Costs and Revenues Associated With Overweight Trucks in Indiana

This study established the unit costs of pavement and bridge damage due to overweight vehicles, and discussed issues concerning overweight vehicle e enforcement in Indiana. The study identified gaps in the existing practice and research, and established a practical framework that includes the development of asset families; establishment of realistic types and timings of reconstruction, rehabilitation, and maintenance, traffic volumes and growth projections; and damage cost estimation for each asset family and age group. The sensitivity of asset damage cost with respect to key policy and analysis variables was explored. Finally, the study examined the cost and operational issues associated with the enforcement of overweight truck policies. For pavement assets, the damage cost estimates were found to range from $0.006 per ESAL-mile on Interstates to$0.218 per ESAL-mile on non-national highways. The results also suggested that the pavement damage cost estimates are highly sensitive to the pavement life-cycle length, interest rate, rest period, and the costs and service lives of rehabilitation treatments. For bridges, an incremental-design methodology was used to assign damage cost to vehicle classes based on axle configurations and vehicle-miles of travel. Each FHWA vehicle weight group was classified into an equivalent AASHTO loading using the modified equivalent vehicle model which is based on gross vehicle weight, axle loading and axle spacing. Adopting a permit structure on the basis of gross vehicle weight only, will result in some vehicles underpaying by as much as 92% of their actual contribution to bridge damage. Finally, the study examined the cost and operational issues associated with the enforcement of overweight truck policies and made recommendations regarding equipment types and locations, staffing, and staff schedules, in order to promote cost-effective practices in weight enforcement

Updates to Indiana Fuel Tax and Registration Revenue Projections

Highway revenues both at the federal and state levels have failed to keep up with expected investments required for infrastructure preservation and improvement. The reasons for this trend include the increasing fuel efficiency of vehicles, slowing of the growth in vehicle-miles of travel, and the erosion of the purchasing power of the dollar due to inflation. Past studies on the issue of highway revenue forecasting for Indiana highways were conducted under different economic conditions than what exists today. The present study updates the revenue projections of particularly with the recognition of new CAFE Standards. The present study also updates the equations for estimating vehicle miles of travel. Impacts of alternative options for changing the fuel tax rate structure are also investigated. The present study predicted fuel tax revenues from 2012 to 2025 under the existing fuel tax rate structure and also considered possible options for changes in fuel tax rates. Fuel tax revenue from existing rate structure indicated a continuous annual decrease from 2012 to 2025 by 2.96% to 3.49% in real terms. Adopting one of the four fuel tax rate modifications would provide additional short- term revenue for a variable number of years. A 1-cent increase would offset the decline in the total fuel tax revenue only for a year after which it will continually decline every year. A 3-cent increase would provide a substantial increase in revenue in the short term but will continually decline, however, the 2025 revenue from 3-cent increase would be a little higher than the 2012 revenue level. Both inflation indexing and an ad valorem tax would also provide substantial increase in fuel tax revenue