Regional Truck Freight Corridors
Identifying and prioritizing regional highway freight corridors
2021 truck corridor updates
In 2021, regional truck freight corridors were updated through a two-part process. Part 1 included reviewing the original data sources used to develop the corridors and updating the base datasets with more recent and reliable truck volume and general traffic volume data. This was done in collaboration with a technical review group consisting of MnDOT and county/city engineering and planning staff, a subset of the original Regional Truck Corridor Study technical working group. After updating the base datasets, Part 2 was to conduct an open process for local agencies to propose adding new truck corridors or a new regional freight facility based on new data or updated plans.
Through this update process, 13 new corridors were added, as well as one new regional freight facility; both were incorporated into the Transportation Policy Plan through an Administrative Modification approved by the Metropolitan Council on January 26, 2022. This process for updating regional truck corridors will be conducted every two years and ahead of each Regional Solicitation cycle to distribute federal transportation funds. The next opportunity for local agencies to propose adding truck corridors and regional freight facilities be in late spring of 2023.
Results
Original study
Regional truck freight corridors were initially developed through the 2017 Regional Truck Highway Corridors Study (PDF). A technical advisory work group of public agency staff most directly engaged in highway planning guided this data-driven study that analyzed the region’s principal and minor arterial highways. A first-screen analysis of all principal and minor arterial highway corridors was used to determine which corridor segments met at least one of the following thresholds:
- Has a Heavy Commercial Annual Average Daily Traffic (HCAADT) volume of at least 300 trucks per day, OR
- Has an HCAADT volume of at least 200 trucks per day AND where trucks make up at least 10% of Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT).
Corridors meeting at least one of these thresholds were then evaluated as regional truck freight corridors by applying four weighted data factors:
- Annual average daily truck volume (60%of total corridor score)
- Percent of total traffic that are trucks (20% of corridor score)
- Proximity to freight-dependent land uses (10% of corridor score)
- Proximity to regional freight facilities (i.e., the region's key intermodal rail yards, river barge terminals, MSP airport, and other major truck terminals) (10% of corridor score)
Based on the corridor score rankings from this evaluation, the truck corridors were grouped into tiers 1, 2, and 3, in order of priority.
In 2018 the Met Council adopted the study’s final regional truck corridors into the Transportation Policy Plan and first applied the tiered corridors as project selection criteria in the Regional Solicitation process for distributing federal transportation funds. The corridors have also been used as qualifying criteria in recent funding cycles of MnDOT’s Minnesota Highway Freight Program.