Development of Levels of Service for the Interstate Highway System (2010)

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TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2010 www.TRB.org N A T I O N A L C O O P E R A T I V E H I G H W A Y R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCHRP REPORT 677 Subscriber Categories Administration and Management • Economics • Highways • Maintenance and Preservation • Planning and Forecasting • Policy Development of Levels of Service for the Interstate Highway System DYE MANAGEMENT GROUP, INC. Bellevue, WA W I T H PAUL D. THOMPSON CONSULTING Castle Rock, CO QUALITY ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS Conneaut Lake, PA Research sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM Systematic, well-designed research provides the most effective approach to the solution of many problems facing highway administrators and engineers. Often, highway problems are of local interest and can best be studied by highway departments individually or in cooperation with their state universities and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transportation develops increasingly complex problems of wide interest to highway authorities. These problems are best studied through a coordinated program of cooperative research. In recognition of these needs, the highway administrators of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials initiated in 1962 an objective national highway research program employing modern scientific techniques. This program is supported on a continuing basis by funds from participating member states of the Association and it receives the full cooperation and support of the Federal Highway Administration, United States Department of Transportation. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies was requested by the Association to administer the research program because of the Board’s recognized objectivity and understanding of modern research practices. The Board is uniquely suited for this purpose as it maintains an extensive committee structure from which authorities on any highway transportation subject may be drawn; it possesses avenues of communications and cooperation with federal, state and local governmental agencies, universities, and industry; its relationship to the National Research Council is an insurance of objectivity; it maintains a full-time research correlation staff of specialists in highway transportation matters to bring the findings of research directly to those who are in a position to use them. The program is developed on the basis of research needs identified by chief administrators of the highway and transportation departments and by committees of AASHTO. Each year, specific areas of research needs to be included in the program are proposed to the National Research Council and the Board by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Research projects to fulfill these needs are defined by the Board, and qualified research agencies are selected from those that have submitted proposals. Administration and surveillance of research contracts are the responsibilities of the National Research Council and the Transportation Research Board. The needs for highway research are many, and the National Cooperative Highway Research Program can make significant contributions to the solution of highway transportation problems of mutual concern to many responsible groups. The program, however, is intended to complement rather than to substitute for or duplicate other highway research programs. Published reports of the NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM are available from: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 and can be ordered through the Internet at: http://www.national-academies.org/trb/bookstore Printed in the United States of America NCHRP REPORT 677 Project 20-74A ISSN 0077-5614 ISBN 978-0-309-15516-8 Library of Congress Control Number 2010938853 © 2010 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA, or Transit Development Corporation endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. NOTICE The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The members of the technical panel selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance. The report was reviewed by the technical panel and accepted for publication according to procedures established and overseen by the Transportation Research Board and approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this report are those of the researchers who performed the research and are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, or the program sponsors. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, and the sponsors of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the object of the report.

CRP STAFF FOR NCHRP REPORT 677 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs Andrew C. Lemer, Senior Program Officer Sheila Moore, Senior Program Assistant Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Hilary Freer, Senior Editor NCHRP PROJECT 20-74A PANEL Field of Special Projects Kirk T. Steudle, Michigan DOT, Lansing, MI (Chair) Carl Chase, Jr., Lexington, SC Tremain V. Downey, California DOT, Sacramento, CA Wendy L. Gagnier, AASHTO, Washington, DC Shiv K. Gupta, Wisconsin DOT, Madison, WI William M. McEntee, Road Commission for Oakland County (MI), Waterford, MI Sue McNeil, University of Delaware, Newark, DE Tammy B. Sims, Texas DOT, Austin, TX Jeffrey H. Smith, Baldwin, MD Shirley J. Ybarra, Reason Foundation, Washington, DC Francine Shaw-Whitson, FHWA Liaison Thomas Palmerlee, TRB Liaison C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S

NCHRP Report 677 presents a level-of-service-based approach to describing performance of Interstate Highway System (IHS) assets. It also provides a template and process that state departments of transportation (DOTs) can use to implement this approach for managing their IHS assets. Well-described levels of service are an effective means for communicating with public officials, highway users, and other stakeholders about asset performance and resources needed to ensure adequate performance. The IHS, the result of a major national investment, is vital to the nation’s economy and an increasingly critical contributor to global production and distribution systems, but the system’s assets are owned and managed by the states. While the specific measures that define excellent or poor levels of service may vary from one state to another, a consistent framework and measures for IHS levels of service would support benchmarks that DOTs and other responsible agencies can use to assess their Interstate maintenance and preservation needs and manage their IHS assets. Global trade, population growth, and other factors are driving large increases in heavy trucks and other traffic on many of the nation’s highways. This traffic growth has accelerated rates of pavement and other roadway deterioration and increased the significance of declin- ing levels of service as a drain on the nation’s economic vitality. At the same time, demands for on-time delivery of goods; personal mobility; and a safe, reliable, and environmentally responsible highway system have raised system maintenance costs and increased public dissatisfaction with service disruptions associated with highway repair and reconstruction. One of the nation’s most significant investments in transportation infrastructure is the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways, typically referred to sim- ply as the Interstate Highway System. The IHS, now in its sixth decade of service, is vital to the nation’s economy and is an increasingly critical contributor to global production and distribution systems. Investments in the system are managed by the state departments of transportation (DOTs) and a variety of other associated agencies responsible for specific Interstate facilities. To ensure that the benefits of the IHS continue for future generations, these agencies must preserve, operate, maintain, and augment the system’s assets. Yet, limited funds make it increasingly difficult for many agencies to maintain adequate service on their IHS and other highways. The IHS represents a substantial national investment in pavements; bridges and other structures such as retaining walls and large culverts; roadside assets such as fencing, guardrail, pipes and ditches; rest areas; and traffic-operation equipment such as signs and signals. The overall performance of the IHS is a function of the services these diverse assets are expected to provide, including smooth ride, safe operating speeds, crash avoidance and protection from serious injury, and fast and reliable access to markets and jobs. Levels of F O R E W O R D By Andrew C. Lemer Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

service describe in specific terms the degree to which a highway system generally, and assets comprising that system in particular, provides customer service, satisfies the demands of system users, and meets the objectives of other stakeholders. The development of a consis- tent framework and measures for IHS levels of service would provide benchmarks that DOTs and other responsible agencies can use to assess their Interstate maintenance and preservation needs and manage their IHS assets. This report is the product of NCHRP Project 20-74A, research undertaken to develop (1) a standard way to describe the service level of Interstate Highway System assets and (2) a process that agencies can use to prepare a template for describing levels of service. The intent in this research was that levels of service would be defined in a standard way—for example, an “A through F” or “1 to 5” scale—with descriptive explanation of these ratings in terms that are meaningful to stakeholders. Specific indicators of service level might be suggested (for example, the International Roughness Index [IRI] as an indicator of pavement surface), but the measures that define level of service (for example, IRI less than 45 is level of service “A”) could vary from one state to another. This report presents a template that DOTs can use to describe and measure IHS performance in their jurisdictions and a guide for imple- menting the level of service measurement process. NCHRP Project 20-74A built on previous NCHRP-sponsored research to develop a practical framework for applying asset management principles and practices to managing Interstate Highway System investments. NCHRP Report 632: An Asset-Management Frame- work for the Interstate Highway System describes concepts, tools, and data requirements for implementing and using such a framework. For the research presented here, a team led by Dye Management Group, Inc., (1) assessed the current state of practice among transporta- tion agencies regarding Interstate asset level of service measurement and (2) developed a scale and definitions of levels of service for Interstate system assets in order to address con- cerns of highway users, transportation agencies, and other stakeholders. The research team selected level of service indicators for major assets, for which consis- tent measures exist or could be developed and used to establish service-level benchmarks and thresholds. The team then developed a template that can be used to assess, analyze, and report IHS performance at various levels of geographic focus and considering subsystem characteristics that may be important to management decisionmaking, such as urban or rural character. Throughout the research, the NCHRP project panel and other invited par- ticipants provided comments to enhance the likelihood that the research results would be useful to DOTs and other agencies responsible for IHS-asset management. This report includes guidance on implementing and using the level-of-service measurement frame- work. Fully implemented, the template and process described here will be useful for communicating with policymakers and other stakeholders about critical funding needs, supporting resource-allocation decisions, and demonstrating accountability in IHS management.

C O N T E N T S 1 Summary 6 Chapter 1 Introduction 6 1.1 Background 6 1.2 Research Objectives 6 1.3 Research Approach 7 1.4 Report Organization 7 1.5 Definition of Terms 9 Chapter 2 Summary of the State of the Practice 9 2.1 Overview 9 2.2 Framework for Research Results 10 2.3 Asset Classes 14 2.4 Findings 15 2.5 Conclusion 16 Chapter 3 Summary of Indicators and Measures for Template Development 16 3.1 Level of Service Ratings 16 3.2 Notes on Research Results 20 Chapter 4 Level of Service Template 29 Chapter 5 Implementation Guide 29 5.1 Implementation Plan 32 5.2 Users Guide 34 Chapter 6 Implementation Considerations 34 6.1 Frequency of LOS Surveys 34 6.2 Data Collection 35 6.3 Pass/Fail versus Quantitative Approach for LOS Analysis 36 6.4 Data Weighting Issues 36 6.5 Aggregation of LOS Measures 38 Appendices 39 Bibliography 40 Acronyms Note: Many of the photographs, figures, and tables in this report have been converted from color to grayscale for printing. The electronic version of the report (posted on the Web at www.trb.org) retains the color versions.