Investigation of Factors Affecting Recovery Priority of Roads Damaged by Natural Disasters/Armed Conflicts

Natural disasters/armed conflicts can cause major damage to road networks of the affected area. This can lead to significant impact not only on the road networks. The major challenge in the aftermath of such events is to ensure a speedy recovery/rehabilitation of roads and transportation networks so that regeneration can commence in an effective manner. Prioritizing regeneration of the road network may need context of a range of requirements including health, education, security, and economic amongst many that will also require addressing. This study has been conducted to give a better understanding of major factors that govern road recovery prioritization across the affected region in Iraq. These factors need to be used in an effective and efficient manner that can help in determining the road recovery priority. Interviews and a questionnaire survey are conducted with experts in road reconstruction and maintenance organisations to investigate the impact of the important proposed affecting factors that can be critical for determining the recovery priority of damaged roads. Five estimated groups of factors have been included in this study, which are: socio-economic, road network, traffic, damage and financial factors. Each group also consists of a number of estimated sub-group factors. As a result, twenty nine factors have been chosen in this study.It has been found from the results of the interviews and questionnaire that the proposed factors and factor groups are with a level of importance of high and very high. This indicates that the groups and factors included in this study are important for the successful building and implementation of the process and procedures of the road recovery priority in the road rehabilitation projects.Each estimated factor within each proposed group used in this study contributes a different weight value to the overall road recovery priority. According to the questionnaire’s results, the most important factors are: number of critical socio-economic facilities, type of road, delay time, severity of damage and effect on the economic. Moreover, a different weight has been contributed by each estimated group. Based on the questionnaire results, it was found that the major contribution is from the financial factor group

A conceptual model to effectively prioritise recovery of roads damaged by natural/man-made disasters

After natural/man-made disasters, a major challenge faced by governments is to ensure a speedy recovery of roads and transportation networks. In order to achieve this, a new road recovery priority (RRP) model has been developed to identify key issues and their inter-relationships giving a better understanding of factors that govern prioritisation across the affected regions. Interviews are conducted with experts in road reconstruction and maintenance organisations to investigate respondents’ evaluation and understanding of the RRP model in terms of its ease of use, usefulness, comprehensiveness, applicability, feasibility and structure. A questionnaire survey is conducted to investigate the impact of the important proposed affecting factors that can be critical for successful implementation and application of the RRP model in the road rehabilitation sector. A field survey is carried out to collect data which are essential to determine parameters in the model’s application. Four case studies are carried out to investigate the RRP model’s application in a variety of road conditions. The application of this model may solve the problem of decision making in road recovery priority determination in a hierarchical manner so that the recovery process can be accomplished from an urgent repair need to a lower recovery priority

Performance analysis, evaluation, and improvement of selected unsignalized intersection using SIDRA software – Case study

Significant social, economic, and environmental costs are associated with traffic congestion. The effectiveness of intersections makes a substantial contribution to the effectiveness of entire road networks. The three-leg at-grade Al-Husainea intersection, located 20 km from the center of holy Karbala city in Iraq, is subjected to serious congestion, resulting in an increase in delay time, reduction in capacity, and bad level of service (LOS). Therefore, it is essential to use advanced software tools to ensure that the current intersection can be controlled, evaluated, and improved. So, the major goal of this study is to use SIDRA, an acronym for signalized and unsignalized intersection design and research aid, software to evaluate the LOS of the Al-Husainea intersection, in which the traffic is assessed using the current LOS. LOS, delay time, and degree of saturation were the criteria utilized to evaluate the traffic flow performance. SIDRA is also used to assess benefits as a result of suggested changes in the design of particular junctions. The first stage is to gather field data regarding traffic volumes utilizing a method of traffic volume gathering. From 7 am to 6 pm, the SIDRA program gathered data for a full 7 days. The results showed that the LOS for the Al-Husainea intersection in the Al-Husainea arm is F, with an average delay of 52 s per vehicle and a saturation level of 0.86 v/c. Finally, it was determined that the Al-Husainea intersection needs additional improvements based on the study and findings from the SIDRA program, and some remedies are suggested in this study to improve the intersection traffic flow