Research Pays Off: Wisconsin’s Oversize–Overweight truck route evaluation and efficiency

The Wisconsin DOT issues both single- and multi-trip permits for Oversize–Overweight (OSOW) vehicles. As the number of OSOW vehicle permits issued in Wisconsin have increased in recent years, the management and analysis of OSOW permit data has become more labor-intensive and time-consuming.

This "Research Pays Off" feature in TR News edition 324 (November-December 2019), by Hani Titi, Nicholas Coley, Daniel J. Mulder, and William Wondrachek, examines a research project that was designed to create software that would draw from the state’s extensive OSOW permit database and would be used to define historical route and system corridor activity. The data query application would allow both for operational assessments for new permit application considerations and would provide invaluable planning benefits for future system improvement projects. This data-driven approach is essential to modify OSOW truck route maps to reflect historical use.