Highway Information System And Management Using GIS Deva Pratap Assistant Professor Geotechnical Division Civil Engineering Department National Institute of Technology Warangal-506004 Kiran Kumar Vemula National Institute of Technology Warangal-506004 C.S.R.K. Prasad National Institute of Technology Warangal-506004 Sreedhar Reddy. P National Institute of Technology Warangal-506004 ABSTRACT The rapid growth of urban population has placed a considerable strain on the delivery of basic infrastructure. In the recent years, road network services have hence been considered as the most essential elements in urban life. These services should therefore, rationally be controlled and provided in accordance with the needs of the community. The engineering community is emphasizing on improved pavement management procedures and is exploring GIS technology at all sectors. The coupling of appropriate GIS technology with a standalone PMS can result in an enriched PMS. In this paper, the main focus has been towards maintenance of major roads passing through the Warangal city, a challenge faced by many road engineers in various departments. The maintenance of any road depends primarily on the roads surface condition. The evaluation of the pavement condition has been done in two ways in the present study. The first way of evaluation is based on the calculation of PSI and the second way is based on the visual ratings and rut depths. Based on the above evaluations a rating is assigned. Based on the PSI value an optimum maintenance and rehabilitation solution is suggested. In this study, efforts have been made to demonstrate the development and use of a PMS using a pavement attribute database in a GIS environment to support the pavement management decision using several applications. Continuous database management is a requirement for pavement performance. Hence continuous database with regard to traffic and distress of pavement are to be done at frequent intervals. A database has been created for all the road sections in the study area. The digital database thus created in the form of tables and maps would help the highway engineers in a long way to implement the findings of the study and also to manage such facilities in a better manner in future. Models can be helpful to predict the performance of the pavement accurately. So, the development of deterioration models and their further improvement with additional data has been suggested in the present study, which would help in the prediction of the pavement performance accurately. INTRODUCTION: During the last four decades, the India has experienced all round development. This development has resulted in the increase of the vehicle population. The pace of road development has not been in the required order to meet the increased demand. As a result, the existing trunk route system has become structurally inadequate to sustain the high magnitude of stresses by unanticipated increase in traffic volumes and axle loads and ultimately failure of the road pavements. The funds available for preserving and upkeep of the existing road network, which is highly distressed, are by large, diminishing every year. The network has reached a condition at which heavy investments are needed to bring into a satisfactory level. The availability of such huge capital is rather doubtful. The need for efficient and effective management of the vast road network has thrown upon a challenge to the highway professionals of the country, as a whole. The only option left is to manage the roads with in the available limited resources, in an optimal manner, by making use of the scientific pavement management tools. Highway maintenance management is becoming a critical issue highway networks face deterioration problem due to the lack of funds for infrastructure. The adoption of newly emerging technologies such as GIS can help improve the decision making process in this area for better use of the available limited funds. The most important objectives of using GIS are map display and data integration. Through GIS application certain potential issues can be dealt more efficiently and effectively, and more economically as compared to with prevailing methods. Jain, P. K. and Rao, A. M. (2003) have carried out work towards maintenance of roads a challenge faced by many road engineers all over the country. The maintenance of any road depends primarily on the roads surface condition. The condition of the road relevant in terms of both structural as well as functional aspects of the pavement needs a fresh look in the present context of increasing traffic intensity, larger road networks and resource availability in order to provide reasonable good riding quality and better management of the road network in terms of service life. GIS tool has been used effectively for pavement management system.. Jean Claude Thill (2000) had under taken a study on GIS for transportation in perspective. The emphasis is placed on the requirements specific of the transportation domain of application of this emerging information technology as well as on the core research challenges. The specificity and requirements of GIS in transportation have been discussed. Finally, some of the core research themes in transportation are highlighted. Khanna, S. K. et. al (2002) had under taken a study on “A Rational Approach to Low Cost PMS for Roads”, the main emphasis has been towards the development of PMS that aid in the finding of the optimum maintenance and rehabilitation solution. The study carried out by Miguel Paredes et. al (1997) on “Pavement management applications of GIS”, the initial efforts has been towards the implementation of the GIS technology to assist pavement management activities, which involved the incorporation of a prototype GIS module into the micro-PES (pavement evaluation system) system. Howard J. Simkowitz (1995) had under taken a study on “Using GIS Technology” to enhance the Pavement Management Process and the importance of a variety of spatially integrated data to pavement management decision making is examined. STUDY AREA: The study area as shown in Figure1 located in Warangal city covers an area of approximately 54.98 sq.km and is situated at an Altitude of 1,700 ft. The temperatures in summer can reach a Max. 39.6°C and Min. 23.2°C while in winter they can reach a Max. 30°C and Min. 13.5°C. Warangal receives rainfall of 82.5 cm per annum.  Fig 1: Study area – Warangal city The major roads that pass through the Warangal City are taken up for the study. These roads are as follows:
The road network of the study area have been digitized from the cadastral map of the Warangal city using AutoCAD software. All the digitized data exported into the Arc Info software to build the spatial data. Various field investigations are carried out to measure the rut depth, distress mode, cracking, patching/patch detoriation and potholes for assessment of the qualitative measurements. The skid resistance and roughness measurements are carried out to for assessment of the quantitative measurements. Various external data obtained from the visual interpretation of the roads in the field, qualitative and quantitative measurements were integrated into the GIS for the development of GIS aspatial database. Various GIS themes were prepared for pavement evaluation and developing the decisions for efficient Highway management. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS: Pavement condition evaluation for paved roads: The evaluation of the pavement condition can be done based in two ways. The first way of evaluation is based on Pavement Surface Index and the second way is based on the visual ratings and rut depths. Evaluation based on the PSI: The evaluation of a pavement is done on a 5-point scale as suggested by AASHTO & CRRI. The ratings are assigned for each sub section based on the computed PSI and the results are stored in the database tables. Table 1 presents rating scale, used to classify the pavement conditions subjectively.  The PSI value is calculated by using the following equation: PSI = 20.715 – 6.676*log(R) – 0.0283*D R = Unevenness Index of the pavement surface determined with Bump Integrator at a speed of 30kmph. D = Total surface distress, comprising area cracked, area patched and distressed area needing patching (potholes) expressed as a percentage of total surface area The PSI values calculated for Warangal-Narsampet Road are shown in the following table 2 along with the maintenance activity.  The visual parameters such as cracking, patching, potholes and raveling are compared through the following bar chart. These are the values for the HYD-BHP NH. The PSI values, visual parameters, maintenance activity along the HYD-BHP NH are shown in fig 2.  Fig 2. PSI Values, Visual parameters, Maintenance activity Evaluation based on cracking and rutting: Cracking and rutting also play an important role in the evaluation of the pavement condition as discussed before. The following table 3 shows the criteria of the pavement condition based on the cracks and rut depths.   Fig 3. Skid resistance & Rut depth The following Table 4 shows the values of the cracking and rut depths. The rating based on these values is also shown in the table. Based on this rating, the maintenance activity can be suggested. All the above calculations are the same for all the road sections in the study area.  Pavement management systems (PMS) generally include a subsystem for pavement maintenance which may contain models to determine the most cost effective treatment These are generally based on pavement type, condition, and other important factors. It is critical, however, that the proper maintenance treatment be placed at the right time for the pavement to function as designed and for the maintenance program to be cost effective. A limitation of any PMS systems is their inability to comprehensively analyze individual projects and determine the proper timing and cost of treatment. Two types of pavement maintenance are generally recognized preventive and corrective (or reactive). Preventive maintenance is used to arrest minor deterioration, retard progressive failures, and reduce the need for corrective maintenance. It is performed before the pavement shows significant distress to provide a more uniform performing pavement system. Corrective maintenance is performed after a deficiency occurs in the pavement; i.e., loss of friction, moderate to severe rutting, or extensive cracking. The basic flow for the maintenance of road facilities goes from “inspection” to “survey” to “judgment” to repair and “reconstruction”. Inspection to discover damages to the road facility and prioritize repair and overlay or reconstruction comes under the three categories of daily inspections, regular inspections, and emergency inspection depending on purpose. The repairs and preservation measures, road service management measures are to be taken to effectively manage the maintenance activities. A pavement maintenance preservation program has to be developed to effectively manage the maintenance activities. The following elements should be considered when developing a pavement maintenance preservation program:
Flowchart showing the relationship among the various elements of a pavement preservation program is shown in the following figure. It should be emphasized that top management needs to be involved in steps 1 and 5 above to ensure a successful program as followed by figure 4.  Fig 4. Elements of a Pavement Preservation Program CONCLUSIONS: The highway community is emphasizing on improved pavement management procedures and is exploring GIS technology at all sectors and research institutions. Efforts have been made to demonstrate the development and use of a PMS using a pavement attribute database in a GIS environment to support the pavement management decision using several applications. The coupling of appropriate GIS technology with a standalone PMS can result in an enriched PMS. The visual parameters such as cracking, rutting, raveling, potholes and the roughness and skid resistance values are collected using various field investigations and studies. This data is then stored in the GIS database. Different types of operations such as retrieval, insertion, updating and deletion of data can be done on this database. The data is used to perform calculations based on the functional and structural condition of pavements. Based on this an optimum maintenance and rehabilitation solution is suggested. The traditional strength of the GIS formulation are in mapping, display and digital processing and therefore a GIS based PMS requiring new data structures, data objects, interfaces and procedures will be of immense help to the highway community in fulfilling the effective decision making in PMS. REFERENCES:
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