Objective

Following closure of a key route, TfNSW wanted to investigate options to restore vehicle access to Jenolan Caves, a popular tourist site. The remaining access road in mountainous terrain has only limited passing opportunities, twisty corners and other hazards making it difficulty to safely utilise, especially for larger vehicles. TfNSW wanted to explore a variety of traffic control measures to see if and how vehicles could access the site.

Approach

WSP developed a bespoke micro-scale traffic simulation calibrated using a combination of machine learning and traffic engineering principles and validated on historical vehicle behaviour and journey times. The simulation was modified to include a variety of signalled sections with different timings and evaluated thousands of times to understand and capture the variety of vehicle interactions and potential hazards encountered. Via these simulations a successful and safe set of interventions was identified allowing ongoing vehicle access to the site.