Investigation on Level of service based on traffic projections for State Highway

Transportation planning and highway network being the benchmark of any road project and the level of service stands as a deciding factor for its success. Providing an appropriate level of service to meet the present and future demands of the traffic is of prime importance to avoid economic loss due to congestion and delays due to drop in operating speed that result due to reduction in level of service. It also results in noise and air pollution thus, degrading the environmental quality. Four typical stretches are selected in the present study for which widening is planned. Present investigation deals with change in level of service due to increased traffic volume year after year till planning horizon of 2035. Traffic volume is projected based on the future growth of traffic worked out on the basis of projected traffic assuming about 7.5 % considering a block period of 5 years considering the practicality. The level of service drop due to increase in traffic volume has been worked out for the planning period of 20 years for each block period. This facilitates the planning authorised to work out the expansion of road network and highway widening programs and also to deal with financial matter