Tuesday, November 03, 2020
In this research, we developed and implemented a methodology to evaluate the life-cycle cost and benefit analysis of freight transportation projects based on our previously developed economic impact analysis tool, FreighTEC 1.0. A post-processing tool, FreighTEC 2.0, is developed to assist the project prioritization process for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) based on the freight forecast model -- Freight Supply-chain Intermodal Model (FreightSIM). FreighTEC 2.0 considers costs of the entire life cycle of freight investment projects, including planning, construction, operation, and maintenance, and estimates the direct benefits to the users and economic impacts to the impacted county (i.e. local impacts) and the state as a whole (i.e., state impacts).
FreighTEC 2.0 is a Life-cycle Cost and Benefit Analysis (LCCA) kit based on a regional economic input-output model and Freight Supply-chain Intermodal Model (FreightSIM). The core of FreighTEC 2.0 lies in the combination of a freight demand model with a multi-sectoral economic model. Outputs from FreightSIM are converted into monetary values which are the inputs for the regional IO model to derive sectoral impacts for the studied economy. The kit also allows users to customize values for converting transportation outputs at the project level. The output from FreightSIM is vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and vehicle hours traveled (VHT). It is assumed that freight transportation investment (e.g. new highway investment) would in the long run lead to more efficient freight traffic with lower vehicle hours of travel on the highway links in the study area.