This paper considers a let scheduling problem for highway construction projects under an anticipated funding scenario. Highway construction projects typically require large-scale funds, and rely on the revenue from state and federal funding sources. The revenues mainly come from transportation-related taxes and fees. Such revenues can radically change over time due to the uncertainty of economy, and the Department of Transportations (DOTs) need to cope with such funding changes to avoid any overdraft or unhealthily excessive cash balances. A mathematical optimization model is proposed as a means of decision support to determine how to revise the let schedule when the future revenue is expected to change. A case study of the North Carolina DOT (NCDOT) is presented to demonstrate the application of the proposed model, where major types of projects having construction costs more than $10 million are analyzed. A formula to evaluate the impact of changing let dates is presented and a constrained logistic model that estimates the construction costs of individual projects is proposed. As a recommendation for utilizing the proposed model, three practical ways are summarized including the rolling-horizon-based let scheduling, funding change analysis, and the assessment of funding project risks.

中文翻译：

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以NCDOT为例谈公路建设项目资金调度方案分析

本文考虑了在预期资金情况下高速公路建设项目的调度问题。公路建设项目通常需要大量资金，并依赖于州和联邦资金来源的收入。收入主要来自交通相关税费。由于经济的不确定性，此类收入可能会随着时间的推移发生根本性变化，交通部 (DOT) 需要应对此类资金变化，以避免任何透支或不健康的过度现金余额。提出了一种数学优化模型作为决策支持的一种手段，以确定在预期未来收入发生变化时如何修改出租计划。介绍了北卡罗来纳州交通部 (NCDOT) 的案例研究，以演示所提出模型的应用，其中分析了建设成本超过 1000 万美元的主要项目类型。提出了一个评估改变出租日期影响的公式，并提出了一个估计单个项目建设成本的约束逻辑模型。作为利用所提出模型的建议，总结了三种实用的方法，包括基于滚动水平的出租调度、资金变化分析和资金项目风险评估。