BACKGROUND AASHTO members do not have a uniform methodology to measure the cost of transportation delays associated with the movement of people and goods. What is desired is a methodology or tool set that will support the prediction of national economic consequences of disruptions (e.g., earthquakes, dam failures, terrorist attacks, or other catastrophic events) to the surface transportation infrastructure and will identify regional and local investments that will improve the resiliency of the national transportation system.
A methodology or tool set will be useful for (1) identifying potential corridor disruptions with state, regional, and national implications and (2) prioritizing strategic investment in strengthening adaptive responses, including use of alternate ports of entry, facility hardening, and provision of redundant corridor.
OBJECTIVES The objectives of this research are to develop surface transportation infrastructure (as related to all surface modes) investment guidelines and a decision-making matrix or tool set for use by transportation investment policymakers.
The audience for this research will include AASHTO; state and MPO planners; USDOT (including RSPA, FRA, FHWA, FMCSA, BTS, MARAD); DHS (including TSA, USCG); and others.
Accomplishment of the objective will require the following tasks:
PHASE 1 Task 1. Prepare an annotated inventory that describes and critiques economic and surface transportation modeling resources and related data useful for traffic flow forecasting and related economic forecasting.
Task 2. Provide an analysis of the gap between the current state of the art and the development of a methodology or tool set that will (1) support the prediction of national economic consequences of disruptions (e.g., earthquakes, dam failures, terrorist attacks, or other catastrophic events) to the surface transportation infrastructure and (2) identify regional and local investments that will improve the resiliency of the national transportation system.
Task 2a. Identify those models appropriate for analysis of short-term traffic flow disruptions and related economic effects. Perform a gap analysis: what tools can effectively be used to analyze short-term effects at the Metropolitan Statistical Area and at statewide, regional, and national levels? What tools are missing? What resources are needed to develop the missing tools?
Task 2b. Identify those models appropriate for analysis of long-term traffic flow disruptions and related economic effects. Perform a gap analysis: what tools can effectively be used to analyze short-term effects at the Metropolitan Statistical Area and at statewide, regional, and national levels? What tools are missing? What resources are needed to develop the missing tools?
Task 3. Submit an interim report, within 3 months, to document Tasks 1 and 2. The interim report shall also contain a detailed draft Phase 2 work plan for review by the NCHRP.
Task 4. The research team will present and discuss the Interim Report in a meeting with the project panel approximately 1 month later.
PHASE 2 Task 5. Submit a revised Phase 2 work plan, if needed, to reflect Task 4 decisions.
Task 6. Illustrate the application of existing tools, or develop new methodologies or tools in
support of surface transportation infrastructure investment guidelines that maximize transportation and economic resilience. Provide a working methodology or tool and demonstrate the ability to interconnect traffic flow analysis data sets with a relevant set of national economic indicators. The results shall be in the form of a decision-making matrix or tool set for use by transportation investment policymakers.
Task 7. The research team will meet with the panel to demonstrate the methodology or tool.
Task 8. Submit the preliminary draft final report. This shall include the guidelines and the revised methodology or tool to reflect Task 7 decisions.
Task 9. The research team will demonstrate the application of the recommended guidelines, including a revised methodology or tool, at a 1-day meeting in Washington DC. This meeting will be hosted by AASHTO, and invitees will include representatives of interested entities.
Task 10. Submit a revised final report documenting the entire research effort.
The product of this research is a spreadsheet tool.
Disruption Impact Estimating Tool--Transportation (DIETT) will assist transportation, security, and emergency preparedness planners as they identify and prioritize potential high-value transportation choke points such as bridges, tunnels, and passes. These high-value transportation choke points are predominantly located along major transportation routes. A key variable is the impact on commercial shipments. DIETT calculates direct transportation-related and the economic--related impacts (costs) of an event that precludes the use of the transportation choke point and prioritizes these locations on the basis of these criteria. It does not calculate replacement costs. Using the prioritized sets of outputs, along with other risk information, decision makers will be able to better focus their capital resource, security, and emergency preparedness planning.
While DIETT is specifically designed for state-level use to assist state DOTs and other state security and emergency preparedness organizations, prioritized state results can be readily merged to identify candidate transportation choke points for use in regional or national prioritization schemes. Localities and metropolitan areas can also work with area-specific data to assess their transportation choke point priorities. While DIETT is designed to prioritize based on direct transportation and economic impacts, it can be expanded by adding other criteria of interest to the user and thus can be applied in numerous applications.
DIETT is an auto-executable program which employs commonly used software and user supplied data to generate a prioritized list of transportation choke points. Although DIETT is packaged and can run separately, in order to fine-tune the prioritizations developed in DIETT it is recommended that DIETT reside in the Consequences Assessment Tool Set (CATS)-Joint Assessment of Catastrophic Events (JACE). CATS-JACE is a consequence management tool package that integrates hazard prediction; consequence assessment; emergency management tools, including the Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability (HPAC) system; and critical population and infrastructure data within a commercial Geographical Information System.
These materials should be helpful to transportation agencies in creating or evaluating and modifying risk management and emergency response plans in a manner consistent with the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The importance of NIMS is set out in a September 8, 2004, letter to state governors, from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge: "NIMS provides a consistent nationwide approach for Federal, State, territorial, tribal, and local governments to work effectively and efficiently together to prepare for, prevent, respond to, and recover from domestic incidents, regardless of cause, size, or complexity."
Status: Completed. Published as
NCHRP Report 525, Volume 11. There are two products from project 20-59(9):
1. In the report, readers will find background information on DIETT as well as installation instructions and a user guide. This eleventh volume of
NCHRP Report 525: Surface Transportation Security will assist transportation, security, and emergency-preparedness planners as they identify and prioritize potential high-value transportation choke points (TCPs) such as bridges, tunnels, and passes. These high-value TSPs are located predominantly along major transportation routes. A key area of concern is how disruptive events will affect the flow of commercial traffic through TCPs.
2. The Disruption Impact Estimating Tool--Transportation (DIETT) is an electronic analytical tool that calculates direct transportation and economic impacts (costs) of an event that precludes the use of a TCP, and it prioritizes TCPs on the basis of these criteria. DIETT does not calculate replacement costs. Using DIETT's prioritized sets of outputs, along with other risk information, decision makers will be able to better focus their capital resource, security, and emergency-preparedness planning.
