Develop Efficiencies and Versatilities for Roadway Drainage Maintenance

Details

• Creators:
  Elzarka, Hazem ; Chakraborty, Debaditya ; Gurganus, Charles ; Corey, Jonathan ; Gao, Ce
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Cincinnati ; Texas A&M Transportation Institute
• Corporate Contributors:
  Ohio. Department of Transportation. Office of Statewide Planning and Research ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Cleaning
  • Cleaning equipment
  • Costs
  • Ditches
  • Excavating equipment
  • Highway maintenance
  • Laser radar
  • Mapping
  • Roadside wheeled excavator
  • mobile LiDAR systems
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA/OH-2019/12
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  Final Report
• Corporate Publisher:
  Ohio. Department of Transportation. Office of Statewide Planning and Research
• Abstract:
  ODOT maintains approximately 43,000 lane miles of roadside ditches creating significant constraints on budgets and labor. The aim of this research is to develop a more versatile and efficient process of cleaning/maintaining roadside ditches by increasing safety, optimizing labor hours, increasing flexibility of ditching process, and minimizing damage to road surfaces. Based on the research results, the research team is recommending the use of a wheeled excavator. The preliminary cost analysis estimated the average cost/mile of cleaning a ditch with a wheeled excavator to be 25% less than the cost of conventional methods currently used by ODOT for ditch cleaning. The research also evaluated the use of “mobile LiDAR” as a tool to map ditches at both the network and project levels. The research revealed that although owning and operating a survey grade mobile LiDAR system (MLS) is a big investment and that the workflows currently used for processing MLS data are still being improved, the benefits of using a mobile LiDAR far outweigh the initial ownership and recurring operational costs.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  SJN 135775
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/54544/dot_54544_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.55 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:94ad2726e4f7bb25f814062180b0df66159b8469199e07826637555345077f93a2df11bac0232fc05a9767e7a755a78312940e4d0dfd4ab7f4fbde3915fca711