Optimal planning of utility relocations and noise barrier approvals for roadway construction projects

Roadway projects are often delayed by several pre-construction tasks such as planning utility relocations and noise barrier approvals. Utility relocation was reported by 42 states to cause delays in their federal-aid highway and bridge projects. To mitigate these delays, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and several state Departments of Transportation (DOT) reported the use of a wide range of practices to expedite utility relocations on roadway projects. Similarly, the use of new noise barrier designs and materials need approvals to ensure compliance with state DOT requirements including noise transmission loss, noise reduction coefficient, crash testing, and material degradation. State DOTs have reported that the review and approval process of these alternative designs and materials of roadway noise barriers by related bureaus can take up to three years. Accordingly, FHWA and state DOT officials are often confronted with critical challenges during the planning of roadway construction, including how to optimize the planning of utility relocations to minimize roadway project duration and cost; and how to expedite the review and approval of alternative designs and materials of roadway noise barriers to avoid costly delays. The main goal of this research study is to develop robust methodology for optimal planning of utility relocations and noise barrier approvals for roadway construction projects. To accomplish this goal, the research objectives of this study are to (1) perform a survey of state DOTs and utility companies to gather and analyze their procedures for planning roadway utility relocation projects; (2) develop a decision support tool to enable state DOTs to evaluate and rank all feasible utility relocation best management practices (BMPs) based on their cost-benefit and overall performance; (3) create a novel model to optimize the selection of utility relocation BMPs to minimize roadway project duration and cost; and (4) develop a robust procedure for approving new types of roadway noise barrier materials. The performance of the developed decision support tools and optimization models were analyzed using case studies of roadway construction projects. The results of this analysis illustrate the novelty of the developed tools and models and their unique capabilities. This is expected to provide state DOTs and construction planners with much needed support to minimize the duration of roadway projects and their related traffic delays and congestions; and expedite the approval process of new noise barrier designs and materials for roadway projects.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Civil Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Ignacio, Ernest-John

Contributors dc:contributor

• El-Rayes, Khaled A
• Golparvar Fard, Mani
• El-Gohary, Nora
• Ouyang, Yanfeng

• Utility Relocation
• Utility Adjustment
• Roadway Construction
• Optimization
• Noise Barrier Approvals
• Alternative Noise Barriers

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Ernest-John Ignacio

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124407

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F124407