Effect of Highway Lane Management Policy of Heavy Vehicles on the Cost of Flexible Pavement

Abstract

Truck lane restriction is one of the most common highway lane management strategies; it ensures that heavy vehicles mostly use the outer lanes of a multilane highway. A higher percentage of heavy vehicles in the design lane increases the required load-bearing capacity of the pavement structure and therefore increases construction cost. This study considers three probable strategies to control this cost trend for flexible pavement: distribution of trucks across multiple lanes, design of heterogeneous pavement structures across lanes, and separation of car lanes from truck lanes. It was found that the construction cost of one unit length of highway is less for each strategy than the cost incurred with truck lane restriction in place. In order to take advantage of platooning, cars and trucks may not continue to use highway lanes in the traditional way. The cost advantages reported here can be exploited for selecting future highway lane management strategies in the environment of connected and autonomous vehicles.