Engineering Commons^™

Passenger Car Equivalent Factors For Level Freeway Segments Operating Under Moderate And Congested Conditions, Umama Ahmed

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The significant impact Heavy Vehicles (HV) have on freeway operations has been identified since the first edition of the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). The method of incorporating their impact in freeway capacity calculations has changed through the years. The HCM 2000 used Passenger Car Equivalent (PCE) values and percent of trucks/buses and Recreational Vehicles (RV) to account for HV effect on capacity. However PCE values in the most recent HCM edition rely on a limited field database and extensive simulation runs based on this information; they were calibrated on `steady-flow' traffic operations. The objective of this effort was to indentify …

A Visual Approach To Construction Cost Estimating, Phuwadol Samphaongoen

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Construction cost estimating is considered one of the most important and critical phases of a construction project. Preparing reliable and accurate estimates to help decision makers is the most challenging assignment that estimators face. An estimate is not only necessary for proposal preparation but also for several project management functions. Despite the importance of estimating, it has remained a very time consuming process. The most inefficient part of construction cost estimating is determination of the amount of resources needed for the construction of a project. This is also known as quantity takeoff. Quantity takeoff is a very long and error-prone …

Real-Time Health Monitoring System For Mast-Arm Sign Support Structures, Andrew David Smith

Master's Theses (2009 -)

There has been an ongoing study conducted by Marquette University and supported by the Wisconsin Highway Research Program that is seeking to understand the risk of fatigue-induced fracture in the connections of mast-arm sign support structures. This study has been brought on by recent problems encountered with the connections contained in, and the in-service performance of, several cantilevered mast-arm sign support structures. A resulting recommendation of phase one in this effort was to monitoring an in-service cantilevered mast-arm sign support structure.

The health monitoring system developed in this thesis effort includes a grouping of strain gages (full-bridge arrangements) positioned around …