Characterizing regional rural bridge performance during a major storm event

Abstract

Probe vehicle data is playing a critical role in the evaluation and creation of infrastructure performance measures under a multitude of driving conditions. Recent research has condensed millions of probe vehicle speed data into simplified, visually intuitive performance metrics to better understand reliability parameters. This research is beginning to analyze how probe data can be leveraged for rural bridges. To accomplish this objective, the research applied a data availability metric for rural bridges impacted by a major storm event. For bridges on rural routes, especially during storms, it is not necessarily the congestion that characterizes route performance, but the absence of data which can indicate the reliability of a particular location after a storm. During a major storm, many bridges can be flooded, an attribute considered by the National Bridge Inventory (NBI). When a major storm event occurs, the intensity and location of the event can impact the transportation system across a route or region. For this research three Counties in New Jersey are assessed during Tropical Storm Ida, which first hit New Jersey on September 1st. For the project, 107 rural bridges, and the associated traffic message channels (TMCs) are analyzed from August 16th to September 13th. The results indicate that null data can be used to assess the reliability of rural bridge performance during major storms. The metric models can be deployed to evaluate infrastructure performance in near real time during storm events, and to evaluate where capital investments may improve infrastructure reliability and improve emergency response.