Assessment of the neighborhood environmental effects of highway improvements through micronetwork simulation

Abstract

New Cut Road is a major arterial highway serving South Louisville. Until recently, it was a narrow two‐lane highway of rural‐type design carrying up to 14,000 vehicles per day under forced flow conditions. Then construction began to widen the road from Southside Drive to Old Third Street Road, as a result of Urban Corridor Demonstration Program funding. The impacts (traffic, noise, and air pollution) on the neighborhoods surrounding this widening have been measured through micronetwork simulation techniques. Traffic will be diverted from surrounding roads (up to 20 percent) to the widened New Cut facility, thereby eliminating “over‐capacity” conditions in these facilities, adding several years’ life. Further, expeditious movement of vehicles through the New Cut Road “area of influence” will have a beneficial, albeit small, effect on the local air and noise environment. New Cut Road will be a highly cost‐effective, low‐capital‐intensive improvement.