Arc routing problems with time-dependent service costs

This paper studies an arc routing problem with capacity constraints and time-dependent service costs. This problem is motivated by winter gritting applications where the ‘‘timing’’ of each intervention is crucial. The exact problem-solving approach reported here first transforms the arc routing problem into an equivalent node routing problem. Then, a column generation scheme is used to solve the latter. The master problem is a classical set covering problem, while the subproblems are time-dependent shortest path problems with resource constraints. These subproblems are solved using an extension of a previously developed algorithm. Computational results are reported on problems derived from a set of classical instances of the vehicle routing problem with time windows. 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.