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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Identifying and Using Low-Cost and Quickly Implementable Ways to Address Freight-System Mobility Constraints. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14439.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Identifying and Using Low-Cost and Quickly Implementable Ways to Address Freight-System Mobility Constraints. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14439.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Identifying and Using Low-Cost and Quickly Implementable Ways to Address Freight-System Mobility Constraints. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14439.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Identifying and Using Low-Cost and Quickly Implementable Ways to Address Freight-System Mobility Constraints. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14439.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Identifying and Using Low-Cost and Quickly Implementable Ways to Address Freight-System Mobility Constraints. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14439.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Identifying and Using Low-Cost and Quickly Implementable Ways to Address Freight-System Mobility Constraints. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14439.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Identifying and Using Low-Cost and Quickly Implementable Ways to Address Freight-System Mobility Constraints. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14439.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Identifying and Using Low-Cost and Quickly Implementable Ways to Address Freight-System Mobility Constraints. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14439.
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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.

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 F R E I G H T R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCFRP REPORT 7 Subscriber Categories Construction • Design • Economics • Freight Transportation • Highways • Marine Transportation • Motor Carriers • Operations and Traffic Management • Planning and Forecasting • Railroads • Terminals and Facilities Identifying and Using Low-Cost and Quickly Implementable Ways to Address Freight-System Mobility Constraints Battelle Columbus, OH I N A S S O C I A T I O N W I T H Jeffrey Short, Todd Trego, and Dan Murray AMERICAN TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE Arlington, VA Joan Yim and Timothy Neuman CH2M HILL Bellevue, WA Gordon Proctor GORDON PROCTOR AND ASSOCIATES Dublin, OH Robert Gallamore THE GALLAMORE GROUP Rehoboth Beach, DE Shobna Varma STARISIS CORPORATION Lewis Center, OH Research sponsored by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE FREIGHT RESEARCH PROGRAM America’s freight transportation system makes critical contributions to the nation’s economy, security, and quality of life. The freight transportation system in the United States is a complex, decentralized, and dynamic network of private and public entities, involving all modes of transportation—trucking, rail, waterways, air, and pipelines. In recent years, the demand for freight transportation service has been increasing fueled by growth in international trade; however, bottlenecks or congestion points in the system are exposing the inadequacies of current infrastructure and operations to meet the growing demand for freight. Strategic operational and investment decisions by governments at all levels will be necessary to maintain freight system performance, and will in turn require sound technical guidance based on research. The National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) is a cooperative research program sponsored by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) under Grant No. DTOS59-06-G-00039 and administered by the Transportation Research Board (TRB). The program was authorized in 2005 with the passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). On September 6, 2006, a contract to begin work was executed between RITA and The National Academies. The NCFRP will carry out applied research on problems facing the freight industry that are not being adequately addressed by existing research programs. Program guidance is provided by an Oversight Committee comprised of a representative cross section of freight stakeholders appointed by the National Research Council of The National Academies. The NCFRP Oversight Committee meets annually to formulate the research program by identifying the highest priority projects and defining funding levels and expected products. Research problem statements recommending research needs for consideration by the Oversight Committee are solicited annually, but may be submitted to TRB at any time. Each selected project is assigned to a panel, appointed by TRB, which provides technical guidance and counsel throughout the life of the project. Heavy emphasis is placed on including members representing the intended users of the research products. The NCFRP will produce a series of research reports and other products such as guidebooks for practitioners. Primary emphasis will be placed on disseminating NCFRP results to the intended end-users of the research: freight shippers and carriers, service providers, suppliers, and public officials. Published reports of the NATIONAL COOPERATIVE FREIGHT 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 NCFRP REPORT 7 Project NCFRP-04 ISSN 1947-5659 ISBN 978-0-309-15508-3 Library of Congress Control Number 2010937481 © 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, RITA, or PHMSA 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 Freight 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 Freight 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 NCFRP REPORT 7 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs William C. Rogers, Senior Program Officer Charlotte Thomas, Senior Program Assistant Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Natalie Barnes, Editor NCFRP PROJECT 04 PANEL C. Randal Mullett, Con-way, Inc., Washington, DC (Chair) Teresa M. Adams, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI John Isbell, Starboard Alliance, LLC, Manzanita, OR H. Thomas Kornegay, Houston, TX Janice Susie Lahsene, Port of Portland, OR James W. McClellan, Woodside Consulting, Virginia Beach, VA Craig Philip, Ingram Barge Company, Nashville, TN Peter F. Swan, Pennsylvania State University–Harrisburg, Middletown, PA Ronald J. Duych, RITA Liaison Caesar Singh, RITA Liaison Joedy W. Cambridge, TRB Liaison Richard A. Cunard, TRB Liaison AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research reported herein was performed under the NCFRP Project 04, “Identifying and Using Low- Cost and Quickly Implementable Ways to Address Freight-System Mobility Constraints,” by Battelle, Columbus, Ohio, with subcontract support from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), CH2M HILL, Gordon Proctor and Associates, The Gallamore Group, and StarIsis Corporation. Dr. Edward Fekpe, a Research Leader with Battelle, was the principal investigator for the project and the lead author of this report. Other contributing authors are Dr. Robert Gallamore of The Gallamore Group, Jeffrey Short and Todd Trego of ATRI, Joan Yim and Timothy Neuman of CH2M HILL, Gordon Proctor of Gordon Proctor and Associates, and Shobna Varma of StarIsis Corporation. Other project team members that contributed to the development of this report are Mohammed Majed and Garnell Sowell of Battelle, Dan Murray of ATRI, and Brian Painley of CH2M HILL. The project team acknowledges the guidance and support of the NCFRP Project 04 panel members. 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

NCFRP Report 7: Identifying and Using Low-Cost and Quickly Implementable Ways to Address Freight-System Mobility Constraints develops standardized descriptions of the dimensions of the freight transportation system, defines freight mobility constraints in a multimodal context, pro- vides criteria for low-cost and quickly implementable improvements to address the constraints, and provides a software tool to help decision makers in evaluating constraints and selecting appropriate improvements. The report will enable both the public and private sectors to ben- efit from operational improvements, organizational changes, and other low-cost ways to address freight-system mobility constraints. The nation’s freight infrastructure is well established and mature but overburdened. Increasing congestion inflicts costs on shippers, consumers, and the environment. Evolv- ing technologies, growing demand, changing business practices, shifting patterns of com- merce, and government policies designed to address environmental and other public con- cerns have impacts, sometimes unintended, on freight system performance. Because expansions to the freight transportation system are often complicated and expensive, both private-sector firms and public policymakers often try to find operational improvements, organizational changes, or other low-cost and quickly implementable ways to address mobility constraints. Under NCFRP Project 4, Battelle was asked to (1) develop a standardized description of the dimensions of the freight system by mode; (2) analyze explicitly the business practices and institutional factors that influence freight-system decision makers and stakeholders as they respond to freight-system mobility constraints and regulatory and other public policy initiatives; (3) develop a methodology that both the public and private sectors can use to identify, categorize, and evaluate quickly implementable, low-cost capital, operational, and public policy actions that can enhance freight mobility by addressing system constraints; and (4) apply that methodology in a generic way to create a catalog of actions that may be most useful in addressing the nation’s freight-system mobility constraints. To accomplish the project objectives, the research team (1) developed definitions of freight mobility constraint; (2) developed criteria for low-cost and quickly implementable improvement by mode; (3) characterized the improvements by physical improvements, operational improvements, and regulatory improvements; and (4) developed a computer- based application analysis tool for users to identify constraints based on selectable criteria and then to review possible improvements based on documentation of the experiences of departments of transportation and others. F O R E W O R D By William C. Rogers Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

C O N T E N T S 1 Summary 5 Chapter 1 Introduction and Research Approach 5 1.1 Problem Statement 6 1.2 Research Objectives 6 1.3 Research Approach 6 1.3.1 Overview 6 1.3.2 Data Collection 8 1.3.3 Data Analysis 9 Chapter 2 Literature Review 9 2.1 Introduction 9 2.2 Highways/Trucking 9 2.2.1 Defining the Freight Mobility Problem on Highways and Roadways 9 2.2.2 Definition of Low-Cost Highway Improvements 10 2.2.3 Examples of Physical Low-Cost Improvements 10 2.2.4 Low-Cost Operational/Technology Improvements 11 2.2.5 Examples of Low-Cost Operational Improvements 12 2.2.6 Low-Cost Regulatory/Public Policy Improvements 13 2.2.7 Examples of Low-Cost Regulatory Improvements 13 2.3 Railroads 13 2.3.1 Freight Capacity 14 2.3.2 Freight Mobility Constraints 14 2.3.3 Low-Cost Improvements 15 2.3.4 Examples of Low-Cost Rail Improvements 15 2.4 Water Ports and Inland Waterways 15 2.4.1 Marine Transportation System 15 2.4.2 System Capacity 15 2.4.3 Performance Indicators 16 2.4.4 Mobility Constraints 16 2.4.5 Low-Cost Improvements 16 2.4.6 Examples of Low-Cost Improvements 18 Chapter 3 Dimensions and Characteristics of the Freight System 18 3.1 Introduction 18 3.2 Networks and System Characteristics 18 3.3 System Performance 21 3.4 Highways 25 3.5 Railroads 29 3.6 Intermodal 30 3.7 Deepwater Ports 35 3.8 Inland Waterways

35 3.8.1 Coastal and Intracoastal Waterways 35 3.8.2 Great Lakes System 35 3.8.3 Inland Rivers and Waterways 36 3.8.4 Locks and Dams 40 Chapter 4 Freight Mobility Constraints 40 4.1 Defining and Characterizing Freight Mobility Constraints 41 4.2 Causes and Locations of Mobility Constraints 41 4.2.1 Highways 42 4.2.2 Railroads 43 4.2.3 Deepwater Ports and Inland Waterways 44 4.2.4 Labor Unions 45 4.2.5 Summary 47 4.3 Measures or Indicators of Mobility Constraint 47 4.3.1 Highways 49 4.3.2 Railroads 49 4.3.3 Deepwater Ports and Inland Waterways 49 4.3.4 Summary 53 Chapter 5 Low-Cost, Quickly Implementable Improvements 53 5.1 Definition of Low-Cost, Quickly Implementable Improvements 53 5.1.1 Highways 54 5.1.2 Railroads 54 5.1.3 Deepwater Ports and Inland Waterways 55 5.2 Criteria for Low-Cost Improvements 56 5.3 Characterization of Improvements 56 5.3.1 Physical Improvements 56 5.3.2 Operational Improvements 56 5.3.3 Regulatory Improvements 56 5.4 Low-Cost Strategies for Addressing Mobility Constraints 56 5.4.1 Highways Improvement Strategies 61 5.4.2 Railroads Improvement Strategies 62 5.4.3 Deepwater and Inland Waterways Improvement Strategies 64 5.5 Summary of Improvements 68 Chapter 6 Methodology for Identifying and Evaluating Improvements 68 6.1 Introduction 68 6.2 Framework of Methodology 68 6.2.1 Characterization of Constraint 69 6.2.2 Selection of Improvements 71 6.2.3 Evaluation of Improvement Options 72 6.2.4 Query Database 72 6.3 Software Application 72 6.4 Feedback and Continuous Update of Database 72 6.5 Integration into Planning Process 73 6.5.1 Transportation Planning Process 74 6.5.2 Project Development Process 75 6.6 Evaluation of Beta Version of Tool

76 Chapter 7 Catalog of Improvements 76 7.1 Introduction 76 7.2 Approach to Developing Catalog of Strategies 77 7.2.1 Highways 78 7.2.2 Railroads 82 7.2.3 Deepwater Ports and Inland Waterways 87 Chapter 8 Conclusions and Suggested Research 87 8.1 Conclusions 88 8.2 Recommendations for Further Research 90 References 93 Acronyms A-1 Appendix A Methodology User Guide B-1 Appendix B Annotated Bibliography C-1 Appendix C Interview Guide D-1 Appendix D Internet Survey Instrument E-1 Appendix E Low-Cost Improvement Analysis Tool (LCIAT) Evaluation Form 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.

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TRB’s National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 7: Identifying and Using Low-Cost and Quickly Implementable Ways to Address Freight-System Mobility Constraints explores standardized descriptions of the dimensions of the freight transportation system, identifies freight mobility constraints in a multimodal context, highlights criteria for low-cost and quickly implementable improvements to address the constraints, and includes a software tool to help decision makers in evaluating constraints and selecting appropriate improvements.

The software tool is available for download in a .zip format. A user guide for the software is also available for download.

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