INTERSECTION OF LOW-VOLUME ROADS BY NEW MOTORWAYS AND RAILWAYS: CONTINUATION OR DISCONTINUATION OF THE PRESENT CONNECTION?

Construction of new motorways or railways in rural areas always intersects existing road networks. Where crossings at the same level are out of the question, a bridge or a tunnel must be constructed to maintain the present local connections. However, this is an expensive solution. Therefore, in practice sometimes only major roads and rural highways are re-connected above or below the new main infrastructure. For minor roads such a re-connection is much less self-evident. A lot of minor roads simply keep interrupted after construction of the new main infrastructure. The need to make detours is a serious disadvantage for local residents and recreationists, especially for cyclists among them. Three methods are developed to describe the impacts of intersecting an existing network of minor roads. The so-called 'detailed' method aims to calculate the impacts of continuation or discontinuation of (combinations of) intersected minor roads in rural areas. The 'detailed' method is based on data for traffic flow, costs, accessibility, traffic safety and recreational values. This method is applicable in a stage of the planning process, where the new infrastructure is indicated as a line on a map with a scale of about 1:5.000 to 1:10.000. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 493592.