TNM Limited is a multinational engineering consulting firm dedicated to the development of transport infrastructure in developed and developing countries. T&M focuses on improving and enriching the administration of public and private organizations in the transport sector, offering effective tools for the conception, supervision, maintenance and administration projects. Economikr has worked with T&M for nearly two decades, and has performed economic feasibility studies, designed and programmed asset management systems, and performed various transportation studies with emphasis on road safety and implementation of new technologies. Several of these projects were performed for other clients while under subcontract to T&M. Sample projects are presented below, by category.
Economic Feasibility Studies
Economic Feasibility Study of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lines in Netanya in Israel
This project is one of the first BRT projects in Israel, and as such entailed the development of new models for estimating modal split with BRT, vehicle operating costs for BRT, transfer penalties from different transport modes, and other BRT-related issues.
Economic Feasibility Study to Widen the Ayalon Freeway in Israel
This project was based on one of the most heavily congested highways in Israel, with approximately 600,000 vehicles per day. The study included analysis of traffic counts, micro-simulation of several alternatives, and a full economic feasibility study, using economic indices.
Economic Feasibility Study of Three Main Roads in Liberia
This study focused on three major roads in the country, both paved and unpaved. The study included the calibration and usage of HDM-4 and RED World Bank models, and was part of a performance-based contract, similar to a PPP (Public Private Partnership) in many respects.
Economic Feasibility Study – Cross-Israel Highway
This project was based on the country’s the first toll road and is the largest road infrastructure project in Israel. The project included analysis of origin-destination surveys, willingness-to-pay surveys, traffic assignments, modal split, and calculation of economic parameters for various road construction and road configuration alternatives, with and without implementation of a toll mechanism.
Pavement and Bridge Management Systems
Botswana OPRC Project
This World Bank project, performed under contract to T&M, includes the economic analysis of various alternatives for about 800 kilometers of both paved and rural roads in Southern Botswana. It is Botswana's first OPRC project. In this project both HDM-4 and RED World Bank programs were utilized.
Nigerian Interurban Pavement Management System (PMS)
This DBOMT (Design, Build Operate Maintain Transfer) project was considered to be on of the first PPP (Public Private Partnership) projects in Africa. The project’s focus was on economic optimization under three types of constraints (budgetary, geographical, and institutional), beyond typical year-by-year constraints. Economic optimization for this project was based on IBC (Incremental Benefit Cost) methods, incorporating both efficiency frontiers and multi-year analyses.
Bridge Management System for Mozambique
This high-level project was performed for all the bridges of Mozambique and included system analysis, GIS data from various bridges and integrating this data with additional data from other software systems. The project focused on economic optimization, cost breakdowns, and a variety of other studies to evaluate a viable bridge management system in the country.
Pavement Management System of Rural Roads in the Dominican Republic
This project was dedicated to creating a pavement management system for all rural roads throughout the Dominican Republic. This included the creation of economic methodology for transport sector evaluation and analysis, developing a socio-economic ranking procedure and further development of poverty indices, both of which were based on economic potential, social and other factors. The results of this project led to procedures that were later used to allocate budgets under a set of budgetary ceilings, based on IBC (Incremental Benefit Cost) multi-year optimization.
Development of a Road Management System for the Rural Roads Network, Uganda
This project’s major objective was the creation of the TYDRIP (Ten Year District Road Investment Plan), and was achieved by creating a detailed Road Management System (RMS). The RMS included economic feasibility calculations (6 alternatives for each road project), economic optimization under budget and institutional constraints, expansion analysis using statistical methodology, calibrating HDM (both HDM-III and HDM-4) and RED World Bank models to local conditions. It further included analysis of motorized and non-motorized traffic, creation of a GIS system based on collected GPS data, interfacing with data from other software systems, economic potential evaluation, and creation of poverty indices which were subsequently use in a ranking procedure.
Development of an Urban Pavement Management System (PMS) for the Roads in 11 Cities, El Salvador
This dedicated PMS project covered the roads in El Salvador’s 11 major cities, including the capital, San Salvador. This large-scale national project included the development of transport models for an urban environment, economic optimization under budget constraints, life cycle cost analysis, and calibration of HDM-4 models to urban road conditions. All models created for this project were then integrated using advanced computer programming, including GIS and video.
Development of a Budgeting System for Funding Interurban and Urban Roads in El Salvador
This project focused on the interurban roads, both paved and unpaved, in El Salvador. The project included the development and calibration of engineering and economic models for road transport projects, from heavily trafficked paved roads, down to rural (unpaved) roads. Further, it focused on creating a budget optimization method for periodic road maintenance activities and prioritization of routine maintenance activities. Three types of optimization were deployed in this project: standard budget optimization, agency cost optimization, and reverse optimization (e.g., determining the costs of raising the road network to a given user-defined level).
Economic Modelling and Road Safety Projects
Economic Evaluation of the Superpave Road Rehabilitation Technique in Israel
Funded by the National Roads Company of Israel, a government-owned corporation in charge of planning, construction, and maintenance of most of the road structure in Israel. The project included an engineering/economic analysis of the Superpave road rehabilitation technique, to examine its applicability to Israeli road conditions, using engineering deterioration curves and economic analysis.
Evaluating Safety Impacts of Interurban Roundabouts in Israel
This project was based on literature surveys and related data, including before/after analysis of interurban roundabout projects and the breakdown into various types of road accidents and associated casualties.
Economic Profitability Analysis of Traffic Safety Improvements in Accident Reduction in Israel
Funded by the Israel Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety, the project developed economic criteria and created an economic model for evaluating investments in traffic safety, both in urban and interurban areas. Further, the project developed transport policies with regard to road accidents, and integrating the above factors into computer software.
Externalities of Truck Loading and Transportation in Israel
Funded by the Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety, this project included externality analysis, pricing, economic evaluation, and determining the optimal tariff to levy on various types of trucks. This project was implemented as a transportation policy by the Israeli government.
Estimation of Roughness Effects on Vehicle Operating Costs in Israel
This project was implemented on congested urban roads in Tel Aviv, using HDM-4, and included developing a scale factor of increasing VOC as a function of roughness and speed parameters.
Manual on Transport Economics Evaluation for the Government of Israel
This manual is considered to be ultimate authority for Transport Economic Evaluations in Israel. Our part in the manual included evaluating economic and financial costs through the various components of a project, and evaluating annual maintenance costs and unexpected costs through different design phases.