Productivity in many governmental agencies can be greatly increased by the application of optimization techniques. As these techniques progress, it is important to keep those agencies who are using them up-to-date with the most recent innovations. Presented is an update of a highway safety application, progressing over 15 years, from the use of dynamic programming to a branch-and-bound technique. The branch-and-bound technique is faster, can handle larger sets of project data, and does not suffer from round-off errors as did the dynamic programming technique. These features have enabled the total available funds from categorical highway safety grants to be allocated to produce the maximum benefit in terms of estimated savings of lives, injuries, and property damage.
Abstract