Impact of Autonomous and Connected Truck Platoons in the Pacific Northwest on Transportation Infrastructure

Abstract

The operational characteristics of freight shipments will significantly change after implementation of autonomous and connected trucks (ACTs). This change will have major impacts on mobility, safety, and infrastructure service life. Truck platooning is one of the truck arrangements that will soon become feasible with connected vehicle technology. It will enable trucks to be connected with themselves and the surrounding infrastructure. Although truck platooning will increase fuel efficiency and improve transportation services, the platooning configuration is expected to accelerate damage to the existing infrastructure. This damage, if accumulated, will cost the country billions of dollars to fix and will affect the mobility of people and goods. This research aimed to develop a well-defined framework for assessing and data-driven solution for addressing the influence of truck platoons on existing bridges in the Pacific Northwest to be ready for the near future implementation of ACTs and to preserve the current bridge inventory. An extensive parametric study of 59,200 models considering a wide range of parameters was conducted. Four bridge cases were included: simple span, two-span, three-span, and four-span bridges. The effects of bridge continuity was demonstrated by the two-, three-, and four-span bridges. Spans varied from 20 ft. to 200 ft. (6 m to 60 m), increments of 5 ft. (1.5 m). The HS-20 design truck was arranged, according to the parametric study, to form different platooning configurations by using up to 20 trucks at headway spacings varying from 10 to 30 ft. The results were then used to provide guidelines for the optimum parameters and load rating charts for future truck platooning applications.