| Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) is a proposed multi-use, statewide transportation corridor that is aimed at moving people and goods more safely, efficiently and reliably than the inter-state highway system. Inland ports are the locations where the processing of trade can be shifted from national borders and where multiple modes of transportation and a wide variety of services can be offered at a common location. Connecting freight corridors under the Trans Texas Corridor Concept to metropolitan areas through inland ports presents unique opportunities and challenges. This research discusses unique features of TTC as it brings forth benefits to freight transportation. Two special topics are particularly emphasized in this research. One is to develop a Multiple-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) method for selecting the most acceptable inland port sites among a set of candidate sites under multiple potentially conflicting objectives in a group decision-making environment. A case study in El Paso area is presented to demonstrate the computational process of the proposed approach. Another one is to consider inland port selection from investment perspective. A mathematical model which is composed of multi-objectives is developed to resolve this problem. The Multiple-Objective Decision Making (MODM) method combining MADM method is selected to solve this model. Finally, a case study is applied to validate the whole process. |
