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Chapter 3. TOOL DEVELOPMENT <br />This chapter describes the development of the heavy vehicles pavement impacts tool and the <br />implementation of the analysis methods described in the previous chapter. It also discusses some <br />of the reviews conducted with stakeholders toward its final version. Finally, this report contains <br />several screen captures of the tool and the basic reports it generates. <br />Several Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) meetings were held in addition to phone calls with <br />individuals on the panel to discuss the development of the tool. From these meetings and <br />conversations, and throughout the development of the tool, several significant improvements <br />were suggested, as described below. <br />Significant Improvements <br />The Heavy Vehicles Impacts Tool went through many versions and iterations during its <br />development process. At each stage, the TAP made suggestions and requested additional <br />features. These are summarized below. <br />• Ability to enter custom truck types and configurations <br />The tool was modified to allow multiple vehicle types, including multiple styles of <br />Bus <br />Single Unit Truck <br />Tractor Semi -Trailer <br />Concrete Truck <br />Dump Truck <br />In addition, the tool was modified to provide the ability to enter customized vehicle <br />parameters including number of axle groups, axle configurations, and axle group <br />weights. <br />• Ability to run network analysis as well as single segment analysis <br />This capability had been planned, and was added to the analysis methods. <br />• Reporting — cost per mile, cost per segment, cost per year, etc. <br />Additional cost reporting types were added to the tool. <br />• What about trucks that are empty, or half -empty? Add capability to model them <br />The capability to specify if a standard truck from the library is full, empty, or half -full <br />was added. This capability is not included for custom vehicles, since the axle weights of <br />these vehicles are specified by the user. <br />• Comparison between "current" and "proposed" situations <br />This is the basis of the tool. The current and proposed situations are both analyzed, and <br />the results can be compared to identify the relative impacts. <br />• Add discussion in the report/tool about the modeling and the assumptions in the tool <br />25 <br />