Contraflow Evacuation Planning for I-65 in Alabama

The goal of this project is to assist the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) in the planning of contraflow operations for hurricane evacuation along I-65. The idea is to reverse one direction of the roadway to accommodate the substantially increased travel flow moving from the impact area. One problem faced by ALDOT is scheduling the contraflow process. The timing for the deployment of equipment and personnel and the initiation and termination of counterflow impact the effectiveness, safety, and cost of the operation. The researchers will investigate methodologies and develop a modeling framework to determine the onset and duration of counterflow. They will also create a set of look-up tables and a prototype computer tool to assist ALDOT in planning counterflow evacuation. Different from previous studies, this research will feature: (1) a well-established and reliable meso-scopic traffic flow simulation, the cell transmission model; (2) robust and stochastic optimization techniques to determine the onset and duration of contraflow; (3) incident identification and characterization using artificial-intelligence techniques; (4) a sensitivity analysis to account for inaccurate estimation of evacuee's route-choice behaviors. The project team will work closely with ALDOT to ensure that the models, algorithms, and prototype computer tool are customized to their needs.

• Record URL:
  http://utca.eng.ua.edu/research/projects/?id=11402

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $109214.00
• Contract Numbers:

  GR23566

  UTCA Project #11402

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Alabama Department of Transportation

  1100 John Overton Drive
  Montgomery, AL  United States  36110
• Project Managers:

  Brown, Jeff

• Performing Organizations:

  University Transportation Center for Alabama

  University of Alabama
  Tuscaloosa, AL  United States  35487
• Principal Investigators:

  Gurupackiam, Saravanan

  Moynihan, Gary

  Fonseca, Daniel

  Lou, Yingyan

• Start Date: 20110815
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20121031
• Source Data: RiP Project 28701

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Evacuation; Hurricanes; Mesoscopic traffic flow; Optimization; Traffic control
• Uncontrolled Terms: Cell transmission model; Contraflow operations (Emergencies)
• Geographic Terms: Alabama
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01472031
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University Transportation Center for Alabama
• Contract Numbers: GR23566, UTCA Project #11402
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Feb 12 2013 1:01AM