Impacts of ethanol plants on highway networks

Subhro Mitra; Alan Dybing; Denver Tolliver

doi:10.5198/jtlu.v4i1.160

PDF

Published

2011-05-11

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2011)

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with JTLU agree to the following terms: 1) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License 4.0 that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. 2) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. 3) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

How to Cite

Mitra, S., Dybing, A., & Tolliver, D. (2011). Impacts of ethanol plants on highway networks. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 4(1), 71–81. https://doi.org/10.5198/jtlu.v4i1.160

Impacts of ethanol plants on highway networks

Subhro Mitra

University of North Texas at Dallas

Alan Dybing

North Dakota State University

Denver Tolliver

North Dakota State University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5198/jtlu.v4i1.160

Keywords: transportation, ethanol, impact, highway

Abstract

This paper describes the impacts of the ethanol industry on existing highway infrastructure in the vicinity of an ethanol production plant. To determine the impacts of plant location, the corn and soybean draw areas are estimated on the basis of crop prices. Crop production data are extracted from satellite imagery of the crop data layer produced by National Agricultural Statistics Service and the United States Department of Agriculture. The increase in truck traffic attributable to the ethanol plant is estimated for the changed flow of feedstock. A model is run for two scenarios: i) existing corn and soybean production; and, ii) increased corn and soybean production. Based on existing pavement condition and incremental traffic changes, the funds required to maintain the affected roads at their present service levels are quantified.