01334289

Component

Decisions about developing and implementing roadway rehabilitation projects are commonly supported by comparison of user benefits during the post-project period with initial capital costs and annual operating and maintenance cost over the project life. Typically, little consideration is given to the road user impacts during construction of the project, including increased travel time and decreased reliability. This exploratory analysis used traffic simulation to examine these impacts. Experiments were performed using a hypothetical but realistic construction site and imposing capacity reductions and periodic traffic interruptions to simulate work activities. Variations of work activities were tested to identify the conditions under which short-term adaptive control strategies might be advantageous. The results show that work activity variations can generate large impacts on road users, particularly when the construction method causes occasional traffic interruptions. These impacts are less evident from measures of mean travel times, but disaggregate measures show that the effects on reliability can be quite large. Results illustrate the potential value of measuring disaggregate, real-time traffic performance in the work zone and, where possible, adapting work activities and/or traffic operations in response to unacceptable degradation in performance. For example, specific scenario tests show that working during the peak period with minimal interruptions is advantageous in terms of travel time and reliability compared to off-peak period construction with traffic interruptions. These results can provide important guidance for addressing stakeholder performance impacts during roadway rehabilitation and construction projects.

01329018

11-2091

English

16p

2011

Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures (11) ; References (8) ; Tables (1)

Highway operations; Performance measurement; Real time information; Road construction; Traffic simulation; Travel time; Work zone safety; Work zone traffic control

Active traffic management; Traffic impact analysis; Travel time reliability

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2011 Paper #11-2091

TRIS, TRB

Feb 17 2011 6:03PM