OPTIMIZATION OF PWD INTERSECTION AT ISLAMABAD HIGHWAY USING PTV VISSIM

Abstract

With the ever increasing traffic growth in the prevailing road network in urban districts and major towns, there exists a severe problem of jamming, interruptions, ecological hazards and high fuel consumption. Short term and long term solutions like construction of new roads, broadening of prevailing road networks, provision of raised fly over’s, etc are constrained by finances and space availability. The precise estimation of traffic interruptions at signalized crossings is a key element for the planning, design and analysis of signal controls. The area selected for study and traffic surveys is PWD Intersection in Rawalpindi because of its close proximity to private and commercial activities and housing societies. Various traffic studies and surveys such as volume count, intersection inventory study, signal cycle length study has been carried out. The Study is performed to evaluate the current condition of Traffic, Hourly variations, Capacity and Level of Service (LOS). The traffic data is analyzed and results shows that PWD Intersection is always a crowded intersection at peak hours and operate at a much low level of service. Therefore, the purpose of this research work is to enhance the performance along with operation of PWD Intersection by assessing different options to improve the traffic capacity. During the project, all the requisite data was collected manually. Few types of software like VISSIM and EXCEL were used for the analytical studies and also for the solutions to improve the traffic progression at this intersection. The outcomes of this research work will give different options and the most viable option will be suggested which can be at grade or grade separation or in the form of optimized signal timings.