Utilization of Infrastructure Gateway System (IGS) as a transportation infrastructure optimization tool

Abstract

Developing and maintaining transportation infrastructures (TI) have notable impacts on communities and industry alike. Sizable investments are thus made throughout the asset's life cycle to maintain its performance up to expectations. Operation and maintenance of existing TI particularly consume sizable monetary resources. For instance in countries with fully developed TI systems, such as Australia, maintenance activities can consume approximately 75% of the overall TI budget. To streamline the life cycle decision-making process, various optimization tools can be utilized as part of a Transportation Infrastructure Management System (TIMS); yet, their application in real world practice has been limited due to different reasons. The use of Infrastructure Gateway System (IGS) proposed in this paper is envisioned to enhance the overall process of TI development and maintenance management. An IGS establishes a number of control points (or gates) throughout the life cycle of the TI asset to regulate its development and provide basis for the life cycle management decisions. Methods such as Dynamic Programming (DP) and Markov Chain process are used in collaboration to help establish optimized maintenance strategies. Example TI cases/scenarios are presented to illustrate the fundamental concepts in the proposed IGS approach. In conclusion, the IGS with its complementary optimization components can provide TI agencies with proper and well-founded approach for assets development and maintenance.