This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is aimed at developing a multi-objective bi-level approach to highway alignment optimization. Unlike the rapid developments in the automobile and construction industries road design is still carried out in the traditional manner which is more than 50 years old. The increasing highway traffic and motorist's safety concerns constantly demand for the construction of new highways, bypass routes, realignment and expansion of existing highway routes, intersections, and interchanges. For new highway construction typically an optimized route between specified points is desired. In expansion projects an optimized route between tight bounds may be desired. For interchange construction various ramps may need to be optimized between tight bounds. For at-grade intersections appropriate angle constraints need to be satisfied for all legs. The study of finding the best available option for a new highway construction, realignment, or expansion falls in the general area of 'Highway Route Optimization' or 'Highway Alignment Optimization'.
Road transportation is vital to U.S. economy. As such, the proposed research endeavor can assist the road planners and designers in building cost-effective and environmentally compliant highways, which in turn, will have a strong positive impact on nation's economy. Carefully planned and designed roads may reduce congestion and cut-down travel-time delay and vehicle operating costs significantly. A multi-objective analysis coupled with the bi-level modeling approach can allow examining various trade-off scenarios quickly, thus expediting project approval and road construction process. The proposed multi-objective bi-level approach may have applications in other fields, such as rail transit, bus route, and power and utility line optimization.
