Regional Impact of Roadway Construction on Traffic and Border Crossing Operations in the El Paso Region

Roadway construction project impacts extend beyond the boundaries of road construction itself and into the surrounding network. This is particularly true for urban areas near busy land ports of entry, such as the El Paso region, where a considerable volume of freight traffic and a high percentage of truck traffic traverse the U.S.-Mexico border every day. This project developed a road construction assessment tool that agencies in the El Paso region can use to predict the expected impact of various combinations of concurrent road construction projects, and identify critical roadway segments and corridors where the impacts of construction are most severe. Researchers illustrated the assessment tool through two hypothetical case studies of roadway maintenance on separate freeway corridors to examine effects. Both case studies had similar impacts on the congestion level on the arterials.