Grain shippers are constantly faced with making merchandising and logistical decisions while trying to achieve a positive net margin. They have to decide how much grain to sell and when the most opportune time to do so occurs. In addition, decisions regarding how much freight should be acquired and where grain should be shipped need to be addressed. These decisions are met by several sources of risk such as futures spreads, basis levels, transit times, equipment placements, and farmer deliveries. The primary objective of this thesis was to develop a model to determine both the optimal amount of grain that should be sold in the pipeline and the optimal amount of freight that should be hedged by grain shippers through the use of forward shipping mechanisms. Certificates of Transportation (COTs) offered by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway were used to represent forward shipping mechanisms in this thesis. A stochastic simulation model of a prototypical grain shipper containing three country elevators and two export facilities was developed. A sensitivity analysis was conducted on merchandising and logistical variables to evaluate different scenarios. The analysis revealed that committing to too many shuttle COTS limited the shipper's flexibility, forced sales to be made in suboptimal periods, and significantly increased the level of demurrage. The type of freight ordering strategy implemented by each elevator ultimately determined the overall sustainability of the firm; shippers need to diversify the type of freight they commit to because ordering too much long-term freight can result in bad sales decisions, whereas relying only on short-term freight is costly and inefficient. Not being able to quickly adapt to volatile market conditions can result in making bad selling decisions and untimely freight purchases which can hinder the longevity of a firm.

This is a study of the beginning and growth of automotive transportation, the development of transportation of merchandise by means of motor trucks, the development of passenger traffic of motor busses, the co-ordination of railroad and highway transportation, and the state and federal efforts to regulate the trucking industry.

Thesis. 1978. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: p. 77-79. / by Jeffrey K. Young. / M.C.P.

Time delays and cost overruns in construction projects are generally due to factors such as inappropriate planning, design errors, unexpected site conditions, inadvisable tools selection, change scope, weather conditions, lack of resources, and other project changes. Time delays and cost overruns are of concern to most project managers, owners, and governments. These elements of time and cost are two of the critical defects that impact the construction project delivery. These defects can lead to project failures and to various negative issues like increasing in disagreements among the project team, the contractor, suppliers, and the owner. State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in the U.S. continue to spend heavily on roads, highways, and bridges construction, as well as development, maintenance, and expansion. This continued financial commitment reflects decades of commitment to improve the transportation service for safer and better use by the general public. Despite the notable efforts from most of the states to develop the transportation infrastructure, budget restrictions and lack of funds are some of the major challenges faced by DOTs. Highway and bridge infrastructure has a high potential growth in the U.S. construction market. Well-organized highway and bridge project investment decision-making becomes increasingly crucial in the transportation sector. In this research, transportation is specified to highway and bridge projects, and it focused on high-profile projects. These projects are defined as high-cost projects, and are associated with higher project delivery risk (typically $100 - $500 million). All states are working with their state transportation plan, listing the projects based on each state priorities and population growth. Proper planning leads to the right decision regarding selecting the best alternative within budget, and it must reflect certain core principles, including a comprehensive analysis. To facilitate such a decision process, decision makers need a trusted decision model that considers all important options and impacts. By using a decision model, decision-making will not be subjectively influenced to favor one option or group. The decision model becomes the primary tool for selecting the best option, based on its structure levels, perspectives, sub-criteria, and experts’ input. Recently, there is an apparent need for a decision model to help DOTs evaluating their options. Effective project delivery assessment tools, techniques, or practices are strongly needed to improve transportation construction projects’ performance. The research objective is to develop a comprehensive decision model that can be used by project managers and their teams to choose the most effective project assessment technique for measuring the success of performance and outcomes related to the delivery of transportation projects. This research was focused on the assessment techniques that are used in the development phase within the transportation project lifecycle phases. To this end, the research identified and screened the innovative assessment tools and techniques of project delivery that the transportation and other industries have used by reviewing numerous of academic literature and technical reports. Based on the review, value optimization elements such as cost, time, performance, risk, and resources were selected to be the primary evaluation criteria that lead to achieving the model objective. Also, the model sub-criteria were investigated and selected based on the literature review and direct discussion with some experts such as project managers, civil engineers, and value management consultants. The outcome analysis of the results showed that in terms of objectives that performance efficiency was rated the highest importance with respect to the mission, while resources presented the lowest importance from an overall assessment point of view. The results showed that Alternative 4, the VE-RACRDAM technique, was ranked as the most important alternative among others followed by Alternative 5, while Alternative 2 was ranked the least important. A five scenarios analysis was applied to measure the sensitivity of the effects of changing the relative importance of the assessment criteria on alternatives’ rankings. Results showed that Alternative 4 was maintained as the most effective assessment technique among the other alternatives in the five scenarios. In the end, experts were asked to validate the final research results, and they confirmed that the results were appropriate and valid. The validity of the decision model and findings of this research contribute new insights into the transportation construction industry as the case of state departments of transportation. Also, the experts agreed that this decision model is generalizable and could be used in other industries. Therefore, the model significantly contributes to the project management knowledge, and construction project development and delivery success.

Thesis. 1975. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil Engineering. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 383-389. / Ph.D.

During the past several decades, most U.S. metropolitan areas have experienced strong suburbanization of housing and jobs (i.e., urban sprawl). The sprawl that arises from urban growth has become a big issue in many metropolitan areas in the U.S. In response, there has been increased interest in urban containment policies. There are contrasting views (planning-oriented vs. market-oriented) of urban sprawl and urban containment policies. Planning-oriented scholars asserted the problems of 'geographic sprawl (GS)' and the positive effects of urban containment polices, while market-oriented scholars asserted the problems of 'economic sprawl (ES)' and the negative or negligible effects of urban containment policies. Therefore, this dissertation analyzed whether urban containment policies affect urban sprawl, employment center formation, and urban commuting. The results of this dissertation indicate that urban containment policies play an important role in affecting urban sprawl, employment center formation, and urban commuting, as well as explaining the contrasting views (planning-oriented vs. market-oriented) of urban containment policies. Implementing urban containment policies can produce positive effects such as compact development, which can promote J-H balance. However, as seen in the relationship between urban containment policies, urban sprawl and housing values, stronger urban containment policies can produce negative effects, such as traffic congestion and an increase in housing prices.

Health impact assessment (HIA) has emerged in the U.S. as one promising process to increase social and environmental justice through addressing health equity issues within planning. HIA practice is guided by values such as democracy and equity and grounded in broad social determinants of health. The most readily applied definition of democracy is problematic because it implies an element of direct, participatory engagement with the public. This is at odds with HIA practice that largely relies on stakeholder engagement strategies. This dissertation critically examines the engagement strategies of three transportation planning HIA cases to more fully understand how the HIA process may or may not promote democratic values and protect community health interests. It employs a multi-case study design that uses qualitative content analysis to trace community health interests through the HIA process, HIA document, and target plan. It finds that while the field is overstating the participatory nature of HIA, commitments to health equity and broad determinants of health protect community health interests with and without robust engagement of community stakeholders.

This study was made of the school districts in the East Texas oil field in Rusk and Gregg Counties. These school districts have a dense rural population, the majority of whom are engaged in some type of oil field work. Financially, these school districts are considered the wealthiest in the state, and in general are similar to most oil field sections in the South. A total of twelve different transportation systems, operating sixty-five buses, transporting 8,758 school children were studied. In this study, efficient methods of transporting school children, methods of administering transportation, contracting, types of roads, qualifications of drivers, equipment, and cost in these oil field districts were considered.