Due to rising traffic services as well as increasing maintenance and development needs on federal motorways, a decrease in the number of long-term worksites is not to be expected within the next few years. This phenomenon repeatedly involves congestions associated with high economic losses. Therefore, the aim must be to minimize the impact of long-term worksites on traffic by means of shortened construction times. Construction time reductions can be achieved for instance by intensifying working hours (operation modes). In addition to traffic load, also further criteria such as labour law, material and personnel resources, pollution control requirements, regulations concerning driving personnel, special permits and psycho-social aspects represent important factors influencing the choice of the operation mode, which should be taken reasonable from a macroeconomic perspective. Since only a few of these criteria can be monetized in a suitable way, traffic volume will first be used as a guiding criterion. In order to generate a benefit-cost ratio, the costs for travel time losses which can be saved by shortened construction times will furthermore be compared with costs for road authorities which are required for achieving an acceleration effect. For overall 13 defined standard measures, application limits could be determined through this procedure which are reasonable from a macroeconomic perspective and which are available as mean DTV annual values. These values mark the threshold of traffic volume from which an implementation of the construction measure in a more intense operation mode is more advantageous in terms of macroeconomics. To consider local traffic-related conditions, application limits have been determined for variations of longitudinal gradients, shares in heavy traffic, position concerning congested urban areas and typical load curves of traffic demand. The selected standard measures altogether cover a broad range of maintenance and renewal services performed on federal motorways. For future measures to be implemented, guiding values are available that indicate exactly those traffic volumes from which an implementation in more intense operation modes can be recommended. In addition, benefits and a benefit-cost ratio can be estimated for defined boundary conditions through this intensification. A pre-selection of an operation mode, which is based on a macroeconomic evaluation, is thus possible under consideration of present track parameters and traffic-related conditions. For a final selection, additional criteria that cannot be monetized should be assessed and included in the decision for the operation mode to be called for tenders, though. (Author/publisher)
Abstract