Hybrid Case-Based Reasoning Approach to Value Engineering in Road Rehabilitation and Traffic Improvement Projects

Many roads in the United States have approached the end of their design and/or service lives. In a recent report published by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 42% of highways in the United States are congested and cost the economy about $100 billion in wasted time and extra fuel consumption. Due to the poor condition of the national highway network, it has been given a grade “D” by the ASCE in its 2013 Infrastructure Report Card. To improve the nation’s roads and highways, $1.7 trillion needs to be invested during the next ten years. With limited resources, many state highway administrations use value engineering (VE) to deliver the same, or higher, quality projects at a reduced cost. Implementing VE programs is time consuming, costly and requires a great deal of experience. These limitations might impede the popularity and/or participation of junior engineers in VE processes. This paper presents a cased-based reasoning approach to reduce the time and cost associated with VE processes. It provides a screening tool that points to highpotential improvement areas and suggests alternative options. Furthermore, it provides a useful tool to junior engineers through which they can learn from more experienced colleagues. The presented tool uses 30 Caltrans’ projects and 76 VE solutions to perform the required task.