<p>In infrastructure construction projects especially bridge investments, the most critical decisions that significantly affect the whole bridge LCC are the early stages decisions. Clearly, it's more beneficial to correctly choose the optimum bridge than to choose the optimum construction or repair method.</p><p>The ability of a bridge to provide service over time demands appropriate maintenance by the agency. Thus the investment decision should consider not only the initial activity that creates a public good, but also all future activities that will be required to keep that investment available to the public.</p><p>This research is aiming for bridge sustainability, enhance the bridge related decision making, and facilitate the usage of the bridge related feedbacks. The development of a reliable and usable computer tool for bridge LCC & LCA evaluation is the main target.</p><p>Toward the main goal, many steps were fulfilled. A unique integrated Bridge LCC evaluation methodology was developed. Two systematic evaluation ways were developed, one for bridge user cost and one for the bridge aesthetical and cultural value. To put these two systematic ways in practice, two preliminary computer programs were developed for this purpose. Today and future works are focusing on developing methodology and preliminary computer tool for bridge agency cost as well as the bridge LCA evaluation. KTH unique LCC evaluation system will enable the decision makers to correctly choose the optimum bridge in the early stages decision making phases as well as any later on reparation method.</p> / ETSI

The number of political goals set, and decisions taken, in respect of environmental matters at both the international and the Swedish national, regional and municipal levels is constantly increasing. The overall goal in the Swedish context is to become a sustainable society. The municipalities are expected to hold a key role in this transition, specifically through their spatial planning and their responsibilities for environmental and health issues. The aim of this thesis is to increase our empirical understanding of the day-to-day planning practice and environmental work. One important assumption here is that changing conditions, for example in relation to changes in legislation or bureaucratic re-organisations, do not always have an impact on every-day professional practice. In focus are therefore the day-to-day work and the professional perspectives as the professionals themselves articulate them. Interaction between occupational groups, the role of occupational culture and perspective and the articulation of knowledge is highlighted. The methods used for empirical data gathering are qualitative interviews and focus group sessions. The theories applied concern mainly professions, organisational culture and planning theory. It is apparent in the studies that the professional groups often have simplified, stereotypical images of one another, even though each group without exception has respect for the other professional groups. However, there are difficulties in the translation between officials of knowledge and evaluation of facts of the different groups. There is often low understanding of the fact that other groups act based on their professional knowledge and experience. The thesis show that national regulations and legislation alone cannot guarantee that environmental management will be prioritised at the local level – a gap between national policy and local practice here is clearly demonstrated. It should however be noted that the level of environmental competence in the local public administration is adequate and increasing. / QC 20100617

<p>Congestion charging is a now accepted means of influencing traffic to behave in a more socio-economic optimal way, like e.g. in the Stockholm project. Already early work, in the 1920’s, showed that road use can be inefficient due externalities, i.e. that users don’t experience their own (negative) effect on other users: an extra car on a traffic link causes delays for other cars, but the driver himself does not experience this cost.In the 1950’s it was further shown - for a congested road network with homogeneous users – that if each user is charged a toll equal to the total value of time loss incurred on other users of the network, then -if we have fixed travel demand - this will induce an equilibrium that is system optimal in the sense that the total cost of network usage is minimal (assuming that all users have fixed and identical time values).  But toll charges need to be levied in monetary units, and different travelers have different values of time. Therefore, to account for the effects of tolls, and to be able to compute equilibria, one needs to introduce different user classes, differing in their time values.</p><p>In this thesis, consisting of four papers, we study congestion pricing of road networks with users differing only in their time values. In particular, we analyze marginal social cost (MSC) pricing, a tolling scheme that charges each user a penalty corresponding to the value of the delays inflicted on other users, as well as its implementation through fixed tolls.</p><p>Paper III contains the main theoretical work of the thesis. In that paper we show that the variational inequalities characterizing the equilibria in question can be stated in symmetric or non-symmetric forms. The symmetric forms correspond to optimization problems, convex in the fixed-toll case and non-convex in the MSC case, which hence may have multiple equilibria. The objective of the latter problem is the total value of travel time, which thus is minimized at the global optima of that problem. Implementing close-to-optimal MSC tolls as fixed tolls leads to equilibria with possibly non-unique class specific flows, but with identical close-to-optimal values of the total value of travel time. Finally we give an adaptation, to the MSC setting, of the Frank-Wolfe algorithm, which is further applied to some test cases, including Stockholm.</p><p>Paper I is an early application using Frank-Wolfe, after having realized the possibility to symmetrize the problem.</p><p>Paper II gives a convexification of non-convex equilibrium problem for MSC tolls. We have used these convexifications to compute lower bounds when computing equilibria.</p><p>Paper IV is a short note commenting some flaws in two papers by Dial on MSC tolls.</p>

<p>Stabilization of subgrade is an internationally common technique to improve the characteristics of a soft soil. Improving the stiffness and bearing capacity of the subgrade enables the pavement to be designed with reduced depths of subbase and basecourse aggregates. This makes the stabilization technique both economically and environmentally interesting. Both natural and stabilized soils have high inherent property variability that should be considered when the characteristic value is derived. By analyzing the spatial variability in stabilized and natural subgrades it is possible get the parameters needed for reliability–based modeling of soil properties. I order to do so, three statistical parameters need to be evaluated, i.e. the mean, the variance and the scale of fluctuation, which is the distance within which soil properties show relatively strong correlation.</p><p>The objective of this thesis is to study different devises for determining the elastic modulus of subgrade and to study the spatial variability of the elastic modulus. With knowledge of this it is possible to optimize the testing. The different devises used in the field investigations was the light weight deflectometer (LWD), surface seismic and static plate loading. The different devices were used because they take measurements at different load- and strain levels.</p><p>Another aim was to investigate correlations between moduli determined by the different devices. This thesis is a part of a research project at Skanska about subgrade stabilization. The field studies were performed in Tygelsjö, south of Malmö, and the soil type was claytill. Two test areas, each 7x15 m, were stabilized with 6 % respective 4 % hydrated lime and two test areas, each 4x15 m, were left unstabilized. Totally 133 test points were investigated with the LWD and surface seismic and 11 static plate load tests were performed.</p><p>With geostatistical analyses of the experimental results the scale of fluctuation with respect to the elastic modulus has been evaluated to approximately 1,3 m. That means only points within 1,3 m reveal relative strong correlation. In practice this means that subsidence due to less stiffness in the stabilized subgrade will not be extensive in the surface. Therefore it’s not economically rational to design the pavement with respect to small areas with low stiffness in the subgrade.</p><p>Comparison between the LWD and the static plate load test showed that ____ is on average 2 times greater than ___. No correlations with the surface seismic were found. One influencing factor on the LWD measurements was the drop height. ____ decreased with increasing drop height but only on the unstabilized subgrade.</p><p>This thesis also shows how the characteristic value of the elastic modulus could be evaluated with statistical methods where the evaluation will depend on the number of measurements, the variability of the measurements and the variance reduction factor which in turn depends on the scale of fluctuation and the size of the mechanical system. This type of evaluation could be used as basis for reliability based design and design according to the observational method according to Eurocode 7.</p> / QC 20100706

<p>The following report is based on the fact that we today aren´t building enough small apartments with the right of tenancy around the country. Numbers show that many young people and students will be in need of an apartment in the upcoming years. Because we already have a lack of small apartments in many of the student cities we have to find a solution today. Could module apartments be the solution?</p><p>The report is a part of a project, which with the help of industrial building and its prerequisites, smaller apartments in module form has been planned. The apartments, are as far as possible, standardized but concludes a flexibility in the shaping which creates possibilities for different solutions. The apartments can be combined in different ways for use at different sites. In the project the quarter Järnbäraren has been used as a plot example, where the apartments have been used as student housing.</p><p>The report describes the theoretical reasons to why you should use industrial building and what it takes for it to be a successful concept. It also contains analysis of earlier projects which can be compared with this one. The report also includes historical aspects on the development of industrial buildings during the 20th century and how the housing market has changed over the past years.</p><p>The report shows the thoughts and speculations that lies behind the decisions which have been made during the project. It also works as a description of the prerequisites in the project. Most prerequisites came from the company Moelven, who there have been a cooperation with since the start of the project.</p><p>The result has shown that it is possible to develop module apartments with high quality despite standardization and cost conscious thoughts. Since it is the technical parts in the apartment that is the biggest cost for the module, you’re able to increase dwelling space improve the quality in the apartment without the rent being raised and be absurd for example students.</p>

<p>The purpose is to understand the planning process for residential buildings and toinvestigate the consequences of the choices made in the process. The project will alsoprovide broader knowledge in the design and development under the current law andpractice.The goal is to present a proposal on how a city near the site where water can bedesigned from a sustainable perspective. How can a residential neighborhood be anenvironmentally sound and sustainable region? New systems and techniques havebeen presented previously in terms of sustainable environments and these are intendedof being used in the project Quarter Water-mirror.The project has been implemented on the computer program ArchiCAD in whichdrawings and visualizations have been carried out. These drawings are included asannexes to the report.For information, calculations and drawings, laws for physical planning and Swedishstandard have been followed.Residential buildings have been designed on a site, which is 2, 5 hectares. This area isexploited to a large extent, have generous space and environmentally friendlyachievements. The sustainable development of the area is supposed to contribute tolong-term management. To create an attractive and interesting environment, a channelhas been incorporated into the field.In the planning has availability, guest/ private parking, infrastructure and in the land,the farm formations, water and solar studies taken into account where the Planningand Building Act has been a starting point.Apartments have been presented with regard to the functioning, transparency andlight. When these factors were crucial in the case of a well-resolved data.The investigations made that refined solutions, including waste disposal, diversion ofwater, etc. existed. These methods will not necessarily be used in Quarter Watermirrorbecause nothing is elucidated. However, these solutions are good practice togive the area a sustainable environment.</p>

<p>Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att studera på vilket sätt stadsbyggnadsprojektet Arabiastranden i Helsingfors kan ses som ett exempel på en generell trend inom samhällsplaneringen. Denna trend handlar om att använda sig av varumärken och estetiska uttryck i den byggda miljön för att marknadsföra och konkurrera på en global marknad. Uppsatsens fallstudieområde är stadsbyggnadsprojektet och stadsdelen Arabiastranden, som representerar konst, historia och design i Helsingforsregionens ambition att uppnå ett varumärke som en ”Art and Design City”. Metoden är baserad på personliga intervjuer, guidning, föreläsningar, planeringsdokument och litteratur. Teorier och koncept om informationssamhället, kreativa städer och den ”kreativa klassen” har använts för att diskutera en trend inom samhällsplaneringen som tillsammans med en global marknad, ny teknologi och livsstilar ställer krav på den fysiska miljön. Flera faktorer visar att Arabiastranden långsiktigt är ett exempel på en urban trend att marknadsföra städer med redan existerande värden i en allt högre global konkurrens.</p>

<p>Eskilstuna municipality is working to be a municipality that the people who are living in it are proud of. In a way to do that two students have examined what changes are good or bad when there outdoor environment are rebuilding and changing</p><p> </p><p>By doing interviews with the people who are living next to two streets that already have been going through big changes and during those interviews the inhabitants have hade opportunity to explain what they are seeing as good or band changes in the surroundings. The results from these interviews have been compared to interviews with a politician`s vision for the area and white-collar workers that are working for the Eskilstuna municipality.</p><p> </p><p>If you want to shorten this report to a couple of sentence it would be:</p><p>By planting trees and busses and letting the politicians that have a vision be part of the planning process the people that are living in that area is going to be satisfied.</p>

<p>Sammanfattning</p><p>Radon i flerbostadshus är ämnet för detta examensarbete. Bostadsrättsföreningen Tallmon äger två flerbostadshus i Skogsbo, Avesta. I dessa två flerbostadshus har radonmätningar gjorts under den senaste mätperioden. Dessa mätresultat tillsammans med tidigare kända mätresultat har sammanställts i en tabell. Där går att avläsa att i 18 av totalt 26 uppmätta lägenheter har radonhalten någon gång varit över det gällande riktvärdet för radonhalt i bostäder.</p><p>Det har även gjorts ett mindre antal kontinuerliga korttidsmätningar med hänsyn på radon. Detta dels för att få en bild av hur radonhalten ser ut på sommarhalvåret och dels se hur radonhalten varierar under ett dygn. För att finna den stora källan till radon i luften gjordes även mätningar av ventilationsflödet och gammamätning. Gammamätning visar om det finns blåbetong i något byggmaterial. Resultatet av samtliga korttidsmätningar var att radonhalten varierade under samtliga mätperioder. Vissa lägenheter hade väldigt höga halter av radon när istället andra lägenheter hade lägre radonhalter. Det alla hade gemensamt var att de hade haft fönster öppna under mätperioderna, vilket sänker radonhalten i luften. Lågt luftflöde var en annan gemensam faktor som alla lägenheter hade. Liksom att inomhustemperaturen låg högt. Blåbetong finns i båda fastigheterna och då i ytterväggarna.</p><p>Mätresultaten inom detta examensarbete bekräftar tidigare resultat som innebär att man i många lägenheter har radonhalter över gällande riktvärde 200 Bq/m³. Radonhalterna tenderar inte alls att avta med höjden över mark, vilket antyder att blåbetongen kan vara den huvudsakliga källan i detta fall.</p>

<p>In some roundabouts, just relying on the "right of way" regulations results in long queues forming along the approaches. This usually happens when a roundabout suffers from unbalanced flow patterns (one or two of the approaches convey much heavier traffic compared to the others). There is an idea that signalization of roundabouts can be useful as a countermeasure for such a problem, especially during peak hours. In that case, signal operation can come in many forms, including full-time control, part-time control, or metering. One problem that seems to be facing engineers when signalizing roundabouts is lacking a general set of patterns or guidelines to choose an appropriate form of signalization and apply it efficiently in different situations. There is also a need for a comprehensive review over the available literature concerning signalization of roundabouts. In this thesis, a review of literature regarding signalization of roundabouts is carried out. Moreover, a roundabout in Stavanger with unbalanced traffic flows is studied in order to find an appropriate signalization scenario which can improve the traffic situation. The network is modeled and simulated in AIMSUN.</p>