Date of Award

2013

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Civil Engineering (MSCE)

Department

Civil Engineering

Committee Chair

Amr Kandil

Committee Member 1

Dulcy M. Abraham

Committee Member 2

Samuel Labi

Abstract

The disruptions the public faces daily around the world due to urban infrastructure Maintenance and Rehabilitation (M&R) activities are having significant social, economic, and environment impacts on communities. With respect to water distribution systems, there have been millions of water main breaks in the U.S. since January 2000, with an average of nearly 700 water main breaks every day. The majority of these water utilities lie under paved roads, and the Open Cut method is the most widely used technology for repairing water main breakages. Subsequently, this continually increasing pipe breakage requires the destruction of pavements that may be in good condition and thereby results in not only untimely inconveniences to stakeholders, but can have large cost implications as well. Hence, in order to reduce the impact of pipe breakage on pavements in good condition and to minimize the user disruptions, it is essential to find a way to coordinate the M&R activities for both of these infrastructure systems. Therefore, this thesis presents a framework for coordinating pavement infrastructure and water distribution system M&R activities based on life cycle cost analysis. The proposed framework considers the costs and benefits associated with each treatment in a candidate scenario. The costs of each scenario consist of the agency costs (construction and subsequent maintenance) and the user costs incurred due to work zone activities. The benefits of each scenario are measured using monetized (savings in annual maintenance costs and vehicle operation costs due to pavement treatment and pipe valuation) and nonmonetized (treatment service life) approaches.

To demonstrate the framework, three scenarios (maintenance only, rehabilitation only, and a combination of both) are considered for pavement treatments, while only replacement is considered for water pipelines. The results were evaluated using the EZStrobe discrete event simulation system. Highway agencies and water utilities can use this methodology to evaluate different scenarios and enhance the robustness of their decision-making processes.

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