Salbo.ai

Road databases often lack key information such as subsoil conditions, the underlying construction or the true amount of heavy traffic. This study uses a mixed proportional hazards model to capture the effect of these hidden factors on each road section's risk of needing maintenance. It pinpoints the weakest and strongest sections in a network, which helps target long-term maintenance plans and budgets.

When budgets are tight and two roads look equally worn, the one deteriorating fastest should be treated first. Using condition data from part of England's M4 motorway, this study uses finite mixture models to classify road segments as changing or stable. Checked against maintenance records, the method picks out the fastest-deteriorating segments and supports more efficient maintenance decisions.

Reliable lifetime estimates are the foundation of life-cycle cost analysis for roads. Combining maintenance records and condition measurements, this study estimates how long Swedish pavements last and what shortens or extends their life. Stone mastic asphalt had a 36% lower risk of needing maintenance than asphalt concrete. Higher speed limits shortened lifetimes, while wider roads and larger stone sizes lengthened them.

What does each vehicle cost the road it drives on? Using detailed data on road sections, pavement age, pavement type and traffic, this study estimates the marginal cost of road wear across the Swedish network and finds large differences between roads. Heavy vehicles aren't the only cause: passenger cars contribute too, likely through studded tyres in a freeze-thaw climate. That matters for fair road-use pricing.

Do premium binders actually make roads last longer? Using almost 500,000 maintenance and condition records from the Swedish Transport Administration, dating back to the 1970s, this study compares polymer-modified bitumen with conventional bitumen on otherwise similar roads. Polymer-modified bitumen extended expected road life by 15% in the surface layer, 8% in the underlying layer and 24% in both. That gives buyers hard evidence for choosing materials by durability.

Predictive railway maintenance depends on comparing repeated measurement runs of the same track, but those runs rarely line up exactly. This paper presents a new algorithm that aligns them precisely, solving long-standing problems such as segmented data, varying sample rates and measurement errors. It was tested on track geometry data from the British rail network, owned and operated by Network Rail.

How much has Sweden cut the climate impact of keeping its roads in good shape? This study combines asphalt environmental product declarations (EPDs), pavement lifetimes from over 400,000 maintenance records and network optimization across Stockholm, Skåne and Norrbotten. Emissions have fallen 28–30% since 2010, mainly through biofuel-heated asphalt plants and more recycled asphalt. Adding a 5% bio-based binder could take the cut to about 60%, as long as the roads last as long.

Turns detailed records of road and rail condition and maintenance into decision support for infrastructure owners. Across five studies, it estimates how long Swedish pavements last, finds sections that wear out faster than expected and prices the road wear caused by heavy and light vehicles. It also separates deteriorating road segments from stable ones and measures how speed restrictions affect railway running times.