The objective of this study was to produce a research report that provides IDOT with an analysis of the Illinois Maritime Transportation System in order to effectively plan, develop and implement maritime into a comprehensive statewide transportation system.

As an exploratory step toward addressing truck parking problems in urban areas, this study analyzed truck parking citation data in Chicago to identify factors that affect concentration of high density of violations.

The state needs to create mechanisms both internally and in collaboration with the freight industry to track and understand what is being developed and introduced and plan for what needs to be done to promote and accommodate the new technology.

The objective of the research is to provide recommendations for the development of a performance measurement system for general freight transportation as well as specifically for maritime freight transportation in Illinois.

To develop a state-of-the-art tool to evaluate broad economic impact of freight and passenger transportation.

This study’s goal is to develop an analytical framework to apply the CGE model in the analysis of freight mode shifts through the simulations of plausible impacts of such change. The framework developed in this study can also be applied to the analysis of the effects of fuel price increase or policy measures such as carbon tax

Study to assist the effects on the environment from new or expanded railroad infrastructure.

Present research and implementation options as a foundation for future efforts by interested organizations to consider and adopt strategies and methods to shift more deliveries to off-peak times.

To develop a benefit evaluation framework using the outputs from state-of-the-art simulation programs developed by the team from Northwestern University.

This paper studies strategic level train operation planning on shared use passenger and freight rail corridors. We explicitly consider passenger schedule delay and freight foregone demand as a function of train schedules, which are largely ignored in previous research. In particular, incorporating passenger schedule delay makes the passenger train scheduling a quadratic integer programming problem.

Train following control algorithms developed through this research are critical to future attempts to increase capacity and efficiency through advanced train control systems with moving blocks.

The outcome of this project will help IDOT gain much-needed knowledge of and develop programs to improve Illinois Maritime Transportation System performance, increase multimodal transportation network capacity, and expand the transportation and logistics sector of the state, which ultimately benefit the people and economy of Illinois. A first-of-its-kind PM database for IMTS was designed and developed, along with a detailed user manual, ready for IDOT’s immediate use and future updates.

Research to identify safety measures and quiet zones in south suburban Chicago.

Analysis of rail crossing delays in two south Chicago suburbs.

Chicago has been the railroad hub of the nation since the middle of the 19th Century. It continues to maintain that distinction today as almost one-third of the nation’s rail freight originates, terminates or travels through Chicago. It is the fourth largest container handler in the world after Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. It is also the crossroads of the nation’s Interstate Highway system.

The objective of this study is to establish a regional approach for improving freight transportation in the Upper Midwest based on a multi-state, multi-jurisdictional partnership of public and private sector stakeholder interests.