A PILOT STUDY OF MAINTENANCE COSTS OF IDAHO HIGHWAYS

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO INVESTIGATE VARIOUS FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE MAINTENANCE EXPENDITURES AND TO DEVELOP MATHEMATICAL FORMULAS TO PREDICT FUTURE MAINTENANCE COSTS BY MEANS OF LEAST SQUARES REGRESSION ANALYSES. AS THIS WAS A PILOT STUDY, SECONDARY OBJECTIVES WERE TO RECOMMEND AREAS OF FUTURE RESEARCH AND IDENTIFY DEFICIENCIES IN CURRENT PRACTICES OF REPORTING MAINTENANCE EXPENDITURES. FACTORS WHICH WERE INVESTIGATED TO DETERMINE THEIR INFLUENCE ON MAINTENANCE EXPENDITURES INCLUDED CLIMATE, ENVIRONMENT, AND HIGHWAY CHARACTERISTICS. THE IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS MAINTAINS 4,892 MILES OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY HIGHWAYS, WHICH ARE DIVIDED INTO 248 HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE SECTIONS. MANY OF THESE SECTIONS WERE NOT USED IN THE STUDY DUE TO INSUFFICIENT WEATHER DATA, POOR CORRELATION BETWEEN SEVERAL SOURCES OF MILEAGE DATA, INCONSISTENCY OF COST DATA OVER A PERIOD OF SEVERAL YEARS, AND THE PLANNING OF A PRACTICAL ROUTE OF FIELD INVESTIGATION MAINTENANCE EXPENDITURES ANALYZED FOR THIS STUDY WERE LIMITED TO THOSE FOR SNOW REMOVAL, TRAVELWAY-ROUTINE REPAIR, AND THE TOTAL ROUTINE WORK. THE 80-SERIES IBM MULTIPLE LINEAR REGRESSION PROGRAM WAS USED ON THE IBM 1620 COMPUTER TO ANALYZE THE DATA AND PRINT THE RESULTS. THE REGRESSION ANALYSES OF SNOW-REMOVAL EXPENDITURES AND TOTAL ROUTINE WORK WERE STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT, AND THEY ARE THEREFORE OFFERED AS VALID EXPLANATIONS OF THESE EXPENDITURES. THE ANALYSIS OF TRAVELWAY-ROUTINE REPAIR EXPENDITURES WAS STATISTICALLY NONSIGNIFICANT, AND THEREFORE THE RESULTS ARE NOT CONCLUSIVE IN EXPLAINING THE EXPENDITURES. CLIMATIC DATA WERE THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS IN EXPLAINING MAINTENANCE EXPENDITURES. /AUTHOR/

• Record URL:
  • https://apps.itd.idaho.gov/apps/research/Completed/RP032.pdf
• 
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Hpr, No. 32, MAR65
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Idaho, Moscow

  Moscow, ID  United States  83844
• Authors:
  • Parman, W J
• Publication Date: 1965-3

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Analysis; Areas; Climate; Computers; Data reduction; Development; Environment; Forecasting; Formulas; Future; Highway maintenance; Least squares method; Maintenance management; Mathematical analysis; Primary highways; Recommendations; Regression analysis; Repairing; Research; Secondary roads; Snow removal
• Identifier Terms: IBM 1620 computer
• Uncontrolled Terms: Future research; Maintenance costs; Repairs
• Geographic Terms: Idaho
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Research;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00218000
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 1 1994 12:00AM