A382: Traffic Management Planning
The A382 link road development near Newton Abbot, Devon, is an ambitious proposal to become the UK’s first ‘carbon negative’ highway – decarbonising the construction and maintenance of the road*.
The scheme is one of the projects included in ADEPT Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads in the UK that aims to decarbonise the local highway network.
As part of the A382 improvements undertaken by Milestone Infrastructure (Milestone) on behalf of Devon County Council, Core Highways (Core) was tasked with managing and mitigating disruptions to traffic, as well as seeking to enable a “carbon positive” scheme delivery. Different Traffic Management (TM) options needed to be assessed in order to understand what plans to adopt to enable efficient construction, and low levels of disruption to traffic. Immense and Fewzed assisted the Core team to quickly compare the options and present and recommend the most appropriate ones to their client and stakeholders.
At a glance
- Develop effective traffic management plans
- Compare alternative interventions to minimise programme duration
- Cost effective and efficient planning
- Visualise a 24hr “day in the life of” the network under different TM scenarios
- Inform future works and mitigation measures to implement
The background
Devon County Council was faced with the challenge of managing its road network to enable the delivery of improvements to the A382 near Newton Abbot. Milestone was looking for the best TM option to deliver the works efficiently. Core needed to quickly assess the various TM options, quantify whether a shorter programme duration and less disruption would be possible if full closures of sections of the A382 were implemented. An evidence-base was needed however traditional traffic modelling tools used for this kind of assessment were too costly and inefficient.
The mission
Intervention planning on the network often not only affects the road users themselves, but several groups of stakeholders. It is therefore imperative, that the impacts of road closures are quantified, and the appropriate mitigation measures tested and implemented.
Transport modelling tools could be used for this purpose however conventional methods can be costly and inefficient.
Fewzed used the Immense platform to quickly and easily test several TM options, and address the following challenges:
- Identify potential causes of wider disruption, and mechanisms through which these may be mitigated to provide safe and reliable journeys to the travelling public
- Assess the impacts in relation to access to key sites along the A382
- Assess the impact diverted traffic may have on adjacent strategic routes
- Consider day-to-day and seasonal variability in activity patterns and what the associated impacts of this would be on diversion routes
The solution
The Immense InfraOps simulation platform enables users to quickly and easily assess the impacts of multiple interventions and alternative TM options, analysing a full 24hr “day in the life of” the network under different TM scenarios.
The results
Immense was able to provide a report detailing the different scenarios and their outcomes. Core and Milestone were then able to present this to Devon County Council and their stakeholders who were able to quantify the effects of the proposed TM plans and make informed decisions for the delivery of the scheme, choosing the option with the least impact.
The analysis has also been used to inform VMS installations on a later set of closures in the area, reducing the traffic impacts related to the A382 closure to facilitate Thames Water works. The whole process proved the benefits of using traffic modelling as part of the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) process.
The future
Improved forecasting can provide better tools with which to manage and mitigate the effects of necessary street works by informing traffic management and traveller information systems. Immense has developed user friendly traffic simulation tools that enable users to easily and quickly quantify the impacts of roadworks and interventions on the transport network.
Thanks to various layers of information and novel simulation techniques, forecasting the impacts of planned roadworks and unplanned interventions becomes easy.
The friendly user interface and automated output reports that communicate impacts through a few simple figures, allow for an enhanced engagement with stakeholders and impacted users, resulting in an increased confidence in decision making around street works planning.
We have found working with Immense to be very insightful and can see a real benefit in using their traffic modelling platform as part of the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) process. It has helped to inform our traffic management plans so we can minimise the impact on road users which is important for our clients.
In addition, the analysis provided by the platform has also informed VMS installations for a current set of closures for further works, which again impacts road user experience which in turn can influence their behaviours through the TM. It’s becoming an invaluable tool in our wider toolkit.
Abby Perry, Innovation & Continual improvement Manager, Core Highways