In response to increased foreign demand for United States bulk commodities, state officials must decide how to improve their port facilities and inland transportation networks. They must consider where improvements should take place, the size of the improvements, and how modes such as railroads and pipelines should be used. They are uncertain, however, about many things: the stability of export markets and their state's share; the cost of the transportation projects; the future payoff to the state in terms of revenues, jobs, and industrial tax base; and the negative impacts on the environment, recreational assets, and quality of life in the port area. An approach to solving this problem based on the theory of Bayesian decision analysis is presented in this paper. The approach is sufficiently general so that it may be applied in a variety of settings where port development is being contemplated, and it is demonstrated with a specific case study based on recent North Carolina coal export projects. Results of the analysis indicate that a 1981 decision to carry low volumes of coal by rail to the state port in Morehead City was correct and that, if the demand for North Carolina coal exports exceeds 3,000,000 annual tons, then a pneumatic pipeline should be considered.

Transportation planning has traditionally emphasized the analysis of major capital investments involving new facilities or significant capacity increases. In recent years, however, transportation system management and system preservation improvements have received increasing attention. It is generally acknowledged now that the basic transportation systems are in place and that, as these facilities grow older and the costs of new major investments increase beyond affordable levels, the funding levels devoted to preserving and rehabilitating the existing transportation facilities will become a larger proportion of transportation agency budgets. The most important system preservation expenditure categories and the approach used to estimate needs by the Maryland Department of Transportation are described herein. In Maryland, the largest system preservation needs are highway resurfacing and bridge rehabilitation. The largest nonhighway system preservation needs are for bus replacement, representing about 10% of all system preservation needs for all modes. This type of analysis can be useful to transportation agencies in justifying proposals for revenue increases and in establishing a realistic level of expenditures for system preservation improvements to avoid further deterioration of existing facilities.

The flow in a burst pipe is analyzed by treating it as flow out of a vessel having a large aperture. Lumped system approximation of the flow permits the application of mass oscillation equations. Rupture simulation outlined in the paper is applied to high head penstocks and water supply mains. The study shows that peak rupture velocity attains a value as high as 2.5 times the steady state velocity. Although the flow out of the rupture is uncontrolled, the boundary friction of the pipeline and its profile seem to have a significant influence. An inexpensive technique such as the simulation described in the paper is expected to provide an economical basis for sizing the air inlet valves and ascertaining the performance of emergency valves provided in the pipelines.

The Delphi method is used to predict the impacts of three alternative transportation programs in San Jose, California. Variables projected concern both land use (e.g., number of single‐family housing units) and choice of transit mode. Forecasts are made for 1990 and 2000 for four spatial zones within San Jose. Delphi panelists are individuals familiar with land use and transportation issues in the San Jose area. A preliminary questionnaire survey is used to set general economic conditions and land use policies that serve as a context for specific forecasts of land use‐transportation interactions. Strengths and weaknesses of the Delphi method in forecasting land use are assessed.

Each of the separate components of journey time is examined for a variety of travel modes (both public and private) between a single origin and destination pair. The components of travel time considered for variability include, for each mode, walk times, wait times, in‐vehicle time, and transfer times. The mean travel time is shown to be strongly dependent on departure time. The log‐normal distribution proves a useful, general descriptor of in‐vehicle times. Individual components of travel time on any particular journey are found not to be significantly correlated to one another.

This paper deals with freight train dispatching policies that minimize the total costs incurred in the freight operation of Indian Railways. This study is considered essential as a substantial amount of delay is caused at the marshalling yards in waiting for the freight cars for a particular destination in the formation of freight trains. A set of four different dispatching policies, namely dynamic programming approach, economic lot size approach, seventy car policy, and current operating policy, were considered and the delays under each were computed using the suggested methodologies and the data collected from the Kanpur Marshalling Yard, India. Evaluation of the policies indicate that dynamic programming approach results in the least amount of delay as compared with all the other policies (a reduction of 5.7%–38.3% of delay per car over the seventy car policy and much higher savings when compared to the current operating policy). The reduction of delay under economic lot size policy is in the order of 0.5%–46.4% when compared to the seventy car policy. Finally, simulation is suggested for further insight into dispatching operation of yards.

A study on oil field traffic characteristics was performed and a procedure was developed for assessing current and future effects of oil field truck traffic on surface‐treated (stage construction type) pavements. A computer program calculates several types of pavement distress and serviceability parameters to evaluate pavement performance under various axle load repetitions. Stepwise regression analysis of 132 surface‐treated pavement sections led to the development of individual distress equations for rutting, raveling, flushing, alligator cracking, patching, longitudinal and transverse cracking, and failures (potholes). The versatility of the program provides a means of anticipating early pavement failures due to increased axle load repetitions. The program also provides the basic framework for computing the effects of other “special‐use” truck traffic demands.

This paper addresses the hydraulic and economic optimum design of a horizontal pipeline with equally spaced similar pumping units. A single design formula is presented for application to all turbulent flow regimes on the basis of Swamee‐Jain's explicit friction formula and accounting for levelized annual costs of both pumping energy and pipes. Though the design formula is implicit, its convergence characteristics are such that it requires only a short trial and error procedure of two steps. A nondimensional minimum‐cost design chart is also provided. The chart covers a wide range of conditions and cases that might occur in practice. Three numerical examples are presented to illustrate the use of both the design formula and the design chart in solving actual field problems.