Modeling Traffic Hindrance Caused by Road Construction as Part of a Multicriteria Assessment Framework

Abstract

One of the consequences of the increased utilization of road infrastructure is more frequent maintenance work. Since generally road works result in less available road capacity, we can witness an increase in traffic hindrance, which involves delays and externalities as noise, air quality, safety and the emission of GHG. Hindrance is generally not restricted to the location where the maintenance works take place, but can occur in a wider area as a result of altered flow patterns in the whole network. The type of reconstruction, and the way the work is executed determines not only the cost and service life but also the amount of hindrance. We present a multi-objective framework where for a longer period of time, cost and hindrance of specific road maintenance works can be determined, as part of a decision support tool for the optimal planning of maintenance works. For this we developed an alternative traffic assignment method that is able to predict traffic flow in a network in the presence of road works.