OPTIMUM UTILIZATION AND SELECTION OF MOWERS FOR HIGHWAY RIGHTS-OF-WAY

A STUDY OF ROADSIDE MOWING OPERATIONS WAS CONDUCTED IN LOUISIANA TO DETERMINE THE OPTIMUM SIZE AND COMBINATION OF MOWERS FOR ROADSIDE MOWING. STUDY OF OPTIMIZATION PROCEDURES USED IN INDUSTRY INDICATED THAT LINEAR PROGRAMMING METHODS COULD BE APPLIED TO THE PROBLEM OF UTILIZING AND SELECTING ROADSIDE MOWING. THE ROADSIDES IN A PARISH MODEL WERE SURVEYED TO DETERMINE THE AREA, PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS AND THE NUMBER AND TYPES OF OBSTRUCTIONS WITHIN EACH CONTROL SECTION. TIME AND MOTION STUDIES WERE CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE THE WORKDAY LENGTH AND FIELD CAPACITIES OF THE MOWERS AS THEY OPERATED ON THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF ROADSIDES. THE MOWING COSTS PER ACRE WERE DETERMINED FROM THIS INFORMATION. A PROGRAMMED MOWING CYCLE WAS SET UP BY USING FIELD TEST DATA IN CONJUNCTION WITH LINEAR PROGRAMMING METHODS TO ASSIGN THE MOWERS TO DIFFERENT CLASSES. SEVEN CLASSES OF RIGHT-OF-WAY ADEQUATELY DESCRIBED THE PARISH ROAD NETWORK. FOUR TYPES OF MOWERS WERE TESTED IN THE PARISH MODEL. THE ASSIGNMENT PROCEDURE CAN BE ADAPTED TO ANY NUMBER OF RIGHT- OF-WAY CLASSES AND ANY NUMBER OF MOWERS. THE PROCEDURE MAXIMIZES PRODUCTION OF AN EXISTING COMBINATION OF MOWERS WHILE MINIMIZING THE COST OF COMPLETING A MOWING CYCLE. IT CAN ALSO BE ADAPTED TO AID IN SELECTING OPTIMUM REPLACEMENT MOWERS.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrr/1967/161/161-013.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Paper sponsored by Committee on Maintenance Equipment and presented at the 45th Annual Meeting. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Cox, Allen L
  • Rester, Darryl C
  • Mayeux, Mansel M
• Publication Date: 1967

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Pagination: p 132
• Monograph Title: Roadside development
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Record
  • Issue Number: 161
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Highways; Linear programming; Mowers; Optimization; Roadside; Size; Time and motion studies; Utilization
• Uncontrolled Terms: Right of way; Selecting
• Subject Areas: Finance; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Research; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00218168
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-000 708
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Apr 6 1994 12:00AM