دانلود رایگان ترجمه مقاله آنالیز کمی طرح های حمل و نقل پایدار و سبز در طراحی بزرگراه ها (نشریه الزویر 2014)

آنالیز کمی طرح های حمل و نقل پایدار و سبز در طراحی و تعمیر بزرگراه ها

A Quantitative Analysis of Sustainability and Green Transportation Initiatives in Highway Design and Maintenance

Abstract

Sustainability and green transportation initiatives have been widely promoted in highway design and maintenance in recent years. While there are many definitions of sustainability and green transportation, there has mainly been a qualitative description of such initiatives in previous works. In this paper we propose a quantitative analysis of sustainability and green transportation from highway design and maintenance perspective. There is a considerable interaction between highway design and maintenance. For example, a well designed and maintained highway should jointly minimize the initial and life-cycle costs. But, generally a precise account of maintenance life-cycle cost analysis is not performed in the design stages of a highway. In this paper a highway alignment optimization problem is analyzed and evaluated based on the joint minimization of initial and life-cycle costs. An illustrative example is presented

1 Introduction

Sustainable development has been defined by United Nation’s Brundtland commission as meeting the needs of the present people while not jeopardizing the needs of the future generation. The definition suggests that the successful application of the principles of sustainable development means setting goals, implementing practices and measuring results which balance the three-legged stool of sustainable development – economy, environment and the social quality of life (Zeitsman 2011). Sustainability in transportation generally refers to transportation that contributes to the sustainable development of the community that owns and uses the system. Traditionally, the development of transportation infrastructure were based on guidelines that minimized the initial cost, emphasized traffic mobility with minimal consideration for the social and environmental needs. Global concerns about climate change, environmental impacts and limited financial resources is necessitating the need for a different approach in selecting transportation solutions. Consequently, there is a growing desire for environmental sustainability of transportation infrastructure throughout its life cycle. A sustainable transportation system is safe, healthy, affordable, and renewable, operates fairly, and limits emissions and the use of new and nonrenewable resources (Tighe and Gransberg 2011).

Compliance with federal government’s environmental requirement has made it mandatory that environmental consideration must be included in all highway designs. All projects must have National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)/Environmental approvals unless it can be demonstrated that no permit is required. At operation stages hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles are replacing old fleets to enhance the reduction of Greenhouse gases (GHG). While these measures go a long way in introducing sustainability and green transportation in the transportation infrastructure development process, the concept is yet to be fully implemented at the design and maintenance stages as it is usually very difficult to quantitatively analyze sustainability and green transportation initiatives.

The objective of this study is to provide a quantitative framework for analyzing sustainability and green transportation initiatives in highway design and maintenance. Specifically, we formulate the life-cycle maintenance cost of a highway to be considered in conjunction with various initial costs (such as right-of-way, pavement, and earthwork costs) in the highway alignment optimization process.