Truck-Only Lanes Feasibility Analysis

Under an on-call contract for transportation systems planning and traffic engineering analyses projects, RS&H completed a Truck-Only Lanes Research Study. This initiative is part of the Georgia Department of Transportation’s (GDOT) ongoing effort to ensure Georgia’s economic competitiveness in the global marketplace and the project was a continuation of GDOT’s efforts to address freight mobility.

RS&H’s research included a literature review to determine best practices, including Transportation Research Board and National Cooperative Highway Research Program initiatives. Utilizing the identified best practices, RS&H focused on the identification of need, feasibility assessment, and implementation of commercial vehicle only, or truck-only, lanes on the most critical and congested highways in the state.

RS&H developed a methodology and tool to assess specific transportation corridors within the state and employed detailed datasets such as traffic and truck volumes/percentages (existing and projected), safety data, corridor travel reliability, freight intensive land use, freight originators/destinations (including coastal, barge, and inland ports), and freight-specific economic impact data. The team completed case studies of two major freight corridors, I-16 and I-75, to test the methodology and tool. As part of the case study feasibility analyses, RS&H developed planning-level cost estimates and ingress/egress points based on freight intensive land uses.