出版社：University of Minnesota * Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering
摘要：This paper describes the impacts of the ethanol industry on existinghighway infrastructure in the vicinity of an ethanol production plant.To determine the impacts of plant location, the corn and soybean drawareas are estimated on the basis of crop prices. Crop production dataare extracted from satellite imagery of the crop data layer produced byNational Agricultural Statistics Service and the United StatesDepartment of Agriculture. The increase in truck traffic attributableto the ethanol plant is estimated for the changed flow of feedstock. Amodel is run for two scenarios: i) existing corn and soybeanproduction; and, ii) increased corn and soybean production. Based onexisting pavement condition and incremental traffic changes, the fundsrequired to maintain the affected roads at their present service levelsare quantified.
