Development of a Methodological Base for Assessing the Validity of Choice of an Outsourcing Organization in JSC «Russian Railways»

The issues of methodological support of interaction between a large transport company and its general contractors are becoming more significant due to the increasing number of types of activities transferred to outsourcing. The article investigated the main methodological approaches that determine the procedure for justifying the choice of an outsourcing organization and the relevant methods applied in practice, in particular, an assessment of the methodological basis for judging the effectiveness of the choice of infrastructure repair workflow was carried out. The analysis of the methods for justifying the choice of a third-party organization, performing railway infrastructure repair work, made it possible to form the author's methodological approach to the choice of a repair technology and an organization to perform it best on outsourcing basis. The specifics of the object, namely, JSC «Russian Railways», which provides strategically important services for the economy, allows us to recommend the proposed author's methodological approach to justifying the choice of a third-party organization performing work for other transport companies.

Evaluating the bond strength of repair materials under harsh environmental loading

When considering aging infrastructure, repair paths are often taken as a cheaper solution to extend the life the structure. Repair materials are selected for their sustained capacity to withstand the load. This study evaluated the durability of repair materials, based on the principles of engineered cementitious composites against traditional concrete mixes. The durability of the repair materials was evaluated through a comprehensive testing regime which evaluated the performance of the materials in isolation as well as in combination with a prescribed substrate. While the SCM based repair mixes withstood durability tests comparability and did outperform the reference concrete, the improvement wasn’t significant enough to justify the costs associated. The slant shear method may not be the optimal way to measure bond strength as a valid result is greatly dependent on the ratio of bond to compressive strength for the mix in question. Additional testing is recommended.

Evaluating the bond strength of repair materials under harsh environmental loading

When considering aging infrastructure, repair paths are often taken as a cheaper solution to extend the life the structure. Repair materials are selected for their sustained capacity to withstand the load. This study evaluated the durability of repair materials, based on the principles of engineered cementitious composites against traditional concrete mixes. The durability of the repair materials was evaluated through a comprehensive testing regime which evaluated the performance of the materials in isolation as well as in combination with a prescribed substrate. While the SCM based repair mixes withstood durability tests comparability and did outperform the reference concrete, the improvement wasn’t significant enough to justify the costs associated. The slant shear method may not be the optimal way to measure bond strength as a valid result is greatly dependent on the ratio of bond to compressive strength for the mix in question. Additional testing is recommended.

Care goes underground: thinking through relations of care in the maintenance and repair of urban water infrastructures

This article extends understanding of the underground city and the workings of the urban backstage through a critical analysis of water infrastructure maintenance and repair. It is based on analysis of ethnographic work undertaken with water maintenance operatives on-site at 11 water infrastructure repair jobs between 2015 and 2016 in Bristol, England. In this article, we argue that water infrastructure maintenance and repair constitutes an important but largely unrecognised form of care work. We extend existing conceptual work by arguing that nonhumans can be vital participants within practices of care.

Patchwork: Repair labor and the logic of infrastructure adaptation in Mexico City

This article introduces the concept of patchwork to understand how repair practices are carried out in Mexico City’s networked hydraulic infrastructure.Drawing on data gathered through a one-year participatory ethnography, patchwork follows the Mexico City Water System (SACMEX) workers’ descriptions of their own labor and how it relates to infrastructure in a context of structural austerity and rapid socio-material change. To do so, the article separates the analysis of repair practices from the logic of maintenance, challenging widely shared conceptions of how they relate to each other. Two distinct contributions are made possible by this move. On the one hand, it allows for a more detailed conceptualization of the work that repair labor does in relation to infrastructure and to other socio-material processes that are constantly shaping it. On the other, it enables an exploration of what I call the logic of adaptation, a form of infrastructure repair that is based not on returning objects and relations to a previously officially sanctioned order, but instead on fashioning normality as an ongoing process made possible through improvisational and incremental work. Exploring this logic, I argue that the endurance of urban infrastructure and of urban modernity requires the ad-hoc work of patchwork and of adaptive repair labor.

Increasing Postearthquake Field Mapping Efficiency with Optical Image Correlation

ABSTRACT Mapping fault surface rupture in the aftermath of earthquakes quickly and efficiently is critical to both emergency responders and scientific investigations. We applied an optical imagery correlation technique to map, in detail, the location (not magnitude of displacement) of the surface-rupture trace of the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence to help provide field responders with information to guide response. Emergency managers need to know the location and amount of deformation that has occurred to effectively allocate resources for critical infrastructure repair as soon as possible after earthquakes. Scientific responders need to know the spatial pattern of deformation to determine where to send field teams to conduct scientific reconnaissance and to found later in-depth scientific research. Rapid scientific response is important because earthquake surface ruptures are often fragile features that do not persist in the landscape for more than a few weeks or months at locations with high anthropogenic or climatic modification. Remote sensing techniques have proven effective at aiding event response efforts by guiding field teams to locations with deformation and damage. We focus here on the utility and advantages of detailed remote sensing interpretations of the surface-rupture trace made using an optical image correlation map of relative surface displacement in the weeks after the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence.