IDENTIFYING, ANTICIPATING, AND MITIGATING FREIGHT BOTTLENECKS ON ALABAMA INTERSTATES by KENNETH MICHAEL ANDERSON DR. JAY LINDLY, COMMITTEE CHAIR DR. STEVEN JONES DR. JOE WEBER A THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2011 ABSTRACT This project establishes a framework for the creation and maintenance of a statewide strategy for identifying, anticipating, and mitigating freight bottlenecks on interstate highways for the state of Alabama. It uses a methodology established and developed by Cambridge Systematics for identifying and quantifying bottlenecks. This research identified a total of nine freight bottlenecks on Alabama interstates using 2006 traffic data supplied by ALDOT. These include six bottlenecks, termed “capacity” bottlenecks, which are caused by an insufficient capacity in relation to demand (where the ratio of Average Annual Daily Traffic to the hourly capacity of the roadway in passenger cars per hour is greater than eight) on a basic section of roadway. The other three bottlenecks are “interchange” bottlenecks, which are similar to capacity bottlenecks except that they occur at interchanges involving multiple interstates. The six sections of roadway identified as capacity bottlenecks follow: Interstate 65 from Exit 252 to Exit 259B Interstate 65 from Exit 238 to Exit 246 Interstate 20/59 from Exit 123 to Exit 130 Interstate 65 from Exit 247 to Exit 250 Interstate 10 from 26A to Exit 27 Interstate 10 from Exit 15B to Exit 17A The three interchanges identified as bottlenecks follow: ii Interstate 459 at Interstate 65 Interstate 20/59 at Interstate 65 Interstate 20/59 diverge (into separate Interstate 20 and Interstate 59) A third type of bottleneck called a “roadway geometry” bottleneck involves congested roadways that have grades greater than 4.5% lengths exceeding one mile. However, none of these types of bottlenecks were identified on Alabama interstates because there is no stretch of interstate of that length with that steep of grade. Identification of bottleneck locations was done using a GIS database that was created specifically for use in this report. This database merged multiple, previously existing databases including the National Highway Planning Network, the Highway Performance Monitoring System, and the Freight Analysis Framework. Each of the bottlenecks identified were assigned a cost value for the delay that it causes in 2006 as well as in 2025 and 2040. This type of information is useful to planners when they are selecting sections of interstate highways for upgrade. Similarly, projections of delay cost were calculated for interstate road sections and interchanges that were classified as bottlenecks in year 2006. For example, the George C. Wallace Tunnel in Mobile, which is the capacity bottleneck on Interstate 10 from Exit 26A to Exit 27, had roughly $150,000 in delay to freight movements in 2006 but is expected to increase to $1,836,000 in delay by the year 2025. That is a greater than ten-fold increase. The report also lists methods through which the basic framework established in this report can be improved upon to provide greater accuracy in bottleneck identification and delay cost calculations. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to thank the two professors that I worked most intimately with during my time on this project, Dr. Jay Lindly and Dr. Steven Jones. Their guidance throughout the process of writing this report has been invaluable and relieved much uncertainty and stress in relation to me writing my thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Joe Weber, who, along with Dr. Lindly and Dr. Jones, was a member of my thesis committee. Besides my committee members, I would like to thank Dr. Daniel Turner, who I had the pleasure of working with on a previous project. His guidance and advice has always proved very useful in my life and career. In addition to the professors that I worked with, I would also like to thank the support staff that worked at the UTCA, including Mrs. Connie Harris, UTCA‟s Administrative Secretary, and Mr. Joseph Walsh, UTCA‟s Editorial Assistant. Also, I want to thank people outside of the UTCA for their love and support. I would especially like to thank my grandpa, who taught me my love for engineering, and my grandma, who unfortunately passed away during my graduate studies but always supported me and gave me the confidence I need to be successful in life. Lastly, I‟d like to thank other people that have supported me throughout the writing of this thesis. Those people include my mother, father, brother, and sister. Also, I received much love and support from my girlfriend, Katie. And I want to give a special thanks to my friend Diane, who let me live with her during the final phases of my thesis writing. iv CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iv CONTENTS .................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ xii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... xix 1.0 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Objective ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Defining a “Freight Bottleneck” ........................................................................................... 2 1.3 History of the Methodology .................................................................................................. 3 1.4 Data Sources .......................................................................................................................... 5 2.0 BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................. 7 2.1 Trends in Freight Congestion ................................................................................................ 7 2.1.1 National Trends and Growth of Congestion ................................................................... 7 2.1.2 Alabama Trends in Freight Congestion .......................................................................... 9 2.1.3 Cost of Congestion ......................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Causes of Congestion .......................................................................................................... 10 2.3 Classifying Bottlenecks ....................................................................................................... 11 2.4 Calculating Delay ................................................................................................................ 12 2.4.1 Interchange Delay ......................................................................................................... 13 v 2.4.2 Capacity Delay ............................................................................................................. 13 2.4.3 Roadway Geometry Delay............................................................................................ 14 2.5 Efforts to Reduce Congestion on Interstates ....................................................................... 14 2.5.1 National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America‟s Transportation Network ........ 15 2.6 Remediation Measures for Freight Bottlenecks .................................................................. 16 2.6.1 Active Roadway Management ...................................................................................... 17 2.6.2 Travel Demand Management and Alternative Travel Mode ........................................ 18 2.6.3 Physical Roadway Capacity ......................................................................................... 19 2.7 Literature Review Summary ............................................................................................... 20 3.0 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................. 22 3.1 Creating the GIS Database .................................................................................................. 23 3.1.1 The National Highway Planning Network ................................................................... 24 3.1.2 Errors in the National Highway Planning Network...................................................... 24 3.1.3 Modification of the National Highway Planning Network .......................................... 26 3.1.4 Alabama DOT/Highway Performance Monitoring System Database .......................... 28 3.1.5 Freight Analysis Framework ........................................................................................ 29 3.1.6 New Database Headings ............................................................................................... 30 3.1.7 Projections in the Database ..........................................................................................