Transportation optimization marketing for commodity flow, private shipper costs, and highway infrastructure impact analysis

Grain production and marketing in eastern Washington generates substantial economic benefits to the region's economy and affects many people and constituents, whether directly or indirectly. A host of emerging policy issues related to transportation infrastructure, production agriculture, environmentalism, business and trade, and economic welfare are underway in the Pacific Northwest which could alter the marketing channels of grain produced in eastern Washington. Railline abandonment, rail car shortages for grain shipments, and environmental concerns are just a few issues likely to create eastern Washington grain marketing changes in the near future. The need for timely information regarding impacts to different constituents necessitated the development of a policy tool which could be applied to many policy debates in the region.; This study provides information regarding grain shipper transportation costs and transportation infrastructure investment needs from grain shipments. The tool is a transportation optimization model for commodity flows and blends a Geographic Information System with a Generalized Algebraic Modeling System for allocating grain shipments to specific highways, rail facilities and barge facilities. The model is applied to the salmon river drawdown issue, including different scenarios representative of competitive interactions between rail and barge interests. The overall goal of this study is to develop and apply an empirical method and tool for examining the consequences of different policies impacting private shipper costs and transportation infrastructure investment needs.; Eastern Washington roads and highways which are impacted from a Snake River drawdown are geographically illustrated, including results from different capacity and modal pricing scenarios. SR395, SR26, SR260, SR17, and SR12 are found to receive the heaviest truck impact from a Snake River drawdown with transportation cost increasing by up to 8.4 cents/bushel and 8.58 cents/bushel for wheat and barley shipments, respectively. Highway infrastructure investment needs reach as high as {dollar}8,512,506 for wheat shipments and {dollar}1,144,328 for barley shipments, an increase of {dollar}2,131,464 and {dollar}491,430 over initial wheat and barley shipments.