AbstractThis report was undertaken at the request of the Management and maintenancedepartment of Swedish National Road Authority (Vägverket Region Sydöst) inJönköping.In 1992, the management and maintenance of Swedish roads were laid out onexternal contractors. When putting out a tender for the work, the foundation isfrom a national set of rules which are in constant change. This report is limited towinter road upkeep.The trend in the invitation for tenders is that it is moving from the moreconventional executional demands towards the less controlling demands. Thedownside of functional, less controlling demands is that it is difficult to articulatehow to measure them. The order authority therefore has to find ways to makesure to get what has been paid for.In connection to the invitation for tender of winter road upkeep for 2005, the newset of rules, ATB Vinter 2003 was deployed.The main purpose of this thesis is to see which the big changes in the set of rulesare and how these changes affect the organisation and activities of the contractor.It is also studied how the changes in execution is perceived by road users and howit affects the possibilities of the contractor to come as a newcomer to a new areaof administration.Interviews and examination of sets of rules has led to a list of a number ofchanges that the contractors feel affect their work in any sense.Views from road users that have come in to the order authority have beenscrutinized to see how they have experienced the change.

Since the beginning of the internet the criminal world has used the medium as a platform for operation.This dark web is a domain where illegal sites are flourishing due to the possibilities offered by newtechnology. Net-based criminal activity is a challenge for society as it uses hard proof technologicalsafety measures to avoid the law. Silk Road is the most prominent example, an online illicitmarketplace where drugs and illegal substances are being traded based on conventional e-commerceconcepts. This paper argues for trust as an important factor for the survival of illicit online trade andapplies existing theories on e-commerce and virtual communities. To identify patterns of trust andcommon trust-based issues among Silk Road users, a netnographic study was conducted on the site?sdiscussion forum.

Certain types of waste, e.g. bottom ash originating from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI bottom ash) can be used as road construction materials. A potential problem is the possibility of substances leaching out of the road and spreading in the surrounding groundwater.The aim of this master?s thesis is to conclude whether hydrogeological type settings can be employed to, based on local conditions, provide an estimate of the probable spreading of these substances in the surrounding groundwater, and whether certain types of soils can be identified as being less suitable for the localization of a MSWI bottom ash road. A hydrogeological type setting is defined as a mappable unit with similar hydrogeological properties.

During the last few years the harwarder has developed from a prototype into a market product. Holmen Skog owns two harwarders and uses two more owned by entrepreneurs. In previous studies it has been shown that the harwarder was a slow and expensive forwarder. In this study the unloading at road-site was studied. The goal was to describe the differences in time consumption between unloading two-sided or single-sided (only from side of the road) and also the difference between unloading with three and four assortments in the carrier.

Tycho Hedéns Väg in Uppsala has evolved from being a through fare passage and highwayto the oversized road frame running through the city it is today. At the present time, dueto the relocation of the E4 highway east of Uppsala, Tycho Hedéns road creates a barrierbetween the north eastern area of Uppsala and the remaining parts of the city centre. Theroad is designed to endure heavy traffic and high speed limits, generating a surrounding urbanarea were inhabitants are complied to follow the standards set for a high traffic-accessibleenvironment. Furthermore, the heavy traffic has led to the turning of both urban roadsidesaway from the actual road. The aim of this project and proposal is to show the possibilities ofhow the innate features of Tycho Hedéns road can be used more advantageously to mend thecity area of Uppsala.

Inventories of epiphytic lichens on Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) were conducted at three sites in east central Sweden: along the newly build motorway (Road E4), along the old road (Road 600) and in a reference site, to compare the effects of traffic pollution on lichen diversities. At each site, species richness, lichen mean sensitivity value (MK), air quality index of the forest stand/sample plot (LKI) and nitrogen impact value (N) were calculated and it was tested if there was any difference between the sites. Twenty-four species were observed in total, and Parmeliopsis ambigua and Hypogymnia physodes were the most common species at all sites. At Road E4, fewer lichen species were observed than at the other sites and this might be due to the impact of air pollution. The species richness at Road 600 was similar to that of the reference site, which might be explained by the improved air quality.

Because of an increasing demand from customers and changing external environment, there is a need for continuous improvements, for both manufacturing and service organizations, to meet these demands. Manufacturing organizations have been working systematically with quality improvements for a long time, but it has not been as common for service organizations. Because of that the methods to use for implementation of the systematic improvements have not been designed to fit service organizations, and not either for public organizations. The purpose of this thesis is to explain if and why the Swedish Road Administration?s organizational culture and handling of ideas and deviation support an implementation of continuous improvement management.

There exists a great need among companies and other organizations to be able to visualize statistics. It?s also increasingly common to ask for web-based solutions for increased flexibility and accessibility for users. This paper describes how large amounts of geovisual data, for a large number of regions, can be visualized in an interactive and well-presented manner. The paper let?s you walk through two application scenarios, developed in a Flash environment, using the GeoViz component library for visualization. The first application has been developed for Statistics Sweden (SCB), to give a solution on how to visualize statistics for Sweden?s zip code regions.

The construction industry stands as one of the industries in Sweden where most employees tend to encounter accidents. At the same time, the Swedish authority of work environment estimates that there are large numbers of hidden statistics with accidents and incidents that never gets reported. To prevent accidents, the Swedish authority of work environment has decided that every company have to, beside report every accident and major incident to the authority of work environment, keep statistics and evaluate every incident that happens at their places of work.The people responsible for work environment at the Swedish building contractor Peab, believe that it is only a fraction of all incidents happening at their construction sites that actually gets reported. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reason why employees of Peab do not report incidents. By an inquiry and interviews with both craftsmen and office holders at Peab Bygg Öst 1, the employees? attitudes and knowledge have been studied and evaluated.The study shows that the craftsmen´s knowledge of incidents is relatively low.

Tycho Hedéns Väg in Uppsala has evolved from being a through fare passage and highwayto the oversized road frame running through the city it is today. At the present time, dueto the relocation of the E4 highway east of Uppsala, Tycho Hedéns road creates a barrierbetween the north eastern area of Uppsala and the remaining parts of the city centre. Theroad is designed to endure heavy traffic and high speed limits, generating a surrounding urbanarea were inhabitants are complied to follow the standards set for a high traffic-accessibleenvironment. Furthermore, the heavy traffic has led to the turning of both urban roadsidesaway from the actual road. The aim of this project and proposal is to show the possibilities ofhow the innate features of Tycho Hedéns road can be used more advantageously to mend thecity area of Uppsala.

To regularly remove woody vegetation along the roadside of forest roads is an important part of the road maintenance, since the vegetation binds moisture in the road side and, thus, the removal makes the road drying faster with results in improved bearing capacity. Vegetation removal also makes it easier to upgrade the road by material recycling from the ditch and, moreover, the visibility along the road is maintained.The aim of the study was to evaluate what type of chain flail is the best and most cost-effective for removal of different kind of woody vegetation along forest roadsides.Time studies were made on two chain flails when removing woody vegetation in three different classes; easy-, middle- and heavy shrub removal. The studied flails were one light and rather simple flail named Optimal M160 and a heavier and more advanced flail named Slagkraft H210. The removal was made according to Holmen Skogs? specification and the quality of the cleaning was measured by objective belt inventory.The productivity was higher with the heavy flail within all cleaning classes.

The purpose of this work has been to investigate if there are any differences in the valuation process at infringements when highway and railway are built. The work has mainly been concentrated on the negotiation process in which The National Railway Department (Banverket) and The National Road Administration (Vägverket) try to get agreements with the land owners. The agreement includes compensation for infringement effects that affects the landowner?s property. The National Road Department uses the road law (Väglagen) when a highway shall be built.

When traffic in large cities increases, it becomes more vulnerable to disturbances such as accidents, stalled vehicles or construction; therefore, traffic jams are more likely to occur. For better control of the traffic at a disturbance the Swedish National Road Administration (SNRA) has traffic equipment which can be controlled from a command centre. This traffic equipment consists of gates and signs with variable messages. This report will discuss the system used for traffic control in Stockholm. It will present proposals designed to improve it.

This essay is about the consequences of alcohol and driving. The topic was chosen because of all the accidents that have taken place during the last couple of years, where the drivers have been under the influence of alcohol. A number of these accidents have had severe consequences, and in some cases the outcome has been deadly. The author has interviewed members of Länkarna; a non-profit organisation that helps people with alcohol related problems.The purpose of writing this essay was to find a reason why alcoholics drive while being intoxicated. Is there really a reason? It is important to look at this because a drunk driver is hazardous to himself and to other drivers.

Car usage is determined by several facts, e.g. living conditions determined by geographical matters. There is a political will to control car usage with different kinds of incentives since car usage generates environmental problems. This essay analyses the differences between car usage in urban areas as opposed to thinly populated areas in Sweden and their significance on governmental incentives. By using statistics differences in car ownership during ten years between thinly populated areas, areas in the countryside and urban areas is studied.