Texas has approximately 40,000 lane miles (64,000 km) of two-lane farm-to-market (FM) and ranch-to-market (RM) roads with total paved widths of 18 to 22 ft (5.5 to 6.7 m), most of which are in rural areas. The goal of this study is to investigate the safety effects of narrow pavement widening projects for rural two-lane FM/RM roads in Texas.

A project candidate selection and ranking model (PCSRM) is commonly applied in pavement maintenance and rehabilitation planning. Typically, these models use empirical mathematical expressions that do not have a clear physical meaning and cannot accurately assess the priority of transportation agencies or pavement engineers. To overcome this limitation, this study developed a method, based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), to identify pavement-related factors and improve the accuracy of the PCSRMs currently used by the Austin District (Texas Department of Transportation) in its 4-year plan. The aim was to identify pavement-related factors that reflected the engineering judgment of transportation agencies and pavement engineers. The proposed method had three major components: AHP design, AHP survey and results analysis, and factors selection. A three-tier hierarchy structure of one objective, five goals, and 18 alternatives was defined. Additionally, a system to check for consistency was developed on the basis of literature recommendations. An Excel-based survey tool was developed with the objective of providing a relatively easy visual interface for the participants. The design and development of the survey tool were carried out in collaboration with the district pavement preservation engineer. Seventeen Texas Department of Transportation pavement experts completed the AHP survey with the required consistency ratio. Clustering analysis was performed to identify the pavement-related factors that showed the highest priorities. The factors with the highest overall weights should be considered in future PCSRM improvement.

In recent years, transportation planning has been challenged by an increasing need for infrastructure development, a shortfall of revenue from the public sector, and political trending toward deregulation of transportation infrastructure development. These factors have led to increased interest in privatization of transportation infrastructure and the development of public–private partnerships, such as design–build–finance–operate. Although the overall goal of a transportation infrastructure project is to provide safe, reliable transportation systems for the public, parties involved in public–private partnerships take different roles and responsibilities. The public sector leads in laying out the terms and standards to regulate the obligations between the state departments of transportation and private entities. The private sector makes capital investment to provide agreed-upon services as well as to assume various investment risks, including project operational and financial risks. Toll-pricing strategies are a key component for the public sector in regulating the operation of a public–private partnership facility and for the private sector in controlling investment risks. This study investigated the applicability of deterministic dynamic optimization models for determining toll-pricing strategies that can help improve mobility, secure the public interest, and attract investment from the private sector. A case study of a design–build–finance–operate project was completed. Results showed that the proposed model provides a useful tool to assist both the public and private sectors in making more informed decisions, including study of optimal strategies to seek investment return and determination of the predefined contract regulations.

Transportation systems play a pivotal role in the nation’s economic and societal development. Transportation assets, such as pavements and bridges, are inevitably subject to the effects of climate and environment. These stressors mainly include flood, precipitation, heat, wildfire, and wind. Specifically, more extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and snowstorms, have occurred in recent years. This requires stakeholders to better prepare transportation infrastructure resilience in planning, design, construction, and management. Its importance is manifested through nationwide policy and state-level practice. For example, in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the FHWA directs all state DOTs to incorporate resilience in their transportation asset management plans. A critical element in resilience is to evaluate the effect of climatic or environmental stressors on facilities’ performance. This study examines the impact of flood on the TxDOT-managed pavement network. It proposes a method to evaluate the flood-vulnerable pavement network in the context of resilience. First, the GIS tool is used to overlap a 100-year frequency flood with the road network to identify weak pavement sections subject to flood risk. Second, a simulation is run to determine sections affected by flood over a 10-year analysis horizon. Then, different deterioration models are used to predict the network-level pavement performance, to reflect (1) normal deterioration without flood, (2) optimistic accelerated deterioration under flooding, and (3) pessimistic accelerated deterioration under flooding. It is found that the network-level pavement will experience varying levels of performance reduction, owing to a 100-year flood impact. The quantified performance change can serve to enhance infrastructure resilience preparation for more reliable pavement system management.

Bridges are the key to connecting the entire highway, directly affecting the economic and social benefits of the highway. In recent years, China’s highway bridges have faced such phenomena as frequent traffic accidents caused by heavy traffic, high vehicle loads, and fast speeds, and the severity of accidents has become worse. It is imperative to evaluate the safety of bridges. Bridge safety risk assessment is an important means to effectively prevent and reduce traffic accidents. Based on the in-depth analysis of the influencing factors of bridge construction safety, this paper determines the impact of bridge construction safety evaluation index system, on this basis, adopts the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), establishes a bridge construction safety risk evaluation model based on the AHP, proposes the impact the key factors of bridge construction safety, and provides a reference for improving the bridge construction safety in China.