SPEEDING UP HOUSING CONSTRUCTION

Housing isone of the necessities of humansfor existence and development.The Chinese government hasalways attached great importanceto housing construction;especially in recent years,thepriority development of housingconstruction has been seen inthe real estate and propertiesindustry.Hou Jie,Minister ofConstruction,not long ago wrotean article summarizing theachievements made in this sectorand drawing a blueprint forspeedup of housing constructionand the improvement of livingconditions in the future.It willprovide a vast vista for thedevelopment of China’s buildingindustry and its internationalcooperation.

Speeding Up Tianjin's Municipal Highway Construction By Making Full Use of Foreign Capital

To introduce foreign capital for the municipal highway construction is a great measure to meet the development of the socialist market economy and to reform the investment system for the municipal highway construction. The aim of the reform lies in taking the construction and management of the municipal highway facilities as an industry to operate, widening the investment channel of the municipal highway construction and gradually forming a benign cycle of investment-construc-

SPEEDING UP THE CONSTRUCTION OF HIGH-SPEED RAILWAYS IN CHINA

High-speed railways have the merits of high speed, high transport capacity, low consumption of energy, less pollution, less occupation of land, and greater safety. The development of high-speed railways is suitable for the national conditions in China.The authors suggest that, with the Hu-Ning (Shanghai-Nanjing) section of the Jing-Hu (Beijing-Shanghai) Railway as the starting point, a high-speed dedicated passenger railway line be built to realize the separate transportation of passengers and goods, thus easing the strain on transport in East China, accumulating experience for the future development of high-speed railways, and bringing along the development of high and new technology industries.

Construction of a Butterfly Web Bridge

A new type of bridge called ＂butterfly web bridge＂ is under construction in Japan. In a butterfly web bridge, the butterfly-shaped web forms a structure that exhibits behavior similar to a double Warren truss. The 80 MPa concrete is used for the butterfly web which has a precast plate with a thickness of 150 mm. As butterfly web is a concrete material, reinforcement provided by prestressing tendons is needed on the tension side. Moreover, the 150 mm plate has no re-bars but is reinforced by steel fibers. This bridge, named Takubogawa Bridge, is a highway bridge and has 10 spans including the 87.5 m maximum span length. Takubogawa Bridge is constructed by flee cantilevering method. The butterfly web enables the construction speed of cantilevering to be advanced about 50% compared with conventional cast-in-situ method and can meet the requirement of light weight and low maintenance.

Evaluation of the Impact of Presence Lighting and Digital Speed Limit Trailers on Interstate Speeds in Indiana Work Zones

Work zone safety continues to be one of the important focus areas for transportation agencies. Previous studies have identified that vehicle speed and lighting conditions are significant risk factors impacting work zone safety. This study evaluated the impact of the use of presence lighting and digital speed limit trailers on nighttime motorist speeds using commercially available connected vehicle speed data. Geospatial analysis was conducted on over 500,000 connected vehicle records to linear reference nearly 18,000 records from 195 unique trajectories to study section during the study period of 2 days. Results showed that median speeds reduced by 4 to 13 mph from 11PM to 7AM during the deployment of presence lighting and speed limit trailers compared to base conditions. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) statistical test comparing 105 vehicles traveling through the construction zone with presence lighting and speed limit trailers with a group of 90 vehicles during base condition indicated the speeds during the deployment of presence lighting and speed limit trailers were lower than the base condition. Also, increased compliance with the 55 mph speed limit was observed when the presence lighting and digital speed limit trailers were deployed. However, there were two hours (3AM to 5AM) where speeds increased by 0 - 4 mph, perhaps due to the low volume at that hour. The encouraging results support the further deployment of presence lighting and speed limit trailers in nighttime construction zones for reducing vehicle speeds. Those future deployments should be monitored with connected vehicle speeds to collect additional data to broaden the evaluation of these speed mitigation techniques over a diverse set of construction zone activities.