Item A - Freight Rte Analysis - Laserfiche WebLink

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C~id~tiO~ C~~ Major freight Routes important to the movement of freight include state, regional and local routes on local roads. There may be some local facilities that carry significant truck tonnage facilities and function as major freight routes in the region. The State Highway Freight System that is part of the OHP contains policies and actions that direct ODOT in the management of its highways that are important to freight. The importance of local facilities that carry significant truck tonnage or allow for truck movements that can not take place on the State Highway Freight System (like over- dimensional loads) will be acknowledged in proposed Action 4A.8. Such roads should be included as part of a regional freight system (if in an MPO). Urban/rural See Map 3 which depicts the average percentage of trucks traveling on a state differences route compared to the overall traffic composition. Rural areas may not have the tonnage or volumes seen in the urban areas, but the truck traffic they do have is very important to the economy in the area. One way to address these differences is to look at the percent of trucks on highways. Those highways with a relatively high percent of trucks (over 25% trucks) help identify rural highways important to the economy in the area. Seasonality See Map 4 which illustrates the average truck volumes on state highways. On some highways, truck traffic is greater during certain months of the year. Vehicle counts (including trucks) are collected during April or September. These months are used because the average daily traffic during these months approximates the average annual daily traffic at that site. Traffic counts are completed every three years and ODOT will monitor the truck traffic counts on all highways to determine if any warrant inclusion to the State Highway Freight System. Utilizing these additional factors for consideration (in addition to the 1999 criteria) to help identify candidate highways or highway segments for inclusion to the State Highway Freight System is not solely an objective process. However, the application of the factors for consideration was as thorough as possible in development of the recommended additions to the OHP freight routes to facilitate truck movements in and through Oregon. Every route was reviewed with respect to these factors, OHP freight system policy, and implications and significance of adding more routes to the State Highway Freight System. In the evaluation process, not all of the factors were applicable to every request. Even within the applicable considerations, it was important to be mindful of identifying a network grid of state highways for the major truck movements in the state. The State Highway Freight System, along with the freight systems established at the regional, county and city levels, link together. For some factors that the committee requested be considered in evaluating potential freight routes, the data does not exist to accurately address the issue. In these situations, staff has relied upon other relevant available data to help evaluate the route with respect to that area of consideration. Three of the 15 factors of consideration suggested by committee members were addressed differently in evaluating potential freight routes. The recommendations for state highway freight designations recognize that factors of considerations will be weighed differently in different parts of the state. For example, a truck volume that is quite important in a rural part of the state may be less significant in an urban part of the state. Therefore these criteria and DRAFT September 1, 2004 9