ABSTRACT
The inland waterway transportation system is one of the oldest transportation modes, and is still widely used for people and goods movements in many countries. For assessing the waterway system usage performance, the concept of level of service used in highway capacity analysis can be introduced. One of the most commonly used economic analysis approaches is the benefit–cost analysis. Technologies and emission regulations adopted by waterway facility preservation and system operations generally fall behind those in use by surface transportation such as highways. Comparable to pavement and bridge facilities in highway transportation, the inland waterway transportation facility service life cycle generally includes design useful service life cycle and repair service life cycle. Because the vessel traffic in the facility useful service life cycle may follow a growing path from year to year, an annual vessel traffic growth rate needs to be taken into consideration in estimation of life-cycle user costs.
