Modelling truck loads on secondary rural highway networks

安全可靠的二级公路网是加拿大农村社区和工业的关键经济推动因素。随着路面和桥梁设计和管理方法的不断进步，技术、方法和资源的限制限制了这些方法所需的卡车荷载数据的可用性。这些限制尤其适用于低交通量的农村公路。此外，公众对透明决策的期望越来越高，迫使公共机构使用高质量和有代表性的卡车负载数据，而不是更简单、有时不切实际的负载近似值。 如今，土木工程师在以下情况下需要卡车负载数据： 1.规划道路维修活动并确定其优先次序； 2.为新的道路建设或重大修复工程设计路面； 3.评估车载对桥梁寿命的影响； 4.制订具成本效益的策略，管理道路基建资产；及 5.评估卡车装载相对于监管限制的合规性。 为今后五年期间提出的这项研究的目标是开发和验证一种具有成本效益的建模方法，以估计农村公路上的卡车载重量。这有助于我的长期研究目标，即支持农村公路基础设施的数据驱动设计和管理。具体而言，拟议研究的短期目标是： 1.系统分析区域主要行业(如农业、林业、石油)产生的卡车交通特征和模式； 2.评估尚未在加拿大部署的一项新的监测技术，该技术可以唯一地识别卡车的车轴结构和车身类型(例如，漏斗、平板车、油罐车)；以及 3.应用空间分析和机器学习工具，在没有直接测量的情况下，预测二级公路网上各位置的卡车负荷分布。 本文的研究成果对加拿大的土木工程研究和实践具有重要意义。现代分析工具和新技术的应用为加拿大研究人员和从业人员建立了一个基本的知识库，他们认识到将某些方法和调查结果从其他司法管辖区转移到加拿大独特的工业和监管背景所面临的挑战。此外，建议的研究方法提供了这种新的知识，而不需要实施复杂和昂贵的新的卡车负载监测计划。虽然这些好处本身意义重大，但与从更知情的决策和培训更知情和更合格的决策者中获得的未量化的好处相比，它们相形见绌。最终，拟议的研究能够提供更安全、更可靠的农村公路基础设施，以经济高效的方式满足加拿大行业、社区和公民的需求。

Safe and reliable secondary highway networks are critical economic enablers for rural communities and industries across Canada. As pavement and bridge design and management approaches continue to advance, technological, methodological, and resource constraints limit the availability of the truck load data that these approaches require. These constraints are especially pertinent for low-volume, rural highways. Moreover, growing public expectations for transparent decision-making compel public agencies to use quality and representative truck load data, rather than more simplistic and sometimes unrealistic load approximations. Today, civil engineers need truck load data when they: 1. plan and prioritize road maintenance activities; 2. design pavement for new road construction or major rehabilitation projects; 3. evaluate the effects of truck loads on the life of bridges; 4. formulate cost-effective strategies for managing road infrastructure assets; and 5. assess the compliance of truck loads relative to regulatory limits. The goal of the research proposed for the coming five-year period is to develop and validate a cost-effective modelling approach to estimate truck loads on rural highways. This contributes to my long-term research goal to support the data-driven design and management of rural highway infrastructure. Specifically, the short-term objectives of the proposed research are: 1. to systematically analyze truck traffic characteristics and patterns generated by predominant regional industries (e.g., agriculture, forestry, petroleum); 2. to evaluate a new monitoring technology, yet to be deployed in Canada, which uniquely identifies the axle configuration and body type (e.g., hopper, flat deck, tanker) of trucks; and 3. to apply spatial analysis and machine learning tools to predict truck load distributions at locations on the secondary highway network without direct measurement. The outcomes of the proposed research are novel and significant for civil engineering research and practice in Canada. The application of modern analytical tools and new technologies builds an essential knowledge base for Canadian researchers and practitioners who recognize the challenges of transferring certain methods and findings from other jurisdictions to the unique Canadian industrial and regulatory context. Moreover, the proposed research approach provides this new knowledge without the implementation of complex and costly new truck load monitoring programs. While significant on their own, these benefits pale in comparison to the unquantified benefits derived from more informed decision-making and from the training of more informed and highly qualified decision-makers. Ultimately, the proposed research enables the provision of safer and more reliable rural highway infrastructure that cost-effectively meets the demands of Canadian industries, communities, and citizens.