The cost of a road construction over its service life is a function of design, quality of construction as well as maintenance strategies and operations. An optimal life-cycle cost for a road requires evaluations of the above mentioned components. Unfortunately, road designers often neglect a very important aspect, namely, the possibility to perform future maintenance activities. Focus is mainly directed towards other aspects such as investment costs, traffic safety, aesthetic appearance, regional development and environmental effects. This doctoral thesis presents the results of a research project aimed to increase consideration of road maintenance aspects in the planning and design process. The following subgoals were established: Identify the obstacles that prevent adequate consideration of future maintenance during the road planning and design process; and Examine optimisation of life-cycle costs as an approach towards increased efficiency during the road planning and design process. The research project started with a literature review aimed at evaluating the extent to which maintenance aspects are considered during road planning and design as an improvement potential for maintenance efficiency. Efforts made by road authorities to increase efficiency, especially maintenance efficiency, were evaluated. The results indicated that all the evaluated efforts had one thing in common, namely ignorance of the interrelationship between geometrical road design and maintenance as an effective tool to increase maintenance efficiency. Focus has mainly been on improving operating practises and maintenance procedures. This fact might also explain why some efforts to increase maintenance efficiency have been less successful. An investigation was conducted to identify the problems and difficulties, which obstruct due consideration of maintainability during the road planning and design process. A method called “Change Analysis” was used to analyse data collected during interviews with experts in road design and maintenance. The study indicated a complex combination of problems which result in inadequate consideration of maintenance aspects when planning and designing roads. The identified problems were classified into six categories: insufficient consulting, insufficient knowledge, regulations and specifications without consideration of maintenance aspects, insufficient planning and design activities, inadequate organisation and demands from other authorities. Several urgent needs for changes to eliminate these problems were identified. One of the problems identified in the above mentioned study as an obstacle for due consideration of maintenance aspects during road design was the absence of a model for calculating life-cycle costs for roads. Because of this lack of knowledge, the research project focused on implementing a new approach for calculating and analysing life-cycle costs for roads with emphasis on the relationship between road design and road maintainability. Road barriers were chosen as an example. The ambition is to develop this approach to cover other road components at a later stage. A study was conducted to quantify repair rates for barriers and associated repair costs as one of the major maintenance costs for road barriers. A method called “Case Study Research Method” was used to analyse the effect of several factors on barrier repairs costs, such as barrier type, road type, posted speed and seasonal effect. The analyses were based on documented data associated with 1625 repairs conducted in four different geographical regions in Sweden during 2006. A model for calculation of average repair costs per vehicle kilometres was created. Significant differences in the barrier repair costs were found between the studied barrier types. In another study, the injuries associated with road barrier collisions and the corresponding influencing factors were analysed. The analyses in this study were based on documented data from actual barrier collisions between 2005 and 2008 in Sweden. The result was used to calculate the cost for injuries associated with barrier collisions as a part of the socio-economic cost for road barriers. The results showed significant differences in the number of injuries associated with collisions with different barrier types. To calculate and analyse life-cycle costs for road barriers a new approach was developed based on a method called “Activity-based Life-cycle Costing”. By modelling uncertainties, the presented approach gives a possibility to identify and analyse factors crucial for optimising life-cycle costs. The study showed a great potential to increase road maintenance efficiency through road design. It also showed that road components with low investment costs might not be the best choice when including maintenance and socio-economic aspects. The difficulties and problems faced during the collection of data for calculating life-cycle costs for road barriers indicated a great need for improving current data collecting and archiving procedures. The research focused on Swedish road planning and design. However, the conclusions can be applied to other Nordic countries, where weather conditions and road design practices are similar. The general methodological approaches used in this research project may be applied also to other studies. / <p>QC 20110407</p>

Examensarbetets mål var att utforma två förslag på ett musik- och konsthus för placering i Växjösjön. Konstruktionen ämnas vara flytande och mobil.Gemensamt undersökte författarna byggnadens förutsättningar och möjligheter, i syfte att underlätta utformningsprocessen. Författarna utformade var sitt förslag. Det resulterade i två förslag med skilda arkitektoniska särdrag, skapade utifrån gemensamt stipulerade avgränsningar.Det ena förslaget är utformat med hjälp av geometriska former med raka sidor. Det kontrasterar mot det andra förslaget som har organiska och mjuka former. / The purpose of this thesis was to produce two alternative architectural designs, of a building, that will house various exhibitions and activities. Mainly those will be culture related; music and arts. The building is to be located in a Swedish lake, called Växjösjön, and the structure is intended to be placed on a floating hull.Initially the authors investigated, and discussed, what possibilities and limitations that were associated with the building. The authors then, separate from one another, created one alternative design each.The first of the two designs found its inspiration in different geometrical shapes, whereas the other was more of an organic design with a smooth and flowing architecture. / De digitala ritningarna finns att tillgå från författarna på begäran.

Under efterkrigstiden har den regionala tillväxten i industriländerna undergått en explosionsartad utveckling. Samtidigt skedde en massiv utbyggnad och förbättring av infrastrukturen. Dessa båda områdes avancemang avslutades abrupt med den globala finanskrisen under 1970-talet. När konjunkturen vände tillbaka och tillväxten tog fart igen var det däremot inte med samma starka stäv som innan krisen. Denna tröga utveckling förbluffade makroekonomerna, som sökte med ljus och lyckta efter möjliga orsaker såsom energipriser, social reglering och regioners näringslivssammansättning. Det fick sin förklaring först när Aschauer bevisade att det fanns ett samband mellan minskade investeringar i infrastruktur i slutet av 1960-talet och en nedgång i den totala produktiviteten strax efteråt, vilket till viss del ledde till finanskrisen. Det har sedan dess publicerats en uppsjö av forskningsartiklar kring ämnet där den sammantagna slutsatsen är att det inte är frågan om infrastrukturen påverkar den regionala utvecklingen, utan till vilken grad, där transportinfrastrukturen anses ha störst betydelse.   Denna studie har som syfte att undersöka till vilken omfattning infrastrukturinvesteringar har på den kommunala och regionala utvecklingen längs europaväg 4 sträckning mellan Uppsala och Sundsvall. Dessutom undersöktes om man skulle kunna implementera alternativa finansieringsmetoder av vägutbyggnadsprojekt, eftersom dessa även skulle leda fram till en ökad regional utveckling. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av enkäter och intervjuer och ett bottom-up perspektiv, vilket möjliggjorde att de tidigare långsiktiga regionala utvecklingsmålen kunde analyseras.   Sammantaget har resultatet visat att studiens arbetsmetod har varit en bra undersökningsform, där gamla resultat bekräftats och nya slutsatser dragits. Analysen har påvisat skillnader bland kommuner och regioner i frågan om vilken omfattning infrastrukturförändringar har påverkat deras utveckling. Däremot ansåg samtliga tillfrågade att alternativa finansieringssätt, som ERUF och PPP borde användas, men att implementeringen skulle bli svår. / During the postwar period, there has been a tremendous variation in regional growth in developing countries. At the same time there was a massive expansion and improvement in infrastructure. The advances in these two areas ended abruptly with the global financial crisis in the 1970s. However, when times changed and the economy began to recover, it was not with the same momentum as prior to the crisis. This slow development stunned macro-economists, who searched high and low after possible causes such as energy prices, social regulations and the economic structure of different regions. It became clear only when Aschauer showed how the decline in infrastructure investment in the late 1960s resulted in a decline in overall productivity shortly afterwards, which, in part, led to the financial crisis. There have since been published a plethora of research articles on the subject in which the overall conclusion is that it is not an issue of whether infrastructure has an impact on regional development, but to what degree, and that the transport infrastructure is considered to be most significant. The aim of this study is to investigate of impact that infrastructure investments were considered to have upon municipal and regional development along the European route 4 between Uppsala and Sundsvall. In addition the possibilities of implementing alternative methods of financing road-building projects were also explored, as these would lead to greater regional development. The study was conducted using questionnaires and interviews and a bottom-up approach, which made it possible for the earlier long-term regional development objectives to be analysed.Overall, the results demonstrated that the method applied was a good way of conducting a survey, where old and new findings were confirmed. The analysis has revealed differences among municipalities and regions with regards to the impact that changes in infrastructure have on their development. On the other hand, the respondents were unanimous in believing that alternative funding methods, such as ERUF and Public-Private-Partnership should be used, but that they would be difficult to implement.