Browsing by Author "Pasindu, H. R"

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Embargo
Applicability of smartphone-based roughness data for rural road pavement condition evaluation
(Taylor & Francis, 2022-02-23) Sandamal, R. M. K; Pasindu, H. R
Rural roads play a pivotal role in facilitating connectivity for the rural communities by providing access for their economic and social needs. Due to lack of funding and other resources, maintenance decision making is often done in an ad-hoc and subjective manner. Moreover, the inability to collect extensive data as needed to run most pavement management systems and technical expertise required has resulted in the low usage of such systems by local road agencies. Therefore, there is a need to develop a cost-effective, simplified approach for network-level pavement condition evaluation to assist in pavement maintenance management. The study explores the applicability of smartphone-based roughness data to assess the pavement condition of rural roads, and it is compared with the results from a Class III type roughness measurement equipment. Result show it has good correlation, which suggests it has sufficient accuracy when compared to the conventional roughness measurement methods. Furthermore, it is established that roughness results accurately represent the presence of pavement distresses and the overall pavement condition in the rural roads that are considered in maintenance decision making. The findings from the study would provide a cost-effective pavement condition data collection method that can be adopted for network-level condition evaluation in low volume roads.
Open Access
A Framework for Network Level Pavement Maintenance Planning for Low Volume Roads
(Spriger Link, 2020) Pasindu, H. R; Sandamal, R. M. K; Perera, M. Y. I
Low volume roads (LVRs) play a pivotal role in the economic development of rural areas especially by providing connectivity for the communities to access markets, education and social needs in an efficient manner. They serve as the link between the local road network to the arterial and collector road network designed at providing accessibility to residential, agricultural or industrial areas. Lack of funding, subjective and ad hoc decision making has resulted in an inefficent utilization of resources in the local road agencies. Lack of a sound analytical process is a major impediment to maintain these roads in cost effective manner under the resource constraints prevalent. Existing pavement management systems (PMS) require extensive data collection and complex analysis processes, which makes them impractical to be deployed in local agencies. The core attributes of the proposed system are, reduced the data requirements, simplified the analytical tools and allowing users to customize considering the resource constraints. In this study, a relationship between International Roughness Index (IRI) and relevant distresses for LVR is established and based on that cost estimation model is developed for distress repair. Furthermore, the strategy which provide maximum condition for preventive maintenance is found by using decision tree approach in the network level optimization. A case study illustrated that the use of proposed PMS provides better overall network condition with compare to conventional decision making for same budget level.
Embargo
A Framework to Incorporate Safety Performance for Low Volume Roads in Pavement Management Systems
(IEEE, 2020-07-28) Sandamal, R. M. K; Ranawaka, R. K. T. K; Pasindu, H. R
Low volume roads provide the connectivity between residential, agricultural areas and the national road network. Those are especially critical in rural areas to provide accessibility for the community to fulfill their social and economic needs. Low volume roads account for nearly 61% of the road network length in Sri Lanka while the rapid motorization take place, it is expected the traffic volume on these roads will increase significantly in the future. However, some of these roads have not been constructed and maintained according to the standard design guidelines, and due to that major safety issues are raised on such roads. This study focusses on the main causal factors of low volume road accidents and a methodology developed to evaluate the safety performance based on the roadway characteristics. Further, a framework is proposed to incorporate safety performance in decision criteria especially in the multi-objective optimization process of pavement management systems.
Embargo
Identification of the Impact on Road Roughness on Speed Patterns for Different Roadway Segments
(IEEE, 2020-07-28) Abeygunawardhana, C; Sandamal, R. M. K; Pasindu, H. R
Pavement surface condition is one of the factors that affect driver comfort, operation speed, service volume, and traffic safety. Even though several studies have conducted recently to find the effect of different roadway characteristics on traffic stream performance, not many were focused on the impact of road roughness on operating speeds. Therefore, this research will investigate the impact on road roughness on speed patterns for different roadway segments under different flow levels. The unevenness of a road is measured as road roughness and it has been globally accepted as a metric to evaluate the pavement condition and it relates to the conditions perceived by the road users. In addition to the user discomfort, rough roads would result in, speed reduction and an increase in vehicle operating costs. International Roughness Index (IRI) measured by smartphone application is used as the indicator for road roughness in this study. The effect of road roughness is investigated at Free Flow Speed (85 th percentile speed) and 50 th percentile speed which is determined using the speed distributions that occurred during specific time intervals. Further, the abovementioned behavior is analyzed separately for junctions, mid-block sections, and horizontal curves to represent different roadway conditions.
Embargo
Incorporating road safety Into rural road network pavement management
(Taylor & Francis, 2021-06-25) Pasindu, H. R; Ranawaka, R. K. T. K; Sandamal, R. M. K; Dias, T. W. K. I. M
Rural roads play an essential part in a country’s road network providing connectivity between the rural communities and the national roads. However, most of these roads are not maintained efficiently and safety issues are often not prioritised since pavement conditions are prioritised, especially in developing countries. Lack of reliable crash data, road condition monitoring regime are often cited as reasons. This study proposes a methodology to incorporate road safety performance in rural roads in maintenance planning using a multi-objective optimisation approach. Road safety performance is defined in terms of the Cumulative Safety Index (CSI), computed based on the severity, exposure, frequency of safety issues, identified in road safety audits. Safety performance and pavement condition-related indices such as International Roughness Index (IRI), pothole number, are included in the optimisation analysis. It comprises two objectives: minimise network IRI, and minimise network CSI. Applicability of the developed model has been demonstrated from the illustrative example of a rural road network. Results shows that roads with safety issues can also be prioritised in budget allocation while ensuring the network level pavement condition can be maintained at a reasonable level. This methodology offers a simplified approach to incorporate road safety issues in rural road PMS.
Embargo
Pavement maintenance management system for low volume roads in Sri Lanka
(IEEE, 2019-07-03) Perera, M. Y. I; Pasindu, H. R; Sandamal, R. M. K
In Sri Lanka there are about 150,000 km of roads and among those about 75% are considered as rural low volume roads [1]. These roads are essential in community development, transport of people, goods and services in the rural areas. Most of these low volume roads would be actively contributing to our country's economy and wellbeing by distributing the produces from rural areas to urban areas. Limited funding, subjective and ad-hoc maintenance decision making has resulted in suboptimal maintenance level for these road networks. There is no proper maintenance system available in Sri Lanka as in the foreign countries. Lack of technical expertise and shortage of human resources, equipment and funds to carryout detailed data collection and analysis makes use of existing Pavement Management Systems difficult for local road agencies. The study will be focused on developing an asset management system to manage rural and provincial road networks in Sri Lanka.