WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff JV to study future interstate highways

New York — The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies) selected a joint venture of Cambridge Systematics and WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff to support the future interstate study mandated in Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act of 2015 (FAST Act).

The FAST Act calls for the National Academies’ Transportation Research Board (TRB) to conduct “… a study on the actions needed to upgrade and restore the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways to its role as a premier system that meets the growing and shifting demands of the 21st century.”

The Interstate highway system comprises only 1.2 percent roadway line-miles of the country’s public road system, but it handles nearly 25 percent of the total vehicle miles traveled annually and almost 40 percent of the nation’s total truck traffic. With a network that has changed little since its inception, the aging interstate highway system serves more traffic than the entire U.S. road network served when the system was authorized in 1956.

The TRB study will be conducted by a committee of the National Academies with balanced expertise in transportation issues. In support of the future interstate study, the joint venture of Cambridge Systematics and WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff will conduct case study analysis and modeling to explore the impact of changing travel and technology trends, and their implications for the future of the interstate highway system. The study will also draw from information provided by the highway industry, including highway owners, operators and users of the system, associations, private-sector stakeholders, and academia, among others. The study is expected to be completed in late 2018.