Recent Results on Arc Routing Problems:
An Annotated Bibliography
Angel Corberán
Dept. d’Estadística i Investigació Operativa, Universitat de València, Spain
Christian Prins
Institut Charles Delaunay, Université de Technologie de Troyes, France
Arc routing problems are vehicle routing problems in
which the tasks to be performed are located on some
arcs or edges of a network, e.g., spreading salt on a
road or collecting municipal refuse in a street. They have
been much less studied than node routing problems but
impressive developments have been achieved in the last
decade. The objective of this article is to survey these
recent results and to provide an annotated bibliogra-
phy. Except for a few references, the period surveyed
starts from the publication of the book “Arc routing:
theory, solutions and applications”, edited by Dror in
2000. The article is made up of two main parts: one on
uncapacitated (single vehicle) problems derived from the
Chinese Postman Problem, the Rural Postman Problem,
and the General Routing Problem; and one on multivehi-
cle or capacitated problems such as the Capacitated Arc
Routing Problem. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS,
Vol. 00(00), 000–000 2009
Keywords: arc routing; vehicle routing; transportation
1. INTRODUCTION
Arc Routing Problems (ARPs) have their origin in the
celebrated Königsberg Bridge Problem solved by Euler and
basically entail finding one or more routes covering all (or a
subset of) the links (arcs or edges) of a graph at minimum
cost and satisfying some side constraints. The basic prob-
lem, known as the Chinese Postman Problem (CPP), is that
of determining a minimum cost closed walk traversing each
edge of an undirected graph at least once. From this basic and
simple problem, the research, motivated by the large number
Received June 2008; accepted August 2009
Correspondence to: A. Corberán; e-mail: angel.corberan@uv.es
Contract grant sponsor: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia; Contract grant
number: MTM 2006-14961-C05-02
Contract grant sponsor: European Regional Development Fund,
Champagne-Ardenne Regional Council, European Regional Development
Fund.
DOI 10.1002/net.20347
Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).
© 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net
of real situations that can be modeled in this way (collection
or delivery of goods, mail distribution, network maintenance,
snow removal, garbage collection, etc.), has focused through-
out the last three decades on increasingly more difficult and
general problems.
One step in this generalization is to consider an underly-
ing (mixed) graph consisting both of edges and arcs. Arcs
(directed links) may model for example one-way streets,
whereas two-way streets may be represented by edges (undi-
rected links). Another extension is to consider a windy graph,
i.e., an undirected graph in which the cost of traversing the
edge (i, j) from i to j is different to that of traversing it from
j to i. In this way, ARPs can be classified depending on
the number of vehicles concerned (one or several) and their
underlying graphs.
The most recent overview of the arc routing area is given
in the book Arc Routing: Theory, Solutions and Applica-
tions, edited by Dror [56] in 2000. It contains 12 chapters
devoted to different topics of arc routing. Theoretical aspects
related to arc traversal, solution methodologies and a num-
ber of representative applications are described here. Among
them, the most important results on complexity, polyhedral
results, exact and heuristic algorithms are presented in detail.
In this paper, we will focus mainly on the results published
after this work.
Although published some years before, the survey by
Assad and Golden [12] and the ones by Eiselt et al. [63, 64]
are also very interesting. Besides covering the basic method-
ology of arc routing by describing the main models and the
solution techniques published so far, the former article also
discusses several case-studies where arc routing approaches
have proved to be useful for solving real-world problems. The
articles by Eiselt, Gendreau, and Laporte deal mainly with the
resolution of the CPP and the Rural Postman Problem (RPP)
on different graph types and with that of the Capacitated Arc
Routing Problem (CARP) defined on an undirected graph.
The articles by Benavent et al. [23] and the interesting one
by Bodin et al [31] illustrate the tremendous gap in knowledge
concerning ARPs covered in the last 25 years. On the other
hand, to our knowledge, Hertz [93] and Negreiros et al. [125]
are the most recent surveys in the field. The first article sum-
marizes some recent algorithmic developments for the RPP
and CARP on undirected graphs. The second one focuses on
the undirected, directed, and mixed versions of the CPP and
presents the software XNÊS, which includes a graph gen-
erator of undirected, directed and mixed CPP instances and
several algorithms for their resolution. Finally, let us recom-
mend two articles focusing on Euler’s life and on the Bridges
of Königsberg by Assad [11] and by Gribkovskaia et al. [88],
respectively, that have been published in a recent issue of
Networks dedicated to Euler on the occasion of his birth 300
years ago.
This article is organized as follows. Section 2 is devoted
to uncapacitated ARPs, Section 3 surveys capacitated prob-
lems and a conclusion sketches a few perspectives. In general,
uncapacitated is equivalent to single vehicle or single trip
and capacitated to multivehicle or multitrip. By convention,
we have included a few exceptions in the second group,
such as the problems with a fixed number of vehicles and a
makespan objective and the CARP with Intermediate Facil-
ities (CARPIF), in which a single vehicle must perform
successive trips, due to capacity or route length restrictions.
2. UNCAPACITATED ARPs
The problems surveyed in this section entail determining a
minimum cost vehicle route (also called tour or trip) travers-
ing each required link (and each required node, if any) at
least once. Two subsections are devoted to two broad classes
of ARPs, namely the Chinese Postman and the Rural Post-
man Problem, and a third subsection in which node and arc
routing aspects are considered at the same time in a more
general problem, the General Routing Problem (GRP). The
undirected, directed, mixed, and windy cases of each problem
are also surveyed.
2.1. The CPP
It is well known that the undirected and directed versions
of the CPP are solvable in polynomial time. Therefore, except
for some variants that will be discussed later, most of the
recent work on the CPP has been done on its mixed and
windy variants, which are NP-hard.
2.1.1. The Mixed Chinese Postman Problem. Given a
mixed graph G = (V , A, E) and a nonnegative cost function
defined over the arcs and edges of G, the Mixed Chinese Post-
man Problem (MCPP) entails finding a minimal cost closed
walk passing through every arc and edge of G at least once.
In their seminal article “Matching, Euler Tours and the Chi-
nese Postman,” Edmonds and Johnson [61] also proved that
the MCPP can be solvable in polynomial time if the graph
is even by proposing the so called Even-MCPP algorithm.
Some years later, Frederickson [72] suggested two heuristics
for the MCPP on general graphs that extended the techniques
used for even graphs. Frederickson also showed that both
2 NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net
algorithms have a worst case of 2 and that these bounds are
sharp. However, applying both heuristics and selecting the
best solution leads to a worst case ratio of 5/3, but it was not
known if this new bound is sharp. The reader can find all
the details in the survey by Hertz and Mittaz [96]. Twenty
years later, Raghavachari and Veerasamy [135] proposed a
modification to the Frederickson’s Mixed Algorithm with a
better worst case ratio of 3/2. Moreover, besides its good
theoretical behavior, the Modified Mixed Algorithm is also
competitive in practice, especially in graphs with a medium-
high percentage of arcs, as was shown in Corberán et al.
[45], in which a greedy randomized adaptive search proce-
dure heuristic for the MCPP is also proposed. Other recent
heuristics for the MCPP are described in Pearn and Chou
[130] and Yaoyuenyong et al. [149]
It is interesting to note here that the MCPP, as well as all
other ARPs defined on mixed graphs, can be formulated in
two different ways depending on whether only one or two
variables associated with each edge of the graph are used.
In the first case, only one variable xe associated with edge e
would represent the number of times this edge is traversed (in
any direction) by the solution. The corresponding formula-
tion, called F1, is based on the characterization of an Eulerian
mixed graph given by Ford and Fulkerson [71]. Formulation
F2 uses two variables per edge, representing the number of
times it is traversed in the appropriate direction. Both for-
mulations have been widely used in the literature and have
been compared from the theoretical and computational point
of view in Corberán et al. [47].
Although the polyhedron associated with the MCPP has
not been specifically studied, some results can be deduced
from the polyhedral results obtained for the Mixed Gen-
eral Routing Problem by Corberán et al. [52]. For example,
the dimension of the polyhedron associated with the solu-
tions to formulation F1 is known as well as that the odd-cut
inequalities and balanced-set inequalities are facet-inducing.
Also, a new family of valid inequalities for the MCPP, the
zigzag inequalities, is presented in Corberán et al. [49]. Con-
ditions under which these inequalities are facet inducing for
the polyhedra associated with formulations F1 and F2 are
also given.
The branch-and-cut algorithm proposed in Corberán et al.
[48], which is briefly described in the next section, is able
to solve large size instances. Specifically, 17 of 24 instances
with 3000 nodes and up to 9000 arcs and edges were solved to
optimality without using a heuristic producing initial upper
bounds. All these test instances, and other instances of ARPs
defined on undirected, mixed, and windy graphs, can be found
at http://www.uv.es/∼corberan/instancias.htm.
2.1.2. The Windy Postman Problem. Because Windy
ARPs are defined on “windy” graphs, i.e. undirected graphs,
where the cost of traversing an edge in a given direction can
be different to the cost of traversing it in the opposite direc-
tion, they contain their corresponding undirected, directed,
and mixed versions as special cases. Hence, the Windy Post-
man Problem (WPP), which entails finding a minimum cost
tour traversing all the edges of a windy graph at least once,
generalizes the MCPP and therefore is a NP-hard problem.
However, several special cases can be solved in polynomial
time as, for example, if the problem is defined on an even
(Eulerian) graph. This result was proven by Win [143] in his
PhD Thesis by describing a polynomial time algorithm that
always produces an optimal WPP solution if the input graph
has all its vertices of even degree. This algorithm can easily
be extended to general graphs by just adding a first phase
in which the original graph G is transformed into an even
graph G by solving a minimum cost matching problem for
instance.
Win’s PhD Thesis is an outstanding work on ARPs and
although some of its main results were published in Win [144]
and Grötschel and Win [89], it still contains many other inter-
esting results that have never been published. Win proved
that the above heuristic for the WPP on general graphs has a
worst-case ratio of 2 and that this bound is approachable. He
proposed another heuristic entailing rounding up the optimal
solutions to the linear relaxation of the WPP formulation.
This algorithm was based on the following result: the values
of the variables in any optimal LP solution are integer or 0.5,
and xij = 0.5 if and only if xji = 0.5. Then, it can be proved
that forcing xij = xji = 1 for these variables leads to a feasi-
ble WPP solution. Win also proved that again this heuristic
has a worst-case ratio of 2 and the bound is approachable.
Based on their algorithm for the MCPP, Raghavachari and
Veerasamy [136] modify Win’s LP algorithm to get a new one
with a better worst-case ratio of 3/2. Finally, Zaragoza [150]
has solved a conjecture in Win [143] by proving that series-
parallel graphs are windy postman perfect. This implies that
the WPP defined on those graphs can be solved in polynomial
time.
On the other hand, up to now the best exact method for
solving the WPP was the cutting-plane algorithm described
in Grötschel and Win [89]. Instances with up to 264 ver-
tices and 489 edges were optimally solved with this method.
As for the MCPP, the odd zigzag inequalities presented in
Corberán et al. [49] are facet inducing inequalities of the
polyhedron associated with the WPP. In this article, it is also
proved that these inequalities generalize the 3-wheel inequal-
ities proposed by Win [143] and that they play an important
role in the exact resolution of the WPP. In Corberán et al.
[48], a branch-and-cut procedure able to solve large size
instances of up to 3000 nodes and 9000 edges is described. It
is based on a cutting-plane algorithm that identifies violated
odd-cut and odd zigzag inequalities and two other new facet-
inducing inequality types. The authors show that odd zigzag
and the two new types of inequalities are mod-2 cuts [35]
and, because maximally violated mod-2 cuts can be identi-
fied in polynomial time [36], (this property is used in a new
separation procedure).
It is interesting to note here that a completely dif-
ferent approach to the WPP resolution was proposed by
Yan and Thompson [148]. The authors slightly modify the
WPP formulation to get an equivalent set covering prob-
lem. Taking into account this transformation, an exact and a
heuristic algorithm producing good results for instances with
up to 90 nodes and 180 edges are proposed. Both methods are
based on a branch-and-bound procedure previously designed
for the resolution of set covering, partitioning, and packing
problems.
2.1.3. Other CPP Variants. The Generalized Chinese
Postman Problem entails finding a minimum cost tour travers-
ing at least one of the edges of each subset in which the
edge set E is partitioned. This problem is the arc routing
version of the Generalized Traveling Salesman Problem and
was proposed by Dror and Haouari [57], who showed it to be
NP-hard.
The Hierarchical Chinese Postman Problem (HCPP) is a
variant of the CPP in which a precedence relation is estab-
lished among the different subsets in which edge set E is
partitioned. If subset Ei precedes Ej , the edges of Ei must be
serviced before the edges of Ej . The HCPP is NP-hard in gen-
eral but can be solved in polynomial time if the precedence
relation is linear and each subset Ei induces a connected graph
[60]. In this article, a polynomial time algorithm was pro-
posed for this case. More recently, Ghiani and Improta [77]
and Korteweg and Volgenant [101] describe different exact
algorithms for the same case requiring a lower computational
effort. In the latter article, other variants of the HCPP are also
discussed. Finally, in Cabral et al. [34] a transformation of
the HCPP into the RPP is proposed. Computational results
assessing the computational value of the transformation are
also included.
Another interesting CPP variant, the Maximum Benefit
Chinese Postman Problem (MBCPP), has been studied by
Pearn and Wang [131]. In this problem, each edge e is asso-
ciated with a service cost, a deadhead cost, and a list of
nonincreasing profits. The first time e is traversed, a profit
be1 is incurred. For a second traversal, the profit is be2 ≤ be1 ,
etc. The MBCPP consists of finding a route, starting from the
depot, traversing a subset of the set of edges of the graph, and
returning to the depot in such a way that the total net benefit
is maximized. The authors show that the RPP is a special case
of the MBCPP, and therefore the MBCPP is NP-hard, discuss
some solution properties and propose a heuristic algorithm
for its resolution. Other heuristic algorithms of constructive
type and local search procedures are presented in Pearn and
Chiu [129]. A similar problem defined on directed graphs was
previously investigated by Malandraki and Daskin [112].
In Aminu and Eglese [7], the Chinese Postman Problem
with time windows (CPPTW) is considered. In this prob-
lem, a specified vertex is designated as the depot and the
traversal must start and finish at the depot, and time-window
constraints are introduced so that earliest and latest time
restrictions are specified for the completion of service of
each edge. Two different models for solving the CPPTW
using constraint programming are proposed by the authors:
the first one approaches the problem directly, while the sec-
ond transforms the CPPTW into an equivalent node routing
problem with time windows. Some computational results are
also presented.
NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net 3
2.2. The Rural Postman Problem
In the previous section, we dealt with problems in which
all the links of a given graph have to be traversed, here we
consider problems in which only a subset of the links of the
graph, called required links, have to be traversed. This prob-
lem, the RPP, can be solved in polynomial time if it is defined
on an undirected or directed graph and the required edges or
arcs induce a connected graph. Otherwise, it is NP-hard and
its difficulty increases with the number of the components
induced by the required links (R-connected components).
2.2.1. The Undirected RPP. Given an undirected graph
G = (V , E) and a subset ER ⊆ E, the undirected RPP is
the problem of finding a minimum cost closed walk travers-
ing all the edges in ER (required edges) at least once. The
RPP has received a lot of attention in the last 12 years. Its
associated polyhedron as well as the one of its generaliza-
tion, the GRP, have been studied in depth (see the survey by
Eglese and Letchford, [62]), and this polyhedral description is
the basis of a cutting-plane algorithm proposed by Corberán,
Letchford and Sanchis [42] for the resolution of the RPP and
GRP. Instances of up to 196 vertices and 111 R-connected
components were solved to optimality.
Based on a slightly different formulation, Ghiani and
Laporte [81] present a branch-and-cut procedure capable of
solving instances up to 350 vertices and 53.6 R-connected
components on average. The main difference is that Ghi-
ani and Laporte formulate the RPP using only 0/1 variables.
This important result is based on the following observation:
there is always an optimal RPP solution in which at most p-1
variables are equal to 2, p being the number of R-connected
components, and they are associated with the edges in a mini-
mum cost tree spanning the p components. Because all others
are 0/1 variables, by duplicating the 0/1/2 ones, Ghiani and
Laporte can formulate the RPP using only binary variables.
Then, cocircuit inequalities [13] are valid for the 0/1 formula-
tion, whereas they are not valid for the unbounded polyhedron
induced by the previous formulations. These inequalities can
be separated in polynomial time and have proved to be very
useful in the exact resolution of the RPP.
Obviously, the above-mentioned cutting-plane and
branch-and-cut procedures would certainly be capable of
solving larger instances in today’s computers because,
besides being executed in very slow machines by today’s
standards (66 and 90 MHz, respectively), their main limita-
tion being the memory (16 MB RAM for the B&C study).
However, in our opinion, they could easily be combined to
get a very good method for the RPP resolution. Some pre-
liminary results in this direction were obtained by Theis
[141]. At this moment the largest RPP instances solved have
been reported in Corberán et al. [50]. The authors describe
a branch-and-cut procedure for the Windy General Routing
Problem (which contains the RPP as a special case) capable
of solving 12 of 12 RPP instances with up to 1000 nodes,
3080 edges, and 204 R-connected components in 50 min on
average.
4 NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net
In Reinelt and Theis study [137, 138], the study started by
Ghiani and Laporte [81] of the polytope associated with the
0/1 formulation has been continued and a very good descrip-
tion of it and its use for the exact resolution of the RPP is
presented.
A completely different approach to the resolution of the
RPP has been proposed by Fernández et al. [66]. They mod-
ify the RPP formulation given by Garfinkel and Webb [74],
which looks for matchings in a transformed graph that also
connect the R-connected components, to get a better formu-
lation with fewer variables and constraints. Based on the
modified formulation, the authors propose new upper and
lower bounds for the RPP showing a good performance that
could be improved in the future if further research in this
direction is done.
Frederickson’s heuristic [72] is the best known construc-
tive algorithm for the RPP. It is based on Christofides’s
algorithm for the TSP and, similar to the latter, it has a
worst-case ratio of 3/2. Another constructive algorithm has
been recently proposed by Ghiani et al. [80] It entails iter-
atively inserting a R-connected component into the partial
solution and performing a local-reoptimization. The com-
putational results reported show that it is competitive with
Frederickson’s heuristic.
Fernández de Córdoba et al. [67] describe a heuristic
based on Monte Carlo principles. In Hertz et al. [94] several
improvement procedures are presented. These improvement
routines can be used as basic tools for the design of more
sophisticated constructive algorithms for the RPP (see also
[96]) and can easily be adapted to handle directed or mixed
graphs. Another local search framework is presented in
Groves and van Vuuren [91]. It also applies to the RPP some
local search approaches that have been applied successfully
to the TSP. Groves and van Vuuren point out that although the
Two-opt algorithm by Hertz et al. [94] obtained more opti-
mal solutions in some restricted computational experiments
(22 versus 19 of 25), its computational complexity limits its
applicability to small instances, while their own algorithm
is capable of heuristically solving larger instances. Finally,
although in the context of the GRP, the article by Muylder-
mans et al. [121] also describes how the 2-opt and 3-opt local
search procedures for node routing problems can be adapted
to solve arc and GRPs successfully.
2.2.2. The Directed and Mixed RPP. No article com-
pletely devoted to the RPP defined on a directed graph
(DRPP) has been published recently. Most of the results
related to the DRPP have been obtained in the context of
its generalizations in mixed or windy graphs or correspond
to extensions such as the DRPP with turn penalties.
Consider now a mixed graph G = (V , A, E) and subsets
AR ⊆ A and ER ⊆ E of required arcs and edges, respectively,
as well as a nonnegative cost associated with each arc and
edge of G. The problem of finding a closed walk with mini-
mum total cost traversing the links in AR ∪ ER at least once
is the Mixed Rural Postman Problem (MRPP). Laporte [108]
proposes a transformation of the MRPP into the Asymmet-
ric Traveling Salesman Problem (ATSP) that is capable of
solving instances of up to 220 vertices and 660 links (edges
and arcs). The polyhedron associated with the MRPP has
been studied in the more general context of the Mixed Gen-
eral Routing Problem by Corberán et al. [52] and Corberán
et al. [46]. All known families of facet-inducing inequalities
for the (Undirected) RPP, as connectivity, R-odd cuts, K-C
and honeycomb inequalities, can be extended to also obtain
facets for the MRPP polyhedron. Moreover, new families of
inequalities that take into account the asymmetry of the costs
are presented and proved to also be facet inducing. Heuris-
tic separation procedures for identifying violated inequalities
of the above types are also described. Computational results
with a cutting-plane algorithm proving that the polyhedral
description is useful to solve MRPP and MGRP instances
are presented.
A constructive heuristic and a tabu search algorithm for
the MRPP are described in Corberán et al. [44]. Chyu [40]
proposes a heuristic for the MRPP defined on what the author
calls a symmetric mixed graph. This is a mixed graph in which
for each arc (i, j) there always exists the arc (j, i) and both arcs
have the same cost. If edge and arc costs satisfy the triangle
inequality, a heuristic algorithm consisting of four procedures
designed for handling different structures of the required arc
set is proved by Chyu to have a worst-case ratio between 3/2
and 15/8, depending on the ratio of the cost of the required
edges to that of the required arcs in the problem.
To our knowledge, the most efficient procedure for the
exact resolution of the DRPP and MRPP is a branch-and-cut
method based on the partial description of their associated
polyhedra. It is described in Corberán et al. [50] and solves
DRPP instances with up to 1000 vertices, 3100 arcs, and
213 R-connected components in less than 1 min on average,
most of them at the root node. Also, all the MRPP instances
with up to 1000 vertices, 4000 links, and 188 R-connected
components were solved to optimality in 20 min of CPU on
average.
2.2.3. The Windy Rural Postman Problem. The RPP
defined on a windy graph (WRPP) has been studied in
Benavent et al. [24]. In this article, an interesting WRPP
application is described: the problem of finding a mini-
mum energy consumption traversal a climbing robot has to
do to inspect the beams of a 3D structure can be modeled
as a WRPP. The authors extend the WPP formulation by
Grötschel and Win [89] to the Rural case and present several
families of valid inequalities that are used in a cutting-plane
procedure for the WRPP. This method has succeeded in solv-
ing large instances with about 500 vertices, 1000 edges, and
80 R-connected components.
The article also includes the description of three con-
structive heuristic algorithms for the WRPP and their
worst-case analysis. Moreover, because problems defined
on directed or mixed graphs can be considered as windy
problems where some variables have been set to zero, the
authors prove a nice result: all the valid inequalities for the
(Undirected) CPP produce valid inequalities for the DCPP,
MCPP, and WPP. Also, from all the valid inequalities for the
RPP and the GRP valid inequalities for their directed, mixed
and windy versions can be obtained. Finally, the authors
establish the following conjecture: all facet-inducing inequal-
ities for the RPP and the GRP also produce facet-inducing
inequalities for the WRPP and the Windy GRP. But they also
point out that this conjecture clearly does not hold for the
directed or mixed RPP and GRP cases.
Other heuristic algorithms for the WRPP have been pro-
posed in Benavent et al. [25]. Although this article was
published earlier, it is based on the work by Benavent et al.
that was finally published in 2007. In it, two new construc-
tive algorithms, which are modified versions of two heuristics
proposed in the article by Benavent et al. [24], and several
improvement procedures are presented. Moreover, four mul-
tistart procedures obtained by randomizing certain steps of
the constructive algorithms are described. Finally, a scatter
search metaheuristic that combines the best previous proce-
dures is also presented. Extensive computational results on
instances up to 1000 vertices are included.
The study of the WRPP polyhedron has been done in
Corberán et al. [51] in the context of the Windy GRP. In
this article, it is proved that all the valid inequalities for the
WRPP proposed in the work by Benavent et al. [24] are facet
inducing for its associated polyhedron. Also, new separa-
tion routines and more sophisticated elements have led to the
design and implementation of the already mentioned branch-
and-cut procedure by Corberán et al. [50] This method, based
on the cutting-plane algorithm by Benavent et al. [24], is capa-
ble of solving very large WRPP instances. For example, all
54 purely random instances having up to 1000 vertices, 4000
edges, and 150 R-connected components were solved opti-
mally, as well as 65 of 72 instances associated with graphs
trying to imitate street networks and with up to 1000 vertices,
3070 edges, and 202 R-connected components.
2.2.4. Other RPP Variants. An interesting ARP with time
windows, the RPP with deadline classes, was studied by
Letchford and Eglese [109]. It entails finding a minimum
cost route traversing a subset, ER , of the edges of a graph
where ER is divided into a number of deadline classes R1 , R2 ,
…, RL , each class having its own time deadline: customers
in R1 must be serviced by time T 1 , customers in R2 must
be serviced by time T 2 , and so on. The authors present a
formulation of the problem, several classes of valid inequali-
ties and a cutting-plane algorithm. Computational results on
instances of up to 50 vertices, 110 edges, and 7 R-connected
components are reported.
The Periodic Rural Postman Problem is a variant of the
RPP in which each required edge e must be visited ne times
over a m-day planning period in such a way that service days
are equally spaced. The problem entails deciding on which
days each required edge has to be serviced and to design a
postman tour for each day of the planning period in such a
way that the total distance traveled over the m-day period
is minimized. Ghiani et al. [83] introduce the problem and
NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net 5
propose a heuristic algorithm providing good computational
results on instances with up to 250 vertices.
The Prize-collecting Rural Postman Problem (PRPP) was
introduced by Aráoz et al. [10] with the name Privatized Rural
Postman Problem. The PRPP is the arc routing version of the
TSP with profits. Given an undirected graph with a distin-
guished vertex, the depot, and a profit and a cost associated
with its edges, the problem entails finding a cycle C, passing
through the depot and not necessarily simple, which maxi-
mizes the value of its edges. In the PRPP, it is assumed that
giving service to an edge incurs both a cost (associated with
its traversal), and a profit (associated with servicing it). Each
time an edge is traversed its associated cost has to be paid.
However, the profit of each edge serviced in the route will be
collected only once, independently of the number of times
the edge is traversed. In PRPP, traversals that maximize the
total servicing profit minus the traversal costs are searched.
Several properties and integer formulations of the problem,
as well as some families of valid inequalities are presented in
this article. In a second piece of work [9], an LP-based algo-
rithm for the PRPP resolution is developed. The algorithm
solved optimally 94 of 118 instances with up to 100 vertices
and 22 R-connected components.
A related problem, the Profitable Arc Tour Problem
(PATP), was proposed in Feillet et al. [65]. The PATP is
defined on a directed graph G = (V , A) in which profits
and travel costs are associated with its arcs. Given Q ⊂ A,
each arc (i, j) ∈ Q receives a profit value pij ≥ 0 and a
value qij ∈ N indicating the number of times that this profit
can be collected. The objective is to find a set of cycles in
the graph that maximize the collection of profit minus travel
costs, subject to constraints limiting the number of times that
profit is available on arcs and the maximal length of cycles.
The authors mention that the definition of this problem was
motivated by an application in freight transportation arising
in the car industry, and that the PATP is also related to other
problems appearing in the optimization of telecommunica-
tion networks. They propose a Branch-and-Price algorithm
to exactly solve the PATP that produces good computational
results on instances up to 30 vertices and hundreds of arcs.
It is interesting to point out that the computational results
section includes some experiments to compare the resolution
of the PATP as an ARP, or as an equivalent problem resulting
from its transformation into a node routing one. In this last
case, the procedure becomes clearly inefficient, confirming
the necessity of developing specific procedures designed for
ARPs.
In Groves et al. [90], another generalization of the RPP is
considered. Now, it is no longer required that each edge be
traversed at least once, but rather that each edge be traversed
at least a given number of times and that the positions within
the closed walk at which consecutive traversals of the same
edge occur should be spread over the whole closed walk as
evenly as possible, for all edges. This new problem has both
a routing cost and a spread objective, and these are typically
conflicting objectives. Then, the problem may be defined in
many forms, depending on the criterion used for the spread
6 NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net
objective and the manner in which both objectives are com-
bined. The authors discuss several aspects of the problem
and propose a constructive heuristic and a local search pro-
cedure for a special case in which the notion of spread is
defined in terms of temporal deviation within a specified time
window.
The DRPP with turn penalties and forbidden turns
(DRPPTP) was studied by Benavent and Soler [28]. In this
problem, a nonnegative penalty is associated with every turn.
Each time the vehicle goes from one arc to another, the
solution cost is increased by the corresponding penalty. For-
bidden turns have an infinite penalty. Benavent and Soler
propose solving this problem optimally by transforming it
into an ATSP. They also present several heuristics to solve
the DRPPTP. Another DRPP extension where the arcs are
clustered and each cluster must be serviced entirely before
servicing the next one was discussed by Dror and Langevin
[58].
Corberán et al. [43] consider the MRPP with turn penal-
ties and forbidden turns (MRPPTP). As in the DRPPTP,
the MRPPTP can be also transformed into an ATSP and
the authors report some computational experience on the
MRPPTP resolution by using this transformation. They also
propose a heuristic algorithm that applies directly to the
MRPPTP and that produces very good solutions. Clossey
et al. [41] study the turn penalties extension for general ARPs.
The need for more service flexibility when planning
postal distribution has motivated a generalization of the
WRPP in which some street segments with houses on both
sides can be serviced twice by two separate traversals or
by a single “zigzag” traversal. Irnich [98] gives an inte-
ger programming formulation for this problem, the Windy
Rural Postman Problem with zigzag service (WRPPZ), and
describes how it can be transformed into an ATSP and a
TSP. Some computational results using these transforma-
tions are included in the article to show that incorporating
zigzag options into an arc routing model can provide better
solutions.
In a second article [99], an extended version of the
WRPPZ incorporating several practical relevant issues is
presented. Among them, turn and street crossing restric-
tions, cluster constraints, the use of public transport to reach
the postal district or the design of open tours for the post-
men. Several heuristic algorithms based on a transformation
of this extended problem into an ATSP are presented as
well as extensive computational results on postal district
based instances. The resulting ATSP instances had between
62 and 258 nodes with an average of 137.6 nodes. The
undirected CPP and RPP with zigzagging option are also
considered in Irnich [100]. The author proposes a branch-
and-cut algorithm for the resolution of both problems as
ARPs that is based in a new procedure devised by Letchford
et al. [110] to separate odd-cut inequalities. Computational
results on randomly generated instances defined on graphs
in which the node set is located on a rectangular grid and
with up to 3600 nodes and 81 R-connected components are
reported.
 A nice real-world application is presented in Ghiani and
Improta [78]. Drawing patterns and decorations on the metal-
lic surfaces of some products can be performed using a laser
plotter that works as follows. The head of its light source is
moved from the home position to one end of a sequence of
attached lines, the shutter is opened, the beam is moved along
the lines, then the shutter is closed, the head is moved to one
end of another set of lines, and so on. When the drawing is
finished, the head returns to its home position. Because the
length of the lines to be drawn is fixed, the Laser-Plotter Beam
Routing Problem (LRP) entails minimizing the total length
of the “nondrawing” moves but, because an undesired spot
is created each time a new line is drawn and the shutter has
to be adjusted after a certain number of openings, the spots
and the shutter openings are to be kept to as few as possible.
Ghiani and Improta model the LRP as an RPP with an addi-
tional constraint (related to the minimum number of spots)
and describe how to transform the LRP defined on a graph
G into an RPP defined on a modified graph G . Applying the
Ghiani and Laporte’s branch-and-cut algorithm, the authors
can solve real-world and random instances with up to 225
vertices.
Another interesting real-life problem appearing in a com-
pany manufacturing high-precision tools is considered in
Moreira et al. [115]. The article describes the problem of
determining a shortest cutting path for the cutting out of
pieces of predefined shapes from a given expensive surface.
This problem has several specific features. For example, the
cutting surface is suspended, which involves the falling of the
surface portions cut out and implies that the graph in which
the cutting path is determined changes along the cutting pro-
cess itself. Moreover, the cutting process is performed by an
electrified copper string that traverses the circular plate and
never leaves the cutting surface. Then, any movement from
one plate point to another corresponds to an effective cut. The
authors define this problem as the Dynamic Rural Postman
Problem and propose a heuristic algorithm based on node
routing ideas for its approximate resolution. Computational
results with actual industrial instances are reported.
2.3. The GRP
Although all the problems presented so far are pure ARPs,
in this section, we consider a problem that also address the
node routing aspect.
2.3.1. The Undirected GRP. The (Undirected) GRP was
introduced by Orloff [126] and, given an undirected con-
nected graph G = (V , E) and subsets ER ⊆ E and VR ⊆ V ,
can be defined as the problem of finding a minimum cost
closed walk traversing the edges in ER and visiting the ver-
tices in VR at least once. A good number of well-known arc
routing and vehicle routing problems are special cases of the
GRP. When VR = ∅, the RPP is obtained and if, in addition,
ER = E, we have the CPP. On the other hand, if ER = ∅,
the GRP reduces to the Steiner Graphical Traveling Sales-
man Problem [53], also called the Road Traveling Salesman
Problem [68], if, in addition, VR = V , the Graphical
Traveling Salesman Problem (GTSP) is obtained [53].
The RPP and the GRP are equivalent problems from the
theoretical point of view. Just note that the required vertices
that are incident with required edges can be ignored (because
traversing these edges will force the solution to visit the ver-
tices) and that the isolated required vertices can be considered
as R-connected components having only one vertex. In this
way, their integer formulations are equal and most of the
heuristic and exact methods for solving the RPP or the GRP
can be easily modified to solve the other problem. From the
computational point of view, however, solving the GRP is
harder than solving the RPP. The reason is that, as mentioned
before, an isolated required vertex should be handled as an
R-set and the complexity of the RPP grows with the num-
ber of R-connected components. Their associated polyhedra
are also very similar and the facet-defining inequalities can
be handled without distinction for both problems. The poly-
hedron associated with the formulation with general integer
variables (e.g., Eglese and Letchford [62]) and the polytope
associated with the 0-1 formulation [81, 137, 138] has been
widely studied.
The cutting-plane algorithm in Corberán et al. [41] and
the branch-and-cut algorithm by Ghiani and Laporte [81],
already commented on Section 2.2.1, are based on the polyhe-
dral descriptions mentioned earlier. Very good computational
results concerning the GRP and their special cases (RPP and
GTSP) have been obtained with the branch-and-cut algorithm
described in Corberán et al. [50]. Thirty of 36 GRP instances
with 500, 750, and 1000 vertices and up to 3100 edges and 573
R-connected components were solved in 2460 sec on average
on a Pentium IV at 2.8 GHz machine with 1 GB RAM. Also,
seven difficult pure GTSP instances with up to 225 vertices
and 392 edges were solved in 3100 seconds on average.
As was mentioned in the section devoted to the undirected
RPP, the article by Muyldermans et al. [121] describes how
the 2-opt and 3-opt local search procedures for node routing
problems can be adapted to solve arc and GRPs successfully.
In this article, two forms of the 2-opt and 3-opt approaches
are applied to the GRP. The first version is similar to the con-
ventional approach for the traveling salesman problem; the
second version includes a dynamic programming procedure
and explores a larger neighborhood at the expense of higher
running times.
2.3.2. The Mixed General Routing Problem. As it was
pointed out in the MCPP section, ARPs on mixed graphs
have been modeled in the literature either using just one vari-
able per edge or associating to each edge two variables, each
one representing its traversal in the corresponding direction.
In the first case, the corresponding formulation, called F1,
is based on the characterization of an Eulerian mixed graph
given by Ford and Fulkerson [71]. In the second one, formula-
tion F2 is based on the necessary and sufficient condition for a
directed graph to be Eulerian. In Corberán et al. [47] and using
the Mixed General Routing Problem (MGRP) as an exam-
ple, both formulations, as well as the lower bounds obtained
NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net 7
from them using Linear Programming based methods, are
compared theoretical and computationally.
The MGRP polyhedron associated with formulation F1
has been studied in Corberán et al. [46, 52]. Both articles
are the first polyhedral investigations of an ARP defined
on a mixed graph and present a good number of different
facet-defining inequalities that have been proved to be use-
ful in the practical resolution of large MGRP (and other
ARPs) instances. The first article also shows the application
of the polyhedral results obtained for the MGRP to other
known routing problems such as the MCPP, RPP, DRPP,
MRPP, and the Graphical Asymmetric Traveling Salesman
Problem (GATSP). The second article also presents heuris-
tic separation procedures for several families of facets and a
cutting-plane procedure. On the other hand, formulation F2
for the MGRP has not been specifically studied, but, because
using two variables per edge is the “natural formulation” of
the Windy GRP, many properties of the polyhedron associ-
ated with the F2 formulation of MGRP can be obtained from
the polyhedral study of the Windy GRP [51].
As the RPP, the directed and mixed versions of the GRP
can readily be transformed into equivalent node routing prob-
lems. Blais and Laporte [30] use these transformations to
solve the Directed and Mixed GRP as an ATSP and a Asym-
metric Generalized TSP, respectively. This approach is shown
to be particularly useful in the directed case. To our knowl-
edge, the largest MGRP instances worked out have been
solved with the branch-and-cut algorithm for the Windy GRP
described in Corberán et al [50]. With this procedure, 14 of
18 instances with 1000 vertices and, on average, 1240 edges
and 1210 arcs, 1200 of which are required edges and arcs
defining 170 R-connected components, have been solved to
optimality.
2.3.3. The Windy General Routing Problem. The
Windy General Routing Problem (WGRP) is one of the most
general ARPs. It contains the CPP, RPP, and GRP defined
on undirected, directed, mixed, and windy graphs as special
cases as well as other pure node routing problems such as
the GTSP defined on undirected and directed graphs. Con-
sequently, most of the theoretical results obtained for the
WGRP and the algorithms designed for its approximate or
exact resolution can be applied to many other ARP’s.
The WGRP polyhedron has been recently studied in Plana
[132] and Corberán et al. [51]. Some general properties and
some large families of facet-inducing inequalities are pre-
sented. This polyhedron has some interesting features such
as for instance that, while the polyhedra based on standard
formulations using only one variable per edge corresponding
to many ARPs satisfy that all the facet-inducing inequalities
(except the trivial ones) are configuration inequalities [124],
the WGRP polyhedron does not satisfy this property. Note
that an inequality F(x) ≥ b0 is a configuration inequality if
there is a partition B = {B1 , B2 , . . . , Br } of V such that the
subgraphs G(Bk ) are connected, the variables associated with
links in the sets E(Bk ) have coefficient zero in the inequality
and the variables associated with links from a given set Bp to
8 NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net
another given set Bq have the same coefficient in the inequal-
ity. Obviously, in the WGRP polyhedron, simple inequalities
like trivial and traversing inequalities (those forcing the solu-
tion to traverse any required edge at least once in any of its two
directions) are not configuration inequalities. However, to the
authors knowledge, this is the first time in routing problems
that non-simple facet-defining inequalities having variables
associated with links from some set Bp to another set Bq with
different coefficients in the inequality have been found. This
characteristic leads to a new wider class of inequalities, the
weak configuration inequalities. The article also provides a
global view of the polyhedra associated with those routing
problems that are special cases of the WGRP.
In Corberán et al. [50], a branch-and-cut algorithm for
the Windy General Routing Problem which is also capa-
ble of efficiently solving other well-known routing problems
is presented. It includes separation algorithms for several
families of facet-defining inequalities, including a new sep-
aration algorithm for the zigzag inequalities. The authors
have implemented different techniques to improve the perfor-
mance of the B&C, such as the use of less dense versions of
facet-inducing inequalities, heuristic algorithms to get upper
bounds, artificial upper bounds and a selection of violated
inequalities. This exact algorithm has been capable of solv-
ing 46 of 51 WGRP instances with 500 vertices and up to
1550 edges and 280 R-connected components. In spite of not
being a specific algorithm for solving instances with sym-
metric costs, it also performs well on instances defined on
undirected graphs. Also its behavior is very good on directed
and mixed instances.
3. CAPACITATED ARPs
This section surveys the main contributions published
since 2000 on the ARPs involving a “capacity" on vehi-
cles. This capacity often corresponds to the maximum load
but sometimes also to a maximum working time or dis-
tance traveled. Capacitated ARPs are obviously more difficult
than uncapacitated ones and their study is also more recent,
explaining why many results concern metaheuristics.
3.1. The Undirected Capacitated Arc Routing Problem
3.1.1. Exact and Lower Bound Methods. Most articles
on the Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (CARP) consider
in fact an undirected graph G = (V , E). To avoid confusion
with versions on directed or mixed networks addressed in the
sequel, we prefer to call this problem the Undirected CARP or
UCARP. The nodes of V include one depot v1 with K identical
vehicles of capacity Q. A traversal cost ce is associated with
each e of the edge set E. The edges include a subset ER of
required edges or tasks, which must be serviced by a vehicle.
Each task has an integral demand qe ≥ 0 and, sometimes, a
processing cost pe . The goal is to find a minimum cost set of
routes to process all tasks. A route is a closed walk containing
the depot and a set of traversed edges, some of which being
serviced by the vehicle. The total demand serviced by a route
must not exceed Q. The UCARP has obvious applications
such as municipal refuse collection, winter gritting, postal
distribution, inspection of power lines, meter reading, etc. It
was introduced by Golden and Wong [85], but the case with
ER = E (Capacitated Chinese Postman Problem or CCPP),
was addressed earlier by Christofides [37]. Both problems
are NP-hard. It is even NP-hard to find a 3/2 approximation
for the UCARP when the triangle inequality holds [85].
This section often refers to three sets of classical
benchmarks, which can be obtained from http://www.uv.es/
∼belengue/carp.html. The 25 gdb instances have 7 to 27
nodes and 11 to 55 edges, all required. Instances 8 and 9
are never used because they contain inconsistencies. The 34
val instances contain 24 to 50 nodes and 34 to 97 edges, all
required. The 24 larger egl instances have 77 to 140 nodes,
98 to 190 edges and 51 to 190 required edges.
The first integer linear formulation for the UCARP was
given by Golden and Wong [85], but it requires an exponen-
tial number of variables and constraints and the lower bound
obtained from its continuous relaxation is always zero. The
sparse formulation of Belenguer and Benavent [17] (see also
[27]) use O(K|ER |) variables, which is acceptable for many
practical applications on sparse road networks, for which
|ER | ≤ |E| ≈ 4|V |. The model uses binary variables xek , equal
to 1 if vehicle k serves the required edge e, and integer vari-
ables yek , equal to the number of times vehicle k traverses the
required edge e without servicing it (deadheading traversals).
Belenguer and Benavent have used the sparse formulation
to design a branch-and-cut code [18] and to analyze valid
inequalities and facets [19].
Belenguer and Benavent [20] proposed a simplified inte-
ger linear model, the supersparse formulation, which is not
valid for the UCARP but leads to good lower bounds. It uses
only one integer variable xe for each edge e, equal to the
number of times the edge is traversed without being serviced.
This compactness has a price: the solution does not indicate
which vehicle traverses which edge. In fact, the problem of
deducing the routes from the solution is NP-hard because it
is equivalent to a Bin Packing Problem. However, a cutting
plane algorithm based on this model [20] provides excellent
lower bounds: the largest instances on which they are reached
by the best metaheuristics have 50 nodes and 97 required
edges.
A tempting approach to solve the UCARP exactly is to
transform it into an equivalent node routing problem, to ben-
efit from the research efforts spent on the VRP. Pearn et al.
[128] proposed the first conversion of this kind, which trans-
forms a CARP with |ER | required edges into a VRP defined
on a complete graph with 3|ER | + 1 vertices. Because the
current best VRP codes can solve consistently instances up
to 100 nodes [73], this transformation has never been used in
practice.
Quite recently, Longo et al. [111] proposed a more
tractable technique in which each required edge is replaced
by two nodes. The equivalent VRP instance has a complete
graph with 2|ER | + 1 vertices in which the two nodes asso-
ciated to each original edge must be visited consecutively.
These additional constraints are easily tackled by specializing
the classical VRP formulation with edge variables. To solve
this special VRP, the authors adapted the branch-and-cut-
and-price code developed by Fukasawa et al. [73]. Compared
with the best lower and upper bounds compiled by Belenguer
and Benavent [20] in 2003, they solved to optimality all gdb
instances for the first time and found one more optimum for
val files and two for egl files.
The same graph transformation has been proposed inde-
pendently by Baldacci and Maniezzo [14], but with a different
technique for formulating and solving, via a branch-and-
cut algorithm, the resulting node routing problem. Their
approach is even more efficient: like Longo et al. [111], they
solve all gdb instances to optimality but find more new optima
on the two other sets: six for val instances and five for the egl.
To be fair, all these exact methods require prior knowledge
of very good upper bounds computed by the metaheuris-
tics described in subsection 3.1.2, to get reasonable running
times.
In addition to lower bounds based on linear models
and computed by cutting plane algorithms, more classical
lower bounds for the UCARP are described in Dror’s book
[56]. They are based for instance on matching techniques.
Recently, in Breslin and Keane [33], Amberg and Voss [6],
Ahr [1], and Wøhlk [146], new lower bounds that are mostly
based on improvements on the previous bounds have been
proposed. A good description of all these bounds (including
Wøhlk’s bound which was already known at that time) as
well as a theoretical and computational comparison among
them can be found in Ahr’s thesis [1].
Finally, let us mention that other approaches, based on for-
mulating the UCARP as a Set Covering (SC) problem, have
been proposed very recently. As is usual, the SC formula-
tion has a small number of rows but an exponential number
of columns and the corresponding LP relaxation has to be
solved by column generation. Because the pricing problem
is NP-hard, Gómez-Cabrero et al. [86] relax this problem
by permitting nonelementary routes (those in which cus-
tomers may be serviced more than once). In this way, the
new pricing problem can be solved in pseudo-polynomial
time by dynamic programming. The algorithm proposed by
Gómez-Cabrero et al. runs in O(Q|VR |2 ) time while if the
UCARP is transformed into an equivalent CVRP then pric-
ing would need O(Q|ER |2 ) time. The authors also strengthen
the LP relaxation by adding valid inequalities and use both
row and column generation to solve it. Oukil [127] studies
the same approach and proposes several pricing algorithms.
In particular, for the above-mentioned pricing problem, an
exact algorithm that outperforms the previous approaches
and two heuristic algorithms that speed up the column gener-
ation procedure when the underlying graph does not contain
too many nonrequired edges are developed. Although the
lower bounds obtained with these approaches used to be
weaker than those obtained by cutting plane algorithms, the
results confirm that, as in the case of the CVRP, a branch-
and-cut-and-price procedure could produce very good
results.
NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net 9
3.1.2. Heuristic Algorithms. Many applications of
UCARP distinguish between a deadheading cost ce and a
service cost pe for each edge e. For instance, a 100-m street
can be traversed without service in a few seconds by a vehi-
cle, while collecting the waste in this street can take several
minutes. Most exact methods ignore service costs because
their sum is a constant and add them to the total cost at the
end. It is important to note that some heuristics exploit service
costs: for instance, the Path-Scanning greedy heuristic [84]
uses five greedy criteria to select edges, including one kind of
productivity qe /pe . Replacing service costs by deadheading
costs strongly degrades the average solution value.
Since Dror’s book [56], two studies about simple UCARP
heuristics were published. Coincidentally, both consider
route first-cluster second heuristics, which consist in building
a giant tour ignoring vehicle capacity and to split it into feasi-
ble routes. The principle was introduced by Beasley [16] for
node routing problems and applied to the UCARP by Ulusoy
[142], but without computational evaluations.
Wøhlk modified the SOTP heuristic designed by Jansen
in 1993 for the capacitated general routing problem. Her
algorithm A-ALG solves a rural postman problem with a
3/2-approximation heuristic and splits the resulting tour, giv-
ing a UCARP heuristic with worst case performance ratio
7/2 − 3/W . Jansen’s version, transposed to the UCARP, has
the same ratio but Wøhlk shows that the results of A-ALG
are always at least as good. Compared on 143 instances with
the classical constructive heuristics Path-Scanning [84] and
Augment-Merge [85]. A-ALG divides by two the average
deviation to best-known lower bounds. In the other study,
Prins et al. [134] describe how to improve the basic route
first-cluster second principle to get better results or tackle
additional constraints. A detailed testing on the gdb, val
and egl instances shows that randomized versions easily
outperform Path-Scanning and Augment-Merge.
The first metaheuristic proposed for the UCARP and
tested on a set of standard instances is a tabu search called
CARPET [95]. A route is encoded as a list of nodes S =
(v1 = vi1 , . . . , vir , . . . , vit = v1 ) representing all traversed
edges (serviced or not). Solutions violating vehicle capacity
are accepted but penalized. Three improvement procedures
(Shorten, Drop, Add) initially defined by Hertz et al. [94] for
the RPP and four new ones (Paste, Cut, Switch, and Postopt)
are used. CARPET is very efficient: on the 23 gdb and 34 val
instances, the lower bound of Belenguer and Benavent [20]
is respectively reached 18 times (average gap 0.48%) and 15
times (average gap 1.90%).
Hertz and Mittaz [97] presented a Variable Neighborhood
Descent (VND). This technique searches p neighborhoods
(N1 , N2 , . . . , Np ). Starting from i = 1, one iteration explores
neighborhood Ni . In case of improvement, i is reset to one,
otherwise it is incremented to browse the next neighborhood.
∗
already cited for CARPET. To reduce the search space for i >
1, only 2500 neighbors are randomly sampled and infeasible
solutions are not considered. VND produces results of the
same quality as CARPET on the gdb and val instances, but
performs better (in solution quality and time) on randomly
generated instances.
The encoding used by CARPET and VND leads to intri-
cate improving procedures: because an elementary path
between two required edges may have up to |V | − 1 ver-
tices, a solution requires O(|V | · |ER |) space, i.e., O(|V |3 ) for
a CCPP on a complete graph, with |ER | = |V | · (|V | − 1)/2.
Lacomme et al. [104] proposed a memetic algorithm (MA;
a genetic algorithm hybridized with a local search) with a
more compact and natural encoding: each required edge is
represented by two indices e and e , one for each direction. A
route S can then be defined by a list S of |ER | indices in which
each task appears as one of its two directions. Two consecu-
tive edges in S are connected by implicit shortest paths, which
can be pre-computed. This encoding in O(|ER |) space is inter-
esting for UCARP instances with a small fraction of required
edges. It has been used in all metaheuristics published after
CARPET and VND.
The key-point in the MA of Lacomme et al. [104] is to
use chromosomes encoded as giant tours (RPP tours). Each
chromosome is evaluated optimally (subject to the sequence)
in O(|ER |2 ), using a splitting procedure which partitions the
giant tour into feasible trips. Because there exists at least
one optimal chromosome, i.e., one giving an optimal CARP
solution after splitting, the MA can search the smaller space
of RPP tours, without loss of information. Each offspring
solution undergoes a first-improvement local search, called
with probability pLS and working on the individual routes
instead of the giant tour. The improving moves, which are
detected in O(|ER |2 ), include the relocation of one or two
consecutive edges, the exchange of two required edges and
2-opt moves. All moves may involve one or two routes and
the difference with node routing is that the two directions of
an edge are tested in reinsertions.
An improved version of this MA [105], is able to tackle
extensions such as parallel edges, forbidden turns, turn penal-
ties, a maximum trip length and a limited fleet. The average
running time is on average halved, by performing short
restarts with a partial renewal of the population and an
increased local search rate pLS . Using one standard setting of
parameters, the resulting MA solves 21 of 23 gdb instances
to optimality (average gap to the lower bound 0.15%) and
22 of 34 val instances (average gap 0.61%). Moreover, the
MA is twice as fast as CARPET. Results for the larger egl
instances are also added: the lower bound of Belenguer and
Benavent [20] is never reached and the average solution gap
is 2.47%, which confirms the hardness of these instances. The
article describes also how to adapt the MA to minimize the

the VND for the CARP, there are p = K = 1/Q ·
In makespan (maximum duration of the routes), with results on
e∈ER qe
neighborhoods. N1 contains solutions obtained by gdb instances.
moving a task to another route. For i > 1, Ni entails selecting Greistorfer [87] proposed an original tabu scatter search
i routes and merging them into a single tour, which is then metaheuristic (TSCS). Starting from a pool containing one
converted into a new solution using Switch, Cut, and Shorten, good heuristic solution and randomly generated solutions, a

10 NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net
tabu search phase is executed. Whenever a new best solu- to val problems and improves most best-known solutions (17
tion is discovered, it is inserted in the pool. Then, a scatter out of 24) to egl instances.
search phase combines up to five solutions randomly cho- The most recent lower bounds show that many solution
sen in the pool, using a clever deterministic procedure that values found in the past by metaheuristics are in fact opti-
solves a transportation problem based upon the edge-to-route mal. Today, the gdb instances are all solved to optimality
assignment frequencies. A new tabu search phase is then and should no longer be used to compare UCARP heuristics.
launched from the resulting solution, etc. The algorithm is Only 6 out of the 34 val instances are still open and this set
evaluated on random graphs and on the 23 gdb instances: of benchmarks will probably have a short life span. The egl
compared to CARPET, it improves one best-known solution files are more resistant, because only 5 of them are solved to
and converges twice as fast. optimality. Two new sets of instances are good candidates to
An effective guided local search (GLS) was designed benchmark UCARP metaheuristics in future. Beullens et al.
by Beullens et al. [29]. Solutions are encoded as in the [29] proposed 100 instances with |V | = 26 to 97, |E| = 35 to
MA of Lacomme et al. [104] but capacity violations are 142 and |ER | = 28 to 107. Even more recently, Brandão and
allowed, as in CARPET. The moves are similar to those Eglese [32] designed 10 larger problems, with |V | = 255,
used in the MA, but involve longer subsequences of tasks. |E| = 375, and |ER | = 347 or 375.
In addition, a very original move called dir-opt is proposed:
for a given subsequence of k tasks, it selects the traver-
sal direction of each task to minimize the total cost of the 3.2. The Directed Capacitated Arc Routing Problem
subsequence. This can be computed in O(k) by solving a
Two articles motivated by municipal waste collection
shortest path problem in a layered network. The GLS is
address the Directed CARP or DCARP. Mourão and Almeida
accelerated using lists of neighbors and edge marking tech-
[116] have studied a Directed CARP (DCARP) for a refuse
niques. The method is appraised on the gdb and val files
collection problem in Lisbon, Portugal. A directed network is
and on 100 new instances obtained by partitioning the road
considered because bilateral collection is not allowed. Each
network of Flanders (Belgium). A comparison with the MA
of the K vehicles available performs one initial trip from the
can be found in PhD thesis by Muyldermans [120]: the GLS
depot to a recycling facility, then optional trips starting and
reduces a bit (15%) the average solution gap on gdb and val
ending at the recycling facility and finally returns to the depot.
instances and improves three best-known solutions, while
The authors propose a lower bound based on the resolution
being twice as fast, but the MA is better on the larger egl
of a transportation problem and a route-first cluster-second
instances.
heuristic. The tests on instances with up to 50 nodes and 97
The most recent metaheuristic is a tabu search [32]. Like
required arcs show that the heuristic has negligible running
CARPET, capacity violations are accepted but the new algo-
times and provides solutions with an average deviation from
rithm is simpler and fully deterministic (CARPET involves
the lower bound around 12%.
some random decisions). The moves, already used in the MA
Maniezzo and Roffili [113] also studied the DCARP for
of Lacomme et al. [104] include the relocation of one or two
waste collection in large street networks. The problem is
tasks and the exchange of two tasks, in one or two routes, with
converted into an asymmetric capacitated vehicle routing
a test of the two directions for each inserted edge. A sim-
problem (ACVRP). The three proposed algorithms call a vari-
ple version called TSA-1 is first described, initialized with
able neighborhood search (VNS) whose initial solutions are
the Path-Scanning heuristic [85]. A more complex version
built via a two-phase heuristic based on a set of seed-nodes:
TSA-2 performs five runs from five good initial heuristic
a multistart version of the VNS (MS), a genetic algorithm
solutions, plus one run from the best solution found. These
searching for the best set of seeds (GA), and a data pertur-
two phases are repeated with different parameters and a final
bation method (DP). On the standard gdb and val UCARP
run is executed from the best of the two resulting solutions.
instances (converted into DCARPs), DP is the most effec-
Brandão and Eglese present a comprehensive compari-
tive, followed by GA and MS. DP is then tested on five huge
son with CARPET and the MA, using the most recent lower
real instances with |V | = 1222 to 12388 and |E| = 1842 to
bounds [14, 111] and the best-known solutions obtained by
19045. Compared with the two-phase constructive heuristic,
compiling the articles on previous metaheuristics. They pro-
DP saves 12% to 32%, at the expense of large running times
vide average deviations from best-known solutions on the
(8924 to 16939 sec, versus a few seconds). However, such
gdb, val, and egl files. Using their data, the average gap
running times are acceptable because the routes are stable
between the metaheuristics and the optimal cost (when avail-
during a long period in urban refuse collection.
able) or the lower bounds can be computed too. This shows
that TSA-1 outperforms CARPET but not the MA. However,
it is faster than the two other methods. TSA-2 does better than
3.3. The Mixed Capacitated Arc Routing Problem
CARPET on the three sets of benchmarks. The MA is still the
best on the gdb instances (average gap 0.025% versus 0.070% The Mixed CARP (MCARP) is a very realistic but chal-
for TSA-2) but is slightly outperformed by the tabu search on lenging problem, defined on a mixed graph G = (V , E ∪ A)
val instances (0.256% vs 0.216%) and egl instances (1.389% with a subset ER ⊆ E of required edges and a subset AR ⊆ A
vs. 1.307%). Moreover, TSA-2 finds one new best solution of required arcs. It models for instance municipal waste

NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net 11
collection in cities where each household has its own con-
tainer. In such applications, one single arc (i, j) between two
nodes i and j models a one-way street, two opposite arcs (i, j)
and (j, i) represent a two-way street whose both sides must
be collected independently, and one edge [i, j] corresponds to
one street whose both sides can be collected in parallel and
in any direction. The latter case is called bilateral or zigzag
collection by waste management companies.
Mourão and Amado [117] studied the MCARP with an
application to refuse collection in Lisbon. This work can
be considered as a generalization of the work of Mourão
and Almeida on the directed CARP [116]. In a first step, a
heuristic is used to convert the mixed network into a directed
one, by choosing a service direction for each required edge
while maintaining or improving the balance of each node (dif-
ference between the indegree and outdegree). This directed
graph is then converted into a Eulerian directed graph by
defining and solving a transportation problem for the subset
of unbalanced nodes. This gives a single-vehicle lower bound
for the directed CARP, but not for the original MCARP. How-
ever, the Eulerian graph has a small number of deadheading
arcs and can be used by a heuristic to extract a low-cost set
of trips. The method is tested on 26 large-scale instances
randomly generated by the authors to imitate a sub-network
of Lisbon (up to 401 nodes and 1215 edges) and on the 15
MCARP instances of Belenguer et al. [21], with up to 401
nodes and 1056 links. It is compared with three construc-
tive heuristics and gives better solutions on average, at the
expense of a larger computing time.
Ghiani et al. [76] presented a case study concerning waste
collection in Southern Italy. The problem is a mixed CARP in
which the streets are divided into three classes with specific
service deadlines. Two types of containers must be unloaded
by three kinds of vehicles. Each vehicle kind has a specific
capacity, the smallest vehicles cannot handle the largest con-
tainers and the largest vehicles cannot access some areas
with narrow streets. A cluster-first route-second heuristic was
applied to the real network with 273 nodes, 292 edges, and
84 arcs. Compared with the solution of the municipality,
the heuristic reduced the distance traveled by 10.6% and the
working time by 13.5%, while eliminating overtime.
Another MCARP model with an application to refuse col-
lection in a Spanish town is presented in Bautista et al. [15].
The model, which results from a transformation of the prob-
lem into a node routing one, also includes constraints to avoid
forbidden turns and is solved by means of two ant heuristics.
Computational results comparing the generated routes with
the ones previously used for urban waste collection in a town
of 80,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Barcelona
are reported.
Belenguer et al. [21] designed lower and upper bounds
for the MCARP. The lower bound is obtained by a cut-
ting plane algorithm based on the generalization of the
supersparse formulation for the UCARP. Three constructive
heuristics are introduced, inspired by the following classi-
cal UCARP heuristics: Augment-Merge [85], Path-Scanning
[84], and a route-first cluster-second heuristic [142]. Their
12 NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net
generalization to the MCARP is not trivial. For instance,
Augment-Merge is similar to the Clarke and Wright merge
heuristic for the VRP, in which there are four ways of merg-
ing two trips A and B: each trip can be inverted or not but
the concatenation A + B has the same cost as the concate-
nation B + A of inverted trips. In the MCARP, the cost of a
trip may change with inversion: if the trip serves edge e then
e , the costs of deadheading paths from e to e and from e to
e may differ, contrary to an undirected network. The inver-
sion is even impossible for trips with required arcs. Hence,
Augment-Merge for the MCARP must test all the eight cases
and decides in O(1) if a trip is invertible or not.
The memetic algorithm for the UCARP [105] is also
upgraded, with the same problems as in Augment-Merge but
for the local search: moves like 2-opt on two trips are very
involved because they require the inversion of trip segments,
with a different cost for the inverted sequence. The authors
show how to search each neighborhood in O(|ER |2 ), as for
an undirected network. Two sets of instances are created:
34 mval instances derived from the val UCARP instances,
with 24 to 50 nodes and 43 to 138 links (all required)
and 15 lpr instances, with 28 to 401 nodes, 52 to 1056
links and 50 to 806 required links. The lpr instances mimic
real waste collection networks. The average gaps between
the MA solution and the lower bound on the two sets of
instances are 0.51% and 0.33%, respectively. Moreover, 23
mval instances and 6 lpr are solved to optimality. In spite of
their larger size, the lpr instances are in fact easier because
the amount of waste and the service time of a street are cor-
related with its length. These instances can be downloaded at
http://www.uv.es/∼belengue/mcarp.html.
An interesting generalization of the MCARP is the Node,
Edge and Arc Routing Problem (NEARP) studied by Prins
and Bouchenoua [133]. The NEARP is defined on a mixed
network with three kinds of tasks: required edges, required
arcs and required nodes. It can be viewed as a rich rout-
ing problem combining the MCARP and the VRP, or as a
capacitated mixed GRP. Practical applications can be met
in municipal collection: the households put their waste con-
tainer on the pavement and the associated street segments
must be serviced, while hospitals or restaurants group their
waste at some specific locations which are better handled
as required nodes. These authors propose one common data
structure for the required links and nodes, i.e., without con-
version into a pure arc routing or node routing problem, and
a memetic algorithm. The MA displays a good performance
on classical CARP and VRP instances, and on a set of 23
randomly generated NEARP instances with up to 150 nodes,
311 links, and 212 tasks.
3.4. Problems Closely Related to the UCARP
Fleury et al. [70] deal with a stochastic CARP with random
demands, raised by waste collection. Using average demands,
they study how the solution of a deterministic MA for the
UCARP [105] is affected on the field, when vehicles face
random demands. If the real amount of waste exceeds vehicle
capacity, the driver is obliged to go to the depot to unload the
waste and to come back to finish his planned trip. Simple
policies like booking some spare capacity into each vehicle
during the planning phase are used to make the MA more
robust. Under mild assumptions, Fleury et al. [69] developed
mathematical expressions for criteria like the expected num-
ber of trip interruptions and the expected total cost, when a
planned solution is applied on the field. A linear combination
of such criteria is used as fitness function in the MA and the
resulting solution checked by simulation. The tests show that
the planned solution of the deterministic MA undergoes on
the field an increase in cost of 8%, with 70% of interrupted
trips. The planned solution of the MA with the stochastic
objective is 3.5% more expensive, but it is very robust: the
cost variation on the field is only 0.01%, with a probability of
trip interruption of 0.5%. Hence, the new MA saves 4.50%
on the actual operating costs.
Two studies tackle biobjective UCARPs. Amponsah and
Salhi [8] describe a fast constructive heuristic for waste col-
lection in developing countries with hot weather. It can be
viewed as a version of Path-Scanning [84] minimizing a con-
vex combination of two objectives. The first one is the sum of
the qeα /ce(1−α) over the set of traversed edges, with α ∈ [0, 1].
Cheap edges are processed first if α is close to 0, whereas pri-
ority is given to largest demands for α close to 1. The other
criterion, intended to minimize the smell, is the sum of the
qe (te − t0 ), where t0 is the departure time and te the time
when the vehicle starts servicing edge e. In Lacomme et al.
[107], the first objective is the classical one (total duration
of the trips) but the second one is the maximum duration of
a trip, corresponding to the makespan in scheduling theory.
The aim of the second criterion is to better balance the trips
in order to have a fair workload distribution among drivers.
A set of nondominated solutions is proposed to the decision
maker, using a multiobjective genetic algorithm (MOGA).
The authors also propose a local search and evaluate sev-
eral ways of integrating it in the MOGA. Although designed
for a biobjective problem, the best MOGA version is able to
retrieve most best-known solutions for the single objective
CARP, on the gdb, val, and egl instances.
The makespan criterion is also tackled in the min-max
K-Chinese Postman Problem (MM K-CPP) studied by Ahr
and Reinelt [2] and Ahr [1]. In this problem, all the edges
of an undirected graph must be serviced by a fixed number
K of uncapacitated “vehicles” (postmen), the objective being
to minimize the length of the longest tour. Hence, there is
no capacity constraint. The authors prove the NP-hardness of
the problem and describe heuristics. Moreover, lower bounds
and a branch-and-cut algorithm producing very good com-
putational results on a large set of instances are proposed in
Ahr [1]. In Ahr and Reinelt [3], they study different neigh-
borhoods and a tabu search algorithm: the results on several
sets of instances are near-optimal and often optimal, since the
lower bound is achieved. To find a set of balanced routes with
respect to the distance traveled, the same makespan objec-
tive is used by Benavent et al. [26] in their work on the
min-max K-vehicles Windy Rural Postman Problem (MM
K-WRPP). This work is a natural follow up to Ahr and
Reinelt’s work within a more general setting. The authors
formulate the problem and study its associated polyhedron.
On the basis of its partial description, they propose a branch-
and-cut algorithm able to solve instances of small-medium
size.
3.5. Capacitated Arc Routing With Several Facilities
In many situations, several nodes can play the role of a
depot. When it is not required to use all such nodes, the prob-
lem can be viewed as a Location-Arc Routing Problem or
LARP. Ghiani and Laporte [82] wrote the first survey about
this kind of problems met in mail delivery (the mailman
delivers on foot small amounts of mail and replenishes at
a relay box), design of waste collection system (with loca-
tion of landfills or incineration plants), and road maintenance
(with intermediate facilities like snow dump sites or stocks
of road gritting products). The article covers heuristics pub-
lished until 2000 and discusses decomposition schemes. In
the most natural one, facilities are first located, required
arcs and edges are allocated to facilities, and routes are
finally defined. However, the authors report several studies in
which it is better to first design the routes an insert facilities
last.
Amberg et al. [5] studied the Capacitated Arc Routing
Problem with Multiple Centers, which can be considered
as the arc routing counterpart of the multidepot VRP. The
problem is defined on an undirected network with M depots
and a given number of vehicles stationed in each depot. It
is converted into a special capacitated minimum-cost span-
ning tree problem (CMST). In fact, there are M root nodes,
corresponding to the depots, each with as many subtrees as
vehicles in the depot. Furthermore, in each subtree, the sum of
node weights is limited by the vehicle capacity and the sum of
edge weights by the maximum length allowed for a route. The
NP-hard CMST problem is solved by a constructive heuristic
and two metaheuristics based on a node exchange improve-
ment procedure (simulated annealing and tabu search). A
feasible UCARP route is then deduced from each sub-
tree. These solution methods are applied to two real-world
networks.
Ghiani et al. [79] introduced the Capacitated Arc Routing
Problem with Intermediate Facilities (CARPIF), in which the
set of nodes of an undirected network includes the depot and
a subset of intermediate facilities (IFs). In practice, an IF can
be for instance a tank of sand or salt (winter gritting), a landfill
or an incinerating plant (in waste collection). The goal is to
design a route, composed of successive segments, for a single
vehicle. The first segment starts at the depot and ends at an IF,
optional intermediate segments link two IFs and the last one
goes from an IF to the depot. The total demand serviced in
each segment is limited by vehicle capacity, except in the last
segment in which no demand is serviced. Two lower bounds
were elaborated, one based on the solution of a RPP and one
derived from the relaxation of an integer linear program. They
were compared with two upper bounds, one computed by
NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net 13
introducing the IFs in the RPP solution and one CARP-based
algorithm.
In 2004, Ghiani et al. [75] added to the CARPIF a max-
imum length constraint applied to a complete route (set of
segments), giving a multivehicle problem called CLARPIF.
They proposed one constructive heuristic and two tabu search
algorithms, which were compared on benchmarks obtained
by adapting standard CARP instances.
A closely related problem is investigated by De Rosa et al.
[54], the Arc Routing and Scheduling Problem with Tranship-
ment (ARPT) which is raised by municipal waste collection.
The network is again undirected and the collecting vehicles
must unload their waste at an IF, where it is compacted and
loaded into bigger trucks which travel only between the IF
and a landfill-node. If no truck is available at the transfer IF,
the collecting vehicles are queued. The number of vehicles of
each type is limited. The goal is to design a set of routes for
the collecting vehicles and a set of truck schedules of least
total cost, subject to a maximum duration L for each collect-
ing vehicle route and each truck schedule. A lower bound
is obtained from an integer programming formulation, using
a branch-and-cut algorithm. A tabu search algorithm is then
compared with this bound by modifying the standard gdb and
val instances for the CARP.
Del Pia and Filipi [55] address a real waste collection
problem in Northern Italy, with two types of trucks called
compactors and satellites. The largest trucks or compactors
cannot access the town center with narrow streets. Each satel-
lite can serve any street but its case is quickly filled. As the
depot is far from the town, appointments must be organized
between satellites and compactors. Hence, the compactors
can be viewed as mobile depots, giving a problem called
CARP with Mobile Depots or CARP-MD. The solution
method is an adaptation of the variable neighborhood descent
of Hertz and Mittaz [97] for the UCARP. The routes of satel-
lites may violate vehicle capacity but feasibility is restored by
a rendezvous procedure after the exploration of each neigh-
borhood: each infeasible satellite route is corrected by the
least-cost insertion of one rendezvous node traversed by a
compactor. Applied to the actual network with |V | = 351 and
|E| = 422, the metaheuristic reduces the total deadheading
time by 30%.
Amaya et al. [4] consider another problem with ren-
dezvous, raised by road network maintenance and called
CARP with refill points (CARP-RP). A set of road markings
must be painted by one service vehicle (SV). The network
is modeled as a mixed graph because the central line can be
painted in any direction while a lane separator must be treated
in the lane direction. The SV performs an RPP tour in which
it is replenished at some nodes by a refilling vehicle (RV).
For technical reasons, the RV returns to the depot after each
rendezvous. An integer linear model is proposed to minimize
the total cost and ensure that the total demand between two
refill points does not exceed the SV capacity. The solution
method, a simple cutting plane algorithm, is tested on ran-
domly generated DCARP instances with |V | = 20–70 and
|E| = 50–595: most instances are solved to optimality and
14 NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net
the maximum gap does not exceed 4%. MCARP instances
obtained by replacing some edges by arcs in the val instances
(24–50 nodes and 116–269 links) are much harder, with gaps
reaching 10%.
3.6. CARP With Temporal Constraints or Split Deliveries
The CARP with time windows (CARPTW) is the arc
routing counterpart of the Vehicle Routing Problem with
Time Windows (VRPTW): the service on each required edge
must start in a pre-defined time window. Mullaseril [119]
and Dror and Leung [59] considered a split-delivery directed
CARPTW, raised by a feed distribution problem at a large cat-
tle yard, and proposed heuristics and a transformation into
a VRPTW. Guéguen [92] described an integer linear pro-
gramming model for the undirected CARPTW and another
transformation into a VRPTW, but without numerical results.
Recently, Wøhlk [145] provided a major contribution, with
two ways of modeling the undirected CARPTW (one arc
routing and one node routing formulation), several heuristics,
and a dynamic programming algorithm combined with simu-
lated annealing, called DYPSA. She also designed a column
generation method to get tight lower bounds.
Labadi et al. [103] designed a GRASP for the undirected
CARPTW, based on modular components and reinforced by a
path relinking (PR) process embedded in the GRASP or used
as post-optimization. On a set of 24 instances proposed by
Wøhlk, the best combination of components finds 17 optima
(including 4 new ones) and improves 5 best-known solutions.
Moreover, the best GRASP still performs well if time win-
dows are removed: on the gdb, val, and egl CARP instances, it
takes place between the tabu search CARPET of Hertz et al.
[95] and the memetic algorithm of Lacomme et al. [105],
while being significantly faster.
Tagmouti et al. [140] investigate a CARP with time-
dependent service costs on the edges, defined by piecewise-
linear convex functions. This problem, motivated by winter
gritting operations, is converted into a node routing problem
and solved by column generation. The master problem is a
set covering problem while the sub-problems are hard time-
dependent elementary shortest path problems with resource
constraints. The algorithms are tested by modifying classical
VRPTW instances. All instances with 25 customers and some
instances with 35 and 40 customers are solved to optimality.
While Mullaseril [119] and Dror and Leung [59] consid-
ered split deliveries in a directed CARPTW, Labadi et al.
[102] investigate an undirected CARP with split deliveries
(SDCARP), in which each required edge must be completely
traversed for each partial service. In other words, U-turns on
a edge are prohibited. They propose for this version a lin-
ear model derived from the sparse formulation for the CARP
[17], an insertion heuristic and a memetic algorithm based on
a distance measure in solution space to spread solutions. The
tests show that split deliveries can bring important savings
if the average demand per customer is large enough (30%)
compared with vehicle capacity.
 Belenguer et al. [22] propose another model inspired by
the supersparse formulation for the CARP [20]. A lower
bound computed via a cutting plane algorithm is compared
with an evolutionary local search reinforced by a multistart
procedure and a variable neighborhood descent. The tests
involve 126 instances obtained by modifying demands and
allowing partial services in the gdb, val, and egl UCARP
instances. On average, the new metaheuristic outperforms the
above-mentioned memetic algorithm, achieves small average
deviations to the lower bound (below 1.5%) and solves 39
instances to optimality.
3.7. Tactical and Strategic Extensions of the CARP
Long-term planning of activities like municipal refuse col-
lection raise periodic vehicle routing problems. The Periodic
Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (PCARP) has been defined
by Lacomme et al. [106], as an extension of the undirected
CARP to a planning horizon of p periods. Each required edge
e has a given service frequency fe , for instance a street must
be collected every day in the center of a town but only twice a
week in residential suburbs where people can store the waste
in a container for a few days. The goal is to determine which
edges are serviced in each day, subject to frequencies, and to
solve the CARP obtained for each day to minimize the total
cost of the trips over the horizon.
The authors propose a simple classification. Class A prob-
lems have period-independent demands and costs and mainly
model preventive problems like winter gritting, inspection of
power lines, or the treatment of rails with herbicides. In class
B problems, an amount of demand is generated by each edge
in each period, giving period-dependent demands and costs.
In sub-class B1, the horizon is acyclic, for instance when
mowing vegetation that grows along the roads: the vegetation
stops growing in winter and restarts in spring. Problems in
sub-class B2 are characterized by a cyclic planning horizon,
for instance waste collection is often planned on a one-week
cycle. Hence, in all class B problems, the amount serviced by
a vehicle depends on the time spent since the last visit. This
realistic feature has never been tackled in the papers devoted
to the Periodic VRP or PVRP: all assume that the demand
of a node is constant and does not depend on the spacing
between two services.
In practice, a minimal and maximum spacing between
two successive services must be respected. A frequent pol-
icy entails fixing a set of allowed day combinations for each
edge, for instance {Monday, Thursday} or {Tuesday, Friday}
for a street with frequency 2 in waste collection. Minimum
and maximum spacings can be converted into day combi-
nations and vice versa, but the day combination system is
simpler, because the demands for each day in a combination
can be precomputed and the spacing constraints are implicitly
satisfied by each combination.
Chu et al. [38] proposed a linear programming model
based on the day combination system and three constructive
heuristics: a decreasing frequency nearest neighbor method,
a best insertion heuristic and a two-phase algorithm. Starting
from K empty trips in each day, each iteration of the two first
methods selects one task e and one of its day combinations,
according to a greedy criterion, and inserts one occurrence of
the task in a trip, for each day of the combination. The two-
phase method computes one cluster of tasks for each day,
satisfying the day combinations, and then solves the result-
ing UCARP in each period, using the memetic algorithm of
Lacomme et al. [105]. All these heuristics were evaluated by
adding a multiperiod horizon and frequencies to the classical
gdb instances for the UCARP.
Lacomme et al. [106] describe a memetic algorithm in
which each chromosome is composed of p successive giant
tours (one per day) and satisfies frequencies and day com-
binations. A special crossover operator generates offspring
solutions with the same properties. The offspring is evalu-
ated optimally, subject to the sequence, by applying daywise
the splitting procedure designed for the UCARP by the same
authors in 2004. To save time, the local search is applied to
each day independently. Hence, the crossover deals with the
tactical or planning level, which defines the set of edges to be
serviced in each period, while the local search focuses on the
operational level, with the detailed composition of the trips
in each day.
In this MA, the fleet size is a decision variable. Chu et al.
[39] study a more ambitious PCARP in which the main objec-
tive is the fleet size, with the total cost of the trips as secondary
objective. If a solution has vk trips in day k = 1, 2, . . . , p, the
required fleet size is max{vk : 1 ≤ k ≤ p}. The encoding
is the same as in the previous algorithm and it is still possi-
ble to design a polynomial splitting procedure that converts a
chromosome into a feasible PCARP solution, subject to the
sequence imposed by this chromosome. The authors propose
a Scatter Search (SS) for these objectives. Both the MA and
the SS are designed to work correctly for the special case
p = 1 and thus can replace metaheuristics for the UCARP.
Marzolf et al. [114] investigate another kind of PCARP,
raised by the monitoring of a road network. A single vehi-
cle must inspect all the road segments of a network over
a 2-week horizon comprising 21 working shifts per week,
subject to frequencies: for instance, highways must be moni-
tored once every week-end and once every 5-day week, while
national roads must be covered once every 7 days. Hence, the
length of a route is limited by the duration of a shift. During
a shift, the vehicle may have to leave the planned route to
answer emergency calls and then come back to resume its
route which it may not be able to complete during its shift.
The authors describe a decision support system for vehicles
equipped with global positioning systems (GPS), includes
planning heuristics and re-planning procedures at the end of
each shift or day.
Sectoring problems are raised at the strategic decision
level in some applications like urban refuse collection and
winter gritting. The partition of the streets or roads into sec-
tors or districts assigned to one or several vehicles often
simplifies operations. For instance, it is easier for a driver
to memorize the set of streets of a sector instead of the
whole city. Muyldermans et al. [123] tackles a sectoring
NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net 15
problem for salt spreading operations in the province of
Antwerp (Belgium). The proposed approach requires a pla-
nar undirected network, which is the case for most rural
applications, and a planar embedding of this network, which
requires the geographical layout or, at least, node coordinates.
The network is made Eulerian at minimal cost by solving a
minimum-cost perfect matching problem, involving the odd
degree nodes only [61]. The matching edges are added to the
graph while preserving a planar representation. The result-
ing graph is then decomposed into spatially nonoverlapping
cycles, such that each edge belongs to exactly one of them.
Then a heuristic build p districts in parallel (one for each depot
of salt), by assigning small cycles to the districts. Finally,
a CARP heuristic is applied to determine the trips in each
district.
In a subsequent article, Muyldermans et al. [122] suggest
and compare three other heuristics to generate contigu-
ous, balanced, and geographically compact sectors. The first
heuristic aggregates individual edges into sectors, the second
heuristic is based on the cycle decomposition of 2002 and the
last one on the solution of a linear mixed integer program.
Mourão et al. [118] introduce the sectoring-arc routing
problem (SARP) to model activities associated with the
streets of large urban areas, like municipal waste collection.
The aim is to partition the street network into a given number
of sectors and to solve a Mixed CARP in each sector, to mini-
mize the total duration of trips. Two two-phase heuristics and
one insertion method building sectors and trips in parallel are
proposed.
Another kind of sectoring problem is the Capacitated Arc
Routing Problem with Vehicle-Site Dependencies or CARP-
VSD, investigated by Sniezek et al. [139], with an application
to the sanitation department of Philadelphia, USA. The prob-
lem is defined on a directed graph. Several vehicle types are
available and each type k is characterized by a capacity Qk
and the number of vehicles available Ak . For each required
arc a, the largest vehicle type that can traverse a and the
largest type that can service it are given. The goal is to define
a least-cost set of trips and to assign one vehicle to each
trip, in such a way that the total demand serviced by the
trip fits vehicle capacity and all edges traversed and serviced
are compatible with the vehicle. Additional compactness and
workload balance constraints are also considered. The prob-
lem is solved by a complex multiphase heuristic called VDA
(Vehicle Decomposition Algorithm), which decomposes the
network into several single vehicle class CARPs.
4. CONCLUSION AND PERSPECTIVES
Node routing problems have been intensively studied since
the beginning of the sixties, due to their important appli-
cations in distribution logistics. In comparison, ARPs have
long been neglected, in spite of some historical results like
Euler’s bridges of Königsberg. Nevertheless, they have raised
a growing interest from the nineties onwards. The growth is
particularly impressive since Dror’s book in 2000, as shown
in the present survey which covers 150 references. It can
16 NETWORKS—2009—DOI 10.1002/net
be explained by the development of optimization in service
activities (e.g., sanitation, network inspection, and postal dis-
tribution) and by environmental considerations like waste
management.
Remarkable results have been recently obtained by con-
verting arc routing problems into their node routing counter-
parts and one could think that the days of specific research
into arc routing are now over. However, things are not so
simple. Conversions into node routing problems work well
precisely because of the larger number of tools developed in
this research area since the 60s. Arc routing problems have
their own existence and their own properties, as shown by
the active research on polyhedral methods for uncapacitated
problems, with its rich variety of specific valid inequalities.
Rather than a sterile opposition between node routing
and arc routing, the future probably resides in an progres-
sive integration of the two research domains, via the study
of richer and richer problems. This integration is quite
advanced for uncapacitated problems, as shown by the recent
developments on the GRP. More work is still necessary
for capacitated problems, even if more complex networks
(mixed graphs) and additional constraints (time windows,
split deliveries, multiple depots, etc.) are now handled.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank José Maria Sanchis and Enrique
Benavent for their comments and suggestions on a first ver-
sion of the manuscript, and the two reviewers who suggested
pertinent improvements.
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