Jam-Barrel Politics

This paper studies the executive-legislative exchange of centrally-allocated benefits (jam) for legislative support in Colombia using data from road building projects, legislative roll-call votes, and a leaked database which uncovered the assignment of road contracts to individual legislators. We draw hypotheses from a model in which an executive spreads jam to sway legislators. We document that assigned projects had excess costs, legislators targeted were more likely to be swing voters in congress, and legislators increased their support for the executive after their contracts were signed. The results are driven by legislators representing remote regions and constituencies with weaker political institutions.

Development of a method for designing specialized machinery based on a hinge tractor

The method of designing frames of special machines for road construction and public utilities is considered, which allows you to design special machines with a given level of reliability and durability. The technique allows using modern computer modeling systems to carry out constructive refinement of the base tractor frame using experimental and mathematical modeling data. Using the design feature of tractors of the T–150K family, namely the presence of an articulated joint, it is possible, using a modular principle, to quickly design various machines for various industries. However, in order to design reliable machines, one must have a methodology for designing such machines. There is currently no such technique. When designing special machines, designers perform calculations only for working equipment. But as practice shows, the critical elements of the machine in this case, the support of the vertical hinge of the tractor frame during the operation of the pressurized machine (wheeled bulldozer and front loader), experience shock loads that lead to the destruction of the frame of the base tractor. The purpose of the article is to develop a methodology for designing a complex of road–building machines on the basis of mass–produced tractors with an articulated frame produced by public limited company "KhTZ".

Repair technology features of main elements of road-building machines’ hydraulic system with use of polymer composite materials

Features of the operation and typical damages of standard hydraulic systems’ elements of road-building machines have been analyzed. The occurrence reasons of defects and the elimination ways of them were determined. Methods for eliminating the defects were analyzed, and it is shown that one of the most promising methods for eliminating the defects in liners of hydraulic cylinders and hydraulic lines is the use of polymer composite materials with a fibrous or dispersed filler for the repair.

E-Waybill Using Experience & Development In Estonian State Road Building

Estonian Transport Administration (ETA) has since 2010y developed digital solutions for monitoring abnormal 52t transport heavy vehicles (HV). Since 2020y we signed the memorandum between 8 different parties for developing bulk material transport digital solutions (e-waybill system) for road building. The focus is to make the logistic more transparent since beginning of the loading point - for the different authorities. The second focus is to make the truck movement corridor visible for the traffic control, avoiding week roads, bridges etc. The final, and the most difficult, is to develop the mass control system, so that there is automated weight info in the e-waybill system visible for the traffic police and for building supervisors etc. We have met with our Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities and many others, and everyone is very interested of going from paper waybills for faster, cloud based, e-waybill systems, what is also more C02 friendly. This digital e-waybill allows single data entry, and all the rest data with statistics is visible for concerned people. ETA is planning to pilot in 2021y also many road building projects with e-waybill demand. So far, the feedback has been mainly positive from different parties. We have started with our Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (EMEAC) also wider digitalisation projects concerning the new regulation (EU) 2020/1056 of eFTI for the gross-border transport logistics digitalisation, what must be applied in every member state 21.08.24.

Road Building in Brazil

For much of its history, Brazil’s population remained bound along the coastline. Geographic features, such as coastal mountain ranges and a relative lack of navigable rivers, stymied efforts to settle and exploit the vast interior. Because of its inaccessibility to authorities based on the coast, the interior became a place of refuge for Indigenous communities and runaway slaves. During the colonial period (1500–1822) and several decades beyond, waterways and Indigenous footpaths (sometimes widened to allow for ox carts and mule trains) were the main routes for travel into the hinterland. Slavers and mineral prospectors known as bandeirantes founded scattered settlements in Minas Gerais, Goiás, and Mato Grosso. As the Industrial Revolution created new demands and technological possibilities in the late 19th century, efforts to connect the interior to the coast came via the telegraph and railroad. The rubber boom of that era precipitated greater settlement of the Amazon region and relied on riverine transport. Road building has intensified since the mid-20th century. The new capital, Brasília, centerpiece of President Juscelino Kubitschek’s (1956–1961) campaign to achieve “Fifty Years of Progress,” initiated a new network of highways, later expanded by the military regime (1964–1985). Those efforts aimed to promote economic development, redirect internal migration, and extend the territorial control of the central government. Migrants and entrepreneurs, traveling on official highways and illegal roads constructed along the way, set fire to grasslands and forests to convert them into pasture. Roads, both legal and illegal, thus opened the way for transformations of the ecosystems of the Brazilian interior. At the same time, they created conditions for intensified conflict between newcomers and those who had long called the interior home.