Abstract
In this study, we employ an ant colony system (ACS) algorithm, coupled with a threshold accepting technique, to develop an ACS-based hybrid algorithm that is capable of efficiently solving an emergency roadway repair time-space network flow problem. To test how well the algorithm may be applied to actual operations, we perform a case study using data from the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan. To assess the robustness of the model and solution algorithm for different roadway network patterns, we generate 16 problem instances with four different roadway network patterns. The method that uses CPLEX to directly solve the problem and a previously proposed heuristic are used to compare with our algorithm. The test results show that our algorithm is both effective and efficient enough to solve problems with different roadway networks, and therefore, would be useful in practice.
Acknowledgements
This research (NSC96-2415-H-008-008-MY2) was funded by the National Science Council of Taiwan. We thank the Directorate General of Highways, MOTC for providing the test data and his valuable opinions. We also thank the anonymous referees for their valuable suggestions which greatly improved the presentation of this article.
Notes
1. There is a typo in Yan and Shih (Citation2007) when they counted the number of intersections. The data set in Yan and Shih (Citation2007) included 46 intersections, 9 work stations and 24 damaged points.