Freight Flow Optimization To Evaluate the Criticality of Intermodal Surface Transportation System Infrastructures

The concept of intermodality has been gaining importance in both freight and passenger transportation across the world. It is essential to identify critical intermodal infrastructures that will help stakeholders prioritize protection initiatives or add necessary redundancy to maximize intermodal network resiliency. In this paper, we identify the critical infrastructures of an integrated intermodal network. We present an optimization model that facilitates all OD-specific traffic flow with optimum cost, utilizing an integrated intermodal network consisting of three surface transportation modes: highway, railway, and waterway. The proposed model considers the congestion effects of each mode and intermodal transfer terminals, which may happen under heavy traffic congestion. We implement a real-world case study to show the critical infrastructures for a given intermodal network of the USA. An integrated way to utilize all surface transportation modes is expected to improve the overall freight flow significantly. Making quick and correct traffic management decisions is a big challenge in a damaged or highly congested transportation network. In addition to criticality analysis, the model will help traffic management decision-making in a disaster by rerouting the traffic in the residual network. The proposed model provides the optimal routing and rerouting paths for the overall freight flow during and after a disaster to enhance surface transportation resilience and security