Introduction
Momentum provided VISSIM modelling services associated with various options being considered for the vehicular access arrangements to the air cargo handling warehouses on Shoreham Road at Heathrow Airport.
Shoreham Road forms a U-shaped link road providing access to air-freight warehousing associated with Heathrow Airport. The top of the ‘U’ is in the north and along the east and west outer sides are warehouses which are used to transfer freight between ‘airside’ (cargo planes) and ‘landside’ (HGVs); Shoreham Road provides the landside vehicular link to connect vehicles to the road network. Shoreham Road links from Southampton Road (west) which in turn links to the Southern Perimeter Road of Heathrow Airport. The centre of the ‘U’ accommodates lorry holding spaces in a diagonal configuration.
The existing arrangement is operationally challenging from a number of aspects including how pedestrians move about the site, how vehicles are held before their destination loading bay is available and how they circulate around the site.
We used VISSIM modelling to test three concept designs aiming at improving on-site operational efficiency. Our work included analysing survey data and VISSIM outputs to advise on a preferred design option.
