Impacts of Energy Developments on U.S. Roads and Bridges (2015)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

55 chapter five CONCLUSIONS AND KNOWLEDGE GAPS INTRODUCTION Information from both published literature and the responses provided by 40 state departments of transportation (DOTs) and the District of Columbia DOT provided valuable insight into how the impacts of energy development transportation activi- ties are affecting roadway and bridge infrastructure. Detailed interviews were conducted with DOTs, local agencies, and other organizations in five states. The information obtained in the interview sessions was used to acquire a more precise idea of the concerns and effective practices for managing the impacts of energy development on transportation infrastruc- ture, safety, and operations across the five focus states. CONCLUSIONS Based on the work carried out in this synthesis, the following conclusions can be made: • The literature review, survey responses, and interviews all indicated a strong correlation between the increase in negative impacts on road safety and road and bridge deterioration in and around the areas in which energy development activities are under way. • The most frequently reported engineering approach employed by both DOTs and local agencies for address- ing pavement damage is to increase the lane widths (and adding a paved shoulder), increasing pavement thickness, and stabilization of unpaved roadway surface layers. • Some tools reported to address damage created by energy development included (1) the stabilization of unpaved roads; (2) use of full depth reclamation of existing pave- ments; (3) addition of paved shoulders; (4) use of super- structure temporary “jumper” bridges; and (5) placement of geosynthetics for strengthening gravel or dirt roads. The use of geosynthetic materials in low volume roads was reported to be particularly effective for enhancing the lives of unpaved roadway surfaces and for reducing issues with constructability. • Most often the compensation to state and local agencies for damage to roads and bridges includes a variety of mechanisms, such as: development impact fees based on the magnitude of the development or a user fee based on measured damage to specific roads; use of donation agreements with energy developers; use of energy- related permit fees; application of severance, property, production, and/or sales taxes; use of lease revenues; and, implementation of maintenance agreements. • Thirty-two DOTs (78%) reported that their state experi- enced a sustained and/or expanded level of energy devel- opment activities in recent years with 32 DOTs reporting that activity impacting either state and/or local roads. Of those, 27 DOTs indicated they observed an increase in the amount of truck traffic volumes and heavy loads as a result of the energy development activities. • Secondary roadways that include minor arterials, collectors/distributors, and local roads were reported as most impacted by the truck traffic resulting from energy development activities. Ten states noted a signifi- cant impact level for local roads, whereas seven states reported a significant level also for minor arterials or collectors/distributors. Approximately twice as many DOTs rated the impact on minor arterials and local roads at a moderate level and the interstates or freeways were reported to be the types of roads that were least impacted. • Most of the states that reported an increase in damage or congestion on roads and bridges near energy devel- opment activities also noted an increase in the issuance of oversize and/or overweight (OS/OW) permits. • Most DOTs that reported observing damage on roads because of energy development activities indicated that they are addressing the repairs of these public roads with a combination of state and local funding. Only six DOTs reported that they have established agreements with energy companies to pay for the repairs on the public roads that they use. Another example of a fund- ing model is that of the United States Forest Service, which requires energy developers to purchase Road Use Permits. This process regulates access to forest roads by the developers, provides flexibility to modify per- mits for specific situations, and requires energy compa- nies to improve and maintain the condition of existing forest roads to standard before and during use for energy development activities. Fifteen of the 41 DOTs reported that the use of state or local permits is the most common type of contractual agreement that allows public roads to be used by energy developers. State laws or local ordi- nances were also widely reported by many DOTs as a typical practice. • The truck traffic percentage was identified as the most widely applied factor for use in a cost formula by six states. Five states reported using the vehicle miles

56 energy development on state and local roads and bridges. Of particular interest will be the holistic and international view on the allocation of resources and how the increasing need for addressing the impacts of energy development in the future will affect the amount of funding available to support other highway programs. Based on the work carried out in this synthesis, the fol- lowing future activities are suggested for research in order to address the many gaps in knowledge that were identified as part of this study: • In detailed interviews with local government jurisdic- tions in Colorado, Iowa, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Texas, it was reported that there is little quantita- tive information being collected (or statistical analyses being conducted) on the specific economic and social impacts resulting from energy development activities. The state DOTs observed that the primary impacts are typically noted on roadways off of the state highway system (i.e., secondary roads), which they view as the responsibility of local jurisdictions. It appears that this is an area of opportunity for future data collection and could consider the existence of adequate staff resources and available electronic databases. • The findings of this study indicated that there is a gen- eral lack of information on safety and crash statistics, particularly on low volume roads, that have resulted as a result of energy development activities. Methods for the efficient and comprehensive collection of this criti- cal information are an area for future research. • Many state DOTs and local jurisdictions do not have an accurate predictor for pavement life nor an accurate means of estimating damage on secondary roads. There is a need for research on the prediction of road and bridge service life reductions as a result of the impacts in increased heavy truck traffic. • Investigation into detour routing is an area of opportu- nity for states and local agencies. It was reported that the length of detour routes are not considered in the context of the decision-making process used for route selection by the operators of heavy trucks. The intended benefits of avoiding at-risk bridges or deteriorated pavements may be offset by the negative impacts of increased congestion or reduced safety when the length of detour routes are too long, indirectly encouraging trucks to seek out shorter haul distances. • It was reported to be of interest to transportation agen- cies to review the contribution levels to funding repairs and upholding of maintenance agreements in terms of the size of the energy companies. Although many large companies were reported to be contributing a share of the funding that are commensurate to the repairs required for roads and bridges, it is currently unknown whether the same level of cooperation can be accom- plished with smaller independent energy companies that are or will be doing development. traveled. Some states reported use of the number of OS/OW vehicle permits issued and increased fre- quency in roadway or bridge maintenance to serve as the basis for a cost formula. • The specific portion of damage that is attributable to heavy vehicles used for energy development activi- ties was reported as difficult to quantify in rural areas, although some DOTs such as Arkansas, New Jersey, North Dakota, and Texas have sponsored detailed research to define this factor. • The most common quantification of damage reported in the literature or through the interviews was by cal- culation of a remaining service life for pavements (or structural analysis for bridges). The reduction in service life for pavements was reported in some cases to be up to 30% for those state highways involved in the study. There are plans in some states to use the remaining ser- vice life as a parameter to which a DOT can assign a user fee structure for roads used by energy development. • Roadway bridges are being impacted because of trucks that are taller than the vertical clearances of some bridges resulting in a number of expensive repairs and closures. Other safety concerns are related to the thou- sands of bridges that do not have adequate width to safely accommodate drilling rigs and other oversized loads combined with increased volumes of truck traffic. • In Iowa, both the state and local jurisdictions have separate OS/OW vehicle permitting systems. The Iowa DOT OS/OW permitting requirements are now being used successfully in monitoring and scheduling the volume of truck traffic resulting from energy develop- ment particularly since the system’s automation. This study found that other impacted state DOTs may want to explore the combinations of state and local permit- ting into one automated system. • Interstates, state highways, county state-aid highways, and county (secondary) roads are all utilized to trans- port wind turbine and other energy sector components on pavements which were not designed to withstand these heavy loads. Many state DOTs and local jurisdic- tions do not have an accurate predictor for pavement life nor an accurate means of estimating damage on sec- ondary roads. One effective tool reported is the Min- nesota DOT’s Heavy Traffic Generator tool that allows the users to estimate the damage that may be caused on pavements on local roadways during the heavy con- struction traffic associated with wind turbine develop- ments. The tool also allows for the estimation of costs to repair and/or reconstruct any impacted roadways. SUGGESTED FUTURE RESEARCH The following section outlines some knowledge gaps that stemmed from the DOT survey and agency interviews. The responses indicated a need for future research in the areas of safety, environmental, and social impacts associated with

57 could explore the identification and/or development of generic tools to assist LPAs in collecting and analyzing this information. • The focus for the impacts of energy development activ- ities has been on secondary roads in primarily rural locations. One need identified by the DOTs interviewed was to quantify the extent of damage induced on more high-type roadways such as freeways, interstates, and major arterials. This is particularly of interest in areas near any port facilities or modal shift locations. • The focus of this study was on the domestic impacts of energy development activities on roadway networks in the United States. However, there are many other coun- tries (such as Canada, Australia, and China, to name a few) internationally that have been experiencing rapid changes and/or expansion in energy development. One suggestion is to research to what extent the energy development activities have impacted the roadway infrastructure, traffic, and safety in these nations and how the impacts have been addressed. • In order to gain a more complete picture of energy devel- opment impacts on state and local roadway infrastructure, input is required from several divisions within the DOTs as well as from other state agencies that manage economic development, public safety, motor vehicle registration, etc. Because of the organizational structure of the DOTs and of some state governments, the flow of information within the organizations can be restricted and cross- organizational communications sometimes inhibited. The findings suggest that future research might include reviewing the ability of DOTs to adapt to programs which will involve multiple divisions and agencies be explored, such as the successes witnessed in the implementation of the improved Local Public Agency programs for contract administration of federal-aid projects. • The ability of local agencies to collect and analyze traf- fic, economic, and social data and information on the impacts of energy development activities is severely limited by the lack of adequate resources and tem- plates of proven measurement tools. Future research