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Chapter One
The Case Studies:  What Road
Construction Means for Drivers

Springfield Interchange -
Washington, D.C. Metro Area

Every day 375,000 vehicles pass through the Springfield Interchange in Northern Virginia, where I-95, I-395 and I-495 come together outside of Washington, DC.² The interchange has been dubbed the "Mixing Bowl" because of the dizzying effect created when cars from all directions are stirred together. To improve traffic flow and address safety concerns at exit and entrance ramps at this heavily congested bottleneck, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is spending eight years and $434 million to completely rebuild the interchange. The massive project consists of building more than 50 bridges and overpasses and widening I-95 to 24 lanes in some places.

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) set a goal of reducing the current daily traffic by 2,500 cars per day during construction to reduce delays to pre-construction levels. To accomplish this goal, VDOT is conducting an incentive and public information campaign to promote alternative modes of transportation (including reduced fares and other special price breaks to encourage motorists to switch to train and subway systems). VDOT, like many state departments of transportation across the country, set up a web site to inform the public about the purpose and nature of the construction project and provide regularly updated information about specific construction activities.

However, VDOT officials estimate that, in late fall of 1999, if traffic remains steady at 375,000 vehicles a day, commuters could begin experiencing between 30 and 60 minutes of delay, each way. (At this time, VDOT cannot state by how many cars per day usage has been reduced.³) If this delay persists for the projected seven remaining years of construction, even the low delay estimate of 30 minutes per trip will leave a single commuter stuck in traffic for a total of about 1,750 hours — or two-and-a-half months.

Once it is over, the project will provide minimal time savings to individual motorists. Our analysis of VDOT’s traffic and capacity projections on the I-95/I-395 corridor shows that commuters will save on average of about a minute per day moving through the rebuilt intersection. Commuters will save only about 90 hours over 20 years’ time. Those who spent 1,750 hours waiting through the construction process will never get back the time they lost. The project itself has become part of the congestion problem. Even some normally pro-highway observers have expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the project. Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance spokesman Bob Chase laments, "When you get through, the same bottlenecks you face today will be waiting for you."⁴

Route 29 -
Trenton, New Jersey

The stated purpose and need for this project was to alleviate traffic congestion throughout the City of Trenton by eliminating a bottleneck and connecting the region’s interstate loop.⁵ This 1.7-mile project is replacing the existing two-lane Lamberton Road (designated as state highway Route 29) by constructing a four-lane highway and two full shoulders with a covered section along the banks of and in the open waters of the Delaware River. The project evoked strong environmental opposition nationwide because it destroys the last section of accessible waterfront not already obscured by highway in the City of Trenton. The consumer advocacy group, Taxpayers for Common Sense, listed the $85 million project in their 1999 Road to Ruin report as one of the most wasteful taxpayer funded road projects in the country.⁶

Construction on this project began in October 1998, and will take about two more years to complete. The construction has meant the closure of Lamberton Road (the old Route 29), and New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) estimates that motorists will experience a 10 to 15 minute delay mainly because of detours.⁷ During construction, NJDOT says it has formed a Construction Partnering Team with local community groups, businesses and others to keep them informed of the effects of the construction, and to actively manage congestion.

Given a conservative estimate of 10 extra minutes of travel time per trip over three years, a regular weekday commuter can expect to spend an extra 250 hours in construction-caused delays over the construction period. The project frees up movement by improving two intersections. But NJDOT’s traffic study of the corridor indicates little change in travel speed once the road is completed. The new road is projected to provide very modest time savings to drivers -- shaving off about three minutes per trip. As a result, the average commuter won’t recoup the time lost to construction delays until the year 2012.

The effect of this construction project will be to permit many new drivers to use Route 29, rather than to provide significant time savings for current drivers. Drivers who were using the old Route 29 won’t experience signficant time savings because they will waste so much time in construction-related delays and take so long to make up for that lost time. The new Route 29 will attract many drivers currently using other routes, as well as new trips. Traffic projections show that the number of cars on the new freeway section will grow by almost 60 percent, in large part because of the increase in capacity. Interestingly, NJDOT’s projections of traffic growth without the reconstruction are about 25 percent lower than with the project.

Interstate 15 runs through the heart of Salt Lake County and is being widened from six to 10 lanes for 16.5 miles, with an additional two auxiliary lanes between all interchanges.⁸ The massive project includes the complete rebuilding of 130 bridges and a huge multidirectional high-speed interchange with I-80. Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is building the road to meet projected traffic growth, create better access to downtown, and provide better links throughout the freeway system. The four year, $1.6 billion project is expected to be completed just in time for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

UDOT has taken an aggressive approach to minimizing traffic delays throughout the construction process. The contractors are working under a "design-build" process that allows construction and design to take place at the same time, so delays are minimized and the construction process dictates the schedule. Under normal design-bid-build procedures, this project would have taken eight or more years to complete. UDOT also established an information network for motorists that includes extensive education on construction plans as well as real-time information on any expected delays.

Road construction is causing about a 15-minute delay per trip.⁹ A commuter who now uses this interstate regularly will lose a total of more than 500 hours during the construction process. Once the road is completed, travel speeds will initially improve enough to shave 6 to 8 minutes off of a trip that uses the entire rebuilt segment. But because of the all the time spent in the ‘cone zone,’ commuters who sat through construction will not break even on their time investment until the year 2010. In addition, this project is expected to increase overall travel speeds across the Salt Lake County highway network by less than one mile per hour.¹⁰

Nashville commuters have been enduring a variety of road construction projects over the past year, including resurfacing projects, bridge construction, and road widenings. The delays from the construction have provoked a public outcry and one traffic reporter characterized the city as being "under siege."¹¹ One of the projects under-way is the widening of Interstate 24 south of downtown from four to eight lanes, an 8.5-mile project that will cost about $21.5 million.¹²

This widening project is creating rush-hour delays of about 15 minutes per person per trip,¹³ primarily because some travel lanes are closed during construction. Tennessee DOT (TDOT) is predicting that travel speeds on the road will improve dramatically immediately after construction is completed.¹⁴ Even so, it will be more than two years before current commuters reach the break-even point and regain the time they lost during the 14-month construction period.

One problem Nashville area drivers face is that multiple major road construction projects are underway simultaneously. So, even when one section of a road is complete, delays continue to occur on other major routes. TDOT explained that everything has to be done at once because they received more than $40 million in transportation funds and much of the interstate system hasn’t been resurfaced in the past 14 years.¹⁵