Modelling urban traffic congestion due to construction transports - The Case of Norrköping

Abstract: “Störningsfri stad” is an ongoing research project in Norrköping with the aim to create a planning system that shows the impact on the city caused by construction project related logistic activities. Based on the general idea that construction sites create disturbances within a city the thesis evaluates how it is possible to model excess congestion caused by construction transport and trips. Other part of thesis focuses of the application of construction logistic solutions and their respective impact on the congestion. To deal with the stated problem, a case is created – Case Norrköping. It involves the preparation of datasets that describe travel patterns for HGV and workers going to and from construction sites. Case Norrköping is based on six construction sites located in Norrköping. Construction sites have an estimated demand of transports. For that reason, three reference values are created. Reference values are given as the number of HGV serving all sites – 152, 458, 1404 number of vehicles during one working day. To create OD-matrices for the HGV trips, six supplier locations are used. Resulting datasets describe in detail how and when HGV and workers arrive at the construction sites. The actual modelling of congestion effects is done in traffic simulation framework MATSim. An existing Norrköping MATSim model is used and combined with the datasets created in Case Norrköping. Output of simulation is potential congestion effect on car traffic in Norrköping. Case Norrköping is evaluated by changing the number of involved sites. Results show that construction transports contribute to increased congestion levels. Absolute increase of congestion is not significant for scenario 152 HGV. Scenarios 458 and 1404 HGV do show noticeable increases in congestion, especially during peak hour periods. Finally, construction logistic solutions are applied to Case Norrköping to evaluate the impact on congestion level. Different HGV arrival schedules at construction sites are applied. Result of logistic solution application shows that congestion levels can be decreased if peak-hour avoidance is considered in construction transport planning. Even constant arrival rate compared to present arrival rate in Case Norrköping can provide a minor decrease in congestion levels. The gains of applying logistic become more distinct with larger number of HGV. At high HGV demand such as scenario 1404 HGV, total delay hours can be decreased between 20 and 40 percent with a suitable construction logistic solution.