Details:

Creators:
Griffin, D. M. ; Yan, Xiaodong
Griffin, D. M. ; Yan, Xiaodong Less -
Corporate Creators:
Louisiana Tech University. Department of Civil Engineering
Subject/TRT Terms:
[+]
Data Collection Facilities Interstate Highways Monitoring Rest Area Roadside Rest Areas Traffic Traffic Density Waste Management Waste Treatment Water Consumption
Publication/ Report Number:
346
Resource Type:
Tech Report
Geographical Coverage:
Louisiana
Corporate Publisher:
Louisiana Tech University. Dept. of Civil Engineering
Abstract:
Surprisingly, little current information for design purposes exists regarding water use and waste generation at interstate rest areas. The Waterways Experiment Station of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers carried out the last major study in 1974. This was prior to the availability of microprocessors, computer controlled flow measurement, and data logging devices that are common today.

The purpose of this study was to monitor water use, waste generation, and traffic density at three visitor centers and one rest area in Louisiana using currently available microprocessor based instrumentation. Data was collected for approximately six months and used to develop probabilistic estimates of the number of vehicles per day passing on the interstate highway, the number entering these facilities, water usage per vehicle, and waste generated per vehicle on a daily basis. This data can be used to size water supply and waste treatment systems when building new rest area facilities or remodeling older ones. In situations where a rest area will connect to a municipal system, the data can be supplied to the municipality for the necessary economic and technical feasibility studies. Finally, traffic data can be used to optimize the operation of visitor centers.

Results indicate that the mean percentage of vehicles entering the rest area ranged from 2% at Kentwood (urban) to 20% at Mound (rural). The median value of the water/waste ratio at all sites was found to be close to one, suggesting that daily water use measurements may be used as a surrogate for waste flow measurements. This is significant because water usage is substantially easier to measure than waste generation and could be carried out by LADOTD personnel. Median waste flows at the sites vary by a factor of 2 to 3 while the less frequent (90 percentile) flows vary by a factor of 3 to 4. In general, the variation in flow rate is larger for larger flows.

Given the technology available, it is relatively easy to collect and analyze large amounts of accurate data that can be used to answer a variety of technical and non-technical questions and to justify changes in operating policy or requests for funding.


Format:
PDF
Funding:
01-1ENV
Collection(s):
US Transportation Collection
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:e8bdcb0ff14727acc92173e5b98379abaef70e1a82e041634a42e8b3a706c38f
Download URL:
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/22156/dot_22156_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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