Arc Atlantique Traffic Management Corridor Annex 1 Evaluation reports www.easyway-its.eu TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. FL-01: Hard shoulder running E40 and weaving segments E314 2. FL-02: Hard shoulder running E19 Kleine Bareel – St.-Job-in-‘t-Goor 3. WL-03: Management and transit traffic on Walloon motorways 4. FR-05: Intelligent Truck Parking 5. FR-16: Traffic Management Plans 6. IE-01: MIU ITS Deployment 7. NL-01: Field test Amsterdam 8. PT-..: Monitoring Enhancement on critical segments – to be delivered 9. PT-03: System Enhancements 10. E01: AG-64 Traffic Control and Traffic Management ITS deployment 11. E02: AG-55 Traffic Control and Traffic Management ITS deployment 12. ES-20: Floating Car Data use 13. ES-21: Analysis and evaluation of different traffic management strategies in order to reduce the congestions in Bilbao peri-urban area 14. UK 02: M25 J 5 – 7 Variable Speed Limit, All lane Running / Hard Shoulder Running 15. UK 03: M25 J 23 – 27 Variable Speed Limit, All lane Running / Hard Shoulder Running 16. UK ..: Welsh National Traffic Data System – to be delivered Arc Atlantique Evaluation report – Annex 1 2/2 Hard Shoulder Running and Weaving Segments Belgium –E40/E314 – Brussel - Aken Project Reference: FL-01 Project Name: Hard shoulder running E40 and weaving segments E314 ITS Corridor: E40/E314 Brussel - Aken Project Location: Belgium – E40/E314 Leuven Area 1. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM ADDRESSED BY THE PROJECT 1.1 Nature of the Site The R0, E40 and E314 in this report are part of a highway connection between the cities of Brussels-Lummen (E314), and Brussels-Luik (E40). The newly implemented hard shoulder is situated on the E40 between off and on ramps of Sterrebeek and Bertem East Bound. Between Bertem and Heverlee 2 extra lanes are added on the E40 in the East Bound direction. The weaving segments are located on the E314 between every on ramp and the next off ramp in Leuven and Wilsene in both directions. Figure 1 Evaluated site Hard Shoulder Running and Weaving Segments Belgium –E40/E314 – Brussel - Aken 1.2 Issues Addressed In the morning peak hours, the congestion is located towards Brussels, i.e. traffic going into Brussel City and primarily towards R0. The bottleneck of the R0 (Fig. 2 (6)) and the bottleneck of the E40 around Leuven (Fig. 2 (3)) are not the focus of this analysis, but their impact on the E314 congestion is undeniable. Traffic jams on the R0 bottleneck (Fig. 2 (6)) and subsequent shockwaves towards the E314 (Fig. 2 (4)) create a first bottleneck between Winksele and Heverlee on the E314 (Fig. 2 (2)). A second bottleneck is present between Holsbeek and Herent due to a capacity constraint. The shockwaves from upstream bottlenecks, traffic from on-ramps and off-ramps around Leuven are leading to oversaturation. This bottleneck leads to a traffic jam spillback on the E314 up to Tielt-Winge (Fig.2 (1)). Figure 2 Issues addressed in the morning towards Brussels (red: traffic jam, orange: shockwaves, green: no jam) During evening peak hours, traffic jams are caused by traffic coming from Brussels – i.e. Brussel City and R0 – going towards Luik and Lummen. 4 bottlenecks are identified. The first bottleneck is located between Leuven and Wilsele (Fig. 3 (7)). Main reason is a capacity constraint due to a high amount of traffic coming from the on-ramps and going towards off-ramps around Leuven leading to oversaturation. This bottleneck creates shockwaves towards the E40 amplified by weaving traffic and traffic coming from the on-ramp in Bertem (Fig. 3 (8)). Subsequently, the cumulative effect of the previous bottlenecks causes severe spillback in combination with a capacity reduction bottleneck and the on-ramp at Sterrebeek (Fig. 3 (9)). The capacity is reduced in Sterrebeek going from 4 to 3 lanes. The same effect occurs in Fig. 3 (10) where the above mentioned effects are combined with a capacity bottleneck. At St-Stevens-Woluwe 3 lanes converge to 2 lanes. Hard Shoulder Running and Weaving Segments Belgium –E40/E314 – Brussel - Aken Figure 3 Issues addressed evening: traffic jams towards Leuven-Aarschot-Lummen General policy is to decrease traffic jams around Leuven, particularly on the E314 and E40 towards Leuven. Figure 4 and Figure 5 illustrate the changes in the infrastructure for reducing spillbacks during evening peak. The 4 to 3 lane bottleneck between Sterrebeek and Bertem is removed by adding hard shoulder running during the evening between 2 and 8 PM on weekdays. The capacity between Bertem and Heverlee is permanently expanded, where diverging traffic towards E314 can use 2 new lanes to reduce weaving effects. Figure 5 shows the new situation for reducing traffic jams, where on-ramps are connected with the following off-ramp to reduce capacity drops due to weaving traffic. Figure 5 is mirror wise applied to E314 from Wilsele towards Leuven for reducing shockwaves during the morning peak. One remark: measuring points 9 and 10 are located downstream on the E40 and are not mentioned in Figure 4 or Figure 5. Measuring point 9 is between Heverlee and Haasrode, and 10 is located between the off- and on-ramp of Haasrode. Hard Shoulder Running and Weaving Segments Belgium –E40/E314 – Brussel - Aken Figure 4 Overview before and after hard shoulder running and extra lanes E40 Figure 5 Overview before and after roundabout off ramp E19 St-Job-In-‘t-Goor and N117 Hard Shoulder Running and Weaving Segments Belgium –E40/E314 – Brussel - Aken 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE ITS PROJECT 2.1 Project Objectives, incl. specificities / contextual useful information The main objective of this project is to assess the actual effect due to the infrastructural implementations after a substantial analysis period. An excessive dataset is analysed to compare before and after the deployment of the extra capacity with data from cameras, inductive loops at the measuring points, and other sources. A quantitative analysis is conducted based on objective measurements: • Demand measurements; • Speed measurements; • Registration of accidents; • Registration of operational characteristics by the control centre. Most important estimations are made about the impact on following KPIs: 1. Demand flow evolution as in extra nominal growth and changes in route choice; 2. I/C ratios for indicating capacity use with maximum capacity of 2200 PCU/h; 3. Use of on and off ramps and their corresponding shifts; 4. Travel times as calculated with estimation models based on the detector information; 5. Vehicle hours lost as a general performance indicator; 6. Traffic safety as in the number of reported accidents; 7. Operational performance of early and late opening of the hard shoulder. 2.2 Systems and Technologies Applied Variable Message Signs (VMS) are implemented for opening – i.e. green arrow - and closing – i.e. red cross preceded by a yellow arrow - the hard shoulder running lane. The VMS also allows harmonising speed on this section. An additionally CCTV network is installed along the whole section. The CCTV allows the traffic operator to check prior to opening the lanes if vehicles or objects are blocking the lane. The lane remains closed in that case. Figure 6 VMS with close or open sign for the hard shoulder running Hard Shoulder Running and Weaving Segments Belgium –E40/E314 – Brussel - Aken 2.3 Project Costs The estimated budget for this project was € 3,048,000. EU contributed 20% or 609,600 euros. Total budget spent is around € 4,000,000 for the hard shoulder on the E40, and € 2,400,000 for the weaving segments and local capacity extension on the E314. 2.4 Status of the Project On the 2th of September 2013 the hard shoulder is opened for the first time. 3. RESULTS 3.1 Level of Deployment / level of services The considered periods for analysis are 6 months before and the same 6 months after full deployment. Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar 2012-2013 Before period for analysis Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar 2013-2014 Road works Act ivat ion Aft er period for analysis 3.2 Impacts / benefits Demand flows The demands in the direction of Brussels are increasing (3% between Aarschot and Wilsele) at a similar rate during off-peak periods and morning peak. This illustrates that no new traffic is generated due to the weaving segments on the E314 (Figure 7). The most important bottlenecks at the R0 still remain. Further analysis focuses therefore on the evening peak. During evening peaks, the demand increases significantly on the E40 between 1 and 10% on top of the nominal growth due to the extra capacity. This extra traffic is concentrated between 3 and 7 PM. The infrastructural implementations don’t influence the amount of traffic on the E314 nor traffic coming from Brussels. Analysis points out, that there is no shift in demand towards the peak hour in time. Figure 7 Extra demands Hard Shoulder Running and Weaving Segments Belgium –E40/E314 – Brussel - Aken Use of on and off ramps The hard shoulder running leads to a significant increase in traffic on the E40. Extra traffic is using off-ramps Sterrebeek (in between Brussels and Leuven), Haasrode Research park (E40 below Leuven), and the on-ramp of the Woluwelaan (R0 near Zaventem). The impact of the hard shoulder running can be estimated between 12 and 17% extra traffic on these ramps when nominal growth is neglected. Especially the on-ramp Woluwelaan is a positive effect, because in the past traffic used the R22 for going towards the N2. The N2 is a parallel road to the E40 of the underlying network and can be considered rat running.