Construction congestion cost (CO3) traffic impact and construction cost

The Construction Congestion Cost System (CO3) is an integrated set of tools to estimate impact of traffic maintenance contract provisions on congestion, road user cost, and construction cost. Engineers use CO3 to produce realistic budgets and select practical contracting methods that provide an acceptable balance between construction cost and congestion. This paper demonstrates computation of impacts associated with alternative methods of maintaining traffic during construction. The Routes Sheet computes equivalent average vehicle routes for complex diversion routes. The Input Sheet provides for documentation of vehicle and route inputs and computes user cost for individual trips through the work zone, diversions, and cancellations. The Traffic Sheet computes daily traffic impacts and user costs for each construction method. The Construction Sheet computes impact of different construction methods on construction costs. The Impact Sheet summarizes daily impacts and computes total project traffic impacts, road user costs, and construction costs for all alternatives. These tools provide practical information with which engineers select construction methods whose impacts are acceptable.