Safety, Mobility, and Cost Benefits of Closing One Direction of the Interstate in Rural Areas During Construction Work

With specific regard to interstates in the rural area, Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has expressed a need for research that sheds light on this Maintenance of Traffic (MOT) issue so the agency [INDOT and the contractor] can make informed decisions regarding the crossover sections versus the closure in one direction with detour roads. A number of studies have investigated the advantages and disadvantages of various MOT strategies; however, there is no specific study that can help INDOT traffic engineers and design engineers make decisions by comparing direct and indirect benefits of crossovers and detours (full lane closures). This research examined the advantages and disadvantages of entirely closing one direction of traffic over traditional work zone techniques (such as partial lane closure through median crossover) from the perspectives of the agency, road users, and the community. In the case of full closure, the study (a) examined the alternative MOT strategies and best practices through an extensive literature review and survey of agencies (b) investigated risk, benefit, and costs associated with selected detour routes (c) validated the identified critical factors through case studies in Indiana and at other states, and (d) implemented best practices in an expected project to evaluate the safety, mobility, and cost benefits of closing one direction. Through the literature review and four case studies, eleven KPIs for MOT strategy developments were identified. This study prioritized these KPIs through the survey questionnaire. The top five KPIs are (1) safety, (2) mobility, (3) budget constraint, (4) project duration, (5) complexity of project sites. Based on these KPIs and other findings presented in Section 4.3.3, this study has proposed a comparison tool for predetermined MOT strategies in the form of a flow-chart. This tool is followed by the scores or weights associated with each KPI. These scores are normalized—i.e., the most important KPI which is safety, has the maximum weightage 1 and rest of the KPIs are weighed relatively. INDOT has a set of editable documents which are references for making MOT decisions. This proposed flow-chart tool will “walk” the INDOT team through the use of these spreadsheets corresponding to the identified KPIs through this study. It will be at the discretion of the INDOT team as to which KPIs are relevant to the situation at hand. Therefore, the flow-chart tool is flexible to incorporate the dynamic nature of MOT strategy selection

Synthesis Study of Best Practices for Mapping and Coordinating Detours for Maintenance of Traffic (MOT) and Risk Assessment for Duration of Traffic Control Activities

Maintenance of traffic (MOT) during construction periods is critical to the success of project delivery and the overall mission of transportation agencies. MOT plans may include full road closures and coordination of detours near construction areas. Various state DOTs have designed their own manuals for detour mapping and coordination. However, very limited information is provided to select optimal detour routes. Moreover, closures or detours should provide not only measurable consequences, such as vehicle operating costs and added travel time, but also various unforeseen qualitative impacts, such as business impacts and inconvenience to local communities. Since the qualitative aspects are not easily measurable they tend to be neglected in systematic evaluations and decision-making processes. In this study, the current practices obtained based on an extensive literature review, a nation-wide survey, as well as a series of interviews with INDOT and other state DOTs are leveraged to (1) identify a comprehensive set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for detour route mapping, (2) understand how other state DOTs address the qualitative criteria, (3) identify how the involved risks during the planning, service time, and closure of the detour routes are managed, and (4) recommend process improvements for INDOT detour mapping guidelines. As demonstrated by two sample case studies, the proposed KPIs can be taken as a basis for developing a decision-support tool that enables decision-makers to consider both qualitative and quantitative aspects for optimal detour route mapping. In addition, the current INDOT detour policy can be updated based on the proposed process improvements

Vehicle Autonomy, Connectivity and Electric Propulsion: Consequences on Highway Expenditures, Revenues and Equity

Asset managers continue to prepare physical infrastructure investments needed to accommodate the emerging technologies, namely vehicle connectivity, electrification, and automation. The provision of new infrastructure and modification of existing infrastructure is expected to incur a significant amount of capital investment. Secondly, with increasing EV and CAV operations, the revenues typically earned from vehicle registrations and fuel tax are expected to change due to changing demand for vehicle ownership and amount of travel, respectively. This research estimated (i) the changes in highway expenditures due to adoption of ECAVs, (ii) the net change in highway revenues that can be expected to arise from ECAV operations, and (iii) the changes in user equity across the highway user groups (vehicle classes). In assessing the changes in highway expenditures, the research developed a model to predict the cost of highway infrastructure stewardship based on current and/ or future system usage. The results of the research reveal that CAVs are expected to significantly change the travel patterns, leading to increased system usage which in turn results in increased wear and tear on highway infrastructure. This, with the need for new infrastructure to support and accommodate the new technologies is expected to result in increased highway expenditure. At the same time, CAVs are expected to have significantly improved fuel economy as compared to their human driven counterparts, leading to a decrease in fuel consumption per vehicle, resulting in reduced fuel revenues. Furthermore, the prominence of EVs is expected to exacerbate this problem. This thesis proposed a revision to the current user fee structure to address these impacts. This revision contains two major parts designed to address the system efficiency and equity in the near and long term. For the near term, this thesis recommended a variable tax scheme under which each vehicle class pays a different fuel tax rate. This ensures that both equity and system efficiency are improved during the transition to ECAV. In the long term, this thesis recommended supplementing the fuel tax with a distance based VMT tax, applicable to electric vehicles