Analyzing Impact of I-85 Bridge Collapse on Regional Travel in Atlanta

In the evening of March 30, 2017, there was a massive fire under Interstate 85 (I-85) Bridge in Atlanta, Georgia that resulted in a partial collapse of the bridge deck. Consequently, a two mile section of I-85 in both directions (Northbound (NB) and Southbound (SB)) was closed to traffic for a 45 day repair period. This paper takes advantage of Big-Data analytics to analyze the impact of this major incident on the regional traffic network. Minute by minute vehicle probe data for the Atlanta network was collected before, during, and after the collapse and repair period. Each of these analysis periods were 45 days long. A bottleneck analysis was conducted on the travel corridor containing the incident location to track changes in both location and severity of such bottlenecks. Next, comprehensive travel time reliability analysis was conducted on the major routes and detours in the region to assess the resiliency of the system and the impact of the expansive road closure on the transportation network. The results show that although travel patterns were significantly influenced by the incident, the system has resumed its normal operation after the repair.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABJ20 Standing Committee on Statewide Transportation Data and Information Systems.
• Authors:
  • Hamedi, Masoud
  • Eshragh, Sepideh
  • Franz, Mark
  • Sekula, Przemyslaw Michal
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bottlenecks; Collapse; Disaster resilience; Failure; Freeways; Highway bridges; Mobility; Probe vehicles; Reliability; Street closure; Traffic congestion; Traffic data; Travel time
• Identifier Terms: Interstate 85
• Uncontrolled Terms: Big data; Travel time reliability
• Geographic Terms: Atlanta (Georgia)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01663925
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-04563
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 22 2018 12:03PM