Feasibility of Using Network Level Highway User Costs in Highway Preservation Decision-Making in Saskatchewan

Abstract

It is commonly understood that not all highways have the same level of importance in supporting economic and social activities. It is necessary to establish preservation priorities and long term service objectives to help rationally determine resources allocation. Traffic volumes and road conditions are among the most commonly used factors in defining priority for preservation. These factors can not directly provide economic explanation to investment decision. This paper proposes the use of road user costs on highway sections to directly link preservation priority to transportation economics. Road user costs are calculated for all highway sections in Saskatchewan and it is found that some sections the costs can be hundreds times higher than on other sections. The fact that road users spend much more on some highway sections is useful information to justify better service. Road user costs are also found to be highly correlated with corresponding traffic volume on highway sections. 1. INTRODUCTION Saskatchewan has a large provincial highway network that has played important roles in social and economic development of the province. The highway network faces major challenges as commercial traffic continues to increase, public expectation on transportation services becomes higher, climate change appears to impact highway infrastructure more, and the infrastructure is aging. While investments to construct new highways and bridges are still necessary in some locations, the largest component of Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure’s budget is the preservation of existing infrastructure. The Ministry has worked to develop a highway preservation policy that can strategically guide and explain preservation investment. The limited infrastructure preservation funding needs to be rationally prioritized and service objectives defined in order to best preserve the infrastructure asset to meet the growing transportation demand. It is also a challenge to directly link investment decision factors to the transportation economics and to effectively communicate to public/stakeholders to manage public expectations.