Proposed Recipient:  Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI)

Address of Recipient: 301 Tarrow Street, College Station, TX, 77840

Amount of Request: $550,000

Project Description and Statement of Public Benefit: The Dallas/Ft Worth (DFW) mega region is uniquely located connecting to several mega regions in the nation. A critical connection for truck flows is I-45, the Interstate Highway System corridor linking the DFW and Houston mega regions. The corridor comprises significant mileage of rural cross sections where continuous frontage roads or crossovers are not present. When incidents such as crashes or road construction occur, the travel reliability is significantly affected resulting in delay from congestion and lack of good alternate routing. The DFW region has significant inland air and rail ports that provide connections in addition to the Interstate Highway System. One such port is the International Inland Port of Dallas [IIPOD] located in southern Dallas County and anchored by the Union Pacific Dallas Intermodal Terminal with rail connections to the Ports of Los Angles and Long Beach. Due to the importance of these networks and their ability to impact our supply chain, Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Arlington office would like to conduct a study that will characterize the economic value of truck flows to and from the IIPOD with Gulf Coast ports (e.g., Houston and New Orleans) and the Piedmont Atlantic mega region, examine the causes and negative economic effects of inland port congestion and present solutions to manage roadway capacity or truck flow demand to maintain the competitiveness of the inland port, and identify the economic impacts of traffic congestion on the I-45 corridor focusing on travel reliability and present recommendations to improve corridor reliability. TTI is uniquely qualified to handle this study due to its national expertise in safety, freight movement, and traffic operations. Moreover, this project will be instrumental in alleviating traffic, improving safety, and creating a more resilient supply chain.''

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