a significant budget on winter maintenance operations such as snow plowing and spreading salt/sand. This paper proposes a methodology for automated winter road surface conditions classification using Convolutional Neural Network and the combination of thermal and visible light cameras. As part of this research, 4,244 pairs of visible light and thermal images are captured from pavement surfaces and classified into snowy, icy, wet, and slushy surface conditions. Two single-stream CNN models (visible light and thermal streams), and one dual-stream CNN model are developed. The average F1-Score of dual-stream model is 0.866, 0.935, 0.985, and 0.888 on snowy, icy, wet, and slushy, respectively. The weighted average F1-Score is 0.94.

scholarly journals Monitoring of The Impact of Road Salting On Spruce Forest Ecosystem In The Vicinity of The Highway D1 In The Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, Czech Republic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jitka Hegrová ◽  
Lubomír Prokeš ◽  
Petr Anděl ◽  
Martina Bucková ◽  
Vilma Jandová ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Sodium Concentration ◽  
Road Maintenance ◽  
Winter Maintenance ◽  
The Road ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Winter Road ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Winter Road Maintenance

Abstract Monitoring of pollution in the vicinity of roads connected to winter road maintenance is one of the important tools for optimising winter maintenance technology and reducing its environmental impact. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between winter road maintenance and the increased concentration of sodium ion to characterize the harm caused by the de-icing agents on selected types of individual components grown in the Norway Spruce ecosystem. The model area is located in the immediate vicinity of the D1 motorway connecting Prague and Brno (Czech Republic), at 103rd kilometer. The area is thus exposed to long-term contamination from automobile transport and the monitoring was carried out for three consecutive years. A clear effect of the de-icing agents on conifers near the road has been demonstrated by the symptoms of salt damage visually observed in close proximity to the road (at a sampling distance of 5 m). The needles of these spruce trees also showed increased sodium concentrations, regardless of the age of the needles. The study also confirms that sodium accumulates in all selected components of the analysed ecosystem (moos, humus, soil). The sodium concentration has been found to decrease with increasing distance from the road for all of the components.

scholarly journals Salt Gradation Analysis for Winter Road Maintenance

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 1670-1683
Author(s):  
Leila Hashemian ◽  
Neeraj Saroj ◽  
Babak Mehran ◽  
Alireza Bayat
Keyword(s):  
Material Handling ◽  
International Association ◽  
Field Trials ◽  
Road Maintenance ◽  
Winter Maintenance ◽  
State Highway ◽  
The Us ◽  
Winter Road ◽  
Canadian Provinces ◽  
Winter Road Maintenance

This research investigates the salt gradation specifications adopted by different provincial or state highway departments in Canada and the US for winter road maintenance operations. To understand the type of used salt, its quantity, grain size distribution, application method and the level of satisfaction of the user, a questionnaire was prepared and sent to selected provincial/state highway departments in Canada and the US. The survey-based comparative analysis performed on the salt gradation in different jurisdictions showed that the salt gradation does not always fit in ASTM (American Society of the International Association for Testing and Materials) and BS (British Standard) standard curves. However, it was found that the gradation of coarse and fine salt used by most Canadian provinces follows ASTM I and the Finnish standards, respectively. Although the majority of jurisdictions surveyed in this study have specific requirements for gradation of the salt used in their winter maintenance operations, no laboratory tests or field trials have been conducted to investigate the effectiveness of a particular salt gradation for road winter maintenance operations. It was also found that salt gradation standards are compromised due to factors such as local availability of the material, purity of the available material, ease of material handling, ease of application, and the preference of private contractors for certain materials.

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