A Comprehensive Framework for the Efficiency Measurement of Road Maintenance

研究人员和国家DOTs开发和实施的道路养护绩效评估系统主要集中在服务水平等有效性指标上。这种测量系统没有详细说明效率概念，例如，为达到这种服务水平所利用的资源数量。不知道DOTs的有效状态会导致过高和不切实际的维护预算期望。这个问题表明需要一种能够考虑到效率概念的绩效衡量方法。本研究的目的是开发和实施一个全面的框架，可以衡量道路养护业务的整体效率，因为这些业务的多个投入和产出是不相称的，它们也受到多个不可控因素（例如，气候，交通等）的影响。本研究将研究当前的绩效评估范例，特别是数据包络分析（DEA）。在本研究中，将使用并扩展DEA，以考虑多种观点（驾驶员与维护提供商）、重要的社会目标（例如安全）以及不可控因素（例如气候、位置等）。本研究的具体目标是通过使用真实数据来确定(i)不同策略在道路养护服务方面的相对效率；（ii）策略之间效率差异的原因；（iii）不可控因素对区域道路养护效率的影响。（iv）与效率低下的地区有关的基准（同类）和最佳做法，以努力告知这些地区的决策者未来可能获得的效率改善，以及(v)服务维持水平与预算需求之间的基本关系。智力价值：考虑到效率概念，本研究将显著改进目前用于衡量和建模道路养护绩效的方法。本研究的结果将通过提供一个能够区分有效和高效维护策略与有效和低效维护策略的框架，为道路维护领域的资产管理领域贡献新的知识。本研究将提供一种建模方法，可供面临以下问题的机构使用：(i)希望使用其现有数据库的机构；（ii）拥有提供大量数据和信息但不能隔离决策者需要关注的所有关键数据和信息的数据库的机构，以及（iii）需要确定最佳实践绩效边界的决策者。通过开发基于工程原理的绩效测量框架，该研究被认为对绩效测量领域（特别是DEA文献）也有贡献。更广泛的影响：本研究将试图：(i)通过为高中生举办关于道路基础设施和优化的研讨会，增加从事科学和工程职业的学生人数；（ii）通过从以黑人为主的大学（NC A&amp；T）招收本科生参加暑期研究项目，增加攻读研究生的人数；（iii）利用弗吉尼亚理工大学的教学基础设施，开发模块，将其纳入土木与环境、工业与系统工程系的研究生课程；（iv）利用弗吉尼亚理工大学的基础设施进行跨学科研究，将土木和系统工程学科的专业知识扩展到教师和学生；(v)透过网站，以及与土木及系统工程学科有关的会议、期刊和行业刊物，广泛传播研究成果；以及（vi）通过对民用基础设施的保存方式产生即时和长期影响，为整个社会带来好处。

The road maintenance performance measurement systems developed and implemented by researchers and state DOTs mainly focus on the effectiveness measures, e.g., the level-of-service. Such measurement systems do not elaborate on the efficiency concept, e.g., the amount of resources utilized to achieve such level-of-service. Not knowing how efficient state DOTs are in being effective can lead to excessive and unrealistic maintenance budget expectations. This issue indicates the need for a performance measurement approach that can take the efficiency concept into account. The purpose of this research is to develop and implement a comprehensive framework that can measure the overall efficiency of road maintenance operations, given that multiple inputs and outputs that are incommensurate and characterize the relative performance of these operations and that they are also affected by multiple uncontrollable factors (e.g., climate, traffic, etc.). This research will study current performance measurement paradigms, and more specifically Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). DEA will be used and expanded in this research to take into account multiple views (the drivers versus the maintenance providers), important societal goals (e.g., safety) as well as uncontrollable considerations (e.g. climate, location, etc.). The specific objectives of this research are, through the use of real data, to identify (i) the relative efficiency of different strategies in performing road maintenance services, (ii) the reasons of the efficiency differences between strategies, (iii) the effects of the uncontrollable factors on the road maintenance efficiency of regions, (iv) the benchmarks (peers) and best practices that pertain to the inefficient regions in an effort to inform the decision-makers within such regions of possible efficiency improvements than can be secured in the future, and (v) the fundamental relationships between the maintenance levels of service and the budget requirements.Intellectual Merit: By taking the efficiency concept into account, this research will significantly improve the ways that are currently used to measure and model the performance of road maintenance. The findings of this research will contribute new knowledge to the asset management field in the road maintenance domain by providing a framework that is able to differentiate effective and efficient maintenance strategies from effective and inefficient ones. This research will provide a modeling approach that can be used by agencies that are confronted with the following issues: (i) agencies that want to use their existing databases; (ii) agencies that have databases that provide a considerable amount of data and information but do not isolate all critical data and information that decision-makers need to focus on, and (iii) decision-makers that need to identify the boundary of best practice performance. The research is believed to contribute also to the performance measurement field (specifically to the DEA literature) by developing a performance measurement framework that is based on engineering principles. Broader Impact: This research will attempt to: (i) increase the number of students who pursue careers in science and engineering by developing seminars about road infrastructure and optimization for high school students; (ii) increase the number of underrepresented students who pursue graduate studies by recruiting undergraduate students from a predominantly black university (NC A&T) for summer research programs; (iii) leverage Virginia Techs infrastructure for teaching and learning by developing modules to be incorporated into the curricula of graduate programs both in the Civil and Environmental and Industrial and Systems Engineering departments; (iv) leverage Virginia Techs infrastructure for research by performing interdisciplinary research to extend the expertise of civil and systems engineering disciplines to the faculty and students; (v) broadly disseminate research findings through a web site as well as conferences, journals, and trade publications related to both civil and systems engineering disciplines; and (vi) provide benefits to the society at large by providing both immediate and long term impacts on the ways civil infrastructure is preserved.