Optimizing expressway maintenance planning by coupling ant algorithm and geography information system transportation in Hubei province, China

Highway maintenance scheduling is a complex optimization problem and imposes a challenge for GIS-T research. In this paper, a new approach was put forward to determining the optimal set of alternatives for highway infrastructure facilities by using ant colony algorithm and GIS. In the proposed approach, GIS was used to analyze traffic flux, toll and maintenance time of each highway segment. Meanwhile, an ant colony algorithm was applied to resolve the computational complexity of multi-objective large-size scheduling optimization problems. Experiments were performed in national highways in the Hubei province by the proposed method. The application illustrated the feasibility, efficiency, and capability of coupling ant algorithm and geography information system transportation for multi-objective expressway maintenance planning optimization.