Search

DTRT12-G-UTC16, Changes in vessel sizes arriving at United States ports may influence the operating regimes and schedules at the port terminals However, the impacts to highway and rail operations outside of the port terminals because of changing port terminal operations are less clear. For example, anticipated changes in frequency and peak volume of the inbound marine cargo may translate into a corresponding change in highway demand as more trucks seek access to port terminals during peak hours, leading to increased traffic congestion disruptions in traffic operations. Therefore, the researchers seek to understand and quantify the effect of the increasing introduction of the mega-ships and related changes in port operations on a regional highway and rail system. Increased understanding will help planners and engineers identify and evaluate solutions to prevent the disruption of regional freight transportation systems. The research team developed a simulation model of a hypothetical port terminal to analyze “whatif” scenarios depicting changes in vessel size and arrival frequency. Researchers examined two policies commonly used to control the truck arrival patterns at the gate, extended gate hours and gate appointment systems, to assess the performance of the simulation model. Overall, four scenarios illustrate the performance of the combined terminal and highway system by comparing truck wait times, and truck queues at the terminal gate. The simulation model performs well in generating order of magnitude scenario results for comparison. Detailed model applications, and potential a combination of modeling software, may improve results.