Addressing Truck Emissions and Noise at Truck Freight Bottlenecks

completed

The objective of this Federal Highway Administration project is to provide information on strategies to address truck emissions and noise at truck freight bottlenecks, including significant highway bottlenecks and intermodal connectors. The project will accomplish these objectives through case studies to develop baseline emissions and noise estimates as well as benefits of mitigation measures at three highway freight bottleneck and/or intermodal connector locations. The information from the case studies will help State departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) understand the effectiveness and ease of implementation of the mitigation strategies studied, such as highway project design, altering truck characteristics that drive emission rates, and providing supporting infrastructure. The project is divided into two phases. Phase 1 identified three case study locations (Port of Tacoma, WA; Barbours Cut Terminal in Houston, TX; and interchange of I-290 and I-90/94 in Chicago, IL) from an initial list of candidate locations that included 25 candidate bottleneck locations and 10 candidate port or intermodal facility locations. Phase 1 also established emissions and noise modeling protocols to use for the case studies in Phase 2. Phase 2 is currently underway and will complete the modeling for the three case study locations, study the ease of implementation for the mitigation strategies, and provide a final report and case study summary sheets.