PURPOSES : The purpose of this study is to identify the causes and expected problems of traffic flow in connection with ground roads that are expected to become stagnant owing to the increase in underground road infrastructure, and to derive methods to solve the problem in the future. METHODS : The basic design of underground roads is similar to that of tunnels. However, there is a point where the slope is large as the entering and exiting sections move underground. The ability of a heavy vehicle to assume a mound may vary depending on the slope. Therefore, in this study, a connection path section with a long slope was constructed using VISSIM, a simulation program, and it was verified whether analysis related to the slope and heavy vehicles in an underground road can be performed in the simulation. Subsequently, an analysis was conducted by setting a scenario and an effect index. In particular, this study analyzes internal delay patterns in the event of an unexpected situation on an underground connection road by performing shock wave analysis to analyze speed reduction according to heavy vehicles and slopes. RESULTS : A correlation between the slope of the underground road and decrease in the average speed according to the increasing rate of heavy vehicles was established. It was also possible to analyze the maximum length and duration of the delay connected to the rear in the event of a delay in the underground road and the shock wave speed transmitted to the rear. The analysis showed that the rate of increase in problems owing to delays ranged from 5% to 20% for the ratio of heavy vehicles. In particular, all effect scales increased significantly at a 9% slope. CONCLUSIONS : This study analyzes the causes of land congestion (slope and heavy vehicle mixing rate), which can be a major problem in underground roads in the future. In the future, by establishing lane-specific speed control strategies and lane control strategies based on this study, it will be necessary to derive solutions such as introducing traffic safety on the underground road by minimizing the shock wave delivered to the rear by providing information on traffic communication conditions inside the underground road to individual vehicles.

PURPOSES : This study sought ways to connect urban above ground roads and underground roads to utilize urban space more efficiently in the development of underground roads, which are currently under development in order to alleviate problems caused by oversaturated above-ground roads. A simulation analysis was performed to develop an operation strategy that connects above-ground and underground roads to prevent congestion in above-ground areas such as entrances and exits from transferring to underground roads as well as to present its effectiveness. METHODS : Traffic efficiency analysis according to the operation strategy of above ground and underground roads was conducted using VISSIM, a microscopic traffic simulation software. The functions implemented in VISSIM were collected to set effectiveness analysis indicators for each underground road operation strategy. The Shinwol-Yeoui Underground Road was selected as the spatial scope of this study, and a surrounding road network was constructed. In addition, full-scale simulation analysis preparations were completed by performing network calibration based on the actual traffic attribute data of underground and surrounding surface roads within the construction scope. Accordingly, a traffic efficiency evaluation analysis was conducted based on the underground road operation strategy. CONCLUSIONS : Information on the increase in traffic volume within the Shinwol-Yeoui underpass was collected every 15 min. The analysis was divided into an analysis of the traffic situation within the underpass through demand control when the service level reached level D and an analysis of when demand control was not performed. It was found that demand control was necessary for the Shinwol-Yeoui Underpass when the internal traffic volume reached 2,500 vehicles/h. In addition, to analyze the spread of traffic and congestion owing to the weaving phenomenon caused by lane changes in the underpass, an analysis was conducted to observe the traffic improvement effect when full lane changes are possible for the Shinwol-Yeoui Underground Road, which currently has some lane-change-permitted sections. The analysis showed that both the maximum traffic volume and average travel speed showed better results when lane changes were allowed, and the communication situation at Yeoui JCT was found optimal.

PURPOSES : This study is to evaluate environmental improvement effects of underground road project, as a case study of ‘Seobu’underground expressway project in Korea. METHODS : The environmental improvement effects of underground road construction were classified into tree sector in this study – air quality, noise, and thermal environment. To evaluate these effects, this study collected and divided environment dataset into before, during, and after ‘Seobu’underground expressway construction, and compared the change of values with entire city. In addition, the quantification method of environmental improvement effects was suggested based on the literature review. RESULTS : The result of this study indicates that there exist significant improvement effects of urban environment after the construction of ‘Seobu’underground expressway. Specifically, the concentration of particulate matters (PM10) and daytime/nighttime noise, and land surface temperature (LST) were improved along the expressway. In addition, the overall environmental benefit of ‘Seobu’ underground expressway was estimated to 1.15 billion won per year. CONCLUSIONS : To promote systematic and consistent underground road project, it is required to establish legislative system for evalauting and supporting urban improvement effects.

PURPOSES : It is necessary to implement traffic-control strategies for underground roads. In this study, the application criteria for traffic control were developed to minimize actual traffic congestion on underground roads before it occurs. In particular, the traffic congestion judgement criteria and procedure (TJCAP) were developed. They can specifically classify the possibility of traffic congestion underground. METHODS : A microscopic traffic simulation model was used to analyze different scenarios. With the scenario simulation results, a hierarchical clustering analysis was applied to produce quantitative values from the TJCAP for each experimental network case. RESULTS : For network case (a), it was concluded that the possibility of traffic congestion on underground roads increases when the speed of the ground road connected to the main underground road and the connected ground road after the outflow of the ramp section is low. When the connected road is an interrupted facility after entering the underground roads, the red time is long, and when the section travel speed is 15 km/h, the possibility of traffic congestion underground is highest. A cluster analysis based on these results was performed using two techniques (elbow and silhouette) to verify the final classification. CONCLUSIONS : The TJCAP were designed to operate traffic flow with stricter criteria than traffic congestion management on ground roads. This reflects the difference in the driving environment between underground and above-ground roadways.

PURPOSES : In this study, model-agnostic methods are applied for interpreting machine learning models, such as the feature global effect, the importance of a feature, the joint effects of features, and explaining individual predictions. METHODS : Model-agnostic global interpretation techniques, such as partial dependence plot (PDP), accumulated local effect (ALE), feature interaction (H-statistics), and permutation feature importance, were applied to describe the average behavior of a machine learning model. Moreover, local model-agnostic interpretation methods, individual conditional expectation curves (ICE), local surrogate models (LIME), and Shapley values were used to explain individual predictions. RESULTS : As global interpretations, PDP and ALE-Plot demonstrated the relationship between a feature and the prediction of a machine learning model, where the feature interaction estimated whether one feature depended on the other feature, and the permutation feature importance measured the importance of a feature. For local interpretations, ICE exhibited how changing a feature changes the interested instance’s prediction, LIME explained the relationship between a feature and the instance’s prediction by replacing the machine model with a locally interpretable model, and Shapley values presented how to fairly contribute to the instance’s prediction among the features. CONCLUSIONS : Model-agnostic methods contribute to understanding the general relationship between features and a prediction or debut a model from the global and/or local perspective, securing the reliability of the learning model.

PURPOSES : This study aims to deduce the appropriate interval of cross passage for small vehicle exclusive roads within urban underground roads to ensure safety. METHODS : This study evaluated evacuation safety by fire and evacuation simulations. The simulation was applied to a passenger-caronly urban underground road, which was performed in the entry/exit section with a gradient of 6.0% and the mainline on level grade. The values of the variables for the simulations were determined to be close to the actual situation based on of the statistics and the results of previous studies. In the simulation scenario, the cross passage interval was visible. The evacuation safety was evaluated by comparing the “evacuation completion time” and the “smoke diffusion time.” Evacuation safety can be desirable when the evacuation completion time is shorter than the smoke diffusion time. RESULTS : According to the results of the simulation, the desirable cross passage interval is 180 m for the entry/exit sections with a 6% gradient in passenger-car-only tunnels. This criterion may be prolonged to an interval of 210 m and a width of 0.9 m for the construction reduction, based on the results of the statistical analysis. CONCLUSIONS : According to the results of this study, the risk indices of the “Small Vehicles Road Tunnel Fire Safety Facility Installation and Management Guidelines” may be supplemented by the tunnel class and the gradient of the entry/exit section. In addition, the guideline may provide an improved interval of evacuation cross passage and the width of the cross passage door by the safety index.

PURPOSES : Since the 1990s, underground utility projects have been conducted to solve the problem of aerial communication cables. The purpose of this study is to derive optimal measures for preventing collisions with existing underground utilities and for future maintenance in the implementation of the utilities undergrounding projects. This study considered the identifier sensor and tested the optimal sensor performance for more accurate and systematic management. METHODS : In this study, three representative technologies were selected from identifier sensors generally used in air and the possibility for their use in soil and asphalt was confirmed by simulating the environment via a test construction. Three identifier sensors were selected: BLE (Bluetooth low energy) beacon, ultra-high frequency radio frequency identification (UHF RFID), and a geomagnetic recognizer. The long-term recognition performance of each identifier sensor was tested using the underground depth as a variable and the results were analyzed for comparison. RESULTS : The results of the test under limited conditions and environment demonstrated that the BLE Beacon had advantages in equipment composition, recognition range, and speed but exhibited problems with batteries in winter. The geomagnetic recognizer did not show the exact location and its influence on the surrounding environment was a disadvantage. CONCLUSIONS : Although the performance of UHF RFID has been demonstrated to be relatively suitable under these test conditions, it seems that the impact of the more diverse installation depth or medium should be reviewed for actual commercialization.