Major land-based ports of entry (POE’s) are key surface transportation gateways that support binational trade strategies within the global supply chain. Proposed infrastructure improvements have significant long-term capital investment and project phasing implications. Appropriate planning methodologies are critical to ensuring proposed port infrastructure improvements yield the desired economic benefits. However, the development and application of planning methodologies to assess delay and congestion implications of port improvement scenarios have not kept pace with the growing significance of these key land-based transportation assets. In response to these methodology gaps, a Level of Service (LOS) framework and analysis was developed for the Pembina-Emerson POE Study (2012). Based on LOS traffic flow concepts in the (2010) Highway Capacity Manual (HCM), the LOS framework and performance measurement algorithms developed for POE`s can be applied to any border crossing to assess port throughput by evaluating various processing times, staffing levels or infrastructure improvement scenarios for primary inspection lanes (PIL’s). Combining the LOS framework (a policy-level approach) with 30th highest hour design (an engineering infrastructure design approach) provides transportation policy makers, planners and engineers with greater flexibility to assess infrastructure design and phasing considerations as well as outputs that support benefit / cost analysis for a proposed port improvement concept.
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