A cost-benefit approach to recover the performance of roads affected by natural disasters

Abstract

Natural events affect road performance, causing traffic disruptions and increased travel time. Road agencies face the dilemma of selecting more cost-effective alternatives for recovering the road performance, minimizing the costs, recovery time, and the loss of serviceability. The paper aims to develop a model integrating the cost-saving and the resilience evaluation to prioritize recovery strategies. Indexes are proposed to estimate the relative change in resilience, road agency and user costs produced by various recovery strategies from a base strategy. Both indices are integrated into a priority index that combines resilience, cost savings and redundancy. The procedure was applied to a case study in which earthquakes were simulated using recurrence models previously calibrated for Chile. Its effect on a simple road network composed of road platforms and bridges was estimated. The priority index was sensitized concerning traffic, damage of the road platform, and re-routing length. It was concluded that the variation in resilience and costs associated with recovery strategies cannot be considered as separate prioritization criteria, especially when changes in one or other decision variable are small.