SUMMARY

Airfield Vehicle Service Road Design and Operations

In the planning and design process, vehicle service roads (VSRs) are often a secondary thought to the primary efforts associated with the safety and efficiency of moving aircraft. The safe and predictable movement of employees, baggage, cargo, and aircraft and airport support vehicles throughout the airfield and terminal area is similarly important.

Guidelines on VSRs from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other industry sources are limited and spread across many documents, leaving the planning and design of VSRs primarily in the hands of individual airports. The approach to and practices used in developing VSR layouts vary across the industry, often influenced by unique operational demands, vehicle types, facility configurations, and other user-, operator-, and airport-specific characteristics.

The objective of this synthesis is to describe planning, design, and operations for airfield VSR systems for airport planners, engineers, and operations staff. This synthesis includes a review of industry guidelines related to VSRs and interviews with airport personnel.

As part of a literature review, industry guidelines published domestically and internationally on VSRs were reviewed and documented. The literature review included information published by industry organizations and federal regulations. The literature review was used to develop interview questions for selected U.S. airports. The airport interviews focused on these questions to gather and document current VSR practices. A summary of the literature review and the interview responses were categorized into several topics and used to provide the reader with an understanding of each in this report.

The results of the synthesis effort were leveraged to establish the following observations related to VSR systems in the United States:

• Comprehensive industry guidelines and regulations are contained in various documents, and most only briefly mention guidelines related to VSRs or refer readers to information provided by non-aviation industry sources or state and local information.
• Planning of VSRs tends to be reactionary rather than proactive, and changes in airport rules, driver training, VSR markings, and layouts are often the result of an incident or a series of incidents.
• The types, models, sizes, and weights of vehicles vary at airports, and they can influence the planning, design, operation, and maintenance of VSRs.
• Space-constrained airports appear to have the most VSR challenges, which result in unique designs (e.g., layouts, markings, signage, lane configuration), operational rules, and safety concerns.
• VSR markings are inconsistent between and within airports. There are limited guidelines on VSR markings and how they should be implemented.

• General aviation facilities and airports are subject to different security and operational requirements, differences which result in customized VSR configurations, driving rules, and training programs.
• VSRs are subject to many operational, security, and driver training regulations, FAA orders, and air traffic control. The operational aspects can significantly influence the planning and design of VSRs.
• Airport rules and regulations are used extensively to manage the operation and safety of VSRs.
• Driver training programs vary greatly among airports, and various tools (handbooks, testing, ride-along training, videos, computer-based training, and virtual reality) are used for driver training.
• VSRs and haul roads are essential to airport construction. Many airports share a concern about VSR wear, and they are taking steps to ensure VSRs are returned to their original operational state or are seeking alternative methods to facilitate construction logistics.
• Information on the management and maintenance of VSR pavement is limited. Some airports manage VSR pavement similarly to airfield pavement by conducting regular pavement condition studies and including it in their airfield or a separate pavement management system.

Syntheses report on the state of practice based on literature reviews and surveys of recent activities. Future research and development of guidebooks that summarize the planning and design of VSRs and their operation and maintenance aspects would be helpful to the industry as they would recommend best practices on a topic for which there is no consolidated information for airport planners, designers, and operators.