A Study on the Estimation Measure of Delay Cost on Work Zone Using the Traffic Flow Model

Abstract

: The user cost is an important analysis item which should be considered together with life-cycle of facility, administrator cost and discount rate in LCCA for efficient asset management of SOC facilities. Especially, a significant delay cost occurs often for users in the road field due to a work zone for cleaning and maintenance, and in such case, the administrator should consider the administrator cost as well as the user cost for more rational decision making. However, the user cost has not been considered in most decision making steps until recently and relevant studies also have not been carried out actively. In this study, the methodology to estimate the user cost and delay cost required in the decision making step using the traffic flow model and the direct benefit estimation model in the traffic facility investment evaluation guideline is suggested. And, the traffic flow model was estimated on 4 national highway sections where maintenance was actually carried out in 2014 using VISSIM and, the user cost and the delay cost were estimated based on the suggested methodology. The analysis result showed that the average user cost of 17,569,000 KRW/km ×day occurred on Section A with approximately 30,000 AADT before a work zone occurred, and in case the first lane was blocked for maintenance, the delay cost of 10,193,000 KRW/km×day (158%) on average occurred additionally. The delay cost of 1,507,000 KRW/km×day (115%) and 1,985,000 KRW/km×day (119%) occurred on Sections B and D with approximately 20,000 AADT respectively and the delay cost of 262,000 KRW/km×day (105%) occurred on Section C with approximately 10,000 AADT. This result of this study was estimated based on the simulation of traffic flow model so that there is a limitation in its actual application. A study to develop a highly appropriate model using actual observation data and improve the possibility to apply it through the verification using the simulation will be necessary in future.