Effects of Asphalt and Concrete Pavement Rehabilitation on Users and Businesses during Construction

Abstract

Roadway maintenance and rehabilitation are critical tasks to sustain our transportation system. However, these activities often generate delays to road users, which can result in road user costs, work zone crash costs, and local business impact costs. This thesis presents a comprehensive methodology to calculate these costs and a tool developed for engineers and project managers to implement this methodology in practice. Specifically, this work develops methods for calculating a) road user costs, which adapts and updates FHWA and AASHTO policies, b) work zone crash mitigation costs, using an ordered probit model of crash severity estimated from eight states’ work zone crash databases, and c) local business impact costs, using another ordered probit model of driver behavior change estimated from a nationally-representative survey conducted for this work. To our knowledge, this is the first example of local business impact costs being studied on a nationally transferable scale. Results showed roadway geometry played a heavy role in work zone crash severity with the posted speed limit being the most statistically significant. For local business impacts, travelers’ decisions were most influenced by expected delay time, showing delay times exceeding 20 minutes resulted in travelers choosing to go somewhere else. Finally, an Excel-based tool was developed that completes a simulation of travelers through the work zone and calculates the costs for the project.