Impact Analysis of Extra Traffic Induced by Project Construction during Planned Special Events

The questions of how serious the extra traffic impact induced by project construction is on urban road networks and whether the construction should continue during planned special events represent a critical problem. In this paper, a framework of methodologies and workflow is presented in analyzing the project construction induced traffic impact during special events. We first analyze the characteristics of the traffic flow attracted by special events and project construction induced traffic flow. We then show how to evaluate the project construction induced traffic impact during special events and propose some quantitative analysis methods, which are different in nature from the traditional approach of traffic impact analysis. Some management and improvement strategies are subsequently proposed to mitigate the negative impact of project construction. A case study of a vertical construction during Expo 2010 in Shanghai is discussed as an application of the proposed framework. The results show that the traffic impact of this vertical construction during Expo is moderate. Through our subsequent monitoring of this vertical construction practice during Expo 2010, it can be concluded that the analysis method is reliable, the negative traffic impact of vertical construction to Expo is insignificant, and the suggested operation and management strategies are effective.