Infrastructure

The history of cultural space is viewed as a history of constant and necessary modernization of infrastructure. The main feature of infrastructure is the network organization and the constructive role of hub-nodes and connections and their bent for rationalization and transnational trends. The power, directions and goals of infrastructure determine the development of cities. Modern strategies for general social development imply the emergence of efficient communication corridors, highway networks and hubs located along the perimeter of the country, determining the country’s gravitation toward global connections and interactions. The development of quality infrastructure is a contribution to the future and an area of the authorities’ responsibility.

Can Highway Networks Promote Productivity? Evidence from China

The total mileage of highways in China ranks first in the world and constitutes an important symbol of China’s modernization. Economists, however, continue to debate whether highways always promote economic growth in every region and how to assess the impact. In this paper, we first use the OD-MATRIX method to calculate the shortest highway traveling time among 332 prefecture-level cities in China from 2000 to 2013. It is shown that the reduction of traveling time brought by highway construction significantly improves enterprise productivity. Second, to further explore the mechanism at work, we apply market potential approach to examine its effect on productivity. It is found that on average, the enhanced market potential induced by highway construction in China positively affect enterprise productivity. Finally, we calculate urban centrality via the space gravity model and conduct a sample regression according to the rank of urban centrality. Interestingly, we find that the impact of highways on productivity varies depending on cities’ degree of urban centrality. Highways have a positive impact in high-centrality cities but a negative impact in low-centrality cities. This correlation can be explained, in turn, by factors that include labor and capital flow from low-centrality cities to high-centrality cities.

Approach for Predicting Cracking Deterioration in Sprayed Seals from Subjective Condition Ratings

Cracking is the most influential distress on the performance of bituminous surfaces of granular pavements and ultimately that of underlying layers. The purpose of the study reported here is to describe the modeling approach adopted in developing cracking deterioration models of bituminous sprayed seals from historical time series subjective condition ratings. In this approach, a multilevel analysis has been applied to capture the variations between observations, segments, and highways. Further, it involved considering all possible contributing factors that affect cracking deterioration of in-service sprayed seals. Factors considered here include surface age, temperature, traffic volume, rainfall, shoulder seal width, and subgrade soil reactivity. The modeling approach has been applied to condition data from five rural highway networks separately then collectively. In the latter, only significant contributing factors from the individual networks’ models are considered. These networks have spray sealed granular pavements with different operating and environmental conditions. Predictions of the overall model have been compared with the currently used model. The latter has been developed for the same networks from two years of subjective condition data, using Markov chains (MC) and surface age as the only predictor. The overall model developed here using multilevel analysis and incorporating the significantly contributing factors predicts earlier deterioration than the MC model currently used. The latter predicts 70% of segments to be in good condition at the age of 5 years, whereas the first predicts only 49%.