Modular construction methods are adopted in many spatial and temporal limited projects. As the major equipment used in modular construction, the mobile crane affects the safety and efficiency of construction significantly. Currently, building information modeling (BIM) is widely adopted to improve the lifting operation planning of cranes. However, the inaccurate simulation of the dynamic construction environment makes those BIM‐based lifting operation planning methods unsuitable for land mobile cranes operation planning, such as in the overpass bridge construction project, which may cause several safety risks during the lifting process. Based on an overpass steel bridge construction project, this paper attempted to integrate the BIM and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to streamline lifting operation planning and construction monitoring. Specifically, in the preliminary stage, a level of development (LOD) 400 steel superstructure model was built and then divided into eighty sections. In addition, a three‐dimensional (3D) geology model of the as‐is construction site was modeled by UAV‐captured images. Then, a fusion model which contains the lifting modules models, the as‐is site model, and the crane model was gathered, based on which the collision detection was conducted by 4D crane operating path simulation. According to the results, three potential collisions were found and eliminated by lengthening the jib of the crane from 43.5 m to 46.5 m. Furthermore, the optimum crane location for lifting each steel structure was determined based on the 3D geology model. The study shows that the UAV is able to acquire geological information and then 3D simulates the real construction environment quickly and accurately. Furthermore, BIM and UAV have the potential to optimize the design and construction as well as the monitoring of bridge projects.
Suitable evaluation of distress is beneficial to understanding the in situ performance of deck pavement. This study attempts to evaluate the long-term in situ performance of American ChemCo epoxy asphalt concrete on the Xihoumen Bridge (XHMB) after 12 years of service. The traditional performance indexes were adopted to reveal the performance of XHMB. Then, based on the typical distresses, a new pavement performance index (PPI) was proposed to characterize the authentic distress condition. Finally, the performance evaluation and evolution were conducted. According to the results, the rutting depth indexes and riding quality indexes of all lanes are higher than 97 and 94, respectively. The pavement condition indexes of the pass lanes and drive lanes in 2021 are greater than 94 and 86, respectively, which is contradictory to the distribution of numerous distresses on the pavement. According to the PPI results, the PPIs of the down direction pass lane are mostly 100. However, for the down direction drive lane, the PPIs of about 30% of segments are below 80 or 60. Finally, based on the limited data, the distress of American ChemCo epoxy asphalt concrete may initiate after serving for 4–5 years and then escalate after about 10 years.
To address the severe distresses of asphalt pavement, a new type of pavement maintenance treatment, porous ultra-thin overlay (PUTO) with small particle size was proposed. The PUTO has a thickness of 1.5–2.5 cm and a large void ratio of 18–25%. As a newly asphalt mixture, the structure characteristics differ from poor traditional pavement. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the fabrication schemes in laboratory and on-site, respectively. In this study, the optimal fabrication schemes, including compaction temperature and number of blows of PUTO were determined based on Cantabro test and volumetric parameters. Then, the corresponding relationship between laboratory and on-site compaction work was then established based on the energy equivalent principle. On this basis, the numbers of on-site rolling passes and the combination method were calculated. The results show that increased compaction temperature and number of blows reduce the height and enhance the compaction of the Marshall sample. With the same temperature and number of blows, the raveling resistance of coarse gradation, Pavement Asphalt Concrete-1 (PAC-1) is better than that of fine gradation, Pavement Asphalt Concrete-2 (PAC-2), and the increased asphalt viscosity significantly improves the raveling resistance of the asphalt mixture. To ensure the scattering resistance and volumetric characteristic, the initial compaction temperature of the PAC-1 and PAC-2 should not be lower than 150 °C and 165 °C, respectively. Then, the laboratory compaction work and on-site compaction work were calculated and converted based on the principle of energy equivalence. Consequently, the on-site compaction combination of rolling machines for four asphalt mixtures was determined. According to the volumetric parameters, the paving test section proved that the construction temperature and the on-site rolling combination determined by laboratory tests are reasonable, and ultra-thin overlay has good structural stability, drainage, and skid resistance.
To overcome challenging service conditions, a groundbreaking thermoset, “Super-Tough Resin” (STR), has been specifically designed for steel bridge deck paving. Currently, investigations of paving thermosets mainly focus on cured materials. Detailed investigations of the curing process and its impact on the evolving properties of STR are lacking. Therefore, this study aims to explore the curing kinetics and the performance evolution of STR. Specifically, spectroscopy test, time sweep, linear viscoelastic region, and weight loss tests were conducted. Our results show that the curing degrees increase significantly with the curing durations and temperatures at the initial stage. When cured for 10 h, the curing degrees at four temperatures all exceed 80%. Then, a kinetic model with an nth-order of 1.551 was established. Upon increasing the temperature from 35 to 80 °C, the gel point time decreases from 480 to 189 min but the corresponding curing degree remains constant at 75.73%. When curing time is increased from 2.5 to 4 h, the linear viscoelastic regions decrease from 20% to 3%. Finally, after 400 h, the weight losses of STR at 35 and 80 °C are about 8% and 20%, respectively. These outcomes are beneficial to understanding the dynamic curing behaviors of STR and similar thermosets.