Decision Supporting Model for Highway Maintenance.docVIP

Decision Supporting Model for Highway Maintenance * András I. Bakó Zoltán Horváth** * Professor of Budapest Politechnik Adviser, Hungarian Development Bank ** H-1034, Budapest, 6, Doberdo str. Abstract A decision model for pavement management has been developed herein based on linear programming formulation. Markov transition probability matrices are introduced to model the deterioration process of the road sections. To every type of road surfaces and class of traffic amount belongs a certain Markov matrix. The presented model and methodology is used to determine the optimal rehabilitation and maintenance policy in network level. Depending on the objective function two types of problems could be solved by the model : the necessary funds calculation and the optimal budget allocation for the entire network. We have developed the computer program on microcomputer and it has been used by the Ministry of Transport who is responsible for the 30000 km road network of Hungary. Keywords: Markov process, Decision Support System, Pavement Management System, Network - Level Model, Linear Programming, 1. INTRODUCTION The current budget condition in the Eastern European Countries needs an effective economical politics. It is true about Hungary too. We try to use the most powerful optimization models in every possible field. In this paper we present an optimal decision supporting model that is used to maintain our highway network. Its length is 30000 kilometres. The works began some years ago. First a large scale Road Data Bank was developed ( [1] ). The second step was to develop a network level Pavement Management System, PMS ([2], [7], [8], [13]). 96  Concerning the PMS problem several types of models are known. One of them is the network level model, the other is a project level one. The network level model deals with the whole network. Its aim is to determine the most advantageous maintenan