Impacts of motor vehicle operation on water quality in the US – Cleanup costs and policies

This paper investigates the costs of controlling some of the environmental impacts of motor vehicle transportation on groundwater and on surface waters. We estimate that annualized costs of cleaning-up leaking underground storage tanks range from $0.8 billion to $2.1 billion per year over 10 years. Annualized costs of controlling highway runoff from principal arterials in the US are much larger: they range from $2.9 billion to $15.6 billion per year over 20 years (1.6–8.3% of annualized highway transportation expenditures). Some causes of non-point source pollution were unintentionally created by regulations or could be addressed by simple design changes of motor vehicles. A review of applicable measures suggests that effective policies should combine economic incentives, information campaigns, and enforcement, coupled with preventive environmental measures. In general, preventing water pollution from motor vehicles would be much cheaper than cleaning it up.     

工程造价人员做好工程经济工作的新思路

工程造价控制是一项涉及立项、设计、施工、结算等内容的系统工程,采取的预防措施和控制手段应贯穿于工程项目建设的全过程。此文针对工程建设领域多年来存在的工程技术与经济分离的现象,从工程造价人员整体素质不高,在项目建设过程中参与的深度和广度不够,创新服务能力弱,急需改进和提高等方面进行分析与探讨,并提出工程造价人员要不断学习和掌握一定的工程技术,与设计人员密切配合,在提高编制概预算水平的基础上,向工程经济与技术相结合的模式发展,开创新理念的工作思路,这一思路可促使工程投资效益最大化。     

基于AD9856的通信信号源实现方法研究

用AD9856正交数字上变频器件，通过软件控制进行数亨信号处理得到两路正交信号作为AD9856的输入信号进行调制，处理操作过程借助于轵件来实现，因此程序操作简单可控．性能优越。     

地铁车站直接蒸发式空调解决方案探讨

直接蒸发式空调系统以节能、占地小、控制灵活等特点多用于中小型建筑,地铁车站空调的冷量规模和空气末端的数量具备采用直接蒸发空调机组的条件,针对该系统应用于地铁车站进行具体分析,根据地铁车站特点,对冷却水系统进行优化整合,提出整体配置方案,从空气处理过程、制冷压缩循环、系统运营成本、土建和设备初投资等方面与常规空调系统进行对比分析。结果表明:该系统具有一定的优势,同时也指出了其存在的缺点和局限性;在设计中应根据具体工程的特点判断是否采用该系统。直接蒸发式空调系统作为一种运行节能、投资节省的空调方式,可以为地铁工程空调系统设计提供一种新的思路和参考。     

柏家沟中桥加宽改造工程

介绍柏家沟中桥原状及有关情况,分析病害缘由,提出改造方案,通过经济比较,确定加宽改造,改善了车辆荷载的通行能力。     

Fueling for contingencies: The hidden cost of unpredictability in the air transportation system

The aviation community is increasing its attention on the concept of predictability when conducting aviation service quality assessments. Reduced fuel consumption and the related cost is one of the various benefits that could be achieved through improved flight predictability. A lack of predictability may cause airline dispatchers to load more fuel onto aircraft before they depart; the flights would then in turn consume extra fuel just to carry excess fuel loaded. In this study, we employ a large dataset with flight-level fuel loading and consumption information from a major US airline. With these data, we estimate the relationship between the amount of loaded fuel and flight predictability performance using a statistical model. The impact of loaded fuel is translated into fuel consumption and, ultimately, fuel cost and environmental impact for US domestic operations. We find that a one-minute increase in the standard deviation of airborne time leads to a 0.88 min increase in loaded contingency fuel and 1.66 min in loaded contingency and alternate fuel. If there were no unpredictability in the aviation system, captured in our model by eliminating standard deviation in flight time, the reduction in the loaded fuel would between 6.12 and 11.28 min per flight. Given a range of fuel prices, this ultimately would translate into cost savings for US domestic airlines on the order of $120–$452 million per year.     

Cost-effectiveness of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from High-Speed Rail and urban transportation projects in California

A rising trend in state and federal transportation finance is to invest capital dollars into projects which reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, a key metric for comparing projects, the cost-effectiveness of GHG emissions reductions, is highly dependent on the cost-benefit methodology employed in the analysis. Our analysis comparing California High-Speed Rail and three urban transportation projects shows how four different accounting framings bring wide variations in cost per metric tonne of GHG emissions reduced. In our analysis, life-cycle GHG emissions are joined with full cost accounting to better understand the benefits of cap-and-trade investments. Considering only public subsidy for capital, none of the projects appear to be a cost-effective means to reduce GHG emissions (i.e., relative to the current price of GHG emissions in California’s cap-and-trade program at $12.21 per tonne). However, after adjusting for the change in private costs users incur when switching from the counterfactual mode (automobile or aircraft) to the mode enabled by the project, all investments appear to reduce GHG emissions at a net savings to the public. Policy and decision-makers who consider only the capital cost of new transportation projects can be expected to incorrectly assess alternatives and indirect benefits (i.e., how travelers adapt to the new mass transit alternative) should be included in decision-making processes.     

大厚度半刚性基层层间结合技术室内试验研究

文章通过室内直剪试验,对大厚度水泥稳定碎石基层上下层结合状态进行研究,分析了大厚度水泥稳定碎石基层上下层浇筑间隔时间、养生时间及水泥浆用量对层间抗剪性能的影响,并提出了最佳施工工艺。     

小型运输船船型经济性论证分析

文章根据大连湾老铁山水道的情况,考虑变吃水的运输方式,以船长、船宽、吃水及航速作为变量来进行船型方案的组合。选用净现值、内部收益率、投资回收期、必要运费率和综合经济指标作为衡量船型方案的标准,通过分析计算得出最佳的船型方案,为小型渔货船型选择提供参考。     

Optimal funding allocation strategies for safety improvements on urban intersections

Urban intersections crashes cause significant economic loss. The safety management process undertaken by most states in the United States is referred to as Highway Safety Improvement Program and consists of three standardized steps: (i) identification of critical crash locations, (ii) development of countermeasures, and (iii) resource allocation among identified crash locations. Often these three steps are undertaken independently, with limited detail of each step at the state planning agencies. The literature review underlines the importance of the third step, and the lack of sophisticated tools available to state planning agencies for leveraging information obtained from the first two steps. Further, non-strategic approaches and unavailability of methods for evaluating policies may lead to sub-optimal funding allocation. This paper overcomes these limitations and proposes multiple optimal resource allocation strategies for improvements at urban intersections that maximize safety benefits, under budget and policy constraints. Proposed policy measures based on benefits maximization (economic competitiveness), equitable allocation (equity), and relaxation of mutually exclusiveness (multiple alternatives at one location) produce significantly different alternative and fund allocation. The proposed models are applied to selected intersections in four counties of southeast Michigan. Results reinforce the applicability of the strategies/policies and tools developed in this paper for safety project funding allocation on critical urban intersections.