Estimating Road User Costs Associated with Highway Construction Projects: Simplified Method

Road user costs (RUC) are defined as the estimated incremental daily costs to the traveling public resulting from the construction work being performed. Those costs are primarily time lost because of conditions such as detours/rerouting that add to travel time, reduced roadway capacity that slows travel speed and increases travel time, or a delay in the opening of a new or improved facility that prevents users from gaining travel time benefits. In Texas, RUC analyses and associated liquidated damages have been applied predominantly to high-profile urban freeway reconstruction projects, which are ideal candidates for RUC application because of the potential for very high motorist delay costs. A much wider range of projects involving the addition of capacity can be considered for RUC. Not all potential projects, however, are as complicated as urban freeway reconstruction efforts that require detailed simulation modeling to determine the value of RUC. The results of a research study that developed a manual technique for determining RUC are documented, along with associated liquidated damages for typical added-capacity and highway rehabilitation projects. The technique involves a series of look-up tables that provide RUC values on the basis of project type and a minimal number of project attributes. Two different approaches were employed: a before-and-after approach for added capacity projects and a during-versus-after-construction approach for rehabilitation projects.