Access Management and Design Guidelines for Truck Routes

Little or no research has been conducted on access management and design considerations for freight routes and sites that serve large trucks. Guidelines are lacking on the design and operation of truck routes through developed areas, as well as intersection and driveway design guidelines specific to larger trucks, such as the WB 67. In addition, agency design guidelines and warrants for turn lanes typically do not consider high volumes of large trucks. Driveway and site circulation issues that impact trucks include inadequate throat length and other on-site conflicts that cause spillback into the roadway and impede efficient truck operations. Different safety and operational problems may occur in relation to ingress versus egress, requiring different solutions. From an operational perspective, there seems to be a critical point at which a small increase in trucks can create a major failure in operations. Research is needed to provide state transportation agencies and local governments with state-of-the-art access management and design strategies for freight routes and such issues as turn-lane design, access location, access spacing, and driveway and site circulation design. The objective of this research is to provide state transportation agencies and local governments with model access management guidelines, policies, and strategies for truck routes, including guidance relative to the local designation of freight routes and the design of access and circulation for sites that serve high volumes of trucks and other large vehicles. The following tasks are expected: (1) document and compare typical methods and criteria used by local governments to designate truck routes in local plans; (2) identify access-related issues and problems encountered by drivers of large trucks through surveys and interviews, and conduct field observations of traffic operations at interchanges and other sites where there is a substantial volume of large trucks to identify and evaluate the nature and frequency of traffic conflicts; (3) identify and obtain photographs and sketches of examples of good practices and problem situations, including site plans and photographs of good and poor location and design of access to truck stops and other major traffic generators of large trucks; (4) identify and evaluate techniques that might be applied to improve traffic operations and safety on truck routes; (5) prepare model network designation/classification, access management, and design guidelines for truck routes, including suggested criteria for the items noted above and case studies illustrating the potential application of these strategies and retrofit opportunities, and explore land use planning best practices to support the proposed strategies and reduce adverse impacts of freight movement on urban centers; (6) and recommend enhancements to state access management regulations and/or design standards, as appropriate, with regard to truck routes and site access and circulation.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=4047
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $500000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 15-62

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite 225
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Project Managers:

  Rogers, William

• Start Date: 20150806
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: RiP Project 40211

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Access control (Transportation); Best practices; Guidelines; Traffic conflicts; Truck routes; Trucks; Warrants (Traffic control devices)
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01572388
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 15-62
• Files: TRB, RiP
• Created Date: Aug 7 2015 1:01AM