liu.seSearch for publications in DiVA
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • oxford
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Integrating traffic simulations into strategic traffic management planning
Linköping University, Department of Science and Technology, Communications and Transport Systems. Linköping University, Faculty of Science & Engineering.ORCID iD: 0009-0002-1974-2234
Linköping University, Department of Science and Technology, Communications and Transport Systems. Linköping University, Faculty of Science & Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7494-8134
Linköping University, Department of Science and Technology, Communications and Transport Systems. Linköping University, Faculty of Science & Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5961-5136
Linköping University, Department of Science and Technology, Communications and Transport Systems. Linköping University, Faculty of Science & Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4572-4080
2025 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Purpose

Construction projects cause disruptions in the form of road closures, resulting in congestion, longer journey times, delays, queues and reduced accessibility. Regular construction projects typically last 2 to 3 years. Mega construction projects, on the other hand, affect the city for a longer period of time, e.g. 10 years. The purpose of this study is to investigate how traffic simulations can be used in the planning stage of a mega construction project to assess disruptions. More specifically, what data is needed for the simulations and what scenarios need to be investigated to support construction traffic management planning.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a study based on a longitudinal action research project on the collaborative planning for the Ostlänken megaproject. The stakeholders involved are Norrköping Municipality and the Swedish Transport Administration. The data was collected through a participatory study, where the participants in the meetings with the stakeholders developed different scenarios. This included identifying missing information or data for the evaluation of new scenarios. A scenario is the sum of combined changes in traffic supply (e.g., road closures) and demand (e.g., construction transport) at a given point in time and space during the construction period.

Findings

Traffic simulations, even at a very basic level, are proving to be a good support for collaborative planning discussions. There is a trade-off between validity and accuracy and speed. For example, focus only on changing traffic patterns due to road closures and how this may affect logistics to and from the site.

Originality

This study contributes to a better understanding of how megaprojects affect both the city and the construction project. There has been a lack of overview in this area. It also contributes with a structured procedure to develop scenarios for simulation and evaluation that can support both the project logistics, construction traffic management plan, and the urban transportation plan.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Copenhagen, Denmark, 2025. p. 1-19
Keywords [en]
traffic simulation; construction traffic management planning; mega construction project; collaborative planning
National Category
Transport Systems and Logistics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-218889OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-218889DiVA, id: diva2:2007141
Conference
37th annual NOFOMA conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, 10-12 June, 2025
Available from: 2025-10-17 Created: 2025-10-17 Last updated: 2026-04-08
In thesis
1. Planning and Decision Support for Construction Transport in Urban Settings: Collaborative Approaches and Data-Driven Methods
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Planning and Decision Support for Construction Transport in Urban Settings: Collaborative Approaches and Data-Driven Methods
2026 (English)Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Construction is a transport reliant sector accounting for a large share of urban freight transport in European cities. Traditionally, construction planners have focused on on-site efficiency, often neglecting logistics to and from the site. Additionally, urban planners focus on the current and future city structure, neglecting the transitional phase during construction. Traffic planners in the municipality tend to solve temporary traffic management plans ad-hoc, only looking at one construction site at one specific time and space, instead of looking at how multiple temporary traffic management plans affect the urban area. Thus, creating a planning gap for how we get from the current city structure to the future city structure.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how traffic simulation and machine learning can support collaborative planning processes for construction transport in urban environments. To address this purpose, two research questions were formulated and answered through two studies: one qualitative and one quantitative. The first research question and corresponding study aim to understand how traffic simulations can support collaborative planning processes to reduce disruptions caused by construction projects in urban areas. The second research question and its associated study aim to examine how machine learning can support decision-making in construction transport planning.

The qualitative study explores the collaborative planning process of the Ostlänken megaproject in Norrköping, a new highspeed railway connecting Stockholm and Linköping. Earlier studies show that to tackle the issues caused by construction projects, urban planners and traffic planners in the municipality needs tools to assess multiple disturbances at once. A tool that is currently used by traffic planners is traffic simulations; however, previous studies show that the use of traffic simulations in construction focus on car mobility, neglecting pedestrians, cyclists and public transport users. The qualitative study resulted in two conference papers, Paper I and Paper II. The findings highlight that disturbances often stem from a project-centric focus and that municipalities need to coordinate planning at an early stage. The study introduces strategic traffic management planning as a way to coordinate temporary traffic management plans. Traffic simulations are a key component, supporting both the assessment of traffic disturbances and the evaluation of mitigation measures. However, current simulations used by municipalities often lack detailed hourly data on travel flows across all modes (cars, pedestrians, cyclists, public transport, and goods transport), limiting analyses to a daily level.

The quantitative study examines one of the least detailed components of traffic simulations, construction transport in urban environments. Currently, construction transports are either omitted or included only in aggregate form within other transport sectors. This study takes a different approach by estimating construction transport demand using machine learning with construction context data as input. The findings show a potential of machine learning models to predict construction transport demand, however, the high variance in the contextual data limits accuracy. To provide more effective decision support for urban and traffic planners, the study highlights the need for higher-quality data and standardization of existing datasets.

Abstract [sv]

Byggsektorn är en transportberoende sektor som står för en stor andel av godstransporterna i europeiska städer. Traditionellt har byggplanerare fokuserat på effektiviteten på själva byggarbetsplatsen och ofta försummat logistiken till och från platsen. Samtidigt fokuserar stadsplanerare på den nuvarande och framtida stadsstrukturen och bortser från övergångsfasen under byggtiden. Kommunala trafikplanerare tenderar dessutom att hantera tillfälliga trafikanordningsplaner ad hoc genom att endast beakta ett enskilt byggprojekt vid en specifik tidpunkt och plats, istället för att analysera hur flera sam-tidiga tillfälliga trafiklösningar påverkar staden som helhet. Detta skapar ett planeringsgap för hur vi tar oss från dagens till morgondagens stadsstruktur.

Syftet med denna avhandling är att undersöka hur trafiksimulering och maskininlärning kan stödja kollaborativa planeringsprocesser för byggtrans-porter i stadsmiljöer. För att uppnå detta formulerades två forskningsfrågor, vilka besvarades genom två studier: en kvalitativ och en kvantitativ. Den första forskningsfrågan, och den tillhörande studien, syftar till att förstå hur trafiksimuleringar kan stödja koordinerade planeringsprocesser för att min-ska störningar från byggprojekt i urbana miljöer. Den andra forskningsfrågan, tillsammans med sin studie, syftar till att undersöka hur maskininlärning kan stödja beslutsfattandet vid planering av byggtransporter.

Den kvalitativa studien undersöker den kollaborativa planeringsprocessen för megaprojektet Ostlänken i Norrköping, en ny höghastighetsjärn-väg som förbinder Stockholm och Linköping. Tidigare studier visar att kommunala stads- och trafikplanerare behöver verktyg som kan bedöma flera störningar samtidigt för att hantera de problem som uppstår till följd av byggtransporter. Ett sådant verktyg som redan används är trafiksimuleringar; forskning visar dock att trafiksimuleringar inom byggsektorn i stor utsträckning fokuserar på biltrafik och försummar fotgängare, cyklister och kollektiv-trafikanter. Den kvalitativa studien resulterade i två konferensbidrag, Paper I och Paper II. Resultaten visar att störningar ofta uppstår på grund av ett projektcentrerat fokus och att kommuner behöver samordna planeringen i ett tidigt skede. Studien introducerar strategisk trafikledningsplanering som ett verktyg för att samordna tillfälliga trafikledningsplaner. Trafiksimuleringar är en central komponent som stödjer både bedömningen av trafikstörningar och utvärderingen av möjliga åtgärder. De simuleringar som kommuner använder idag saknar dock detaljerade timvisa data om resflöden för alla trafikslag (bilar, fotgängare, cyklister, kollektivtrafik och godstransporter), vilket begränsar analyserna till en övergripande daglig nivå.

Den kvantitativa studien undersöker en av de minst detaljerade komponenterna i trafiksimuleringar, nämligen byggtransporter i stadsmiljö. I dagsläget är byggtransporter antingen helt exkluderade eller inkluderade på en aggregerad nivå inom andra transportsektorer. Studien prövar ett alter-nativt angreppssätt för att prediktera efterfrågan på byggtransporter genom att använda maskininlärning med data från byggprojekt som indata. Resultaten visar att maskininlärningsmodeller har potential att förutsäga efterfrågan, men att den höga variansen i byggprojektsdata begränsar modellernas noggrannhet. För att skapa mer effektivt beslutsstöd för stads- och trafik-planerare betonar studien behovet av högre datakvalitet och standardisering av befintliga dataset.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press, 2026. p. 53
Series
Linköping Studies in Science and Technology. Licentiate Thesis, ISSN 0280-7971 ; 2030
National Category
Transport Systems and Logistics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-222635 (URN)9789181184938 (ISBN)9789181184945 (ISBN)
Presentation
2026-05-13, K3, Kåkenhus, Campus Norrköping, Norrköping, 09:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Note

Funding: Formas, Vinnova, Smart Built Environment, the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket), Slättö, and the Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten), through various projects.

Available from: 2026-04-08 Created: 2026-04-08 Last updated: 2026-04-08Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Hjorth, SamuelFredriksson, AnnaGundlegård, DavidBrusselaers, Nicolas
By organisation
Communications and Transport SystemsFaculty of Science & Engineering
Transport Systems and Logistics

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 178 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • oxford
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf