Developing a New Approach to Road Planning in Thailand: Application of Link & Place to a Whole Nation

National and local road planning in Thailand is based on a framework that has remained largely unchanged for decades, and originates from a time period when the focus was on designing for a general growth in private car traffic and freight traffic. Since then, there has been a growing focus on multi-modality, on sustainability and on recognising the role of roads in a wider urban and rural place-making and environmental context. The thesis critically assesses the continued relevance of the current national road classification system and reviews a wide range of alternative classifications that have been proposed or adopted in different countries. It concludes that an alternative road classification system, Link & Place, has the potential to provide the basis of a new planning framework in Thailand and sets out to explore the implications of adopting this approach, in road ownership, funding and scheme prioritisation, both conceptually and at a practical level. Part A reviews international approaches to road classification and to road planning, and then examines both current national and sub-national planning frameworks in Thailand, based on literature/document reviews and interviews with key professionals in different government agencies and at various spatial levels. It concludes with an assessment of the strengths and limitations of the current planning procedures, and identifies key research gaps that are addressed in the remainder of the thesis. Part B considers how Link & Place could address the problems identified in part A and examines implications for road ownership and funding arrangements, and for performance measurement, problem identification and scheme prioritisation. The approach is tested empirically in a case study area, and further professional interviews are conducted to obtain local and national views on the applicability of this proposed approach. The final chapter critically assess what has been achieved and makes research and policy recommendations. The findings show that the road classification method based on Link & Place could be applied in a national context. Link & Place also offers a coordinated approach that brings administrative arrangements, funding, and performance measurement together, which could help build institutional capacity in sustainable road planning that is generally much needed in the global south

Scheduling Deliveries with Backhauls in Thailand's Cement Industry

In this study, the Truckload Delivery with Backhaul Scheduling Problem (TDBSP) is formulated and an Ant Colony Optimization methodology developed for a related problem, the Vehicle Routing Problem with Backhaul and Time Windows (VRPBTW), is adapted for its solution. The TDBSP differs from the VRPBTW in that shipments are in units of truckloads, multiple time windows in multiple days are available for delivery to customers, limited space for servicing customers is available and multiple visits to each customer may be required. The problem is motivated by a real-world application arising at a leading cement producer in Thailand. Experts at the cement production plant assign vehicles to cement customers and lignite mines based on manual computations and experience. This study provides mathematical and computational frameworks for modeling and solving this real-world application