Suitability Assessment of Detour Routes for Road Construction Projects: Framework and Case Studies

Highway agencies strive to carry out maintenance of traffic during road project implementation in a bid to reduce the safety and mobility adversities that typically accompany work zones. In certain cases, the agency resorts to a full road closure strategy, where the project location is blocked from traffic use and traffic is detoured to an alternate route, thus bypassing the project location. Often, there exist a number of alternative paths that could be used for the detour. Few specific guidelines exist for defining a detour path, resulting in technical, financial, and operational constraints dominating the detour planning process. The challenge, therefore, is how to identify the best candidate detour path based on several factors including, but not limited to technical, financial, and operational considerations. This paper proposes a methodology to address this question. The methodology is based on a multicriteria decision-making technique and is demonstrated using two case studies. The case study results are discussed in the context of the relative weight specifications of the key performance indicators (KPIs). The results highlight the impact of the KPIs and their weights on detour route choices. The methodology can be used as a basis for developing a decision-support tool to assist practitioners in selecting the best detours based on a comprehensive range of KPIs. This research contributes managerial aspects that can reduce the subjectivity in maintenance of traffic (MOT) strategy selection and lower the inconsistencies of prescribed detours for similar project conditions.