DEVELOPMENT OF A STATEWIDE MODEL FOR HEAVY TRUCK FREIGHT MOVEMENT ON EXTERNAL ROAD NETWORKS CONNECTING WITH FLORIDA PORTS, PHASE III

Analysis of two Florida seaports has provided critical information about the impacts heavy trucks generated by freight vessel activity can have on the road networks connecting to these seaports. These microscopic network simulation models require application of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) truck trip generation models for these ports by utilizing vessel freight data to determine the necessary input data. A truck trip generation model for Port Canaveral was developed for application of the transferability testing. The methodology for designing a network model with a Florida seaport as a special generator was developed with the Port of Tampa and the transferability successfully tested with Port Canaveral. The network models were statistically validated at the 95% confidence level. The percent of heavy truck volumes generated by freight activity at the Port of Tampa estimated to use the interstate highways (I-4, I-75, I-275) is 55%. For the Port Canaveral heavy truck volumes, 26% are estimated to use the adjacent interstate highway (I-95) and 18% are estimated to use the major state road (SR 528). These network models can be utilized for transportation planning, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) applications or operations such as incident management scenarios. Both port network models were successfully executed for short term (5-year) forecasting at both ports.