TRF - 2010

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item: Conference-Abstract
Critical issues on motor insurance claims
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Edirmanne, IAG; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
Insurance acts as an important tool providing security to the society. As the premium paid by people are part of their savings, insurance acts in promoting savings and investments. This paper is focused on motor insurance and its critical issues in settling claims of road accidents victims. The deficiencies in transport related insurance claims, particularly, the fatal accidents, accidents at road construction sites and the growing problem of hit and run accidents are being discussed. The aim of this paper is to educate the victims of road accidents and the general public that they need not silently suffer the damages/injuries caused due to someone else’s negligence as they can always be compensated for such losses/damages through insurance claims. At the same time it creates an opportunity for insurers too, to expand their services to cover many important areas that are being highlighted. A motor vehicle accident can disrupt one’s life on many ways. This will create financial problems and emotional strain for the victim of motor accident and his/her family members. The paper identifies problems in motor insurance claims, such as; The stress of dealing with the insurance companies responsible for covering damages The insurer’s attitude to pay the minimum when settling claims Non availability of specific guide lines in settling claims among the insurers Denying policy holders’ claims Obtaining insurance policies only to satisfy the legal requirement under Motor Traffic Act People are unaware that claims have to be filed within the specified time if not, they have no claims  The victims of road accidents at construction sites and hit and run accidents could also make claims against the parties responsible, though, this is not happening in practice. The paper will also discuss the critical issues in insurance claims such as disputes between the Insurer and the Insured, obligations of the Insurer - to explain the main benefits /before the contract is entered into, exclusion of claims treatment of policy holders, legal action required to recover damage, rigid litigation procedures, responsibility of road construction contractors and safety violations, deficiencies in Hit & Run Accident Claims and benefits for victims of pain and mental sufferings. The following recommendations are identified as vital in promoting motor insurance not only among people live in urban areas but also among people in rural areas.  Awareness programs to educate the motorists. Consumer education is also important to provide the motorists with the correct state of mind for careful driving to prevent accidents. The public should also be educated on how they should report traffic accidents and also be educated on insurance matters.  Driver training and testing programs  Introduction of New Laws and Regulations  Proper guide lines and procedures in settlement of claims  Consideration of claims for pain and mental sufferings  Awareness programs regarding insurance claims for victims at road construction sites  New Payment plan for road accident victims younger than 18 years and over 65 years of age. This is a serious issue since these groups of people are not covered as they have no earning capacity.  Keep in view the no-fault claims – No fault claim should be kept in view as it has its merits and drawbacks.  On line information to minimize delays in obtaining insurance claims and to find information for people who are interested in insurance.  The successful implementation of the above recommendations depends on the cooperation of all stakeholders to play their part responsibly to deal with the issues.
item: Conference-Abstract
Develop an evaluation criterion to assess pedestrian facilities in urban environments at micro level
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Dias, TWKIM; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
In urban design, facilities available for the pedestrians and the convenience of walking are the measure of the overall walking conditions in an area. The concept of walkability has been used to assess these factors. That is to measure the extent to which the built environment is friendly to the presence of people living, shopping, visiting, enjoying or spending time in an area. A walkability index is a method to evaluate the facilities available for walking. Evaluating walkability is challenging because it requires the consideration of many subjective factors. Some factors are; land use modal conflict, security, crossing safety, motorist behavior, pedestrian amenities, disability infrastructure, side walk width, obstructions, maintenance and cleanliness. There are some indices used internationally and all of them assess the effectiveness of the facilities qualitatively. In this paper it is proposed to develop a criterion to compare two roads at micro level to evaluate ease of walking with an improved walkability index. An attempt has been made to incorporate more quantitative parameters that will minimize individual biasness. It is expected that having an evaluation criterion will generate awareness on walkability as an important issue in developing cities. This will help the relevant authorities to identify the areas where the pedestrian facilities are to be enhanced. Some of the walkability indices have been evaluated and their shortcomings and limitations are being identified. For the current indices that are in use, roads environment need to be categorized in to specific types such as a high-income neighborhood with mostly housing; a low income neighborhood with mostly housing, a transport hub (e.g., rail station), and a commercial district. A survey was carried out in the Colombo city limits with a road length of 35 km. During that survey it was realized that a similar sampling method cannot be adopted and road stretches should not be greater than 500 m. to avoid loss of homogeneity since the land use is not much organized in developing country such as Sri Lanka. In order to accommodate different land use types along the road it is proposed to use the land use percentages. There is a need to incorporate the height of the buildings or walls by the road side. The effects on weather on the walkability measures were not seen in any walkability index. Evaluation need consider both rain and sun shine. This paper summarizes the findings of the walkability survey carried out and highlight the improvements need to minimize biasness.
item: Conference-Abstract
Development of content management system for traffic survey reports
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) De Silva, SCP; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
Transportation has become one of the key development factors in Sri Lanka recently. More studies and research have been initiated relating to the transportation infrastructure development. The one of the essential parameter for these studies and research is the availability of traffic related information Since traffic data is vital for any type of study or research in transportation, the traffic survey reports files should be stored efficiently in a suitable repository from for interested party to view or use them. There are different types of surveys conducted to gather traffic related information. Efficient mechanism to store collected data and an easy access to past data is a growing requirement. Currently there are no proper ways of keeping all surveys results that have been conducted. This paper discusses the development of a content management system to handle traffic related information. A development of Content Management System for managing all common types of traffic and transport surveys is discussed. A separate file server is configured to store digital copies of survey results while end user software is connected with server and give all information about surveys. The Users can download relevant data from the server. java technology was used in developing the software and relational database management concept was used to develop the data model. The database schema is developed by identifying the basic information/data regarding to be stored from any survey type (O-D, MCC etc.) by applying the concept of relational database and EER modelling. The software development has gone through the basic steps defined in waterfall method. The final system is user friendly and safe since all the information is gathered to one central server database. Using this central server any type of survey reports can be retrieved with details. The administrator who is responsible for the system can grant the privileges to other low level users to do their tasks separately. Both functional and non functional requirements have been considered in the development of this database. As functional requirement the main processes for the system have been considered. For non functional requirement the quality of the system; security, reliability, performance, resources etc. have been considered based on the software and hardware components.
item: Conference-Abstract
Freight vehicle movement pattern on national roads in Sri Lanka
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Priyadarshani, GAC; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
Transportation in Sri Lanka is mainly based on the road network which is centered on Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo. It is reported that over 95% of the freight movements are taking place on roads. However, majority of the studies focuses on passenger transportation and minimal literature available on freight transportation in Sri Lanka. Objective of this paper is to analyze the freight vehicle movements in Sri Lanka in various aspects such as vehicle type, type of commodity, load and capacity. This study uses the roadside origin and destination survey data collected from 35 locations all over the country by the Transportation Engineering Division of University of Moratuwa. First the data from the 35 locations were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to find which type of vehicle mostly uses for freight transportation and the type of commodity highly distributed and find whether there is any correlation between commodity type and the type of vehicle and loading patterns. Next part is, preparing a combined origin and destination matrix to find the freight trip distribution pattern. When preparing combined origin and destination matrix at Divisional Secretariat Division (DSD) level, it is found that most of the cell values are zero. It may be due to inadequacy of sample sizes or there is no freight trips during the time of data collection or those trip may not be going through the selected survey locations. Hence, the combined origin and destination matrix was prepared for District level, It is found that 69% of the freight vehicles are medium goods vehicles while light goods vehicles and multiaxel goods are 19% and 6% respectively and remaining 5% are heavy goods and tractors. Except within the Colombo district trips most of the medium goods vehicles trips are moving from Gampaha district to Colombo district. When considering the commodity type it is found that 38% are empty goods vehicles, 10% are construction materials the remaining 14% are perishable and other agricultural products and the remaining 38% are other types of goods. It is also found that 46% are empty loaded vehicles, 25% are fully loaded and remaining 29% are 1/2 loaded, 1/4 loaded and overloaded vehicles. With respect to the total freight vehicle combined matrix, it is found that 36.9% trips are generated from Colombo district and 53.2% trips are attracted to Colombo districts. Finally it is found that most of the perishable goods are fully loaded and medium goods vehicles are mostly used to transport the perishable goods.
item: Conference-Abstract
Guideline for the selection of appropriate specifications for low volume roads
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Wannige, EP; Abeywardena, HST; Haththotuwa, HMDS; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
The paper presents the research carried out to prepare a set of guidelines for the selection of appropriate specifications for low volume roads. It is an essential requirement to have such a guideline because lack of such guideline has resulted in waste of valuable resource in road construction work. This research finding are very important to Sri Lanka as there are many problems associated in the low volume roads due to lack of technical knowhow of the majority of people involved in the low volume road construction and maintenance. This paper describe the work is carried out in order to provide a guideline to minimize existing problems. For the purpose of selecting suitable specifications for low volume roads a wide range of data base was needed. Areas selected for data collection were Badulla, Diyathalawa and Mahiyanganaya Engineering divisions in Uva Province. With the purpose of having a good database for analysis, data was collected through both discussions with engineers in provincial Road Development Department in Uva Provincial Council and observed data through field visits. Practice of low volume road planning, design and material selection, construction and maintenance were discussed with engineers and important road sections for visits were identified. Through field visits data on various parameters affecting the road condition were collected including all road types such as DBST, gravel, concrete and metalled & tar. The data collected was statistically analyzed using SPSS software to identify significant relationships are present between parameters identified as important. The identified important parameters were drainage condition, traffic volume, terrain, land use, material used and carriage way width. Crosstab analysis was carried out between two parameters and also in between more than two parameters using layer option available in SPSS. Results of the data analysis were used for producing the set of guidelines for planning, design and material selection, and construction and maintenance phases. A GIS map was also produced to indicate the existing road conditions as a tool for identifying access needs during planning process of roads. A sample inventory of road infrastructure is presented to demonstrate how to use collected information during planning, design, and construction and operation stages of low volume roads.
item: Conference-Abstract
Identification of suitable decision support system for planning programming and economic evaluation of road investment projects for Sri Lanka
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Sumugan, VS; Kulasooriya, KASA; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
Project evaluation, especially road investment project evaluations need to be handled carefully, since the initial capital outlay for such projects is considerably higher than other projects and it is highly essential for the national development. In Sri Lanka we can observe a lack of data for the evaluation process and the absence of suitable decision support systems although we have observed some developments such as the HDM-4, PREM model, and information systems such as TransPlan which are used widely. This research targets at identifying the current trends in the evaluation process and to identify critical parameters which affect the evaluation to further improve the quality of decision making in the sector. The paper first identify the economic and engineering evaluation techniques currently used in the industry. NPV, IRR and Cost Benefit Analysis were the primary economic indicators used. Based on these and the available data it was decided to identify critical parameters that affect these indicators and to identify suitable evaluation methods. For this purpose HDM-4 was used. HDM-4 (Highway Design and Maintenance Standards Model) was developed by the World Bank. It combines the technical and economic appraisals of road investment projects and is highly reliable. The application has a single drawback with respect to the local environment, i.e. it requires a high amount of data. Therefore in order to comply with the standards a sensitivity analysis was carried out to identify the most critical parameters that will affect the output significantly. Several data sets were used with input data such as drainage condition, traffic data, pavement condition (Roughness, CBR etc.) and others to identify the impact of these factors in the evaluation process. Using the results produced over a range of input data, this paper identifies critical factors that need to be measured accurately to minimize significant deviations in results with respect to the actual situation. Furthermore it also targets at identifying a way to coordinate the existing information systems present to aid in the evaluation process. The result expected is a much better, accurate, reliable and transparent decision making process than at present in the local context.
item: Conference-Abstract
Method to identify potential safety deficiencies at identified accident black spots
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Jayawardena, G; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
Accidents Black spots are the locations or road sections where accidents are common. Highway engineers and Traffic police generally know of the tendency for road accidents to cluster together at certain locations, commonly termed “accident black spots”. It is possible to identify these black spots of the road network, so that appropriate remedial measures can be undertaken to reduce the likelihood and severity of accidents at those locations. Although the improvement of accident black spots is a very important area requiring attention it has so far received little priority in Sri Lanka. Traffic accidents are a serious issue in Sri Lanka around 2,000 people are killed in traffic accidents every year. As a result of ever increasing number of vehicles and insufficient safety precautions the traffic accidents in Sri Lanka shows an ever increasing trend and the alarming numbers of fatalities. The objective of this paper is to provide a clear guidance on how to enhance the road safety at identified accident black spots by identifying potential safety deficiencies in Sri Lankan road network. At present, Sri Lanka Police Department keep records of traffic accidents, but this information does not carry adequate information on accident prone locations or information is not properly transferred to road authorities who design and install road safety facilities. It is not clear who is the primary agency to formulate road safety policy and strategy and design and implement road safety measures. Paper identifies five major issues and their sub issues which caused to accidents in Sri Lankan road network. The five issues are i) Road markings, ii) Signing and lighting, iii) Layout geometric details and road surface, iv) Pedestrians and related facilities, v) Overtaking opportunities and land use either side of the road. Significance of these issues can be change depending on the location and the environment. Method has been proposed to priorities these major issue, as most of our organizations are not in a position to rectify all identified problems, due to restricted/lack of funds. Furthermore, under each issue it is identified sub factors which can enhance the accident situation. The above major issues and sub issues are gathered in a questionnaire format. Major contributing factor can be identified using the said questionnaire for a particular problematic location. As mention above the questionnaire has been based on five different issues with their individual sub components which has been identified as the important safety factors in Sri Lankan Road Network. The questionnaire needs to be answered by different people at the conflict location (Safety Audit). It is advisable to do this Safety Audit by the persons who have some knowledge regarding the road conditions and road situations. The next step is to allocate weights to individual issues. Depending on the location and the importance of the individual issues weights can be defined. As the aim is to improve road safety at identified black spot another third person who has experience in road safety improvement has to decide the weights considering the relative importance of the five issues in that particular accident black spot. Defined weights could be justified using the analytical hierarchy process. The basic idea of the approach is to convert subjective assessments of relative importance to a set of overall scores or weights. Then by normalizing the issues most critical issue for the particular location could be identified out of five issues. Subsequently most appropriate traffic safety measures could be implemented successfully. The proposed method will enhance the road safety at identified accident black spots with less cost but effective safety measures resulting more economic benefits to the society.
item: Conference-Abstract
Methodology to determine the optimum logistics cost cluster size of multiple facility and server system
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Perera, KPH; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
Majority of suppliers of material required for construction are concentrated in to a particular area to handle their facilities due to the location of existing customers, existing supplying capacity and the locations of their key requirements such as raw material suppliers or sites. The market demand for a particular facility can be exceeded due to the existing demand and due to the growth of facility consumers. So the competition of the market can also be increased. This will encourage the forming of new facilities or plants and also increasing the supplying capacity of existing facilities or plants. With time facility providers can be scattered over a large area with continuous growth of the facility consumers and there is a need to determine the optimum location for new facilities. This type of problems is usually handled by using clustering method to improve the convenience and the efficiency of operation. The usual practice is to consider the geographic basis or arbitrarily based on suppliers and consumers. When there are interactions among the clustered facilities and/or between the facilities and a central server, the cost of transport & logistics operations would be a significant component that affects the efficiency of the system. The problem of locating regional facilities and allocating customers to optimize the cost of transportation covers the core topics of optimums logistic cost cluster model. This paper describes a mathematical model that can be used to determine the optimum location and cluster size for a given facility. This model can be applied in to transportation requirements which based on direct shipment network type such as construction sites of contractor, distribution network of retail stores and serves etc. Transportation problem theories and center of gravity methods were used to develop the model. The cost of transportation was assumed to be proportionate to the distances between the origin and destination. This was later relaxed by using an individual time factor which user can define according to the average speed of the particular road. Operation requirements also introduced to enhance the model accuracy and efficiency such as the concrete delivery time of concrete transportation etc.
item: Conference-Abstract
Methodology to find alternative paths using GIS
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Silva, SA; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
In recent years Sri Lanka has experienced a high growth in urban population and the number of private vehicles. Most evident feature of such a trend is urban road congestion; roads in some areas are also facing unexpectedly high traffic flow which causes a lot of time waste in transit and huge losses to the economy of the country. Therefore, it is important to find alternative routes during times of traffic congestion. GIS technology can be used for this purpose, to find alternative paths between two nodes and graphically represent it. This will not only help manage the existing highways efficiently but will also help traffic planning studies. Alternative path between two nodes can be node independent or link independent. Furthermore, the meaning of the node independent path is path which cannot go through specific node or nodes in its best path. The route which is not use a particular link or links of its best path can be defined as link independent path. These paths are important for transport engineers and urban planners in accessibility studies, disaster management and traffic management work. Best path between any two nodes can be found using minimum path algorithms. TransPlan model developed by the Transportation Engineering Division of the University of Moratuwa facilitate finding best paths between any two nodes on the National Road network in Sri Lanka. It is not possible to find alternative paths between two nodes using TransPlan. The objective of this study is to develop a method to find the node independent and link independent alternate paths using Geographic Information System (GIS) and make a model to find the alternative paths of A, B and selected main roads within City of Colombo by customizing the ArcGIS network analysis tool using Visual Basic 6.0. Method used and examples of application are presented in the paper.
item: Conference-Abstract
Methodology to identify the optimum network for an integrated urban rail system
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Malkanthi, LPS; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
Planning of railway network is very important in case of new railway systems such as urban Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT). The general objectives of a railway network development are minimizing total cost that includes construction and operation costs, maximizing social welfare and profit and minimizing travel time and negative environmental impacts. The question in transport network design is to determine a network that has an optimal performance given a specific design objective. According to the previous research studies, a methodology has been developed to identify the optimum railway network, by considering the factors related to the construction cost and the passenger demand. Although the network can be optimized by considering those two factors, it is not completed until the operational stage costs are considered. Therefore it is very much important to consider the operational costs in developing methodologies to identify the optimum railway network. This papery is on finding an improved methodology to determine the optimum rail road network considering the fleet cost in addition to the construction cost. Optimum route network is generated so that optimizes the fleet because fleet is mainly depending on the route network. Initially, ten locations form the Colombo Metropolitan Region are selected as station locations and two networks are identified based on two scenarios. First scenario is to generate a primary route network considering the demands between nodes. Routes are assigned for highest demands until all the nodes are connected at least by one route. In second scenario, all the demand values between nodes are assigned along their shortest paths and add them up to calculate the total demand for each link. Primary network is generated by linking the highest demand links until all the nodes are connected. Routes are assigned for the network considering the highest demand. The two route networks are checked for fleet cost. Route networks are fine tuned using a set of algorithms for route merging, adding links and route sprouting. Fine tuned route networks are also checked for fleet cost and compared. Network with least fleet cost value and least changes for fleet cost with route network changes is selected as the best network. That means the best network should not be changed considerably in the later stages of operation due to demand variations apart from adding links or changing route network. The method to generate the best network is considered as the methodology to find the optimum network.
item: Conference-Abstract
Possible improvements to existing bus fare structure to achieve better service
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Ifthikar, BM; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
Bus fare is one of the most important factors regarding profit maximization in the industry as well as providing a quality service to the passengers. In the economic point of view the price of the commodity decided by the market mechanism of demand and supply basis. But in the case of service sector the price deciding approach is different than the market mechanism. Most of the cases service provider is deciding the price according to his cost. But in the case of bus operation the service provider in terms of bus operator don’t have an opportunity to decide the fare for his bus service as the fare is decided by the regulatory authority. There was no scientific method for bus fare revisions till 2002. Due to the unavailability of scientific method bus fare was revised under the tight pressure of bus owners and this created anomalies in the structure. Therefore the bus industry almost every time needed a policy for bus fare and guidelines which use now for fare revisions comes to affect as policy in 2002. Anyhow there is a question arises that the rate which decided to revise the bus fare earlier and after introducing the policy, is comparatively reasonable with other economic indicators. It is also important to examine that the rate which decided to revise the fare is equally applied to the individual fare stages which consist different segment of distance. One of the main objectives of the study is to get the historical view of the fare structure. Before nationalization bus fare was revised few times and available data of that are insufficient to analyze. The existing fare structure came to effect in 1958 with nationalization of the bus transport in the same year. The bus fare was revised in 25 times since 1958 under the different institutional structure. One objective of this study is to identify the equity of the fare structure. Parameters such as fare revising rate, fare/km, and cost/revenue can be used to this purpose. To observe the passenger attitudes is another objective where the survey data of the passenger behavior used to identify the passenger attitudes on bus transport under present fare level. It is seen that the short distance fare was overpriced and long distance services were under priced. This situation badly affected to the industry where the quality of the services are not improved comparatively with the increase of bus fare. Therefore it highly needed a proposal to develop the existing fare structure as another l objective of the study. The unsystematic fare structure causes to lower the quality of the services especially in the long distance services. Due to the low fare in the long distance services they try to scouting the short distance passenger where it is profitable and easy to recover the cost level. This condition must create an overloading situation in the long distance services as well increase travel time of the journey due to scouting of the short distance passenger all over the journey. To avoid this situation it is important to introduce a new boarding fare for long distance services to discourage short distance passengers to get in long distance busses, in the same way it needs to increase the fare/km in the long distance services to recover the operating cost.
item: Conference-Abstract
Rail bus integration for commuter traffic in Colombo city
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Thenuwara, H; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
Despite commuters often use more than one mode of transport even in a single journey, an intermodal coordination and organizational facilities of public transport service in Sri Lanka is yet to be developed. Transport Integration means coordination of two or more modes with an appropriately coordinated time table. Developing integration between transport modes is difficult in Sri Lanka as a number of stakeholders separately involve in a decentralized, sector fragmented transport service. In this context implementing an intermodal connectivity in the public transport system is a high priority requirement to improve the quality of the service. Many of the passengers travel through Colombo city whenever they need to travel to other suburban areas within the Colombo Metropolitan Region. Consequence is unnecessary traffic congestion in the city which leads environmental pollution as well as disutility to passengers such as long trip length and travel time etc. Passengers who use rail are not facilitated with an intermodal connection up to their final destinations and hence they often have to walk over 200 m distance to get into buses. This may discourage passengers’ use of railway. The railway transport carries only a 10% of the total demand in and around Colombo. Therefore a well coordinated Rail/Bus integrated system will be a cost effective strategy to overcome above problems as compared to more expensive road widening and highway infrastructure development etc. In this aspect rail stations closer to main roads such as Dematagoda, Bambalapitiya, Slave Island, Nugegoda, Dehiwala, Panadura, etc and surrounding bus stops could be taken as platforms to implement bus/rail integration. In this paper the possibility of rail & bus integration within Colombo city limit to reduce the difficulties of public transport passengers is investigated. Dematagoda railway station and adjoining bus stops were taken as a case study to identify the current situation and the need of the connectivity in between Dematagoda station and bus stop especially towards Borella. Data from a comprehensive travel survey that has been conducted during the period from June to August 2009 is used for the analysis. The paper identify the travel characteristics of passengers, demand for intermodal connectivity of the rail & bus passengers and their travel requirements to minimize the difficulties of their journeys. It is found that 66% of railway passengers use bus as their access mode to railway and 63% bus passengers use railway as the access mode at the Dematagoda railway station. A higher percentage of bus and rail passengers have home based work trips. However, there is no significant difference in trip purposes between rail and bus passengers. The railway can therefore, be expected to attract all types of trips. It is shown that there is a potential to improve the quality of the public transport service for commuter satisfaction by providing proper integration between the two modes. To achieve the desired results it is necessary to provide a rail/road based public transport network for feeder routes. The urban and suburban public transport system could be planned and developed focusing on rail-based transport corridors.
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Strategies to minimize user inconvenience during road rehabilitations
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Duminda, JMS; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
Many of the nation’s transport infrastructure reaches the end of it’s life cycle, work zones are becoming more and more prevalent on our roadways. This increased exposure to work zones increases likelihood for inconvenience to road users. Level of inconvenience and how they perceive will be changed according to the user category depending on their involvement as passengers, pedestrians, drivers, residence, commercial parties or others. It is important to identify user inconvenience and activities causing inconvenience to them and introduce strategies to eliminate or minimize the inconveniences. Road construction activities can lead to make some negative impacts such as increasing air pollution, noise pollution, traffic delays, crashes, disturbing to access, disturbing to existing drainage system and water stream, disturbing to utility services, water pollution, increasing vehicle operating cost and vibration, etc. All of these have certain economic and social cost. Aim of this paper is to identify how the users perceive the inconveniences due to road rehabilitation work and to propose strategies to minimize or eliminate them. Field surveys and user interviews were used to gather information relating to different types of inconveniences. Analysis shows that, air pollution, traffic delays, noise pollution, disturbing the accessibility, disturbance to water ways and drains and interruptions to utility services are mostly disturb the road users during road construction. Air pollution is the most impacted inconvenience to road users. Air pollution occurs due to many construction activities. Roadway excavation, site clearing, barrow pits, road base and sub base constructions, paving and surfacing, stone crushing plants, asphalt mixing plants, machines and vehicles makes lot of dust and emissions to the environment. Traffic delays are the next most impacted inconvenience to road users. Road construction projects can potentially cause significant delays to road users. During road rehabilitation, traffic is allowed to pass on existing road or divert to another route. Going through road construction sites require additional time due to many obstructions. Traffic diversions to alternative roads also need extra time causing traffic delays. Noise pollution comes next that have many inconvenience to road users. The major sources of noise are blasting, compaction, travels of heavy equipment and machineries, generators and pile driving, etc. Disturbing the accessibility during road construction also has a higher value. Many of excavations, storing materials, parking machineries, forming new levels due to designs and road closures disturb accessibility of road users. Many construction activities can lead to disturb water ways and drains during construction period and sometimes even after that. If un-compacted earth surfaces are left exposed and construction activities are carried out during the rainy seasons, erosion and siltation severely may occur. When excavated material within the trace is used as fill material, or if proper planning and management of cut and fill operation is not followed, large amount of materials need to be kept in temporary storage thereby causing environmental issues such as erosion, silting, landslides etc. Road users are suffered due to interruption of utility services (water, electricity and telecommunication) during road construction. Normally service lines are damaged due to construction activities. During shifting of these service lines, failure of providing continuous service may be happened. Strategies are proposed for all of the above inconvenience with conclusions and recommendation.
item: Conference-Abstract
Tool for initial environmental assessment of road rehabilitation projects
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2010) Ambalavanar, J; Bandara, NJGJ; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
The environmental assessment process involves the prediction of changes over time in various environmental aspects as a result of a proposed project. The prediction of the nature, extent, and magnitude of environmental changes likely to result from a proposed project is aided by various tools and techniques, the choice of which depends upon the impacts of concern, data availability or lack thereof, and the appropriate specificity of quantitative models. However, the choice of the appropriate method for conducting an environmental assessment can only be guided by certain criteria, but no single method will meet all the necessary criteria. The environmental assessment for development projects are mandatory requirement in Sri Lanka since 1993. The detailed assessments are required only for the projects fall under the category of prescribed projects of the National Environmental Act. The Road rehabilitation projects do not fall in to the above category unless it falls within sensitive areas or resettlements of more than hundred families are involved. However, for funding purposes foreign agencies have made this mandatory even though they exempted from the Environmental Assessment according to the NEA act. Therefore a quick alternative method for environmental assessment is essential for this purpose. For these reasons, the present study was conducted to develop a checklist for initial environmental assessment of road rehabilitation projects which only consumes a week or so to carry out the environmental assessment. The checklist was generated from the information collected from literature survey, questionnaire surveys and field observation of six actual road rehabilitation projects from planning, construction and operational phases. It identifies activities, corresponding environmental impacts, suitable mitigation and the monitoring requirement for each component of road rehabilitation projects. Notwithstanding the lesser time it takes, it will certainly help Sri Lanka to absorb more foreign donors and aids with effective assessments and also to attract prospective donors. The checklist is user friendly as activities and impacts are predetermined and linked to each other and it could be used in any road rehabilitation projects by the subject experts in order to be effective and accurate. Also the study discovered that to avoid opposition from the general public for the proposed development, the compensation should be paid at the planning stage and a strong monitoring system should be implemented during construction and operational phases. A search for new cost effective mitigation measures is recommended and the checklist has to be upgraded accordingly.

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