USER'S GUIDE

DRAFT

V
Notice

This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of 

the Department of Transportation in the interest of 

information exchange. The United States Government 

assumes no liability for its contents or use thereof.
August 2002 

Highway 

Economic 

Requirements 

System - 

State 

Version

User’s Guide
i 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................ III

LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................................................... IV

LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................................... VI

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1

1.1 SCOPE ................................................................................................................................. 1

1.2 APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS...................................................................................................... 1

1.3 OVERVIEW............................................................................................................................ 1

1.4 THE HERS-ST SYSTEM........................................................................................................ 2

CHAPTER 2 - GETTING STARTED............................................................................................... 4

2.1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS....................................................................................................... 4

2.2 INSTALLING THE HERS-ST SOFTWARE.................................................................................. 4

2.3 A QUICK TOUR OF HERS-ST................................................................................................ 4

CHAPTER 3 – THE HERS-ST APPLICATION............................................................................. 16

3.1 APPLICATION ENVIRONMENT................................................................................................ 16

3.2 LOGON ............................................................................................................................... 17

3.3 PROJECT BROWSER............................................................................................................ 18

3.4 ENVIRONMENT OPTIONS...................................................................................................... 18

3.5 PROJECT WIZARD............................................................................................................... 21

CHAPTER 4 - HIGHWAY DATA................................................................................................... 24

4.1 HIGHWAY DATA WINDOW .................................................................................................... 24

4.2 GRID LAYOUT ..................................................................................................................... 25

4.3 RECORD SORTING .............................................................................................................. 25

4.4 RECORD VALIDATION .......................................................................................................... 25

4.5 RECORD SELECTING ........................................................................................................... 26

4.6 RECORD ADDING AND DELETING ......................................................................................... 27

CHAPTER 5 - STATE IMPROVEMENTS..................................................................................... 28

5.1 RECORD SORTING .............................................................................................................. 29

5.2 ENCODING STATE IMPROVEMENTS....................................................................................... 29

5.3 RECORD ADDING AND DELETING ......................................................................................... 29

5.4 USER-SPECIFIED IMPROVEMENTS........................................................................................ 29

CHAPTER 6 - PARAMETER MODEL .......................................................................................... 31

6.1 STANDARD PARAMETER INTERVIEW ..................................................................................... 31

6.2 ADVANCED PARAMETER MODEL .......................................................................................... 33

CHAPTER 7 - CONTROL MODEL ............................................................................................... 36

7.1 STANDARD CONTROL INTERVIEW......................................................................................... 36

7.2 ADVANCED CONTROL MODEL .............................................................................................. 40

CHAPTER 8 - RUNNING HERS-ST ............................................................................................. 41

8.1 HERS-ST ERROR AND WARNING MESSAGES...................................................................... 42

8.2 HERS-ST RUN TYPES ....................................................................................................... 42

8.3 HERS-ST ANALYSIS TYPES................................................................................................ 43
ii 

CHAPTER 9 - HERS-ST ANALYSIS RESULTS.......................................................................... 47

9.1 TABULAR OUTPUT............................................................................................................... 47

9.2 SECTION CONDITIONS......................................................................................................... 49

9.3 SYSTEM CONDITIONS.......................................................................................................... 50

CHAPTER 10 - CREATING REPORTS........................................................................................ 52

10.1 TABLES .............................................................................................................................. 52

10.2 CHARTS ............................................................................................................................. 54

10.3 REPORTS ........................................................................................................................... 57

10.4 GIS MAPS.......................................................................................................................... 60

CHAPTER 11 - HERS-ST GUI TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS ................................................ 66

11.1 DEFINITIONS....................................................................................................................... 66

11.2 ITEM HIERARCHIES.............................................................................................................. 67

11.3 IMPLEMENTATION OF HERS-ST .......................................................................................... 68

11.4 HIGHWAY DATA VALIDATION RULES..................................................................................... 72
iii 

APPENDICES 

APPENDIX A - INPUT DATA.......................................................................................................A-1

A.1 PREPARING THE HIGHWAY DATA FILE .................................................................................A-2

A.2 USER-SPECIFIED IMPROVEMENTS.......................................................................................A-7

APPENDIX B - PARAMETER DATA...........................................................................................B-1

B.1 THE PARAMS.DAT FILE......................................................................................................B-3

B.2 THE IMPRCOST.DAT FILE...............................................................................................B-8

B.3 THE DLTBLS.DAT FILE ..................................................................................................B-11

APPENDIX C - CONTROL DATA................................................................................................C-1

C.1 PREPARING PPSPEC.DAT................................................................................................C-2

C.2 PREPARING RUNSPEC.DAT.............................................................................................C-4

APPENDIX D - OUTPUT FILES ..................................................................................................D-1

D.1 SYSTEMS CONDITIONS OUTPUT..........................................................................................D-2

D.2 FUNCTIONAL CLASS BY IMPROVEMENT TYPE OUTPUT..........................................................D-2

D.3 THE SECTION FILES ...........................................................................................................D-5

APPENDIX E - PREDEFINED QUERIES AND CHARTS ...........................................................E-1

APPENDIX F - OBJECT DIAGRAMS.......................................................................................... F-1

APPENDIX G - THIRD PARTY CONTROLS AND COMPONENTS.......................................... G-1

APPENDIX H - DATA DICTIONARY...........................................................................................H-1

APPENDIX I - DATABASE SCHEMA .......................................................................................... I-1

APPENDIX J - HIGHWAY DATA VALIDATION RULES ............................................................ J-1
iv 

LIST OF FIGURES 

FIGURE 1.4-1 HERS-ST FLOW DIAGRAM....................................................................................... 3

FIGURE 2.3-1 PROJECT BROWSER................................................................................................ 5

FIGURE 2.3-2 PROJECT TREE ........................................................................................................ 6

FIGURE 2.3-3 – HIGHWAY DATA WINDOW........................................................................................ 7

FIGURE 2.3-4 RUN HERS-ST WINDOW ......................................................................................... 7

FIGURE 2.3-5 RESULTS TAB OF PROJECT VIEWER .......................................................................... 8

FIGURE 2.3-6 SECTION CONDITIONS WINDOW ................................................................................ 9

FIGURE 2.3-7 TABULAR OUTPUT WINDOW...................................................................................... 9

FIGURE 2.3-8 REPORTS TAB OF PROJECT TREE ........................................................................... 10

FIGURE 2.3-9 CHART WINDOW .................................................................................................... 11

FIGURE 2.3-10 CHART WINDOW AFTER BUILT-IN QUERY SELECTED .............................................. 11

FIGURE 2.3-11 CHART VIEW WITH CHART DISPLAYED.................................................................. 12

FIGURE 2.3-12 GIS MAP SETTINGS TAB ...................................................................................... 13

FIGURE 2.3-13 GIS MAP VIEW ................................................................................................... 13

FIGURE 2.3-14 REPORT WINDOW QUERY DESIGNER .................................................................... 14

FIGURE 2.3-15 REPORT WINDOW REPORT DESIGNER .................................................................. 15

FIGURE 2.3-16 REPORT WINDOW REPORT VIEWER ...................................................................... 15

FIGURE 3.1-1 MAIN APPLICATION WINDOW................................................................................... 16

FIGURE 3.1-2 FLOW OF DATA WITHIN HERS-ST............................................................................ 17

FIGURE 3.2-1 LOGON WINDOW .................................................................................................... 17

FIGURE 3.3-1 PROJECT BROWSER............................................................................................... 18

FIGURE 3.4-1 HERS-ST GENERAL AND DIRECTORIES OPTIONS ................................................... 19

FIGURE 3.4-2 HERS-ST SUPPORT AND LIBRARIES OPTIONS ........................................................ 20

FIGURE 3.4-3 HERS-ST HIGHWAY OPTIONS ............................................................................... 20

FIGURE 3.4-4 HERS-ST OPTIONS............................................................................................... 21

FIGURE 3.4-5 HERS-ST APPLICATION CONFIGURATION............................................................... 21

FIGURE 3.5-1 PROJECT INTERVIEW .............................................................................................. 22

FIGURE 3.5-2 HIGHWAY AND STATE-IMPROVEMENTS DATA ........................................................... 22

FIGURE 3.5-3 CONTROL AND PARAMETER MODELS....................................................................... 23

FIGURE 3.5-4 HERS-ST ANALYSIS OPTIONS ............................................................................... 23

FIGURE 4.1-1 HIGHWAY DATA WINDOW........................................................................................ 24

FIGURE 4.1-2 SECTION EDITOR WINDOW ..................................................................................... 25

FIGURE 4.5-1 QUERY BUILDER WINDOW ...................................................................................... 26

FIGURE 5-1 STATE IMPROVEMENTS DATA WINDOW....................................................................... 28

FIGURE 5.2-1 IMPROVEMENT TYPE DIALOG .................................................................................. 29

FIGURE 6.1-1 PARAMETER MODEL INTERVIEW.............................................................................. 31

FIGURE 6.1-2 PARAMETER MODEL INFORMATION.......................................................................... 31

FIGURE 6.1-3 PAVEMENT SPECIFICATIONS ................................................................................... 32

FIGURE 6.1-4 IMPROVEMENT COSTS ............................................................................................ 32

FIGURE 6.1-5 DESIGN STANDARDS AND DEFICIENCY THRESHOLDS ............................................... 33

FIGURE 6.2-1 ADVANCED PARAMETER MODEL INTERFACE ............................................................ 34

FIGURE 7.1-1 CONTROL MODEL INTERVIEW.................................................................................. 36

FIGURE 7.1-2 CONTROL MODEL INFORMATION ............................................................................. 37

FIGURE 7.1-3 FILE NAMES AND RUN SPECIFICATIONS.................................................................... 37

FIGURE 7.1-4 FUNDS AVAILABLE OR PERFORMANCE GOALS ......................................................... 38

FIGURE 7.1-5 COST WEIGHTS AND TRAFFIC SPECIFICATIONS........................................................ 38

FIGURE 7.1-6 GENERAL AND OUTPUT OPTIONS ............................................................................ 39

FIGURE 7.1-7 UNITS OF MEASUREMENT ....................................................................................... 39

FIGURE 7.2-1 ADVANCED CONTROL MODEL WINDOW ................................................................... 40

FIGURE 8-1 RUN DIALOG WINDOW............................................................................................... 41

FIGURE 9.1-1 TABULAR OUTPUT WINDOW.................................................................................... 49

FIGURE 9.2-1 SECTION CONDITIONS WINDOW .............................................................................. 49

FIGURE 10.1-1 TABLE GENERAL TAB ........................................................................................... 52
v 

FIGURE 10.1-2 TABLE DESIGN AND VIEW TABS............................................................................. 53

FIGURE 10.1-3 TABLE PRINT PREVIEW TAB .................................................................................. 53

FIGURE 10.2-1 CHART GENERAL TAB........................................................................................... 54

FIGURE 10.2-2 CHART DESIGN TAB ............................................................................................. 54

FIGURE 10.2-3 SS1 AND SS2 QUERY WIZARD............................................................................. 55

FIGURE 10.2-4 CHART VIEW TAB ................................................................................................. 57

FIGURE 10.3-1 REPORT GENERAL TAB ........................................................................................ 57

FIGURE 10.3-2 QUERY DESIGNER TAB......................................................................................... 58

FIGURE 10.3-3 QUERY WIZARD ................................................................................................... 58

FIGURE 10.3-4 REPORT DESIGNER TAB ....................................................................................... 59

FIGURE 10.3-5 REPORT TEMPLATE DIALOG.................................................................................. 59

FIGURE 10.3-6 REPORT VIEWER TAB........................................................................................... 60

FIGURE 11.2-1 HIERARCHY OF HERS-ST OBJECTS ...................................................................... 67
vi 

LIST OF TABLES 

TABLE 5.1 FORMAT OF STATE IMPROVEMENTS............................................................................... 30

TABLE 6.1 PRICE INDEX VALUES FOR CONVERTING IMPROVEMENT COSTS TO 2000 DOLLARS........ 35

TABLE 11.1 CLASS AND CONTROL ORGANIZATION ........................................................................ 69

TABLE 11.2 DATABASE TABLES.................................................................................................... 71

TABLE A-1 UNIVERSE DATA SUMMARY .........................................................................................A-2

TABLE A-2 SAMPLE DATA SUMMARY ...........................................................................................A-4

TABLE A-3 HPMS DATA ITEMS USED BY HERS-ST ....................................................................A-5

TABLE A-4 FORMAT OF STATE IMPROVEMENTS.............................................................................A-7

TABLE A-5 CODES FOR “HERS-TYPE” IMPROVEMENTS ................................................................A-7

TABLE B-1 PARAMS.DAT ELEMENTS ...........................................................................................B-2

TABLE B-2 FIPS STATE CODES ...................................................................................................B-8

TABLE B-3 IMPCOST.DAT ELEMENTS ...........................................................................................B-8

TABLE B-4 DLTBLS.DAT ELEMENTS..........................................................................................B-10

TABLE C-1 PPSPEC.DAT ELEMENTS...........................................................................................C-2

TABLE C-2. THE FIELDS OF PPSPEC.DAT ..................................................................................C-3

TABLE C-3 RUNSPEC.DAT ELEMENTS.........................................................................................C-4

TABLE C-4 RECOMMENDED SRE AND LRS VALUES BY FUNDING PERIOD LENGTH.........................C-7

TABLE C-5 CODING CONVENTIONS FOR RUNSPEC FILE............................................................C-12

TABLE D-1 SECTION FILE FORMAT AND COLUMN HEADINGS..........................................................D-4

TABLE D-2 .SS1 FILE ACRONYMS................................................................................................D-7

TABLE E-1 PREDEFINED QUERIES...............................................................................................E-2

TABLE E-2 PREDEFINED CHARTS (MULTIPLE RUN).......................................................................E-3

TABLE E-3 PREDEFINED CHARTS (SINGLE RUN) ..........................................................................E-4

1 

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION 

1.1 SCOPE

This User’s Guide describes the usage and capability of the Highway Economic Requirements 

System – State Version (HERS-ST). HERS-ST was designed to perform highway 

engineering/economic analyses that reflect both the current condition of the highway system and 

the estimated costs and benefits of potential improvements to the system. 

The system enables the user to better examine the costs, benefits, and economic implications 

associated with highway options. It can be used to develop estimates of needs for pavement, 

capacity, and alignment improvements to highways. 

The purpose of this guide is to provide the user with the information needed to use the system 

efficiently and effectively. The remainder of this chapter consists of a brief overview of the contents 

of this document. A general introduction to the HERS-ST model is also provided, followed by a 

description of the HERS-ST software and its application. 

1.2 APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS

The following documents are companion pieces to this user guide: 

HERS-ST Technical Report August 2002 

HERS-ST Overview August 2002 

HERS-ST Induced Demand and Elasticity August 2002 

HPMS Field Manual December 2000 

1.3 OVERVIEW

The HERS-ST software is designed to analyze the effects of alternative funding levels on highway 

performance. To achieve this end, HERS-ST uses data describing a highway system in the 2000 

Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) format as the basis for analyses of the benefits 

and costs of alternative improvements. 

Capabilities of HERS-ST 2.0 include: 

• Application of user-specified deficiency criteria to identify potential pavement, capacity, and 

alignment improvements for individual sections; 

• Estimation of the costs of these improvements; 

• Estimation of the effect of each of these improvements on use of the improved section (but not 

the effect on use of other highway sections); 

• Estimation of the benefits of these improvements and other exogenously specified 

improvements; 

• Use of benefit-cost analysis to evaluate and prioritize the improvements to be implemented in 

each “funding period”; and 

• A facility allowing users to modify or override improvement decisions made by the system. 
2 

1.4 THE HERS-ST SYSTEM

The HERS-ST software is comprised of a graphical user interface that overlays an analysis engine 

consisting of two executable programs. The expression “analysis engine” is used throughout the 

remainder of this document when referring to the executable programs collectively. The 

expression “perform analysis” is used throughout the remainder of this document when referring to 

running the analysis engine. 

In HERS-ST, you organize your work in one or more “projects.” A typical project addresses one or 

more problems you are using HERS-ST to explore. Each project provides places for all the 

information you need to generate the analysis, and for the results of the analysis. Put another way, 

projects are similar to the drawers of a file cabinet. Following this analogy, HERS-ST divides the 

drawer into three parts named Settings, Results, and Reports. You will put the information needed 

to conduct the HERS-ST analysis in the Settings area. After HERS-ST executes the analysis, it 

will place a copy of the settings used in the analysis, and the outputs of the analysis, in the Results 

area. HERS-ST calls this combination of settings and outputs a “configuration.” HERS-ST also 

calls the outputs of the analysis an “iteration.” (In a special case, a configuration can contain more 

than one iteration.) 

HERS-ST provides a set of tools you can use to transform the Results into the formats that best 

serve your needs. Using these tools, you select outputs and build customized charts, maps, 

reports, and tables. HERS-ST places your customized displays in the Reports area. 

HERS-ST uses five types of input data, the first four of which are referred to as models within the 

software and documentation: 

Highway Includes base-year descriptions of a set of highway sections to be analyzed. 

This must be in a comma-delimited ASCII file in the 2000 HPMS format.1

 This 

data format is described in Appendix A. 

Improvement data Includes optional information describing user-specified improvements to 

highway sections that the user wants HERS-ST to implement, effectively 

overriding the HERS-ST analysis for these sections. This data is also 

described in Appendix A. 

Parameter data Contains a variety of engineering standards, cost information, and other 

parameters, which are used by the analysis engine. This data is described in 

Appendix B. 

Control data Contains information used to govern the operation of the analysis engine. 

This data is described in Appendix C. 

Map data Contains optional information used in creating maps. This data must be in the 

form of a shape file, and is described in Chapter 11. 

HERS-ST analyzes changes in traffic volume and road conditions over time, and recommends 

improvements to be made to the highway sections analyzed. The analysis occurs over discrete, 

user-defined funding periods. Three major sets of output are produced: 

Section conditions Contains a description of the condition of each section at the beginning and 

end of each funding period, along with information about all improvements 

that have been selected and the effects of these improvements. 

Tabular output Describes the state of the highway system analyzed at the beginning of the 

run; the simulated state of the system at the end of each funding period under 

the assumption that all recommended improvements are implemented; and 

several sets of statistics describing the costs and effects of the recommended 

improvements. 

System conditions Contains a subset of the information from the tabular output and is used 

internally by HERS-ST as input into reports, tables, charts, and maps. These 

files include system conditions (SS1) and improvement types (SS2). 

 

1 FHWA, Highway Performance Monitoring System Field Manual, December 1999.
3 

The software provides a series of windows to allow the user to view and edit the control, 

parameter, improvement, and highway data. HERS-ST also provides the ability to execute the 

analysis engine, view outputs, and produce reports. Figure 1.4-1 is a simplified diagram of the 

HERS-ST analysis software showing the relationship between the input data, analysis engine, and 

output data. 

HERS-ST stores both the input data and settings along with the analysis results together in a 

Microsoft® Access database and can optionally store a copy of the data in a user specified archive 

directory. The information stored in the database can be reused to produce multiple sets of results 

for comparison, or the application can automatically execute multiple runs using the same set of 

data. For additional information on the inner workings of HERS-ST, please see Chapter 11 and 

Appendices F through J. 

Note: The system output is not shown since it is used internally by HERS-ST for creating 

reports, graphs, tables, and GIS maps. 

Figure 1.4-1 HERS-ST Flow Diagram 

SPECIAL NOTE: There are two fields in addition to those outlined in the HPMS 

field manual appended to the end of the highway data. They are 

single digit integers required by HERS-ST. If the highway data 

file does not contain these fields, they will be added by HERS-ST 

when the data is imported. 

Highway Data

Control Data

Parameter Data

Map Data

Improvement

Data

Import, Validate,

Edit Highway

Section data

Enter and Edit

Control and

Parameter data

Import, Enter,

and Edit

Improvement data

Produce Reports,

Graphs and Maps

Run HERS-ST

Analysis Engine

Tabular Output

Section Output

Reports

Tables

Graphs

GIS Maps

4 

CHAPTER 2 - GETTING STARTED 

2.1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• Personal Computer with Pentium III 400 Mhz (or equivalent) minimum 

• Any of the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems including 95/98/ME/NT/4.0/2000 or 

XP with the latest Service Pack (Windows 2000 SP2 or higher recommended) 

• 128 MB of RAM (256 MB or higher recommended) 

• 100 MB of Free Disk Space 

• Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 or higher (to view documentation) 

• CD-ROM drive 

• SVGA (800x600) or higher-resolution monitor 

Note: This is the recommended configuration when using a highway data set of approximately 

20,000 sections. Additional 128 MB blocks of RAM should be considered for each 20,000 section 

increase in highway data size. 

2.2 INSTALLING THE HERS-ST SOFTWARE

a. Ensure that the current user has local administrative privileges on the computer on which 

HERS-ST v2.0 is to be installed. 

b. Insert the HERS-ST v2.0 CD into the CD drive on the computer. 

c. The HERS-ST Installation Main Window should be displayed. If not, browse to the drive where 

the HERS-ST CD is located and double-click on the file setup.exe. 

d. From the Main Window, select Install Software. 

e. A series of windows will prompt for different information during the installation process. It is 

recommended that the default directory locations be used. 

f. Depending on the configuration of the computer on which the HERS-ST software is being 

installed, the system may require a reboot after installing a portion of the software, after which 

the installation will be complete. 

g. Upon completion of the installation, a new Start Menu group, HERS-ST will be created. 

h. The application may be started by selecting Start / Programs / HERS-ST / HERS-ST v2.0. 

2.3 A QUICK TOUR OF HERS-ST 

2.3.1 Starting the Software and Logging In 

a. Start the HERS-ST v2.0 software by selecting Start / Programs / HERS-ST / HERS-ST v2.0. 

b. At the Logon screen, type your last name and click OK. 

NOTE: The name entered at the login window will identify the individual who 

created or edited the different models within the software.
5 

2.3.2 Creating a New Project 

a. In the Project Browser, Figure 2.3-1, which should now be displayed, select the New tab to 

start the process for creating a new project. A default project name of “New Project” is 

provided. This default name can be edited by the user. 

b. On this same window, select the ‘Import from a highway file’ button. 

c. Click the Browse button to display a standard File Open dialog window. 

d. Browse to “c:\Program Files\HERS-ST\Samples” and select the file “ODOT_TXT.csv” and then 

click the Open button to select a sample set of highway data in the 2000 HPMS format. The 

HERS-ST analysis process uses this highway data. For more information regarding the 

highway data, refer to Chapter 4 in this User’s Guide. 

e. Click the OK button to complete the Project creation process using the defaults for the 

remaining models. This will close the Project Browser and start the data import and validation 

process. 

f. When the Import Highway Data popup message is displayed, select Yes to perform validation. 

g. Select Yes again at the next popup message to complete the import process. 

h. Select Yes to mark only the “good” highway records. 

i. Select No at the prompt for displaying the error file. At this point, the import process is 

completed. 

j. The Project Tree, located on the left side of the main application window, will now include four 

items under the Project. See Figure 2.3-2. These four items are the input models used by the 

HERS analysis process. They may be renamed by the user to provide a more descriptive 

name. 

k. Expand the tree items to show the imported Highway Data and the default Control and 

Parameter Models. 

l. Verify that the button for each is selected (3 places). These are the models that will be input to 

the analysis process. For more details on each of these models, review Chapters 4, 6, and 7. 

Figure 2.3-1 Project Browser 
6 

Figure 2.3-2 Project Tree 

2.3.3 Viewing the Highway Data 

a. In the Project Tree, right-click on New Highway 1 and from the popup menu, select Display. 

b. The Highway Data Window will be displayed in the application’s workspace area on the right 

portion of the screen. 

c. In the Highway Data Window, select the Sections branch of the tree. A grid view, similar to 

that shown in Figure 2.3-3 will be displayed, with one row for each section. Rows that have a 

reddish background are those sections that were found to violate the validation rules. You 

should also notice that they are not checked. Only those rows that are checked will be 

analyzed. 

d. Close the Highway Data Window by clicking the X in the upper corner of the window. 
7 

Figure 2.3-3 – Highway Data Window 

2.3.4 Performing the Analysis 

a. Select the Run icon from the main toolbar to start the analysis process. 

b. The Run HERS-ST Window is displayed. 

c. Verify that the settings are as shown in Figure 2.3-4 below. 

Figure 2.3-4 Run HERS-ST Window 
8 

d. Click the Run button to start the analysis. 

e. After a short pause, a series of MS-DOS command windows will be displayed as the data is 

pre-processed and then analyzed by the HERS-ST model. For more details on the HERS-ST 

analysis types, refer to Chapter 8 in this User’s Guide. 

f. Upon completion of the analysis, control will be returned to the user and the project view will 

move to the Results tab. Refer to Figure 2.3-5. For more information on the results, refer to 

Chapter 9, in this User’s Guide. 

g. At this time, click the Save icon in the main toolbar to save the Project, including the 

results. Results must be saved before reports can be created. 

Figure 2.3-5 Results Tab of Project Viewer 

2.3.5 Viewing the Results of the Analysis 

a. To view the results of the HERS Analysis, ensure that the Results tab of the Project Tree is 

selected and expand the tree until it appears similar to Figure 2.3-5, showing two items under 

the Results branch. 

b. Double-click on the Section Conditions item to display the Section Conditions Window. 

c. Within this window, select a Funding Period to display the results of the analysis and 

recommended improvements on a per each highway section basis. Refer to Figure 2.3-6. 
9 

Figure 2.3-6 Section Conditions Window 

d. Close the Section Conditions Window 

e. Next, double-click on the HPMS2000.OUT item in the tree to display the Tabular Output 

Window. 

f. Selecting any item in the tree will display the data page associated with that data. Refer to 

Figure 2.3-7. 

Figure 2.3-7 Tabular Output Window 

g. Close the Tabular Output Window. 
10 

2.3.6 Creating a Chart from the Analysis Data 

a. In the Project Tree, select the Reports tab. 

b. Right-click on Charts and from the popup menu, select New Item. New Chart 1 is added to 

the Project Tree. Refer to Figure 2.3-8. 

Figure 2.3-8 Reports Tab of Project Tree 

c. Double-click New Chart 1 to display the Chart Window. 

d. Select the Design View tab in the Chart Window. 

e. Right-click in the dark gray area at the lower portion of the chart to access the popup menu, 

which will show a list of the chart options, including predefined charts. From this popup menu, 

select Single Iteration Charts then Funding Level per Improvement Type. Refer to Figure 

2.3-9. 
11 

Figure 2.3-9 Chart Window 

f. The predefined chart will populate the data for the titles and both the X and Y-axes. Refer to 

Figure 2.3-10. 

Figure 2.3-10 Chart Window after Built-In Query Selected 

Right-click 

Here 
12 

Figure 2.3-11 Chart View with Chart Displayed 

g. Select the Chart View tab to view the resulting chart. Refer to Figure 2.3-11. 

h. Close the Chart View Window. 

i. For more details on Chart creation, refer to Chapter 10. 

2.3.7 Creating a Map from the Analysis Data 

a. Remaining in the Reports tab, right-click on GIS and select New Item to add a new GIS Map 

to the Project Tree. 

b. Double-click New GIS 1 to display the GIS Map Window 

c. Click on the Settings tab. 

d. In each of the three drop-down windows, select an item from the list. 

e. In the file path field, click the Browse button and locate “c:\Program Files\HERSST\Samples\odot_tst.shp”. 

f. Refer to Figure 2.3-12 for a completed example of the window. 
13 

Figure 2.3-12 GIS Map Settings Tab 

g. Select the View Map tab to start the map rendering process. 

h. Click OK to accept the two information messages displayed. 

i. The resultant chart should appear similar to that shown in Figure 2.3-13. All highway sections 

selected for improvement are shown in blue. 

Figure 2.3-13 GIS Map View 

j. Close the GIS Map Window. 
14 

2.2.8 Creating an Ad-Hoc Report from the Analysis Data 

a. Remaining in the Project Tree Reports tab, right-click on Reports in the Project Tree and 

select New Item to add a new Ad-Hoc Report to the Project Tree. 

b. Double-click New Report 1 to display the Report Window. 

c. Click on the Query Designer tab. 

d. Click on the Wizard button to access the Query Wizard. 

e. In the Query Wizard, accept the default query by clicking the OK button. 

f. The three-panes of the Query Designer will be populated with the pre-defined query. Refer to 

Figure 2.3-14 for an example of the window. 

Figure 2.3-14 Report Window Query Designer 

g. Click the Report Designer tab to access the layout tool. 

h. Click the Report Templates button to access the pre-defined templates. 

i. From the Select Report Templates Window, select System Conditions (SS1).rpx and then 

click OK.

j. The pre-defined report template will be displayed in the window. Refer to Figure 2.3-15. This 

window allows the user to design the layout of the report including fields of data, labels, 

graphics, etc. 
15 

Figure 2.3-15 Report Window Report Designer 

k. Lastly, click the Report Viewer tab to view the results of merging the data query with the 

report template. Refer to Figure 2.3-16. 

Figure 2.3-16 Report Window Report Viewer 

This completes a quick walk-through of the HERS-ST software, including the generation of userdefined reports. For details on each of the steps discussed in this section, refer to the remainder of 

this User’s Guide. 
16 

CHAPTER 3 – THE HERS-ST APPLICATION 

3.1 APPLICATION ENVIRONMENT

The main application environment is made up of a Multi-Document Interface (MDI) window that, in 

turn, contains the individual windows to display the highway and state-improvement data, control 

and parameter settings, analysis results and user defined reports. The environment workspace 

contains two main areas, the project area and the workspace area. The project area is on the left 

side of the window and displays a project tree that presents the items that make up the project on 

three tabs. Right click on the branches of the tree to display a popup menu that will allow the user 

to add, remove, clone, import, export and display individual items. The workspace area is where 

the project items are displayed. Figure 3.1-2 shows the flow of data through HERS-ST. 

Figure 3.1-1 Main Application Window 

The first tab (shown) displays the items that make up the current project settings. A project may 

have any number of highway, state-improvements, control or parameter models, however only one 

of each may be selected at a time. When the HERS-ST analysis is initiated, the selected highway, 

improvement, control and parameter model is used to conduct the analysis. 

SPECIAL NOTE: A highway model and a control and parameter model is required 

for the HERS-ST basic analysis. When conducting a HERS-ST 

analysis in its override mode (see Section 8.2.2), an improvement 

model must also be included to provide the state specified 

improvements.
17 

The second tab displays the analysis results and the complete configuration that was used by the 

HERS-ST analyzer for a single or minimum BCR run. A project may contain any number of 

configurations with each containing a copy of the settings and a set of results that it produced. 

The third tab displays any user created GIS maps, charts and graphs and add-hoc reports created 

from the HERS-ST analysis data. 

Figure 3.1-2 Flow of Data within HERS-ST 

3.2 LOGON

When the GUI application is started the user is presented with a logon window required to access 

to the applications database. This window allows the user to select the database file that the 

application is to work with and enter their username and password. The database selected must 

contain the HERS-ST tables or it will not function correctly. 

Figure 3.2-1 Logon Window 

SPECIAL NOTE: The logon window will currently support any user name. 

SPECIAL NOTE: The data generated by the HERS-ST analysis is contained in the 

configuration results. However, this information cannot be used 

to generate any reports until it is saved to the database. 

Improvement

Model

Improvement

Model 

Paramet

Model

Paramet

Model

Paramet

Model

Contro

Mode

Contro

Mode

Contro

Mode

Contro

Mode

Control 

Model 

Parameter 

Model 

Improvement

Model

Highway data 

Control Data 

Parameter Data 

Improvement 

Data 

Import, Validate,

Edit Highway

Section data

Enter and Edit

Control and

Parameter data

Import, Enter,

and Edit

Improvement data

Highwa

Model 

Highwa

Model 

Highway 

Model 
18 

3.3 PROJECT BROWSER

Normally, the project browser is displayed on project startup, however this behavior can be 

changed in the application’s option settings. Clicking the New or Open buttons on the main 

application’s toolbar or selecting the corresponding items in the File menu will also activate the 

project browser. 

 

Figure 3.3-1 Project Browser 

The Existing tab allows the user to select an existing project from the database. The user may 

also delete existing projects from the database from here. To delete a project that is no longer 

wanted, select it in the list and click the Delete button. Note that deleting a project is permanent 

and once deleted, it cannot be recovered. 

The New tab provides an interview that allows the user to name the project and select the source 

of the highway data, state-improvements, control and parameter models. In each case the user 

has the option to create a new model, import it from an existing file set or use an existing item 

already stored in the database. The Next and Previous buttons will move through the interview 

process. The project interview presented here is identical to that of the Project Wizard described in 

paragraph 3.5. 

3.4 ENVIRONMENT OPTIONS

There are various behavioral options that can be selected by the user. The environment options 

window is displayed by selecting View/Options from the application’s menu and is arranged on 

seven tabs as follows. 

SPECIAL NOTE: If this is the first time the GUI application is being run, you should 

close the project browser and proceed to the application options 

window to ensure that the application settings are correct before 

creating your first project. 
19 

 

Figure 3.4-1 HERS-ST General and Directories Options 

The General options tab allows the user to set the following options: 

Current Data Source Permits the selection of the Microsoft Access 2000 database file 

currently in use by the application. 

Display Browser Causes the project browser to be displayed when the application starts. 

Advanced Mode Permits the user to access the advanced features of the application, 

which includes the ability to edit all portions of the HERS-ST control and 

parameter files. 

Archive Output Files Copies all files generated by a HERS-ST run into a specified location as 

determined by the Archive directory location entry on the Directories

tab. If this option is not enabled, no archive will be created however all 

the file information will still be saved in the database. 

Validate Highway Data Automatically runs the data validation routine when importing a highway 

data file. If disabled, the user will be prompted to run the validation. 

Import Flagged Samples Restricts the importing of a highway data file to only those records that 

are flagged as valid standard samples. 

Only Validate Samples Restricts enforcement of the highway validation rules to only those 

sections that are flagged as valid standard samples. 

 

The Directories options tab allows the user to specify the location of the various files required and 

generated by the software as follows. 

Working Location where all data files are exported and the pre-processing and 

analysis takes place each time a HERS-ST run is performed. This 

directory is cleared before each run and must not correspond to any 

other directory. 

Default Location where HERS-ST data files used by the application for its 

default values are located. These files include the runspec.dat, 

ppspec.dat, etc. 

HERS Location where HERS-ST Preprocessor (hstpp.exe), and analysis 

engine (hersst.exe) are located. 

Archive Location where archive files are stored. The software will create a subdirectory for each run of HERS-ST. 

Temp Location for miscellaneous use. 

Report Location where ad hoc reports are stored. The database maintains a 

reference pointing to these files. 

Template Location where predefined report templates are stored. 
20 

 

Figure 3.4-2 HERS-ST Support and Libraries Options 

The Support options tab allows the user to specify of the location of third-party applications that 

may be invoked from within the HERS-ST software as follows. 

HPMS Analyzer This option specifies the location of the Highway Performance Monitoring 

System (HPMS) software. This software is commonly known as the Submittal 

Software. When this option is set to point to the HPMS software, the HPMS 

button on the main application toolbar will become enabled. 

Text Editor This option specifies the path and executable file name for a third-party text 

editor that may be invoked from within the HERS-ST application. By default, 

HERS-ST will utilize the Windows Notepad application 

The Libraries options tab allows the user to view and delete items that have been created in the 

applications libraries. The application libraries store items such as highway query filters and grid 

layouts for the highway and section conditions windows. To delete an item from a library, select it 

and press the Delete button on the keyboard. 

 

Figure 3.4-3 HERS-ST Highway Options 

The Highway options tab allows the user to specify which HPMS validation rules are to be 

enforced on the highway data and the default values for each field of the highway data to be used 

during import if the field value is missing from the import file. When viewing the validation rules, 

the text for each rule is displayed along with a checkbox to enable or disable it. If a rule is 

checked, it is enabled and will be enforced when highway data is either imported or edited. 
21 

Figure 3.4-4 HERS-ST Options 

The HERS-ST tab allows the user to select which result files created by HERS-ST are to be 

captured by the environment. HERS-ST generates four types of data as described in Chapter 9. If 

a type of result data is not checked, its data capture is disabled and it will not be available. If the 

user does not desire a particular type of result data, disabling its data capture will improve the 

overall performance of the application. 

This tab also allows the user to set the home state option. This setting identifies which state cost 

factor is displayed on the Improvement Costs page of the parameter model wizard. 

Figure 3.4-5 HERS-ST Application Configuration 

The Configuration tab allows the user to view the version numbers and compile date of each 

component of the HERS-ST GUI application. This information is useful to the system administrator 

to ensure matching application configurations on multiple computers. 

3.5 PROJECT WIZARD

The simplest way to create a HERS-ST project and run the analysis is to use the interview of the 

built-in project wizard. The user can start the project wizard by selecting Project Wizard from the 

application’s Wizards menu or clicking the project wizard button on the toolbar. The project wizard 

interview is organized onto six pages as follows. 

SPECIAL NOTE: If the archiving option is enabled, all result files are still copied to 

the archive directory even if its data capture option is disabled. 
22 

The first page of the project interview allows the user to specify to either use an existing project or 

to create a new project. If the user selects an existing project, the wizard will then skip to the final 

page where the user will start the HERS-ST analysis. When creating a new project, the wizard will 

proceed as described in the following paragraphs. 

Figure 3.5-1 Project Interview 

The next two pages of the project interview allow the user to specify the highway data and the 

state-improvements data (if any) to be used by the project. In each case the user has the option to 

create a new model, import it from an existing file or use an existing item already stored in the 

database. A highway model must be specified, however a state-improvements model need only be 

specified if the HERS-ST analysis is to be conducted in Override mode. 

When importing a highway data file, the user will be asked if they wish to validate the highway data 

fields during the import. If so directed, a log file will be created to record any errors encountered, 

which can be viewed after the import process is complete. If an error is encountered, the user will 

be given the option to either continue or terminate the import and to mark only records that do not 

contain any errors as selected. 

Figure 3.5-2 Highway and State-Improvements Data 

SPECIAL NOTE: The user may click the Finish button at any point in the interview 

process. The project wizard stores the settings made by the user 

and restores them each time it is invoked. Therefore, any pages 

not displayed will reuse the last user settings. 

SPECIAL NOTE: The import process will either read all the records from the source 

file or read only those flagged as HPMS standard samples and 

ignore the rest. This behavior is controlled in the application’s 

environmental option settings. 
23 

The next two pages of the project interview allow the user to specify the control and parameter 

models to be used by the project. Like before, the user has the option to create a default model, 

import it from an existing file set or use an existing item already stored in the database. Both a 

control and parameter model must be specified. 

When creating a default control or parameter model, the new model will be initialized based on the 

default files located in the default directory specified in the environmental options. Changing the 

contents of the default files will, therefore, change what a default model is initialized to. If the 

default files are not found, the new model will prompt the user to select files to be used. 

Figure 3.5-3 Control and Parameter Models 

The last page of the project interview allows the user to select various run options for the HERS-ST 

analysis engine. These options are identical to those of the HERS-ST run dialog described in 

Chapter 8, Figure 8-1. 

When the user clicks the Finish button, the wizard will create and populate the project and run the 

HERS-ST analysis. Upon the completion of the HERS-ST analysis, a run configuration will be 

created and added to the project. The resulting project will be displayed in the project tree on the 

HERS-ST GUI main window. 

Figure 3.5-4 HERS-ST Analysis Options 
24 

CHAPTER 4 - HIGHWAY DATA 

The HPMS file contains ASCII descriptions of each highway section to be analyzed, one record per 

highway section, in the standard HPMS comma-delimited format. Each record contains 98 fields. 

Table A-3 provides a brief listing of the contents of the record. This table skips over item numbers 

and positions that are not by HERS-ST. Please note that all of the HPMS data items need to be 

included, they are just not all initially displayed in the highway data window. The variable names 

shown in the table are the internal HERS-ST variable names. 

HERS-ST is not designed to handle rural minor collectors or sections on the two local functional 

systems. To allow states to analyze sections on these three systems, HERS-ST treats all sections 

on these systems as if they were rural major collectors or urban collectors, as appropriate. 

Accordingly, statistics printed by HERS-ST for rural major collectors actually include information for 

any rural minor collectors and rural local roads analyzed; and statistics for urban collectors similarly 

include information for any urban streets analyzed. 

Also, in HERS-ST, the user may specify separate widening feasibility overrides for each functional 

system, which is described in Appendix B. 

4.1 HIGHWAY DATA WINDOW

The highway data window is the primary user interface to enter and edit the highway section 

information that will be processed by HERS-ST. It is displayed by double clicking a highway data 

branch in the project tree or by selecting the Display item in its popup menu. The interface is 

displayed in two panes. The left pane shows a hierarchal tree displaying the structure of the 

highway data and the right pane shows the specific details for the selected portion of the structure. 

 

Figure 4.1-1 Highway Data Window 

Selecting the root of the tree will display the general information about the highway data object 

including its name and description. It also displays the name of the last user to modify the data 

and a timestamp of when the modification occurred. 

Selecting the Sections branch of the tree will display a grid containing all of the information about 

each section of highway data. The grid provides layout formatting and editing capability through a 

number of popup menus that are activated by right clicking in the grid area or the column headers. 

In addition, a secondary edit window is available for editing a single highway data section in a more 

readily readable format. The section editor window is activated by double clicking a record in the 

grid or by selecting Edit in the popup menu. This window will float above all other windows and will 

track with the active row selected in the sections grid. 
25 

Figure 4.1-2 Section Editor Window 

All the values in an entire column can be modified at once using the Set or Replace items in the 

header popup menu. The Set option will set all the values of the column to the value of the 

currently selected cell and the Replace option will set the column values that match the currently 

selected cell with a new value. 

4.2 GRID LAYOUT

To reorder the columns of the sections grid, drag the column to the desired position and drop it. To 

resize a column, drag the column divider in the header to the desired width. Selecting the Hide

option on the header popup menu will hide unwanted columns. All columns that have been so 

hidden can be re-displayed by selecting the Show or Show All options on the same menu. 

The layout of the sections grid can be configured by the user to present the information in any way 

that is convenient. This may involve re-arranging the column order, hiding unwanted columns and 

adjusting column widths. Once a desired layout is created, it can be saved to a library for future 

use by selecting the Table/Save Layout option in the popup menu. The user will be asked to give 

the layout a name to refer to it by. If an existing layout already has the same name, the user will be 

asked if he wishes to overwrite it. To restore a previously saved layout, select it by its name from 

the Table/Restore Layout option in the popup menu. 

Not all of the highway data fields are required by HERS-ST. The unused highway data fields can 

be automatically hidden from view by activating the HERS-ST Layout option on the highway grid 

popup menu. Although the unused fields are hidden from the user, their data is still preserved, 

saved and exported as usual. To return to full view of the highway data, deactivate the HERS-ST 

layout mode by un-checking it in the menu. 

4.3 RECORD SORTING

The records in the sections grid can be sorted by column by clicking on the header of the column 

which the user wishes to sort by. Repeat clicking of a column header will toggle the sort between 

ascending and descending order. Sorting can also be initiated by selecting the Sort/Ascending or 

Sort/Descending options in the header popup menu. To sort multiple columns, select a column 

group by clicking on the column headers while pressing the SHIFT key. Then, select an ascending 

or descending sort from the menu. 

4.4 RECORD VALIDATION

When a highway data file is imported the user has the option to perform validation checking on the 

data it contains. Records that fail the validation test are displayed with a red tinted background in 

the highway data grid. Validation of individual records or the complete highway data set can also 
26 

be conducted by selecting the Validate or the Table/Validate items available on the highway grid 

popup menu. Validating the complete data set will produce a log file containing a list of all the 

errors found. 

When editing a data field of a section, the new value is verified against the appropriate validation 

rules. If an error is detected, the user is given the option to either ignore the violation on that 

occasion or to return to the field’s previous value. The complete record will then be validated to 

determine its error status. Records with errors will be displayed with a red tinted background. 

4.5 RECORD SELECTING

Records that are selected for use are designated with a checkmark in the fixed column at the left of 

the grid. Only records that are checked will be used when executing the HERS-ST analysis, 

exporting the highway data to a file or creating a clone. The user can choose to view only the 

checked records by selecting the Table/Show Checked option from the popup menu. To return to 

viewing all records select the Table/Show All option. 

There are many ways to mark a record as checked or unchecked, the most simple of which is 

clicking the checkbox with the mouse cursor. The record must be highlighted for it to respond to 

the mouse click. The following paragraphs describe other means of selecting records with 

increasing complexity. 

The entire set of records in the grid can be marked from a special header popup menu that 

appears only for the fixed (checkbox) column. This menu will allow the user to either check, 

uncheck or toggle the checked state of all the records in the grid. If the highway data contains 

records with errors, this menu also provides the ability to check only the valid or errant records. 

Individual rows and groups of rows may be highlighted collectively from the grid by clicking them 

with the mouse while holding down the CTRL or SHIFT key respectively. Selecting the 

Table/Select All option of the popup menu highlights the entire grid at once. Once a group of rows 

is highlighted they can be marked together as checked or unchecked by selecting the Check or 

Uncheck options in the popup menu. 

The most full featured means of marking records as checked is by using the query dialog. This 

window appears when the user selects the Table/Query option on the popup menu. 

Figure 4.5-1 Query Builder Window 

SPECIAL NOTE: The user can disable individual highway validation rules in the 

environmental option settings. Validation rules can also be disabled 

for sections that are not an HMPS standard sample. 
27 

The query builder window allows the user to build complex criteria conditions by which to select the 

records with. The syntax of the query text represents the WHERE clause of a Structured Query 

Language (SQL) statement and must comply with all SQL syntax rules. The user may type the 

desired selection criteria directly into the query textbox or may build it using the Fields, Values, 

Functions and Operators listed. Double click an item in any of these lists to copy that item to the 

SQL query textbox. 

The list of fields contains all of the field names of the highway data. The list of values contains all 

unique values that the selected field has. The list of operators and functions contains a list of 

commonly used SQL logical and comparison operators and built-in functions that can be used. 

This is not meant to be a complete list of all SQL capabilities and the user is referred to SQL 

documentation for more advanced features. 

Once the query text is complete, the user must decide which of three actions is to be carried out on 

the records. The Replace option will clear any existing selected records and then select only those 

records that meet the criteria. The Append option will not affect any existing selected records and 

will add any additional records that meet the criteria to be included in the set. The Remove option 

will unselect any records that meet the criteria while leaving other records unaffected. 

The query text that the user creates can be saved to a library for future use by clicking the Save

button. The user will be asked to give the query a name to refer to it by. If an existing query 

already has the same name, the user will be asked if he wishes to overwrite it. To reload a 

previously saved query, select it by its name from the Queries/Load menu. 

4.6 RECORD ADDING AND DELETING

To add a record to the highway section list, select the Add Record option from the popup menu. 

The new record is added to the end of the list and is a copy of the record that was selected when 

the adding operation was initiated. Focus will be set to the new record. The unique fields 

SectionID, LRSID, SampID, LRSStart and LRSEnd of the original record are not copied. 

To delete a record or set of records, highlight the rows that are to be deleted and then select the 

Remove Record option from the popup menu. 

SPECIAL NOTE: Deleting a section record is permanent and once deleted, it cannot 

be recovered. 
28 

CHAPTER 5 - STATE IMPROVEMENTS 

The state improvements data window is the primary user interface for entering and editing the state 

specified improvements that are used by HERS-ST when operating in its Override mode. This 

information supplements the highway data and serves to override the HERS-ST improvements on 

any given highway section with the state specified ones. It is displayed by double clicking a state 

improvements branch in the project tree or by selecting the Display item in its popup menu. 

Like the highway data window, this interface is displayed in two panes. The left pane shows a 

hierarchal tree displaying the structure of the state-improvements data and the right pane shows 

the specific details for the selected portion of the structure. 

 

Figure 5-1 State Improvements Data Window 

Selecting the root of the tree will display the general information about the state-improvements data 

object including its name and description. It also displays the name of the last user to modify the 

data and a timestamp of when the modification occurred. 

Selecting the Improvements branch of the tree will display a grid containing all of the information 

about each section that has a state specified improvement. Up to ten improvements can be 

specified for each section. The number of improvements specified for a given section is displayed 

in the first column and is followed by the county code and highway section identification number. 

Next, each of the ten improvements for the section is described in a set of six columns each. 

When the main improvements branch is selected, all 60 columns are displayed. Select one of the 

specific improvement braches from the tree to display just the six columns for that improvement. If 

the user selects a specific improvement branch that is greater than the number of improvements 

for a section, then its six columns will be blank and will not be editable. The user can hide these 

sections by selecting the Table/Show Improvements item from the grid popup menu. 

All the values in an entire column can be modified at once using the Set or Replace items in the 

header popup menu. The Set option will set all the values of the column to the value of the 

currently selected cell and the Replace option will set the column values that match the currently 

selected cell with a new value. 

The records in the state-improvements grid can be synchronized with those of the highway data by 

checking the Synchronize option on the popup menu. When synchronized, the selected record of 

the state data will track with the corresponding record of the highway data as determined by the 

county code and sample ID fields. Only the current state model that is selected by the option 

button in the project tree will be in synchronization with the highway data. 
29 

5.1 RECORD SORTING

The records in the sections grid can be sorted by column by clicking on the header of the column 

which the user wishes to sort by. Repeat clicking of a column header will toggle the sort between 

ascending and descending order. Sorting can also be initiated by selecting the Sort/Ascending or 

Sort/Descending options in the header popup menu. To sort multiple columns, select a column 

group by clicking on the column headers while pressing the SHIFT key. Then, select an ascending 

or descending sort from the menu. 

5.2 ENCODING STATE IMPROVEMENTS

HERS-ST requires that state specified improvements not involving resurfacing, reconstruction, 

widening, or improved alignment be assigned a code that is divisible by 20. In addition, this code 

can be combined with HERS-ST improvement codes for pavement, widening and alignment 

improvements. To simplify this for the user, the interface provides a dialog box for editing the 

improvement-type columns. 

Figure 5.2-1 Improvement Type Dialog 

5.3 RECORD ADDING AND DELETING

To add a record to the state-improvement list, select the Add Record option from the popup menu. 

The new record is added to the end of the list and is a copy of the record that was selected when 

the adding operation was initiated. Focus will be set to the new record. The unique field 

SectionID of the original record is not copied. 

Records can also be created directly from highway data by selecting the Create from (highway)

item in the popup menu. A new record is created for each checked record in the source highway 

data set. The County and SectionID field is copied to the new state-improvement record. If a 

record with the county and section ID already exists, it will not be duplicated. 

To delete a record or set of records, highlight the rows that are to be deleted and then select the 

Remove Record option from the popup menu. 

5.4 USER-SPECIFIED IMPROVEMENTS

Each State Improvement record describes one or more improvements for a single highway section 

in chronological order, using a comma-delimited format. Each record contains 6n+3 fields, where n 

is the number of improvements described. The contents of the first 9 fields of this file are shown in 

Table 5.1. 

SPECIAL NOTE: Deleting a section record is permanent and once deleted, it cannot 

be recovered. 
30 

Table 5.1 Format of State Improvements 

Field Format 

1. Number of improvements Integer 

2. County Code Integer 

3. Sample Identifier Alphanumeric 

4. Year of First Improvement (four digits) Integer 

5. Type of improvement Integer 

6. Override Flag Integer 

7. Cost of Improvement Floating Point 

8. Lanes Added Integer 

9. Increase in Capacity Integer 

Fields 4 – 9 continue for up to a total of 10 improvements. 

The first field of each record specifies the number of improvements described. A maximum of 10 

improvements can be described in any record. 

The next two fields contain the county code and the Sample Identifier (from HPMS Field 47). These 

fields are used to match the State Improvement record with the corresponding HPMS record 

describing the section in question.2

User-specified improvements are entered in chronological order in sets of six fields (Fields 4-9, 10-

15, etc.). A more thorough discussion of State Improvements along with the table showing the 

Improvement type codes can be found in Appendix A. 

 

2

 The match will be unique if all HPMS records are from a single state. If data from multiple states are used 

in a single run, there is a small probability that the same County/Sample-ID pair will be used to identify 

sections in more than one state. In this case HERS-ST 2.0 will arbitrarily match the StateImps record to the 

first HPMS record that it finds. 

31 

CHAPTER 6 - PARAMETER MODEL 

The parameter model provides a wide variety of parameters for the HERS-ST analysis. There are 

two ways that a parameter model can be edited. The standard interview provides a logical 

organization of pages to enter the most common information on. The advanced interface provides 

access to all of the parameter information. The following sections describe each mode. 

6.1 STANDARD PARAMETER INTERVIEW

The parameter model interview is provided to edit the HERS-ST parameter model and is always 

available. The parameter interview is displayed by double-clicking the parameter model branch in 

the project tree or selecting the Display item in its popup menu. Only the most commonly modified 

items are presented here. Use the advanced parameter model interface to view all the items of the 

parameter model. 

Figure 6.1-1 shows the flow through the pages of the parameter model interview. A general 

description of each page is presented here, please referred to Appendix B for further information 

pertaining to the data entered on these pages. 

Figure 6.1-1 Parameter Model Interview 

The first page of the parameter interview allows the user to enter a name and description for the 

model. The name of the last user to modify the model and a corresponding timestamp are also 

displayed. 

Figure 6.1-2 Parameter Model Information 

SPECIAL NOTE: The new parameter model settings are not applied until the 

interview is finished. The user may click the Finish button 

at any point in the interview process. If the name of the 

parameter model is changed, the user will be asked if they 

wish to create a new model or apply the changes to the 

existing model. 

Model 

Information 

Pavement 

Specifications 

Design 

Standards 

Deficiency 

Thresholds 

Improvement 

Parameters 

Improvement 

Costs 
32 

The next two pages of the interview collect various pavement specifications and improvement 

parameters. These parameters specify items such as the pavement life expectancy, the effects of 

improvements on a sections pavement condition that result in an improvement in the pavements 

present serviceability rating (PSR), the maximum pavement deterioration rate, widening feasibility 

override, and maximum number of lanes. 

Figure 6.1-3 Pavement Specifications 

The next page of the interview collects improvement cost information. The improvement costs are 

organized by functional class and improvement type. The abbreviations for the improvement types 

are shown below. The improvement costs can be viewed either as raw data or as modified by the 

state cost factor for the home state specified in the environment options. The improvement cost 

data cannot be edited when it is viewed with the state cost factor applied, however any changes to 

the cost factor itself will be reflected in the values seen in the grid. 

 

Figure 6.1-4 Improvement Costs 

As a default, the screen presents the cost factor used for the selected state for the 2002 Conditions 

and Performance (C&P) Report. The state must be selected under the HERS tab of the Options 

screen (which is accessed from the View drop-down menu as discussed in paragraph 3.4). 

Entering a new cost factor will change the cost factor for the selected State. Note also that the 

section’s State field determines the cost factor used in calculating improvement costs on a section. 

RCHC Reconstruction with lanes added at high cost. 

RCNC Reconstruction with lanes added at normal cost. 

RCWL Reconstruction with wider lanes. 

RC Pavement reconstruction 

MWHC Major widening with lanes added at high cost. 

MWNC Major widening with lanes added at normal cost. 

MinW Minor widening with resurfacing. 

RsSh Resurfacing with shoulder improvements 

Rs Resurfacing 
33 

The last two pages of the interview collects design standards, optional costs and deficiency 

thresholds. The thresholds for each deficiency level category are organized by functional 

classification. Deficiency Levels (DLs) and the first User Specified Threshold (UST1), which are 

described in Section 9.1.1, are selected via the option buttons below the table. 

Figure 6.1-5 Design Standards and Deficiency Thresholds 

6.2 ADVANCED PARAMETER MODEL

When the application is placed in advanced mode, additional detailed information about the 

parameter model is available. The parameter model is made up of three components that appear 

as branches beneath the parameter model branch in the project tree. Each component has its own 

file and is editable in its own window as follows: 

• Parameter Tables Params.DAT 

• Improvement Cost Tables ImprCost.DAT 

• Deficiency Level Tables DLTabls.DAT 

The window for editing the parameter data is shown in Figure 6.2-1. Double-clicking on the 

component branch in the project tree or selecting the Display item in its popup menu will display 

the component. The interface for each component is virtually identical with the left pane showing a 

hierarchal tree of the items that make up each component and the right pane showing the details of 

the selected item in the tree. The only difference between the components is the attributes, lists 

and tables shown in the tree. A definition for each attribute, list and table item for each component 

is listed in Appendix A. 

SPECIAL NOTE: Applying the state cost factor only affects how the improvement 

costs are viewed in the interface. The raw data is not affected by 

this feature and can only be changed by editing it directly when 

the cost factor is not applied to the view. 

SPECIAL NOTE: Only the Deficiency Levels (DL) and the first User Specified 

Threshold (UST1) are available in the standard interview. Use 

the advanced parameter interface for the deficiency level tables 

to edit other deficiency levels. 
34 

 

 

Figure 6.2-1 Advanced Parameter Model Interface 

The contents of each component can be imported and exported from HERS-ST to a text file by 

selecting the Import or Export options on the project tree popup menu. The text file format is 

specified in the Appendix B. 

6.2.1 Costs 

All default cost data used by HERS-ST provided as national averages. These include unit costs for 

highway improvements, vehicle operation, travel time, injuries, and property damage, as well as 

fuel excise taxes and the value of life. The costs are supplied in dollars of various years and 

converted to 2000 dollars using price index values. Estimates can be produced in any other year 

dollars by appropriately adjusting these price indexes. The price index values currently in this file 

have been obtained from the following sources: 

• Fuel cost – Consumer price index (CPI) for motor fuel (SETB);3

• Oil – CPI for motor oil, coolant, etc. (SS47021); 

• Tires – CPI for tires (SETC01); 

• Maintenance and repair – CPI for motor vehicle maintenance and repair (SETD); 

• Vehicle costs – Average expenditure per new car;4

 

3

 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Database. 

4

 Ralph W. Morris, “Motor Vehicles, 2000,” Survey of Current Business, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau 

of Economic Analysis, February 2001. (This data series is preferred to the CPI series because the CPI 

incorporates adjustments for changes in quality; i.e., the CPI is adjusted downward to exclude the value of 

new features being purchased.) 
35 

• Value of time and crash delay costs – Total compensation of all civilian workers (Series 

ECU10001I);5

• Value of life and injury costs – Implicit price deflator for gross domestic product;6

• Inventory – Implicit price deflator for durable goods; 

• Property damage – CPI for motor vehicle body work (SETD01); and 

• Highway improvement costs, highway maintenance costs, and alignment-related costs – 

the FHWA’s composite price index for federal-aid highway construction.7

The FHWA’s estimates of national unit costs for highway improvements (contained in 

IMPRCOST.DAT) have been adjusted to 2000 dollars (using the FHWA’s composite price index for 

federal-aid highway construction). The system then adjusts these costs to state values using a set 

of State Cost Factors contained in the Parameter Model. State users may wish to incorporate their 

own estimates of pavement and widening costs into the system. The remainder of this section 

discusses how to incorporate these estimates. 

For rural areas, the costs are specified separately by functional system and terrain (flat, rolling, or 

mountainous). For urban areas, they are specified separately by facility type (freeways and 

expressways, other divided roads, and undivided roads). There are 135 unit costs in this part of the 

file. With a few exceptions, the costs are specified in thousands of 2000 dollars per lane mile. The 

exceptions are resurfacing or reconstruction with additional high-cost lanes and also, for urban 

sections, resurfacing with additional normal-cost lanes; for these improvement types the costs are 

specified in thousands of 2000 dollars per added lane mile. 

States that wish to use their own cost data are likely to have information for some of the 135 unit 

costs in this part of the file, but not for all of them. However, it is important that reasonable 

relationships be maintained between the various unit costs. Thus, if significant changes are made 

to any of the unit costs, all of the costs will require some adjustment. These adjustments may be 

made either judgmentally or by scaling the remaining costs (or appropriate subsets of these costs) 

uniformly. States that use their own cost estimates should change the State Cost Factor for their 

state to 1.0. 

When changing the unit costs for pavement and widening improvements, it is not necessary to 

continue to express these costs in 2000 dollars. However, if dollars of another year are used, it is 

important to replace the price indexes (available in advanced mode only) with values that will result 

in converting the costs to 2000 dollars. Values for converting rural and urban improvement costs 

expressed in dollars of any year between 1995 and 2001 to 2000 dollars are shown in Table 6.1. 

Table 6.1 Price Index Values for Converting Improvement Costs to 2000 Dollars 

Convert From Rural Urban 

1995 123.8 118.5 

1996 115.7 130.2 

1997 113.7 111.0 

1998 111.2 117.1 

1999 105.7 108.9 

2000 100.0 100.0 

2001 102.4 96.8 

Source: Derived from FHWA, “Price Trends for Federal-Aid Highway Construction,” quarterly. 

 

5

 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Cost Index. 

6

 U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts 

Tables, Table 7.1. 

7

 FHWA, “Price Trends for Federal-Aid Highway Construction,” quarterly. 

36 

CHAPTER 7 - CONTROL MODEL 

The control model provides the control settings for the HERS-ST analysis. Like the parameter 

model, there are two ways that a control model can be edited. The standard interview provides a 

logical organization of pages to enter the most common settings on. The advanced interface 

provides access to all of the control settings. The following paragraphs describe each mode. 

7.1 STANDARD CONTROL INTERVIEW

The control model interview is provided to edit the HERS-ST control model and is always available. 

The control interview is displayed by double-clicking the control model branch in the project tree or 

selecting the Display item in its popup menu. Only the most commonly modified items are 

presented here. Use the advanced control model interface to view all the items of the control 

model. 

Figure 7.1-1 shows the flow through the pages of the control model interview. The interview will 

direct the user to enter only information required for the selected run options while skipping 

unnecessary pages. A general description of each page is presented here, however the user is 

referred to Appendix C for further information pertaining to the data entered on these pages. 

Figure 7.1-1 Control Model Interview 

The first page of the parameter interview allows the user to enter a name and description for the 

model. The name of the last user to modify the model and a corresponding timestamp are also 

displayed. 

Model 

Information 

File 

Specification

Run 

Specifications

Available 

Funds

Performance 

Goals 

Cost 

Weights

Traffic 

Specifications

General 

Options 

Output 

Options

Unit 

Specifications

Performance 

Constrained 

Funds 

Constrained

Full 

Engineering

Needs 

or 

Minimum 

BCR 

Maintain 

Performance

Run 

Types
37 

Figure 7.1-2 Control Model Information 

The next two pages collect file names and run specifications. The file names must be provided, 

however the names themselves are arbitrary and the default names shown usually need not be 

changed. The objective selected in the run specification will direct the interview down one of the 

flow paths shown in figure 7.1-1. 

Figure 7.1-3 File names and Run Specifications 

If the user selects a full engineering needs analysis objective, a message will be displayed to 

remind the user to review the deficiency levels of the parameter model that this type of analysis is 

dependent on. If the project has a selected parameter model then the user will be given the option 

to open and view it at this point. 

Depending on which objective the user selected for the run specification, one of these two pages 

may appear. Selecting the objective to maximize benefits as constrained by funds will cause the 

Available Funds page to be shown. The table for the portion of funds reserved for mandatory 

improvements is only displayed if the user chose to give priority to mandatory improvements (see 

Section 8.3.6) in the run specification. Selecting the objective to minimize improvement costs as 

constrained by performance will cause the Performance Goals page to be shown. 

SPECIAL NOTE: The new control model settings are not applied until the interview 

is finished. The user may click the Finish button at any point in 

the interview process. If the name of the control model is 

changed, the user will be asked if they wish to create a new 

model or apply the changes to the existing model. 
38 

In either case, the information is organized by functional classification for up to four funding 

periods. The functional classifications shown are those appropriate for the constraint specification 

selected on the run specifications page. 

Figure 7.1-4 Funds Available or Performance Goals 

The next two pages collect cost weight information and traffic specifications. The cost weights are 

used to establish a performance goal and are organized by functional classification. The cost 

weights page is only shown when a performance constrained run is specified. 

Figure 7.1-5 Cost Weights and Traffic Specifications 

The next two pages allow the user to select various general options and output options. The 

output options shown here determine which pages will be printed to the tabular output file 

described in paragraph 9.1.1. 

The value for the Long Run Share of Elasticity in the general options is not directly editable by 

the user. Rather, it is calculated from the funding period and the long and short run elasticity 

values using the following formula. Changing any of these three factors will cause a new long run 

SPECIAL NOTE: Leaving a field set to zero for the second, third or fourth funding 

period will imply the reuse of the entry for the previous funding period. 
39 

share value to be calculated. The value of the long and short run elasticity is always negative; 

however, the long run elasticity must always be more negative than the short run elasticity. 

Figure 7.1-6 General and Output Options 

The last page collects settings for the units of measurement used in the analysis. The units of cost 

entries allow the user to scale output cost data and the units of VMT allow the user to scale the 

calculated vehicle miles traveled. 

Figure 7.1-7 Units of Measurement 

Long Run Share Elasticity

LRS = (0.158667FP – 0.0085FP2

 + 0.0001533FP3)(LRE – SRE) 

Where: FP = Length of Funding Period 

SRE = Short Run Elasticity 

LRE = Long Run Elasticity 

LRS = Long Run Share of Elasticity 
40 

7.2 ADVANCED CONTROL MODEL

When the application is placed in advanced mode, additional detailed information about the control 

model is available. The control model is made up of two components that appear as branches 

beneath the control model branch in the project tree. Each component has its own file and is 

editable in its own window as follows: 

• Preprocessor Specification PPSpec.DAT 

• Run Specification RunSpec.DAT 

The window for editing the run specification data is shown in Figure 7.2-1. Double-clicking on the 

component branch in the project tree or selecting the Display item in its popup menu will display 

the component. The interface for each component is virtually identical with the left pane showing a 

hierarchal tree of the items that make up each component and the right pane showing the details of 

the selected item in the tree. The only difference between the components is the attributes, lists 

and tables shown in the tree. A definition for each attribute, list and table item for each component 

is listed in Appendix C. 

 

 

Figure 7.2-1 Advanced Control Model Window 

The contents of each component can be imported and exported from HERS-ST to a text file by 

selecting the Import or Export options on the project tree popup menu. The text file format is 

specified in Appendix C. 

41 

CHAPTER 8 - RUNNING HERS-ST 

To run the HERS-ST analyzer the user must first select a highway data model, a stateimprovements model (if needed) and a control and parameter model. Individual models are 

selected by clicking them in the project tree so that the option button next to each item is marked. 

To start HERS-ST, select the File/Run HERS-ST menu option or click the run button on the 

toolbar. The run HERS-ST dialog will appear. 

Figure 8-1 Run Dialog Window 

The name of the run configuration is assigned the value of the run number attribute of the run 

specification and its description is assigned the value of the run description attribute. These are 

the default assignments and can be changed by the user. 

The other options presented here are from the run specification described in the control model. 

They are displayed here to allow a short cut means to change these setting without the need to 

reopen the control model each time. Changes made to the settings are applied to the copy of the 

control model used in the HERS-ST configuration and not to the original control model selected in 

the settings tab of the project tree. 

When a full engineering needs analysis is selected, the button that allows access to the deficiency 

levels that affect this type of analysis is enabled. This button will display the parameter model 

interview page shown in figure 6.1-1. 

There are two modes of running available. The first mode is the Basic Mode where HERS-ST 

identifies only HERS-ST type improvements. The other mode is the Override Mode where the 

HERS-ST type improvements can be overridden by user specified state-improvements. In basic 

mode only a highway data model and a control and parameter model are required. However, in 

override mode a state improvements model is also required. 

The user can elect to run a single HERS-ST analysis or multiple analysis iterations. The multiple 

run option will conduct one or more runs of the HERS-ST analyzer while incrementing the value of 

the minimum BCR value between each run. When selecting multiple runs, the user must specify 

the starting, ending and increment value to be assigned at the minimum BCR for each run. The 

number of iterations conducted by the HERS-ST analyzer will depend upon the size of the 

minimum BCR range and the value of the increment. 

SPECIAL NOTE: The user can monitor the progress of the pre-processor and the 

HERS-ST engine in the DOS windows that appear on the screen 

during the execution. During the HERS-ST execution, the 

application is locked and will not responded to the mouse or 

keyboard.
42 

If the user has enabled archives in the options window then a complete copy of the input files and 

output files will be copied to an archive sub-directory named after the configuration. If running 

multiple iterations of the HERS-ST analysis, an archive will be created for each run using the 

configuration name appended with a run index as the archive directory name. 

8.1 HERS-ST ERROR AND WARNING MESSAGES

The HERS-ST analysis consists of two parts, the Preprocessor and the HERS-ST analyzer. The 

Preprocessor is executed prior to the analyzer and is ran only once even when the analysis is 

conducted multiple times for a multiple minimum BCR run. If the Preprocessor generates any error 

or warning messages, the analysis execution is halted to inform the user. From this point the user 

can make one of two choices. 

• Terminate the analysis execution and review the messages. 

• Ignore the messages and continue with the analysis execution. 

Likewise, if the HERS-ST analyzer produces any errors or warning messages, the user is given the 

same two choices. It is recommended that the first time the user encounters this situation that the 

analysis execution be terminated and the error and warning messages reviewed. If they are found 

to be insignificant, then restart the analysis execution and chose to ignore the messages when 

asked. If the errors or warnings are not insignificant, then make the necessary corrections before 

restarting the analysis. 

8.2 HERS-ST RUN TYPES

8.2.1 Basic Runs 

In basic runs, HERS-ST performs its own evaluations of the estimated costs and benefits of all 

potential pavement, widening, and alignment improvements and determines which improvements 

best meet the criteria provided by the user. Information about the state of the highway system in 

the base year and forecast traffic volumes for some specified future year are provided in the HPMS 

file. 

The starting point for a run of the HERS-ST system is an HPMS data file containing an ASCII 

description of a set of highway sections (e.g., all sections of the State Highway System or some 

subset of these sections) for some base year. The HSTPP program is used to perform some 

preliminary processing of this file and to convert it to two files, including one containing binary 

descriptions of the individual highway sections. The HERSST program is then used to perform a 

more detailed analysis of the specified highway sections, starting with the description contained in 

the binary file. 

Each run of HERSST analyzes the specified set of highway sections over an overall analysis 

period consisting of one or more “funding periods” (FPs) starting in the base year specified. The 

length of each FP and the number of FPs are specified by the user. A maximum of 25 FPs can be 

analyzed in a single run of HERSST. 

In basic runs, in each FP, the HERSST program applies user-specified criteria to identify and 

select pavement, widening, and alignment improvements to be implemented on the highway 

sections being analyzed. The objective functions available for controlling this selection process are 

described in Appendix C. 
43 

8.2.2 Override Runs 

In override runs, the HERS-ST user has the ability to override some (or all) of the decisions HERSST makes regarding the selection of improvements, the initial cost of these improvements, and 

their effects on capacity. In particular, for any section, the user can specify: 

• That a particular type of improvement is to be made in a particular FP; 

• The initial cost of such an improvement; 

• Its effect on capacity; or 

• That improvements are to be made only in specified FPs. 

Override runs make it possible to override HERS-ST decisions on the basis of specific knowledge 

of the feasibility of particular improvements selected by HERS-ST or knowledge of unusual costs 

(e.g., for replacing bridges) that would be incurred in implementing these projects. These runs also 

make it possible to require that several related improvements (such as widening a given highway) 

be scheduled for the same FP or in consecutive FPs. (Because HERS-ST analyzes individual 

sections in isolation, it is not currently capable of recognizing the relationship between such 

improvements.) 

Override runs also make it possible for HERS-ST users to specify improvements not selected by 

HERS. These improvements can be either HERS-type improvements (pavement, widening, or 

alignment improvements) or other types of projects (such as intersection modification or grade 

separation). In the latter case, the user must specify both the initial cost of the project and its effect 

on capacity. For HERS-type improvements, the user has the choice of providing cost and/or 

capacity specifications or allowing HERS-ST to estimate these quantities. 

Appendix A describes how users can specify improvements that should or should not be made 

and, optionally, specify the initial costs of these improvements and/or their effects on capacity. 

Also provided in Appendix A are details about how HERS-ST estimates the costs and benefits of 

user-specified improvements as well as the incremental costs and incremental benefits of 

substituting a more aggressive improvement for a user-specified improvement. 

8.3 HERS-ST ANALYSIS TYPES

HERS-ST is designed to perform three types of analyses: 

• Minimum Benefit/Cost Ratio; 

• Constraint by Funds; and 

• Constraint by Performance. 

Additionally, there are two special case analyses performed by HERS: 

• Full Needs Analysis; and 

• Maintain Performance Analysis. 

These analysis types differ in the methods used by HERS-ST to select which improvements are 

implemented. HERS-ST also includes an option to have the model correct sections with 

unacceptable deficiencies (see Appendix B) regardless of the economic desirability of the 

improvement. The following paragraphs provide an overview of these types of analyses. 
44 

8.3.1 Minimum BCR 

Minimum BCR analysis may be described as follows: Implement all improvements with incremental 

benefit/cost ratios greater than some threshold value. 

When you select minimum BCR analysis you must specify the minimum acceptable benefit/cost 

ratio for any implemented improvement. The questions you are asking are: 

What are those improvements that exceed a specified minimum benefit/cost ratio? 

How much can be invested at this level of return? 

What will be the condition and performance of the highway system after investing at this level?

This is the essential HERS-ST analysis. The FHWA uses this type of analysis, with the minimum 

BCR set to 1.0, in the Maximum Economic Investment scenario for the C&P Report. FHWA also 

uses a minimum BCR approach for the Maintain User Costs scenario in the C&P report. For each 

funding period, the model examines each section, identifying and calculating BCRs for all potential 

improvements. Then, for each section, the model implements the economically most attractive 

improvement with a BCR above the user-specified threshold. 

8.3.2 Full Engineering Needs Analysis 

The full engineering needs analysis is a special form of the Minimum BCR analysis, where the 

minimum BCR is automatically set to -9999. When you select a full engineering needs analysis, 

you are asking for solutions to these questions: 

How much will it cost to correct all highway deficiencies for each funding period? 

What will the system condition and performance be?

This form of analysis essentially ignores all of the economic analysis capabilities that have been 

built into HERS. While it includes calculation of a BCR for each improvement, it effectively 

disregards the BCR when selecting improvements for implementation. Instead, it improves all 

sections on which HERS-ST identifies a deficiency, and implements the most aggressive 

improvement in order to ensure that all deficiencies are corrected. Thus, the standards for 

improvement are determined by user-specified engineering criteria, instead of economic analysis. 

This type of analysis is similar to that performed by the HPMS Analytical Process. 

8.3.3 Constraint by Funds 

Constraint by Funds (or fund constrained) analysis may be described as follows: Maximize the net 

present value of the benefits of improvements subject to specified constraints on funds available 

during each funding period. 

When you select fund constrained analysis, you must specify the funding level the model may 

allocate for improvements. The questions you are asking are: 

What level of system condition and performance can be obtained when the improvements are 

limited by the funds you specify? 

Funds can be specified by functional class (or combinations of functional class) for each of the first 

four funding periods. (The values for the fourth funding period are utilized for subsequent funding 

periods.) During each funding period, the model identifies potential improvements, and ranks them 

by BCR. After all sections are examined, the model selects the most economically attractive 

improvements in order until the available funds are expended, or no economically justifiable 

candidate improvements remain. (That is, the system sets the minimum BCR threshold at 1.0.) 

HERS-ST is not able to exactly meet the funding constraint levels set by the user. This is because, 

as successive improvements are implemented and the available funding is exhausted, the model 
45 

will inevitably reach the point where it has some funds available, but not enough to fully implement 

the next improvement. The national model solves this problem by splitting the last section in order 

to implement the selected improvement. When the funding constraints are not severe, the state 

version typically overspends by two to five percent per funding period. When the funding 

constraints are severe, the amount of over-spending may exceed fifty percent. 

8.3.4 Constraint by Performance 

Performance constrained analysis may be described as follows: Minimize the cost of improvements 

necessary to achieve specified goals for the performance of the highway system at the end of each 

funding period. 

When you select constraint by performance, you must specify the level at which you want the 

highway to perform. The question you are asking is: 

How much will it cost to achieve a specified level of system performance? 

Performance goals can be specified by functional class (or combinations of functional class) for 

each of the four initial funding periods. (The values for the fourth funding period are utilized for 

subsequent funding periods.) The goals may be specified in cost per vehicle mile (vehicle 

operating cost, highway maintenance cost, injury cost, etc.), number of safety incidents (crashes, 

injuries, and fatalities), or maintenance costs per mile. Goal components can be weighted relative 

to each other and also by functional class. As with the Constraint by Funds analysis, during each 

funding period the model identifies potential improvements, and ranks them by BCR. After all 

sections are examined, the model selects the most economically attractive improvements in order 

until the performance goal is attained, or no economically justifiable candidate improvements 

remain. (Once again, the system sets the minimum BCR threshold at 1.0.) 

8.3.5 Maintain Performance Analysis 

The Maintain Performance analysis is a special form of the Constraint by Performance analysis, 

where the current level of system performance is used as the performance goal. The questions 

answered by this type of analysis are: 

How much will it cost to maintain the current level of system performance? 

As in Constraint by Performance analysis, the goal may be specified in cost per vehicle mile 

(vehicle operating cost, highway maintenance cost, injury cost, etc.), number of safety incidents 

(crashes, injuries, and fatalities), or maintenance costs per mile. Goal components can be 

weighted relative to each other and also by functional class. The model determines the 

performance level during its first pass through the system, and per mile. Goal components can be 

weighted relative to each other and also by functional class. As with the Constraint by Performance 

analysis, during each funding period the model identifies potential improvements, and ranks them 

by BCR. After all sections are examined, the model selects the most economically attractive 

improvements in order until the performance goal is attained. 

8.3.6 Mandatory Improvements 

With this analytical option, the user can instruct the model to implement corrective improvements 

on sections which meet a distinct set of deficiency criteria even though the improvements do not 

meet the economic criteria for implementation. The user enables this option in the Control model 

wizard. The user specifies “unacceptability levels” (ULs) in the DLTbls table in the Parameter 

Model (advanced mode only) for the same eight section characteristics used in specifying DLs. 

Generally, the ULs would be set to specify worse conditions than the DLs. The model will identify 

the least aggressive improvement that corrects the unacceptable conditions on any such section. 

These improvements are termed “mandatory” improvements on the output pages. 

The HERS-ST handling of mandatory improvements differs depending upon the type of analysis. In 

all cases, the model first examines all sections to identify those in unacceptable condition, selects 
46 

improvements to correct those conditions, and then, if not bound by a constraint, reexamines all 

sections again to identify deficient sections and economically attractive improvements for the 

deficiencies. Mandatory improvements are the lowest cost improvements that will correct the 

unacceptable condition. HERS-ST may replace a mandatory improvement with a more aggressive 

and economically more attractive improvement the second time through the database. 

8.3.6.1 Mandatory Improvements and Constraint by Funds 

For constrained fund analysis, the user specifies (1) the total funds available for improvements, all 

of which may be used to correct unacceptable conditions; and (2) the amount of the total funds 

which will not be used to correct unacceptable conditions, but reserved for the most economically 

attractive improvements. If, after implementing improvements for all unacceptable sections, funds 

remain (whether not needed to correct unacceptable conditions, or reserved for additional 

improvements), the model proceeds to identify and implement improvements for sections which are 

merely deficient until all the funds allocated for that funding period have been exhausted. If there 

are insufficient funds to implement all improvements to correct deficiencies, then the benefit-cost 

analysis (BCA) process uses the improvements’ BCRs to select the best of the potential 

improvements for implementation. 

If the cost of the mandatory improvements exceeds the available funds, HERS-ST uses the BCA 

process to select the best of the mandatory improvements for implementation. The model then 

applies the reserved funds to the correction of deficient sections. Sections with unacceptable 

conditions not corrected with mandatory improvements remain eligible for improvement, however 

they must satisfy the economic criteria. 

8.3.6.2 Mandatory Improvements and Constraint by Performance 

For performance constrained analysis, the model first identifies the mandatory improvements. If 

implementing all the mandatory improvements achieves or exceeds the performance goal, no 

additional improvements are identified, and all the mandatory improvements are implemented. 

Unlike constrained fund analysis, HERS-ST does not use the BCA process to select only enough 

of the best improvements to exactly meet the constraint. Under this type of analysis, HERS-ST will 

implement all mandatory improvements. 

If implementing all the mandatory improvements does not meet the performance goal, additional 

improvements addressing merely deficient conditions are identified, ranked by BCR, and selected 

using the BCA process until the performance goal is attained. 

8.3.6.3 Mandatory Improvements and Minimum BCR 

For minimum BCR analysis, the model implements mandatory improvements to correct all 

unacceptable conditions regardless of the BCR of the improvement. It then implements the most 

aggressive improvement for each section that has a BCR above the minimum BCR. As with the 

other types of analysis, mandatory improvements may be replaced with a more aggressive 

improvement which meets the economic criteria. 
47 

CHAPTER 9 - HERS-ST ANALYSIS RESULTS 

Each time the user conducts a run of the HERS-ST analyzer a new run configuration is created 

and added to the project. The run configurations are displayed in the project tree on the Results

tab. Each configuration contains a Settings and Results section. If the configuration was for 

multiple minimum BCR runs then it will show multiple result iterations in the tree. Each iteration will 

be named for the value of the BCR by default, but can be renamed by the user. 

The settings branch contains an exact copy of the selected highway model, state-improvement 

model and the control and parameter models that were used during the run. The configuration 

settings are read only, however selecting the Clone option in the popup menu can copy them. The 

new copy is displayed in the project tree back on the Settings tab. 

The result iterations branch contains the results of the HERS-ST analysis. There are four types of 

result data created by the analysis that are displayed here as shown below. Detailed descriptions 

of each type of result data are provided in the following paragraphs. 

• Tabular Output Data 

• Section Conditions Data 

• System Conditions Data (SS1) 

• Improvement Cost Data (SS2) 

The HERS-ST tabular output data and the sections conditions data contain information that can be 

directly viewed by the user. To view the contents of these result items double click on an item or 

select the Display option from the popup menu. The system conditions (SS1) and improvements 

costs (SS2) data are only visible when the application is placed in advanced mode. These items 

do not contain data that is directly viewable by the user. The contents of all four types of result 

data can be export to its original text file format by selecting the menu Export option. 

 

9.1 TABULAR OUTPUT

9.1.1 Description 

Separate columns of output are produced by HERS-ST for the highway system as a whole, for the 

rural and urban systems, and for nine of the 12 functional systems. In HERS-ST, tabular output for 

any urban local streets is combined with that for urban collectors, and output for any rural minor 

collectors and local roads are combined with that for rural major collectors. 

The first summarizes the conditions of the highway system at the beginning of the analysis period. 

The date and time of the run are shown on the second line of this page. Similar pages (without the 

date and time) are also produced showing the condition of the system at the end of each FP. 

SPECIAL NOTE: The user can disable the capture of any of the four types of result 

data in the environmental options settings. The performance of the 

application will improve if it does not need to capture result 

information that is of no interest to the user. 

SPECIAL NOTE: Only one copy of the setting components are kept in a multiple 

minimum BCR run even though the control model is automatically 

changed for each iteration. It is understood that the only control 

value to changed between the iterations is the minimum BCR 

whose value is documented by the name and description of each 

iteration. 
48 

The system conditions page is described in Appendix D. The HERS-ST 2.0 system conditions 

page contains more information than was available in previous versions. The additional information 

includes lane-miles and a substantial increase in information about speed and delay. The new 

speed and delay information is described in the following paragraphs. 

For the three freeway systems, the system conditions page now shows separate estimates of 

average speed for peak and off-peak periods. 

For all functional systems, total delay is shown along with separate estimates of three components 

of delay. The first of these, zero-volume delay, represents the delay that would be caused by traffic 

signals and stop signs in the absence of any congestion; i.e., it reflects the minimum amount of 

extra travel time that results from slowing and stopping for signals and stop signs. This component 

of delay is independent of congestion. The other two components represent delay caused by 

incidents and all other congestion-related delay. 

At the user’s request, HERS-ST will follow each system conditions page with one or two 

“deficiency” pages, which present information about the relative extent of various shortcomings in 

the highway system. These pages replace a few lines of such information that were previously 

printed at the bottom of the system conditions page. 

The top portion of the deficiency page shows the percent of road miles that have IRIs that exceed 

various user-specified thresholds. Up to five sets of thresholds (UST1, ..., UST5) may be specified 

by the user in the deficiency table (DLTbls.DAT file in advanced mode only). Each set of thresholds 

may have values that vary by functional system and (for rural systems) by terrain. A potential use 

of these thresholds would be to produce information about the percent of pavement that meets or 

fails one or more sets of state-specified standards for pavement condition. 

Pavement condition thresholds can also be specified on the basis of PSR, and the system also 

produces deficiency information for volume/capacity ratio, lane width, shoulder width, shoulder 

type, surface type, horizontal alignment, and vertical alignment. 

There is a difference between the “user-specified thresholds” (UST1, ..., UST5) and the various 

“levels” (UL, RL, DL, etc.) that are specified in this file. The USTs are used only for generating the 

deficiency page and have no effect on any other HERS-ST results. The “levels,” on the other hand, 

play various roles in HERS’ selection of recommended improvements. For example, the DLs are 

used by HERS-ST to identify roadway deficiencies and potential corrective actions to be analyzed 

by HERS. The DLs are referred to as “deficiency levels” in HERS-ST documentation. (It should be 

noted that, in HERS-ST documentation, “deficiency” has a very specific meaning when used in the 

phrase “deficiency level” and a more general meaning when used in other contexts.) 

9.1.2 Tabular Output Window 

The tabular output file created by HERS-ST is displayed in a two-pane window. Each section of 

the output file is listed in a hierarchal tree on the left pane. When the user selects and item in the 

tree, its corresponding section is displayed in the document viewer on the right pane. The 

document view can be zoomed in as desired by the user or the whole document can be viewed as 

thumbnails. To print the document, select the Print option in the popup menu or click the Print

button on the main toolbar. 
49 

 

Figure 9.1-1 Tabular Output Window 

9.2 SECTION CONDITIONS

9.2.1 Description 

For each FP, the HERS-ST program produces a comma-delimited ASCII file describing the 

condition of each section at the end of the FP along with information about all improvements that 

have been selected and the effects of these improvements. The file describing conditions at the 

end of FP nn is called SECNSnn.OUT. The first record of the file contains the final year of the FP. 

The second contains the user’s description of the run. The third record contains a set of column 

headings shown in Appendix D; and the remaining records contain descriptions of all sections, in 

comma-delimited format, as listed in and described in Appendix D. 

9.2.2 Section Conditions Window 

The section condition files are displayed in a two-pane window. Each funding period analysis 

conducted by HERS-ST is displayed separately in a tree in the left pane. When a funding period is 

selected in the tree, all of its section conditions information is display in the left pane. The number 

of funding periods that are displayed is user specified via the Periods attribute of the run 

specification in the control model. 

 

Figure 9.2-1 Section Conditions Window 

SPECIAL NOTE: The content of the tabular output file is user specified in the control 

model via the Output table of the run specification. When all options 

are enabled, this data will be 164 pages in length. 
50 

The columns of the section conditions grid can be hidden, resized and reordered as desired by the 

user. Once a desired layout is created, it can be saved to a library for future use by selecting the 

Table/Save Layout option in the popup menu. The user will be asked to give the layout a name to 

refer to it by. If an existing layout already has the same name, the user will be asked if he wishes 

to overwrite it. To restore a previously saved layout, select it by its name from the Table/Restore 

Layout option in the popup menu. 

When printed, the column layout created by the user will be preserved. To print the section 

conditions of a funding period, select the funding period in the tree and select the Print option in 

the popup menu or click the Print button on the main toolbar. 

9.3 SYSTEM CONDITIONS

In addition to the tabular output and section conditions, there are two other items contained in the 

system condition iteration result. These are the System Conditions item (SS1) and Improvements 

Costs item (SS2). The information in these items is not directly viewable by the user. Rather they 

provide the source data for the user to create charts, tables, maps and reports from. Although they 

cannot be display like the other result items, they can still be exported to a text file and be viewed 

as an external file. 

The SS1 and SS2 result items are only displayed in the project tree when the application is placed 

in the Advanced mode in the environmental options otherwise they are hidden. 

9.3.1 The SS1 File 

The SS1 file contains the initial conditions page, and a page for the state of the system at the end 

of each funding period. The file opens with the runnumber identifier and the identification of the 

initial block of data as being the initial conditions data. Each line begins with a cryptic acronym, 

interpreted in Table D-2, “SS1 File Acronyms,” identifying the contents of the line. This is followed 

by a dozen fields, representing the functional classes and the rural, urban, and overall totals. The 

order of the columns are the same as in the printed output: rural interstate, rural other principal 

arterials, rural major arterials, etc. The lines are also presented in the same order as in the printed 

output. The two lines which are not included in the SS1 file are the line listing the number of miles 

in each functional class, and the line indicating the number of sections in the sample. For 

constrained runs, the lines identifying performance goals specified and achieved, and the last 

selected BCR, are also not included. After the initial conditions data, a line is inserted identifying 

the following data as being generated at the end of the first funding period. Additional blocks of 

data are included for each subsequent funding period. 

The second of the comma-delimited files is named runnumberSS2, and contains data from the 

functional class by improvement format. 

9.3.2 The SS2 File 

Like the SS1 file, the SS2 file opens with the runnumber identifier. This is followed by a line 

identifying the first block of data as being the initial cost of improvements for the first funding 

period. As with the SS1 file, the first entry on each data line is an acronym: in this case, for the 

various HERS-ST improvement types (and a last line for totals across all improvement types). The 

acronyms correspond, in order, to the improvements as shown in Appendix A, table A-5. The fields 

on each line are arranged by functional class in the same manner as in the SS1 file. 

SPECIAL NOTE: The information contained in the SS1 and SS2 result items is not 

available to create tables, charts or reports until the configuration is 

saved to the database. 
51 

The SS2 file contains only data for all improvements selected: unlike the printed output, it does not 

contain data for only those sections receiving alignment modifications. 

Following the block of cost data is a line which identifies the next data block as containing average 

BCR data for the first funding period. This is followed by the data, arranged identically to the cost 

data. 

Additional paired blocks of data are included for each subsequent funding period. 

52 

CHAPTER 10 - CREATING REPORTS 

Once the HERS-ST analysis is complete, a great deal of information exists that can be used to 

create reports that depict the information in a useful way. There are four different types of reports 

that can be created as follows. 

Table Use the table to build ad hoc queries to retrieve and present information 

Chart Use the chart style report to create a wide variety of charts and graphs 

Report Use this type of report to build ad hoc documents 

GIS Map Use the GIS map report to create graphical representations of the road sections 

The project reports are displayed on the Reports tab of the project tree. To create a new report, 

select the New Item menu option from the popup menu that appears when you right-click one of 

the four report-type branches. All of the reports in any of the four report-type branches can be 

deleted from the popup menu by selecting the Remove All item. Deleting a report is permanent 

and once delete it cannot be recovered. 

The following paragraphs describe each report type in detail. 

10.1 TABLES

A table report is used to build ad hoc queries of the information in the database. The table view is 

displayed when the user either double-clicks its branch in the project tree or selects the Display

item from its popup menu. The popup menu also allows the user to rename or create a copy of 

the existing table using the Rename and Clone items respectively. 

The interface of a table report is presented on four tabs. The first tab collects general information 

about the table including the table name and description. The name of the last user to modify the 

table as well as a timestamp of when it was modified is also displayed. 

Figure 10.1-1 Table General Tab 

SPECIAL NOTE: After a HERS-ST analysis is complete, the information it created 

is available in the application, but is not yet stored in the 

database. The user must save the run configuration to the 

database before it is available to be used to create any reports. 
53 

The next two tabs provide the user a graphical means to design and test a SQL query. The design 

tab has three panes that can be resized as needed. The view results tab displays the results of the 

query in a table. 

Figure 10.1-2 Table Design and View Tabs 

The top pane of the design tab provides a graphical diagram of the database tables and relational 

links between them. Right-click in the field of the top pane to display a list of the tables in the 

database that can be added to the view. To create a relationship between two tables, drag the 

desired field from one table and drop it on the desired field of the second table. To delete an 

existing relationship, highlight it and press the DELETE key. Add any desired field to the output of 

the query by selecting its checkbox. 

The center pane provides a view of the query that will allow the user to create features such as 

sorting, name aliases and filter criteria. The bottom pane displays the actual SQL query text and 

allows an experienced user to modify or manually enter any SQL statement. Manually entered 

SQL statements will not be reflected in the other panes until the user closes the table report 

window and then displays it again. A query wizard is available when the user clicks the Wizard

button. This wizard is identical to the one shown in figure 10.2-3. 

The fourth tab is not enabled unless a table has been created and is displayed on the results tab. 

It displays a printing preview window that will allow the user to see how the generated table will 

appear when printed. The page setup can be switched between landscape and portrait and the 

table can be zoomed, scrolled and printed from here. 

Figure 10.1-3 Table Print Preview Tab 
54 

10.2 CHARTS

A chart report is used to create complex charts and graphs to compare information from the 

database. The chart view is displayed when the user either double-clicks its branch in the project 

tree or selects the Display item from its popup menu. The popup menu also allows the user to 

rename or create a copy of the existing chart using the Rename and Clone items respectively. 

The interface for a chart is organized onto three tabs. The first tab collects general information 

about the chart including the chart name and description. The name of the last user to modify the 

chart as well as a timestamp of when it was modified is also displayed. 

Figure 10.2-1 Chart General Tab 

The second tab displays the chart designer. A chart is normally based off of the data of a specific 

HERS-ST analysis configuration. A list of saved configurations that have been created for the 

project are displayed in a drop-down list at the top of the window. Select a configuration from the 

list for the chart to be based on. 

The user may enter a title for the chart as well as captions for the X, Y and Y1 axis. The number of 

rows in the chart designer grid is also displayed and can be modified by the user if needed. 

Figure 10.2-2 Chart Design Tab 

The chart designer grid itself is where the information that is to be charted is displayed. A chart will 

always have an X-Axis column that is displayed in the left most position. The data in the X-Axis 

column will be plotted on the X-Axis of the chart. 
55 

There are two types of Y-Axis columns available designated as the Y-Axis and Y2-Axis. Any 

number of columns of data can be added to the table with each column corresponding to a 

separate plot on the chart. Each plot column is designated as a Y-Axis or a Y2-Axis plot or can be 

designated as OFF in which case its data will still be saved but it will not appear in the chart. The 

column designation is selected from a dropdown list at the bottom of each column. 

When the chart is displayed, the Y-Axis is drawn on the left and the Y2-Axis on the right. The chart 

will always display a Y-Axis, however if no columns are designated for the Y2-Axis then it will not 

appear on the chart. Plot columns are added by clicking the Add button for either the Y or Y2 axis. 

All existing plot columns for either the Y or Y2 axis can be deleted by clicking the corresponding 

Clear button. 

Every row of the X-Axis column must be provided with a value. However, the other plot columns 

may skip rows if no data corresponding to the X-Axis is available. To skip a row in a plot column, 

leave the unwanted field blank. 

There is a variety of ways to add data to the chart designer columns. The simplest way to add data 

is to just manually type desired values into the cells. This allows the user to add data to the chart 

that was not created by the HERS-ST analysis or is not otherwise in the database. The other ways 

is to automatically generate data from the information in the database. This capability is available 

through a popup menu that appears when the user right-clicks any one of the column headers. 

The most flexible means of getting information from the database is to use the ad hoc query builder 

that is selected by clicking the Query/Query item in the menu. A dialog box appears where the 

user can build and test a SQL syntax query. This window functions identically to the query 

designer tab of the Table report described in section 10.1. 

Any data stored in the System Conditions item (SS1) or the Improvement Costs item (SS2) can be 

easily accessed by using the query wizard. The query wizard appears when the user clicks the 

Query/Wizard item in the popup menu. A configuration must be selected for the query wizard to 

be enabled. 

Figure 10.2-3 SS1 and SS2 Query Wizard 

SPECIAL NOTE: If the SQL query has more than one output field, only the first field 

will be used to fill the selected column in the chart designer grid 

and the remaining fields will be ignored. 
56 

The wizard can return a list of data either from a single HERS-ST analysis or for a multiple 

minimum BCR analysis. The multiple iteration model will not be enabled if the selected 

configuration has only one iteration. The values that comprise the list of data for each mode are as 

follows: 

Single The values returned will be from each funding period of a selected iteration. The 

number of items in the list will equal the number of funding periods that was specified for 

the analysis 

Multiple The values returned will be from the selected funding period of each iteration. The 

number of items in the list will equal the number of iterations conducted during the 

analysis. 

The source for the data is either System Conditions (SS1) or Improvement Costs (SS2) and is 

selected from a drop-down list. The valid labels for the selected source are shown in the next 

drop-down list and finally the valid fields are displayed in the third drop down list. By selecting a 

source, label and field, the user can pick any value contained in either data source. 

There are a number of predefined charts and queries available to make it easy to quickly derive 

commonly used data to crate the chart with. The predefined charts are selected by right clicking in 

the neutral area of the chart. They are segregated into charts for multiple iterations and charts for 

a single iteration. The predefined queries are selected from the Query/Predefined item in the 

popup menu. A configuration must be selected for the predefined charts and queries to be 

available. 

The following predefined charts and queries are provided. Additional information about each is 

provided in Appendix E. 

Predefined Charts Predefined Queries

Annual Investment vs. Pavement Conditions 

Annual Investment vs. Effective Speed 

Annual Investment vs. Congestion Delay 

Annual Investment vs. Crash Rate 

Annual Investment vs. User Costs 

Annual Investment vs. User Benefits 

Annual Investment vs. Volume/Capacity Ratio 

Annual Investment vs. System Wide Backlog 

Total Initial Costs vs. Minimum BCR 

Funding Level per Improvement Type 

Backlog per Funding Period 

Average Annual Funding 

Average PSR 

Average Effective Speed 

Congestion Delay 

Average Crash Rate 

Average Annual User Costs 

User Benefits 

Volume/Capacity Ratio 

Total Initial Costs 

Minimum Benefit/Cost Ratio 

When a predefined chart is selected, all previously existing information for the chart is lost and 

replaced with the information for the new chart. Likewise, when a predefined query is select, all 

previously entered data for the selected plot column is lost and replaced with information from the 

query. 

SPECIAL NOTE: If a multiple iteration chart is selected for a configuration with only 

a single iteration, the resulting plot will have only one point. If a 

single iteration chart is selected for a configuration with multiple 

iterations, the user will be asked to pick the iteration whose data 

is to be used to create the chart. 
57 

The third tab displays the chart of the data entered into the designer grid. This tab also provides a 

means to print the to chart or copy it, as a bitmap, to the Windows clipboard to be pasted into other 

applications. 

Figure 10.2-4 Chart View Tab 

There is a great deal of properties that can be set by the user to customize the appearance of the 

chart. Right click on the chart area to display a dialog box that will allow chart customizing. The 

user is referred to the online help available from the chart-customizing dialog for detailed 

information on the available features of the chart viewer. 

10.3 REPORTS

A report is used to create document style ad hoc reports using database information, manually 

written text and advanced formatting and graphics. The report view is displayed when the user 

either double-clicks its branch in the project tree or selects the Display item from its popup menu. 

The popup menu also allows the user to rename or create a copy of the existing report using the 

Rename and Clone items respectively. 

The interface for a report is organized onto four tabs. The first tab collects general information 

about the report including the report name and description. The name of the last user to modify the 

report as well as a timestamp of when it was modified is also displayed. 

Figure 10.3-1 Report General Tab 
58 

The second tab displays the query designer. A report is usually based on a query of data from the 

database. The fields of the query are available to be used in the report. This tab functions 

identically to the query designer tab of the Table report described in section 10.1. 

Figure 10.3-2 Query Designer Tab 

The data used to create reports generally resides in one of three tables that correspond to the 

section conditions, system conditions (SS1) or improvement costs (SS2) results data produced for 

a particular HERS-ST analysis. To simplify the creation of a query to retrieve the data for any of 

these three tables, a query wizard is provided. Click the Wizard button to display the query wizard 

dialog. 

Figure 10.3-3 Query Wizard 

The query wizard allows the user to select the data source table for the query, the saved HERS-ST 

analysis configuration and iteration and the specific funding period of interest. It will then generate 

the complete SQL statement required to retrieve the information from the database and display it in 

the query designer tab. The query is ready to be used as is, but can still be modified further by the 

user if additional criteria are desired. 

The third tab displays the report designer. It provides a great deal of tools to create complex report 

formats through a series of toolbars. The report design is assembled using three panes. 
59 

Figure 10.3-4 Report Designer Tab 

The leftmost pane displays a list of database fields that are made available to the report by the 

query created on the query designer tab. Only fields returned by the query can be used in creating 

the report. The rightmost pane displays the properties of the various components of the report and 

allows the user to directly edit them. 

The middle pane displays the report itself. A report usually contains a page header section, a 

detail section and a footer section. Additionally, the detail section may contain one or more group 

headers and footers to partition the report into additional sections. 

Predefined report templates are available to quickly produce reports that use the data from any of 

the tree tables. Click the Report Templates to display the template selection dialog. 

Figure 10.3-5 Report Template Dialog 

The predefined report templates are stored in the directory specified in the Directories tab of the 

environmental options. The user may define their own report templates and store them in this 

directory along with the predefined reports. 

SPECIAL NOTE: After the user has customized the content or format of the report it 

is important to click the Save button on the toolbar to ensure that 

the new report is saved before closing the window. 

SPECIAL NOTE: The name of the template file must identify the table source it is 

built around by including its identifier enclosed in parenthesis. 

The identifiers for the three table types are: 

 (secns) Sections Conditions Table 

 (SS1) System Conditions Table 

 (SS2) Improvements Cost Table 
60 

When a report template is selected it is displayed in the report designer and uses the query 

specified in the query designer. If the query is retrieving data from a table that is different than the 

table that the report template is expecting, then the some or all of the data fields of the report will 

not function. The application attempts to ensure that the report template is compatible with the 

query, however this is ultimately the users responsibility. 

The final tab displays the report in a page formatted view that will allow the user to see how the 

generated report will appear when printed. The report can also be saved to an external file from 

the viewer tab. When saving to a file the user has a number of different options for the file format 

for it to be saved in. Saving the report to an external file allows the user to export the report to a 

desired file format, however it is not necessary for the report to be exported in this way for it to be 

saved as part of the project in the HERS-ST application. 

Figure 10.3-6 Report Viewer Tab 

10.4 GIS MAPS

A GIS map is used to create maps of the highway sections that need to be improved using 

database information. The GIS map view is displayed when the user either double-clicks its 

branch in the project tree or selects the Display item from its popup menu. The popup menu also 

allows the user to rename or create a copy of the existing GIS map using the Rename and Clone

items respectively. 

The interface for a GIS map is organized onto three tabs. The first tab collects general information 

about the GIS map including the GIS map name and description. The name of the last user to 

modify the GIS map as well as a timestamp of when it was modified is also displayed. 

Figure 10.4-1 GIS Map General Tab 
61 

The second tab allows the user to set the various settings used to create the map. These settings 

include selecting the HERS-ST analysis configuration, run iteration and specific funding period to 

be used for the source data. The base color of the map is black by default but can be modified by 

the user. The highlight color and line thickness is also available to be set by the user. A highway 

shape file must be specified before the map can be generated. The map viewer tab will not be 

enabled until all these settings are set. 

Figure 10.4-2 GIS Map Settings Tab 

The third tab displays the map described in the GIS shape file with the sections that are 

recommended for improvements highlighted. The GIS map is presented in two panes. The map 

itself is displayed in the right pane. The user can zoom in and out on the map area using the 

buttons in the toolbar. 

Figure 10.4-3 GIS Map View Map Tab 

SPECIAL NOTE: The GIS shape file database must contain the following two fields 

for the GIS map to be created. 

Section_ID 12 Character String Unique identification number 

COUNTY Integer Unique county code 
62 

The left pane displays a hierarchal view of shape layers. Each layer can have a theme applied to it 

or display any number of user-defined selections, however the user-defined selections are not 

available while a theme is applied. A layers theme, selections or even the entire layer itself can be 

hidden by unselecting its Show checkbox in the layer pane. Any item that is not shown will appear 

grayed out. The symbol color, width and style for any item can be modified from the symbol edit 

window that appear when the users clicks the ellipsis button in the Symbol column. 

When multiple layers are displayed they are drawn in the order they appear in the hierarchal layer 

windowpane. That is, the layer at the top of the list is above all other layers in the map and so 

forth. The order of the layers can be changed using the up and down arrow keys while pressing 

the CTRL key. 

The map provides two floating windows that can be used to annotate the image. The title window 

and legend window are activated from the maps toolbar. When displayed both windows can be 

resized and position as desired. The legend window contains a list of all items in the layer 

windowpane that are shown in the map. The title window is directly editable by the user. The copy 

button on the toolbar creates a screen capture of the map windowpane including the floating 

windows and places it in the windows clipboard. 

 

Figure 10.4-4 Data View Windows 

Selecting the Data View button on the toolbar allows the user to see the underlying information for 

the map sections. The data for an individual section can be viewed in an easier-to-read vertical 

format by double-clicking on the desired section of the data view window. Selecting the Get Info

button on the toolbar and then clicking the desired section directly on the map can also display the 

information for an individual section. 

These windows will float on top of all other windows until they are closed. 

Additional information from external data sources can be joined into the existing data using the 

data-joining feature. Select the Create Join button on the toolbar to display the join wizard. 

SPECIAL NOTE: Each item of a theme uses the same line style and width but 

different colors. Therefore changing the line style or width of any 

item of the theme will affect all of the themes items. 
63 

Figure 10.4-5 Data Source and Join Fields 

The first page of the wizard identifies the shape file associated with the current layer and allows the 

user to name the Join and specify the data source. The second page displays a list of field names 

from the data source and allows the user to select the fields to be joined. At least one field must be 

selected for joining. 

Figure 10.4-6 Join Clause and Selection Criteria 

The next page of the join wizard displays a list of fields in both the external data source and the 

existing section data to allow the user to create an association between the two databases. The 

settings entered here are used to relate the new data to the existing data. At least one relationship 

between the two databases must be specified. 

The last page of the wizard allows the user to build selection criteria to limit the information that is 

to be joined. No selection criteria need be entered if all the data is to be joined. When writing 

selection criteria, each condition of the criteria must be enclosed in parentheses as shown above. 

The user can create themes for any attribute of the highway section or any data joined to it. The 

selected property can be subdivided into up to thirteen partitions with each partition having its own 

color. Themes are created for the map by selecting the Create Theme tool from the toolbar. The 

theme builder window is displayed. 

SPECIAL NOTE: The information created by the HERS-ST analysis is joined into 

the layer data automatically when the map is loaded
64 

Figure 10.4-7 Theme Builder 

The theme builder window provides the user the ability to give the theme a descriptive name and to 

select the data field that it is to be based on. A list of all the available data fields including any data 

fields that have been joined into the layer data is provided. 

Next the number of subdivide classes is selected. A theme may be partitioned into up to thirteen 

subdivisions. All sections of the map will be included into one of the partitions. A breakpoint for 

each division is calculated and displayed. The values shown for the breakpoints are only 

suggestions and can be edited and refined by the user. The line width and style attributes are the 

same for the entire theme, however the line color is selectable for each partition. 

Figure 10.4-8 Select Dialog 

Specific sections can be highlighted from the map by selecting the Create Selection tool from the 

toolbar. Sections can be selected by any attribute of the highway section or any data joined to it. 

The user selects the desired field name, the type of comparison and the value to be delimited. 

Multiple conditions can be specified and combined using AND/OR logic. When writing selection 

criteria, each condition of the criteria must be enclosed in parentheses as shown above. 

10.4.1 GIS Shape Files 

The HERS-ST GIS window uses a shape file (.shp), which is a spatial data format developed by 

Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.(ESRI). A shape file stores non-topological 

geometry and attribute information for the spatial features in a data set. These spatial features can 

be a line (highway), point (city), and area (county boundaries) features. Shape files that are created 

with measures (exported from ArcInfo route event theme) cannot be used by the HERS-ST GIS 

window. Measures must be removed prior to using the shape file within the HERS-ST GIS 

environment. 
65 

Shape files can be created by exporting any data source to a shape file using ARC/INFO ® , PC 

ARC/INFO ® , Spatial Database Engine (tm) (SDE (tm) ), ArcView ® GIS, or BusinessMAP (tm) 

software. Shape files can be created directly by digitizing shapes using ArcView GIS feature 

creation tools. A number of other third party GIS softwares can also be used to create shape files. 

These are TransCAD, Geomedia, MapInfo, Maptitude, ATLAS, and ArcCADGIS software. 

An ESRI shape file consists of a main file, an index file, and a dBASE table. The main file is a direct 

access, variable-record-length file in which each record describes a shape with a list of its vertices. 

In the index file, each record contains the offset of the corresponding main file record from the 

beginning of the main file. The dBASE table contains feature attributes with one record per feature. 

The one-to-one relationship between geometry and attributes is based on record number. Attribute 

records in the dBASE file must be in the same order as records in the main file. 

Examples: 

• Main file: counties.shp 

• Index file: counties.shx 

• dBASE table: counties.dbf 
66 

CHAPTER 11 - HERS-ST GUI TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS 

11.1 DEFINITIONS

The following terms are used throughout this document to describe both the interface (i.e., objects, 

names on tabs, and items in the "project tree"), as well as the underlying hierarchical structure of 

the HERS-ST software. Figures 3-1 shows the HERS-ST hierarchy. Figure 3-2 shows the flow of 

data through HERS-ST. 

11.1.1 Project 

A project is the highest level of organization used within HERS-ST. In simple language, the project 

is the technical problem or analytical task that you are using HERS-ST to solve. The project 

grouping is used to include the input data, results of multiple analyses and user-defined reports 

associated with the analytical task. When a run is performed, one of each input data model type 

contained within the current project, with the exception of the optional State Improvement data, is 

selected and the results of the analysis are grouped into a configuration (see below). Any reports 

(charts, maps, tables or ad-hoc reports) which are created based on the data referenced by the 

open project are also stored as part of the project. 

11.1.2 Configuration 

A configuration is grouping mechanism used within a project to organize the data associated with a 

specific run of the HERS-ST analysis. Every time the analysis is performed, a configuration is 

created and added to the current project. This configuration will contain a read only copy of all of 

the input setting models (Highway, Control, Parameter and optionally, State Improvements) used to 

perform the analysis as well as one or many Iteration result sets, depending on whether a single or 

multiple minimum benefit-cost ratio (BCR) run was performed. When a project is saved, all 

configurations are saved with this project. Configurations may also be deleted from a project if the 

information contained in it is no longer needed. 

11.1.3 Iteration 

An iteration is a grouping mechanism used within a configuration to organize the resultant output 

data associated with a specific run of the HERS-ST analysis. Every time an analysis is performed 

and a configuration is created, one or many iterations are added to the configuration depending on 

the run type. A single run will create a single iteration, identified as ‘Results’ in the Project Tree, as 

a direct child of the new configuration. In a multiple run, an iteration will be created for each Min. 

BCR value and sub grouped under the ‘Results’ branch as ‘BCRMin X’ (where X is the value of Min 

BCR for the particular analysis run). An Iteration may contain a copy of the Tabular Output, 

Section Conditions, System Conditions (SS1) and Improvement Costs By Functional Class (SS2) 

as determined by the Output setting in the Options window. 

11.1.4 Settings 

Settings, which are displayed in the first tab in the Project Viewer, refer to the input data stored in 

the underlying database and used as inputs to the HERS-ST analysis. Settings include the 

Highway Model(s), State Improvements Model(s), Configuration Model(s) and Parameter Model(s). 
67 

11.1.5 Results 

Results, which are displayed in the second tab in the Project Viewer, refer to the data generated by 

the analysis process and stored in the HERS-ST’s underlying database. Results include Tabular 

Outputs, Section Conditions, System Conditions and Improvement Cost by Functional Class. 

11.1.6 Reports 

Reports, which are displayed in the third tab in the Project Viewer, refer to the user-defined charts, 

maps, tables and ad-hoc reports created based on the data stored in the underlying database. 

11.1.7 Control Model 

A control model is a grouping used under the Project level within the GUI to pair one each of the 

Runspec.dat and PPSpec.dat files. This group contains all of the information to control the 

execution of the HERS-ST Preprocessor and analysis engines. 

11.1.8 Parameter Model 

A parameter model is a grouping used under the Project level within the GUI to relate one each of 

the Params.dat, ImprCost.dat and DLTbls.dat files. This group contains all of the parametric data, 

costs, factors and data values used by the HERS-ST analysis engine. 

11.2 ITEM HIERARCHIES

The HERS-ST GUI stores and organizes information at varying levels depending on the type of 

information being referenced. The following four sections define how all the information, both 

objects or settings, within the application are organized. Figure 11-1 shows the hierarchy of 

HERS-ST objects. 

Figure 11.2-1 Hierarchy of HERS-ST Objects 

Project

• Highway 

• Controls 

• Parameter 

• Chart

• Map

• Table

• Report

Configuration

•Read - Only Copy 

models used for 

(Highway, 

Improvement, 

Control, and 

Parameter 

Configuration Iteration

Iteration

Iteration

...

...

•Tabular 

•Section 

•System Conditions 

•Improvements by 

Functional Class 

Iteration
68 

11.2.1 Global Items (not shown in Figure 11.2-1) 

• All of the items found in the Options window, including: 

o General Options 

o Environmental Directories 

o Support Applications 

o Highway Data and Section Condition Layouts 

o Highway Data Filter Queries 

o Highway Data Validation Rule enabled/disabled status 

o Post-Run Import Options 

o Home State 

• Built-in Ad-Hoc Report Queries and Templates 

• Built-In Single and Multi-Run Charts 

11.2.2 Project Level Items 

• Highway Model(s) 

• State Improvement Model(s) 

• Control Model(s) 

• Parameter Model(s) 

• Configuration(s) 

• Charts(s) 

• Map(s) 

• Tables(s) 

• Reports(s) 

11.2.3 Configuration Level Items 

• Settings (which includes Highway, State Improvement, Control and Parameter Models) 

• Iteration(s) 

11.2.4 Iteration Level Items 

• Tabular Output 

• Section Conditions 

• System Conditions (SS1) 

• Improvement Cost By Functional Class (SS2) 

11.3 IMPLEMENTATION OF HERS-ST 

As was noted previously, the HERS-ST GUI was developed using ActiveX technology. The use of 

ActiveX technology in a Visual Basic environment translates into the creation of object classes, 

which are organized into 32-bit, ActiveX dynamic link libraries (.dlls) and visual control libraries 

(.ocxs). Typically, and as implemented in the design of the HERS-ST GUI, the dlls are used to 

define and store the classes used within the business layer and the .ocx files contain the classes 

and forms which define the visual, end-user, interface. The organization of these classes within the 

various libraries has been done on a functional basis. In addition to the these libraries, a single 

windows executable file (.exe) provides the framework for the application, controlling how, based 

on user interactions, each of the objects and controls within the application interact amongst 

themselves and with the underlying database. 

11.3.1 Custom Objects and Controls 

The following table lists the Visual BASIC components developed for HERS-ST with the 

corresponding objects or controls contained within each library. These items will all be installed in 

the application directory, which by default is “c:\Program Files\HERS-ST”. 
69 

Table 11.1 Class and Control Organization 

Library Name Included Classes or 

Controls Type Description 

HERS.exe N/A Executable Main HERS-ST Application. Also 

includes MDI, wizards, option and about 

windows. 

bcoHERSProject.dll bcoProject Class Implements properties and methods to 

define a Project 

 bcoConfiguration Class Implements properties and methods to 

define a Configuration within a project 

 bcoIteration Class Implements properties and methods to 

define a Iteration within a configuration 

bcoHERSModels.dll bcoControl Class Implements group object for a set of 

bcoRunSpec and bcoPPSpec 

 bcoRunSpec Class Implements properties and methods for 

each RunSpec.dat 

 bcoPPSpec Class Implements properties and methods for 

each PPSpec.dat 

 bcoParameter Class Implements group object for a set of 

bcoParams, bcoDLTbls and bcoImprCost 

 bcoParams Class Implements properties and methods for 

each Params.dat 

 bcoDLTbls Class Implements properties and methods for 

each DLTbls.dat 

 bcoImprCost Class Implements properties and methods for 

each ImprCost.dat 

bcoHighway.dll bcoHighwayDS Class Implements properties and methods for 

each Highway data file 

 bcoStateDS Class Implements properties and methods for 

each State Exogenous Improvement file 

 bcoValidation Class Contains the Row Validation rules for the 

Highway data file 

bcoSecurity.dll bcoLogon Class Establishes connection to database 

bcoUtilities.dll bcoUtility Class Collection of general, multi-use functions 

 bcoAttributes Collection Collection object for the bcoAttribute 

class 

 bcoAttribute Class Single, variant type of object variable 

 bcoIndices Collection Collection object for the bcoIndex class 

 bcoIndex Class Array of variant type object variables 

 bcoMatrices Collection Collection object for the bcoMatrix class 

 bcoMatrix Class Multi-dimensional array of variant type 

object variables 

bcoHERSOutput.dll bcoSS1 Class Implements properties and methods for 

each System Conditions (.SS1) file 

 bcoSS2 Class Implements properties and methods for 

each Functional Class by Improvement 

Type (SS2) file 

 bcoTabularOutput Class Implements properties and methods for 

each Tabular Output file 

 bcoImprovements Class Implements properties and methods for 

each Section Conditions file 

 bcoFundingPeriod Collection Collection object for bcoImprovements 

bcoHERSReports.dll bcoReport Control Implements properties and methods for 

each user-defined ad-hoc report 

 bcoChart Control Implements properties and methods for 

each user-defined chart 

 bcoTable Control Implements properties and methods for 

each user-defined table (query) 

 bcoGIS Control Implements properties and methods for 

each user-defined map 
70 

Library Name Included Classes or 

Controls Type Description 

bcoCommon.ocx bcoPage Control Multi-page window 

 bcoQuery Control Query Designer 

bcoHighwayViews.ocx bcoHighwayDSView Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoHighwayDS class 

 bcoStateDSView Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoHighwayDS class 

bcoModelViews.ocx bcoPPSpecView Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoPPSpec class 

 bcoRunSpecView Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoRunSpec class 

 bcoImprCostView Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoImprCost class 

 bcoParamsView Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoParams class 

 bcoDLTblsView Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoDLTbls class 

bcoOutputViews.ocx bcoImprovementView Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoImprovements class 

 bcoTabOutView Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoTabOut class 

bcoReportViews.ocx bcoChartView Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoChart class 

 bcoGISMap Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoGIS class 

 bcoReportDesigner Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoReport class 

 bcoTableView Control Visual interface implementing 

functionality of bcoTable class 

bcoGISctl clsLayer Class Provides shape file (.shp) viewing 

capability 

In addition to the above table, a complete set of object diagrams, which show the relationship 

between objects as well as list the properties, methods and events of these objects is provided in 

Appendix F. 

11.3.2 Third-Party Controls and Components 

In addition to the components developed explicitly for HERS-ST functionality, several third-party 

components were also implemented in this design in order to satisfy/enhance desired functionality, 

reduce development costs and increase software reliability. All of these third-party components 

and controls are royalty-free and do not require any special licensing for distribution of the HERSST 2.0 product. Appendix G lists the third-party components in use with the HERS-ST GUI. All of 

these components are installed in the System32 directory of the Windows Operating system. 

Typically, this is “c:\windows\system32”. 

In addition to these discrete files, both Microsoft’s Data Access Components (MDAC), version 2.6 

and Microsoft Jet 4.0, SP5 are utilized by the application. These items are installed via their own 

installation routines, therefore, details are not provided within this document. 

11.3.3 Windows Registry Entries 

Several settings, included all of the data configured in the Options windows, and window size and 

position are stored within the Windows Registry. Both the HKEY_Local_Machine and 

HKEY_Current_User branches are utilized, depending on the specific data. Under each of these 

keys, the HERS-ST GUI settings are found in the following path: 

..\SOFTWARE\Battelle\HERS\2.0
71 

11.3.4 Database Schema 

All of the data used by the HERS-ST application is stored in an underlying database. This 

database was developed using Microsoft Access 2000. The following table lists each of the tables 

with a description of how the table is used within the framework of the application. A complete data 

dictionary, defining all of the columns, with notations for primary and foreign keys, data types and a 

brief description can be found in Appendix H. A graphical representation of the database schema 

is located in Appendix I. 

Table 11.2 Database Tables 

Table Name Description 

tdConfigurationItems Stores a reference, including an object class and id, for each item type which is 

stored as part of a single configuration of HERS. This includes a read-only 

version of the Input Models. This table is accessed by the bcoConfiguration 

object. It is a child of table tdConfigurations. 

TdConfigurations Creates and stores, on a Project basis, a unique ID and related information for 

each saved run of the HERS-ST analysis process. This table is accessed by the 

bcoConfiguration object and is a child of table tdProjects. 

TdControlModels Creates and stores, on a Project basis, a unique ID and related attributes for each 

Control Model, which includes one each of RunSpec.dat and PPSpec.dat. This 

table is accessed by the bcoControl object. 

TdControlObjects Stores the attributes for each Control File. This table is accessed by the 

bcoRunSpec and bcoPPSpec objects and is a child of table tdControlModels. 

tdFuncClassByImp Creates and store, on a Iteration basis, a unique ID and other attributes for each 

Functional Class by Improvement Type (SS2) file saved to the database. This 

table is accessed by the bcoSS2 object. 

tdFuncClassByImpDets Stores the detailed information for each SS2 file. This table is accessed by the 

bcoSS2 object and is a child of table tdFuncClassByImp. 

TdGIStemp System table used by the Map feature to display information regarding the 

analyzed and displayed highway sections. This table is accessed by the GISctl. 

TdHighways Stores, on a Project basis, the identification and data associated with a Highway 

Data model. This table is accessed by the bcoHighwayDS object. 

tdHighwaySections00 System table used by the Highway Data Model to display the detailed section 

information for each currently loaded highway models. This table is accessed by 

the bcoHighwayDS object and is related to, but not a direct child, of table 

tdHighways. 

TdIterationItems Stores a reference, including an object class and id, for each item type which is 

stored as part of each run within a saved configuration of HERS. This includes a 

all of the HERS-ST outputs, including Systems Conditions (.SS1), Functional 

Class by Improvement Type (SS2), Section Conditions and the Tabular Output. 

This table is accessed by the bcoIteration object. It is a child of table tdIterations. 

TdIterations Creates and stores, on a Configuration basis, a unique ID and related information 

for each saved incremental run of the HERS-ST analysis process. This table is 

accessed by the bcoIteration object and is a child of table tdConfigurations. 

TdParamModels Creates and stores, on a Project basis, a unique ID and related attributes for each 

Parameter Model, which includes one each of Params.dat, ImprCost.dat and 

DLTbls.dat. This table is accessed by the bcoParameter object. 

tdParamObjects Stores the attributes for each Parameter File. This table is accessed by the 

bcoParams, bcoImprCost and bcoDLTbls objects and is a child of table 

tdParamModels. 

tdProjectItems Stores a reference, which includes an object class and related ID for each of the 

items which are directly associated with a Project. This includes the Highway, 

State, Control and Parameter Models as well as all of the user-defined reports. 

This table is accessed by the bcoProject, bcoTable, bcoReport, bcoMap and 

bcoChart objects and is a child of table tdProjects. 

tdProjects This table can be considered the top-level table in the HERS-ST structure. It is 

referenced by the bcoProject object. Each project creates a unique ProjectID, 

which is referenced by all subordinate objects 

tdReports Stores, on a Project basis, the attributes associated with the charts, tables, 

reports and maps created by the user from the analysis data. This table is 

accessed by the bcoTable, bcoReport, bcoMap and bcoChart objects. 
72 

Table Name Description 

tdSectionCondDet Stores the detailed information for each Section Conditions file saved. This table 

is accessed by the bcoImprovements and bcoFundingPeriods objects and is child 

of table tdSectionConditions. 

tdSectionConditions Creates and store, on a Iteration basis, a unique ID and other attributes for each 

Section Condition file saved to the database. This table is accessed by the 

bcoImprovements and bcoFundingPeriods objects. 

tdStateFields Stores, on a Project basis, the identification and data associated with a State 

Improvement Data model. This table is accessed by the bcoStateDS object. 

tdStateSections00 System table used by the State Improvement Data Model to display the detailed 

information for each exogenous improvement on a per section basis. This table is 

accessed by the bcoStateDS object and is related to, but not a direct child, of 

table tdStateFields. 

tdSysCondDets Stores the detailed information for each SS1 file. This table is accessed by the 

bcoSS1 object and is a child of table tdSysConditions. 

tdSysConditions Creates and stores, on a Iteration basis, a unique ID and other attributes for each 

System Conditions (SS1) file saved to the database. This table is accessed by 

the bcoSS1 object. 

tdTabularData Creates and stores, on a Iteration basis, a unique ID and other attributes for each 

Tabular Output file saved to the database. This table is accessed by the 

bcoTabOut object. 

TlLayouts Stores the column order, column visible status and column sort order for the grid 

displays used in the Highway Data view and the Section Conditions view. Each 

layout must have a unique name per the applicable view type. This setting is a 

global. 

TlQueries Stores the text of each saved Highway Data filter. 

11.4 HIGHWAY DATA VALIDATION RULES

HERS-ST requires as an input, highway data in the format of Highway Performance Monitoring 

System (HPMS) data, with two additional columns. During the import process, and also when 

specifically requested by the user, validation of each record can be invoked. This validation is in 

addition to the cell validation invoked when entering or editing data directly in a cell within the 

Highway Data View window within the GUI. Typically, these validations are dependent on other 

data in multiple columns within the section record. Appendix J provides a full list of the validation 

rules implemented within the software. These rules are based on those used in the HPMS 

Submittal Software as documented in FHWA ORDER M 5600.1B, November 6, 1996, but have 

been revised to accommodate the HERS-ST’s need to validate more than just the HPMS sample 

section data and to match the 2000 HPMS format. 

HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

A-1 

APPENDIX A - Input Data 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

A-2 

A.1 PREPARING THE HIGHWAY DATA FILE

The HERS-ST Preprocessor is used to prepare the highway data for HERS-ST. The Preprocessor 

reads the highway data file, performs a number of preliminary computations, and produces a binary 

file with descriptions of the current state of the highway system. This HERS-ST data file is used by 

the main HERS-ST program as the starting point for all analyses. At the end of each funding period 

HERS-ST produces one or more modified versions of this file that describe the simulated state of 

the highway system at the end of the funding period. 

The highway data file used by the HERS-ST Preprocessor contains base-year descriptions of 

sample highway sections to be analyzed by HERS-ST. The Preprocessor accepts data in the 

format specified in the 2000 HPMS Field Manual. 8

 The Field Manual provides much additional 

information beyond what is summarized here. 

Table A-1 Universe Data Summary 

(Taken from the HPMS Field Manual) 

Required Universe Items 

Item Rural Urban 

No. PAS/ 

NHS MA MaC MiC & Loc 

PAS/ 

NHS MA Col Loc 

Data Item Data Type

Identification 

1 A A A A A A A A Year of Data Numeric; Integer 

2 A A A A A A A A State Code Numeric; Codes 

3 A A A A A A A A Reporting Units- Metric or English Numeric; Codes 

4 A A A A A A A A County Code Numeric; Codes 

5 A A A A A A A A Section Identification Character Field 

6 Is Standard Sample Numeric; Codes 

7 Is Donut Sample Numeric; Codes 

8 State Control Field Character Field 

9 A A A A A A A A Is Section Grouped? Numeric; Codes 

10 A A A LRS Identification* Character Field 

11 A A A LRS Beginning Point* Numeric; Decimal 

12 A A A LRS Ending Point* Numeric; Decimal 

13 A A A A A A A A Rural/Urban Designation Numeric; Codes 

14 A A A A A A A A Urbanized Area Sampling Technique Numeric; Integer 

15 A A A A A A A A Urbanized Area Code Numeric; Codes 

16 A A A A A A A A NAAQS Nonattainment Area Code Numeric; Codes 

System 

17 A A A A A A A A Functional System Code Numeric; Codes 

18 A A A A A A A A Generated Functional System Code Software Calculated 

19 A A A A A A A A National Highway System (NHS) Numeric; Codes 

20 A A Planned Unbuilt Facility Numeric; Codes 

21 A A Official Interstate Route Number Character Field 

22 A A A Route Signing* Numeric; Codes 

23 A A A Route Signing Qualifier* Numeric; Codes 

24 A A A Signed Route Number* Character Field 

Jurisdiction 

25 A A A A A A A A Governmental Ownership Numeric; Codes 

26 A A A A A A A A Special Systems Numeric; Codes 

Operation 

27 A A A A A A A A Type of Facility Numeric; Codes 

28 A A A A A A A A Designated Truck Route Numeric; Codes 

 

8

 U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Performance Monitoring 

System, Field Manual, Washington, D.C., December 2000. 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

A-3 

Required Universe Items 

Item Rural Urban 

No. PAS/ 

NHS MA MaC MiC & Loc 

PAS/ 

NHS MA Col Loc 

Data Item Data Type

29 A A A A A A A A Toll Numeric; Codes 

Other 

30 A A A A A A A A Section Length Numeric; Decimal 

31 A A A A Donut Area Sample AADT Volume 

Group Identifier9 Numeric; Integer 

32 A A A A A A Standard Sample AADT Volume 

Group Identifier Numeric; Integer 

33 A S&D S&D A S&D S&D AADT* Numeric; Integer 

34 A A A A A A Number of Through Lanes Numeric; Integer 

35 A S A Measured Pavement Roughness 

(IRI)* Numeric; Decimal 

36 S S S Present Serviceability Rating (PSR) Numeric; Decimal 

37 A A A A A A A A High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) 

Operations Numeric; Codes 

38 A A A A A A A A Electronic Surveillance Numeric; Codes 

39 A A A A A A A A Metered Ramps Numeric; Codes 

40 A A A A A A A A Variable Message Signs Numeric; Codes 

41 A A A A A A A A Highway Advisory Radio Numeric; Codes 

42 A A A A A A A A Surveillance Cameras Numeric; Codes 

43 A A A A A A A A Incident Detection Numeric; Codes 

44 A A A A A A A A Free Cell Phone Numeric; Codes 

45 A A A A A A A A On-Call Service Patrol Numeric; Codes 

46 A A A A A A A A In-Vehicle Signing Numeric; Codes 

End of universe data items. 

Key: A = Code for "All" universe, standard sample, and supplementary donut area sample sections. 

 S = Code for all "Standard" sample sections. 

 D = Code for all "Donut" area supplementary sample sections. 

 * = See individual data item for exceptions. 

 

 9

 The "A" in the summary table cells for the Donut Area Volume Group (Item 31) is meant to indicate that all data 

records (universe only and sample) for the noted functional systems in a donut area are to include these data. 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

A-4 

Table A-2 Sample Data Summary 

(Taken from the HPMS Field Manual) 

Required Sample Items

Rural Urban Item

No.

Int OPA MA MAC Int OFE OPA MA Col 

Data Item Data Type

Identification 

47 S S S&D S&D S S S S&D S&D Sample Identifier Character Field 

Computational 

48 D D D D Donut Area Sample Expansion 

Factor Software Calculated 

49 S S S S S S S S S Standard Sample Expansion 

Factor Software Calculated 

Pavement 

50 S S S S S S S S S Surface/Pavement Type Numeric; Codes 

51 S S S S S S S S S SN or D Numeric; Decimal 

52 S S S S S S S S S General Climate Zone Software Set 

53 S S S S S S S S S Year of Surface Improvement Numeric; Integer 

Geometrics 

54 S S S S S S S S S Lane Width Numeric; Decimal 

55 S S S S S S S S S Access Control Numeric; Codes 

56 S S S S S S S S S Median Type Numeric; Codes 

57 S S S S S S S S S Median Width Numeric; Decimal 

58 S S S S S S S S S Shoulder Type Numeric; Codes 

59 S S S S S S S S S Shoulder Width -Right Numeric; Decimal 

60 S S S S S S S S S Shoulder Width - Left Numeric; Decimal 

61 S S S S S Peak Parking Numeric; Codes 

62 S S S S S S S S S Widening Feasibility Numeric; Codes 

63 S S S S S S Length Class A Curves Numeric; Decimal 

64 S S S S S S Length Class B Curves Numeric; Decimal 

65 S S S S S S Length Class C Curves Numeric; Decimal 

66 S S S S S S Length Class D Curves Numeric; Decimal 

67 S S S S S S Length Class E Curves Numeric; Decimal 

68 S S S S S S Length Class F Curves Numeric; Decimal 

69 S Horizontal Alignment 

Adequacy* Software Calculated 

70 S S S S Type of Terrain Numeric; Codes 

71 S Vertical Alignment Adequacy* Software Calculated 

72 S S S S S S Length Class A Grades Numeric; Decimal 

73 S S S S S S Length Class B Grades Numeric; Decimal 

74 S S S S S S Length Class C Grades Numeric; Decimal 

75 S S S S S S Length Class D Grades Numeric; Decimal 

76 S S S S S S Length Class E Grades Numeric; Decimal 

77 S S S S S S Length Class F Grades Numeric; Decimal 

78 S S S S Percent Passing Sight 

Distance* Numeric; Integer 

Traffic/Capacity 

79 Weighted Design Speed Software Calculated 

80 S S S S S S S S S Speed Limit Numeric; Integer 

81 S S S S S S S S S Percent Single Unit Trucks - 

Peak Numeric; Integer 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

A-5 

Required Sample Items

Rural Urban Item

No.

Int OPA MA MAC Int OFE OPA MA Col 

Data Item Data Type

82 S S S S S S S S S Percent Single Unit Trucks - 

Average Daily Numeric; Integer 

83 S S S S S S S S S Percent Combination Trucks - 

Peak Numeric; Integer 

84 S S S S S S S S S Percent Combination Trucks -

Average Daily Numeric; Integer 

85 S S S S S S S S S K-Factor Numeric; Integer 

86 S S S S S S S S S Directional Factor Numeric; Integer 

87 S S S S S S S S S Number of Peak Lanes Numeric; Integer 

88 S S S S S Left Turning Lanes Numeric; Codes 

89 S S S S S Right Turning Lanes Numeric; Codes 

90 S S S S S Prevailing Type of Signalization Numeric; Codes 

91 S S S S S Typical Peak Percent Green 

Time* Numeric; Integer 

92 S S S S S S S S S Number At-Grade Intersections 

- Signals Numeric; Integer 

93 S S S S S S S S S Number At-Grade Intersections 

- Stop Sign Numeric; Integer 

94 S S S S S S S S S Number At-Grade Intersections 

- Other/No Control Numeric; Integer 

95 S S S S S S S S S Peak Capacity Software Calculated 

96 S S S S S S S S S Volume/Service Flow Ratio 

(V/SF) Software Calculated 

97 S S S S S S S S S Future AADT Numeric; Integer 

98 S S S S S S S S S Year of Future AADT Numeric; Integer 

End of sample data items. 

Key: A = Code for "All" universe, standard sample, and supplementary donut area sample sections. 

 S = Code for all "Standard" sample sections. 

 D = Code for all "Donut" area supplementary sample sections. 

 * = See individual data item for exceptions. 

Please refer to the 2000 HPMS Field Manual for the general coding instructions. 

Table A-3 HPMS Data Items Used by HERS-ST

Item No. Variable Name Description 

1 YR Year 

2 STATE State code 

3 UNITS Reporting units (English or metric) 

5 SECTIONID Section identification 

6 CNTY County code 

8 SCF 1

 State control field 

10 LRSID 1

 LRS identification 

11 BEGMP 1

 LRS beginning point 

12 ENDMP 1

 LRS ending point 

13 RURURB Rural/Urban designation 

17 FC Functional system 

18 GFC Generated functional system code 

20 UNBLT 2

 Unbuilt facility code 

27 FT Type of facility (one way or two way) 

30 SLEN Section length 

33 AADT Annual average daily traffic 

34 LANES Number of through lanes 

35 IRICOD 3

 International Roughness Index 

36 PSR 3

 Pavement condition 

37 HOV HOV operations 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

A-6 

Item No. Variable Name Description 

47 SECNUM HPMS sample identifier or other section identifier 

49 EXPFAC Expansion factor for standard HPMS sample 

50 SURF Surface type 

51 SNORD SN or D 

52 CLIMATE Climate zone 

53 IMPYR Year of surface improvement 

54 LANEW Lane width 

55 ACCESS Access control 

56 MEDT Median type 

57 MEDW Median width 

58 SHLDT Shoulder type 

59 RSHLDW Right shoulder width 

60 LSHLDW Left shoulder width 

61 PKPARK Peak parking 

62 WDFEAS Widening feasibility 

63-68 LCURVE(I) Curves by class 

69 HORALN Horizontal alignment adequacy 

70 TERRN Type of terrain 

71 VERALN Vertical alignment adequacy 

72-77 LGRADE(I) Grades by class 

78 PSD Percent passing-sight distance 

79 WDS 4

 Weighted design speed 

80 SPDLIM Posted speed limit 

81 PCPKSU Percent peak single-unit commercial vehicles 

82 PCAVSU Percent average daily single-unit commercial vehicles 

83 PCPKCM Percent peak combination commercial vehicles 

84 PCAVCM Percent average daily combination commercial vehicles 

85 KFAC K factor 

86 DFAC Directional factor 

87 PLANES Number of peak lanes in peak direction 

88 LTURN Turning lanes – left 

89 RTURN Turning lanes – right 

91 PCTGRN Percent green time 

92 NSIG Number of intersections with traffic signals 

93 NSTOP Number of intersections with stop signs on sample section 

94 NOINTS Number of other intersections 

95 CAPAC 4

 Peak capacity (peak direction) 

97 FAADT AADT in future year (FYEAR) 

98 FADTYR Future year for AADT forecast 

1 Variable copied to output files but not otherwise used by HERS-ST. 

2 Not used by HERS-ST 2.0. 

3 HERS-ST requires either IRI or PSR. If both are provided, the PSR/IRI indicator identifies the value to be used. 

4 Optional inputs - will be calculated by HERS-ST if not coded.
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

A-7 

A.2 USER-SPECIFIED IMPROVEMENTS

For the first improvement, a particular type of improvement is specified for a particular FP by 

setting the year (Field 4) to any year in that FP and identifying the improvement type in Field 5. For 

HERS-type improvements, the improvement type is specified using the codes in Table A-5. 10

Other types of improvements (such as intersection modification or grade separation) should be 

assigned codes that are divisible by 20 when they are not combined with pavement, widening, or 

alignment improvements. The combination of a non-HERS-type improvement with pavement, 

widening, and/or alignment improvements should be assigned a code that is the sum of a code that 

is divisible by 20 and the appropriate code from Table A-5. 11 Improvements that are not HERStype or are combinations of HERS-type and non-HERS-type are called special improvements by 

HERS-ST. 

Table A-4 Format of State Improvements 

Field Format 

1. Number of improvements Integer 

2. County Code Integer 

3. Sample Identifier Alphanumeric 

4. Year of First Improvement (four digits) Integer 

5. Type of improvement Integer 

6. Override Flag Integer 

7. Cost of Improvement Floating Point 

8. Lanes Added Integer 

9. Increase in Capacity Integer 

Fields 4 – 9 continue for up to a total of 10 improvements. 

Table A-5 Codes for “HERS-Type” Improvements 

 Improvement Code 

 Without With 

 Alignment Alignment 

IMPRCOST Code Improvement Improvement 

Rs Resurface 1 11 

RsSh Resurface and improve shoulders 2 12 

MinW Resurface and widen lanes (minor widening) 3 13 

MWNC Resurface and add normal-cost lanes (major widening) 4 14 

MWHC Resurface and add high-cost lanes 5 15 

RC Pavement reconstruction 6 16 

RCWL Pavement reconstruction with wider lanes 7 17 

RCNC Pavement reconstruction and add normal-cost lanes 8 18 

RCHC Pavement reconstruction and add high-cost lanes 9 19 

If the first improvement involves adding lanes, the number of lanes to be added is specified in Field 

8. An entry in this field is required for improvement types that end in 4, 5, 8, or 9; and this field only 

has an effect for improvement types that end in 4, 5, 6, or 9 (i.e., the lanes specified in Field 8 are 

added only if an “add lanes” improvement is specified). On two-way roads, HERS-ST 2.0 normally 

assumes that, after the addition of lanes, the number of travel lanes will be even, and the current 

 

10 For unpaved sections, all improvements should entail pavement reconstruction. User-specified 

improvements that do not entail pavement reconstruction are treated as entailing reconstruction and a 

warning message is printed. 

11 For example, the user might use an improvement type of 20 (or 40) to represent construction of an 

overpass. The construction of an overpass combined with resurfacing the entire section would then be 

represented by Type 21 (or 41). 
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A-8 

system does not have procedures for estimating capacity if the number of travel lanes will be odd. 

Accordingly, if the resulting number of lanes will be odd, the increase in capacity must be specified 

by the user in the last of the fields describing the improvement (Field 9 for the first improvement). 

Other-wise, a message is printed and the number of added lanes is adjusted appropriately. (If an 

odd number of added lanes is specified, the number is increased by one; otherwise, the number of 

added lanes is reduced by one.) If lanes are to be added but the lanes-added field is zero, HERSST adds either one lane (on one-way facilities) or the minimum number of additional lanes that will 

produce an even number of lanes (on two-way facilities), and a message to this effect is printed. 

The initial costs of a user-specified improvement may be provided (in thousands of dollars), and 

the change in peak-hour capacity may be provided (in passenger-car equivalents per hour). For the 

first user-specified improvement, Fields 7 and 9 are used. For rural two- and three-lane roads, 

capacity changes should be specified as changes in two-way capacity; for all other roads they 

should be specified as changes in peak-period, peak-direction capacity. For HERS-type 

improvements, if these fields are blank or zero-filled, the HERS-ST estimates of improvement costs 

and/or new capacity will be used. For all special improvements, these fields must contain non-zero 

values. 

The override flag (Field 6 for the first user-specified improvement) is used to indicate whether 

HERS-ST has any leeway in modifying a user-specified improvement. For HERS-type 

improvements (Types < 20) and pure non-HERS-type improvements (Types divisible by 20), this 

flag may be set to either zero or one. For improvements that are combinations of HERS-type and 

non-HERS-type improvements (Type greater than 20 and not divisible by 20), this flag must be set 

to one. 

If the override flag is set to one, the improvement is selected just as described in the set of six 

fields. If it is set to zero, these fields describe the minimum improvement that will be selected. In 

this case, HERS-ST may identify a “more aggressive” improvement that warrants evaluation; i.e., 

an improvement that incorporates more widening than requested and/or also improves the 

section’s alignment. If any more aggressive improvements are identified, the incremental benefits 

and costs of these improvements are estimated and used for determining whether any of the 

additional options should be implemented. 

In addition to controlling whether HERS-ST can modify a user-specified improvement, the override 

flag controls the insertion by HERS-ST of improvements prior to the implementation of a userspecified improvement. If the override flag for the next user-specified improvement is one, HERSST does not consider any improvements until after the corresponding FP. On the other hand, if it is 

zero, HERS-ST considers the possibility that a pavement or widening improvement may be 

warranted in an earlier FP and, if so, an appropriate improvement is selected for the earlier period. 

In this case, if the user-specified improvement is of Type 1, 2, or 6 (i.e., the kind of improvement 

that can be analyzed by a Pavement Management System), the two improvements are combined 

and assigned to the earlier FP (but only if the user-specified improvement would otherwise be 

implemented prior to the end of the last FP to be analyzed during the run). When two 

improvements are combined in this way, any subsequent user-specified improvements with 

override flags of zero are advanced appropriately. If the user-specified improvement is not of Type 

1, 2, or 6, its timing is not adjusted, but HERS-ST prints a message to alert the user to the 

possibility that the number of improvements selected for the section may be more than are 

warranted. 

As implied in the preceding paragraph, the override flag can be used to prevent HERS-ST from 

selecting improvements for a section in one or more FPs. For this purpose, a set of six userspecified improvement fields is used with an appropriate year in the year field, an improvement 

code of zero, and an override flag of one. If these fields represent the first user-specified 

“improvement” to be implemented (i.e., if they are Fields 4-9), no improvements will be considered 

by HERS-ST until after the FP corresponding to the coded year. 

If there are one or more earlier user-specified improvements coded, the period when no 

improvements are considered starts after the last of the user-specified improvements. For 

example, if the first user-specified improvement is requested for FP 1, the second set of 

improvement fields can be used in this way to specify that no subsequent improvements be 

considered until FP 4 (by setting the year in the second set of improvement fields to a year that 

falls in FP 3). Similarly, if the first set of improvement fields contains an improvement code of zero, 
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A-9 

an override flag of one, and the same year (in FP 3) in the year field, no improvement will be 

considered until FP 4. 

In each FP, HERS-ST automatically selects all user-specified improvements for implementation 

regardless of their benefit/cost ratios (BCR). If a funding constraint is in effect, the cost of these 

improvements is subtracted from the budget for the FP before any consideration is given to 

selecting other improvements or choosing to go beyond the user-specified minimum improvement 

for any section for which such an improvement is specified. If the cost of implementing all userspecified improvements exceeds the funding constraint for the FP, a message is printed and the 

funding constraint for the next FP is reduced accordingly. Similarly, if a performance goal is in 

effect, the benefits of user-specified improvements are taken into account before considering any 

improvements or improvement options that are not user specified. 

A.2.1 Benefits and Costs 

This section provides details of how HERS-ST estimates the user benefits and improvement costs 

of user-specified improvements and also the corresponding incremental benefits and incremental 

costs of replacing a user-specified improvement by a more aggressive improvement. 

Improvement Costs 

If the cost of any user-specified improvement is provided, HERS-ST uses that cost as the cost of 

the improvement. Otherwise, if the improvement is a HERS-type improvement, the cost is 

estimated using the HERS-ST procedure for estimating improvement costs. If no cost is provided 

for a special improvement, HERS-ST prints a warning message and sets the improvement cost to 

a default value.12

When evaluating the possibility of replacing a HERS-type user-specified improvement (e.g., 

resurfacing, as identified by a State’s Pavement Management System) by a more aggressive 

improvement (e.g., resurface and add lanes), HERS-ST estimates the incremental cost of replacing 

the former improvement by the latter one. This incremental cost is estimated as the difference 

between estimates of the costs of the two improvements that are both obtained using HERS’ 

procedure for estimating improvement costs (regardless of whether the user has provided an 

exogenous cost estimate for the user-specified improvement). 

Consider the possibility of replacing a non-HERS-type user-specified improvement (Type divisible 

by 20) by a combination of that improvement and a HERS-type of improvement. The cost of the 

combined improvement is estimated by using the HERS-ST procedure for estimating improvement 

costs to estimate the cost of the HERS-type of improvement, and adding this cost to the cost of the 

original user-specified improvement. Thus, the resulting estimate of the incremental cost of adding 

the HERS-type improvement ignores any efficiencies obtained by implementing both improvements 

simultaneously; and so there may be a tendency to overestimate the incremental cost. If the first 

improvement applies only to an intersection or interchange and the second applies to an entire 

section, this effect is likely to be fairly small13 and so may be ignored. However, if both 

improvements apply to the entire section, the effect may be more significant. For this reason, 

HERS-ST will tend to overestimate the incremental cost of adding a HERS-type improvement to a 

user-specified improvement that affects an entire section. Also for this reason, HERS-ST requires 

that the override flag be set to one for user-specified improvements that combine HERS-type and 

non-HERS-type improvements. 

 

12 When the special improvement combines a non-HERS-type improvement with a HERS-type improvement, 

the default cost is the cost of the HERS-type improvement. Otherwise, it is one dollar per section. 

13 One potential efficiency is a reduction in the disruptive effects of highway construction. However, because 

the costs of such disruption are not currently estimated by either HERS-ST or HERS-ST, there is no need to 

adjust for the reduction in disruption. 
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A-10 

User Benefits 

HERS-ST estimates the user benefits of an improvement as the net reduction in user costs 

resulting from changes in the physical characteristics of the improved section (including increases 

in the number of lanes) and from the resulting increases in capacity and average speed. 

In the case of user-specified improvements, any increase in the number of lanes must be specified 

by the user and any increase in capacity may be specified. The user benefits of a non-HERS-type 

improvement (Type divisible by 20) are estimated entirely from these two increases. For such 

improvements, if both fields are zero, estimated benefits will be zero. (However, if only the second 

field is zero, increased capacity will be estimated from the increase in the number of lanes.) 

User-specified improvements that either are purely HERS-type (Type < 20) or are a combination of 

HERS-type and non-HERS-type (Type not divisible by 20), may produce other changes in the 

physical characteristics of the section. These are simulated by HERS-ST, and thus they provide 

another potential source of information for estimating user benefits. For these sections, the 

estimates of user benefits reflect any non-capacity effects of these changes plus either the usercoded change in capacity or, if the capacity change is not coded, the HERS-ST estimate of change 

in capacity. 

When evaluating the possibility of replacing a user-specified improvement by a more aggressive 

improvement, HERS-ST estimates the incremental user benefits of the replacement by analyzing 

the effects of the replacement on the physical characteristics of the section and the resulting 

effects on user benefits. This process is straightforward when the user does not specify the 

capacity effects of the user-specified improvement, but it requires some clarification for the case in 

which the user does specify these effects. In the latter case, we distinguish several different 

estimates of capacity: 

• Estimated capacity before implementation of the user-specified improvement; 

• Estimated capacity after implementation of this improvement – obtained by adding the usercoded capacity effect of the improvement to (a); 

• A separate estimate of capacity after implementation of the improvement that is produced by 

HERS-ST entirely from the physical characteristics of the section after improvement (ignoring 

the user-coded capacity effect); and 

• HERS-ST’s estimate of capacity after implementation of the more aggressive improvement 

(obtained entirely from the physical characteristics of the section without reference to the userspecified capacity effect of the original improvement). 

The benefits of the replacement are then estimated by using (b) as estimated capacity without the 

replacement, and (b) + (d) - (c) as estimated capacity with the replacement.14

 

14 A similar process is used to estimate the capacity effects of any improvement that is designated or 

considered for implementation in subsequent FPs. 
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APPENDIX B - Parameter Data 
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Table B-1 Params.DAT Elements 

Element Description 

Attribute FileID 

DsgnPeriod 

PDRMax 

VLife 

FICRY 

APDFCR 

APDICR 

APDCR 

RMLDD 

RMLRHR 

RMLIMax 

DDR2 

IR2Max 

RHRR2 

RHR3LI 

PRTL 

AIAR2 

DINCCR 

TRISF 

PPDSF 

PCTSF 

PPVO 

UAPYear 

File identification 

Design period in years 

Maximum pavement deterioration rate 

Value of life in dollars 

Year to which fatality/crash ratios and injury/crash ratios correspond 

Annual percentage decline in fatalities per crash 

Annual percentage decline in injuries per crash 

Annual percentage decline in crash rates 

Driveway density for rural multi-lane roads per mile 

Roadside hazard rating for rural multi-lane roads 

Maximum number of intersections per mile for rural multi-lane roads 

Driveway density for rural 2-lane roads per mile 

Maximum number of intersections per mile on rural 2-lane roads 

Roadside hazard rating for rural 2-lane roads 

Roadside hazard rating for 3-legged intersections 

Probability that a 3-legged intersection has a right-turn lane 

Adjusted intersection angle for rural 2-lane roads 

Ratio of incident delay cost to the value of travel time 

Travel rate index scale factor 

Peak period delay scale factor 

Percent congested travel scale factor 

Peak period of vehicle occupancy for urbanized areas 

Latest year for which urbanized area population values are available 

List WFOvrd 

LnsMax 

PavThk 

TrkFac 

APLVM 

PSRRec 

PSRInc 

PSRMax 

RngLim 

SNCNew 

PDRAF 

PLMax 

InjCost 

PDCost 

FCR 

ICR 

SPM 

PDEVEL 

CCGRR2 

PCG 

PEW 

CDP 

STFCT 

BPM 

IncFac 

STAFac 

UAPop 

Widening feasibility override by function class 

Maximum number of lanes by function class 

New pavement thickness after reconstruction and resurfacing in inches 

Truck growth factor by function class 

Aggregate Probabilistic Limiting Velocity Model 

Present Serviceability Rating (PSR) after reconstruction 

Increase in Present Serviceability Rating (PSR) after resurfacing 

Maximum Present Serviceability Rating (PSR) after resurfacing 

Range limits of anticipated traffic loads in Equivalent Single Axle Loads 

Coefficients for calculating new Structural Number (SN) 

Pavement deterioration rate adjustment factor for pavement types 

Maximum pavement life by section type in years 

Cost per injury by function class in dollars 

Property damage costs by function class in dollars 

Fatality to crash ratio by function class 

Injury to crash ratio by function class 

Signals per mile for urban multi-lane roads 

Probability that rural road is in area of dense development 

Crest Curve Grade Rate (CCGR) on rural 2-lane roads 

Parameter for Clearing and Grubbing (PCG) by terrain 

Parameter for Earth Work (PEW) by terrain 

Culvert and Drainage Parameters (CDP) by terrain 

State cost factors by state 

Bottlenecks per mile 

Incident rate factor to account for effects of policy on incident rates 

Signal timing adjustment factor 

Urbanized area population by year 

Table EAF 

UPrice 

FETax 

PrIdx 

VTTCC 

Efficiency adjustment factor for the operating cost components 

Unit prices of the operating cost components in dollars 

Fuel excise tax indices by vehicle type per funding period 

Price indexes for costs in dollars relative to the reference year 

Value of travel time cost components in dollars 
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B.1 THE PARAMS.DAT FILE

B.1.1 Federal Widening Feasibility Override 

HERS-ST uses WFOvrd to provide the analyst with the opportunity to override the section-specific 

widening feasibility codes. Normally, the amount of widening on a section is controlled by the 

section’s widening feasibility code. If WFOvrd allows more widening than the section-specific code, 

then HERS-ST will consider widening improvements up to the WFOvrd limit. Although the sectionspecific code may be decremented following a widening improvement, WFOvrd, which applies to 

all sections in the sample, is never decremented. 

When HERS-ST adds lanes due to WFOvrd overriding the section-specific code, the lanes are 

added as “high cost lanes.” Depending upon the values in IMPRCOST, high cost lanes may have a 

different cost than “normal cost lanes” (see paragraph B.2.1, ”Improvement Costs Without 

Alignment Modification,” for information about the cost of high and normal cost lanes). High cost 

lanes are reported separately in the output statistics. 

B.1.2 Maximum Number of Lanes 

The first of the two entry lines contains entries for each of the four rural functional classes: entries 

for the five urban functional classes follow. The entry represents the maximum number of lanes 

(LnsMax) allowed on any section within the functional class, not the number of lanes which can be 

added to any section. The maximum entry is 99, the minimum entry is zero. HERS-ST will not 

remove lanes from any section reported as having more than the maximum. Also, HERS-ST 

always builds to an even number of lanes, so when the entry is an odd number, HERS-ST will only 

build to one less than the entry. 

For some sections, these values may impose significant limits on needed increases in highway 

capacity. Setting these values to zero prevents HERS-ST from adding any additional lanes, and 

may be useful in estimating pavement improvement needs separately from capacity needs. 

B.1.3 New Pavement Thickness 

The PavThk entries are for new pavement thickness in inches. The entries on line 9 are used for 

the reconstruction of flexible pavements and the resurfacing of flexible pavements with flexible 

overlays. The entries on line 14 are used for the reconstruction of rigid pavements. (Flexible 

overlays on rigid pavements are treated separately.) The first value is used for sections with total 

Equivalent Single Axle Loads (ESALs) during the design period no greater than the first Range 

Limit (RNGLimRngLim(1)); the second value is used for sections with design period ESALs 

between RNGLimRngLim(1) and RINGLIM(2), etc. (The RNGLimRngLim values are entered on 

line 72 of this file.) 

B.1.4 Truck Growth Factors 

The truck growth factors (TrkFac) are entered by functional class; line 17 for the rural, and lines 18 

and 19 for the urban (line 19 contains only urban collectors). This factor expresses the annual rate 

of growth (expressed as a ratio) in the percentage of vehicles that are “trucks” (i.e., have six or 

more tires) relative to total traffic on the section. Thus, if the initial percentage of all trucks on a 

section is five percent, after one year of truck growth at an annual rate of ten percent, the 

percentage of all trucks on the section would be five and a half percent (5.5%). This entry adjusts 

the ratio between truck and non-truck (automobile) vehicles, and is applied to each section’s 

percentage of trucks. It is separate from each section’s traffic growth rate. The “neutral” (and 

default) entry is 1.000; the entry for ten percent truck growth would be 1.100. Do not enter zero, as 

this will eliminate all trucks. 

B.1.5 Efficiency Adjustment Factors 

The data which underlie the HERS-ST equations for calculating operating costs date from 1980. 

The efficiency adjustment factors serve to index changes in the consumption rate of the operating 

cost components from 1980 to the data year. 
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The entries are arranged in five lines, one for each operating cost component, with seven entries 

on each line, one corresponding to each vehicle type. The five operating cost components are: 

• Fuel; 

• Oil; 

• Tires; 

• Maintenance and Repair; and 

• Depreciation. 

The seven vehicle types, listed by number, are: 

1. Small automobiles; 

2. Medium/Large automobiles; 

3. Pickups and vans (4-tire trucks); 

4. Six-tire trucks; 

5. Three (or more) axle single unit trucks; 

6. Three or four axle combination trucks; and 

7. Five (or more) axle combination trucks. 

The “neutral” entry is 1.0. In the version of PARAMS.DAT included in the distribution package, this 

value is used for the tire wear and maintenance and repair entries, as separate adjustments for 

these components were not needed during this time period. A higher value indicates increased 

efficiency in consumption of the cost component. For example, entering a value of two for fuel 

component for small automobiles implies that only half the fuel is consumed as was previously 

required. 

B.1.6 Unit Prices for Operating Cost Components 

This set of entries is arranged identically to the efficiency adjustment factors: by component and by 

vehicle type. A comment column indicates the units used in pricing each component: gallons for 

fuel, quarts for oil15, tires by each, maintenance and repair by a thousand miles of travel, and 

depreciation by vehicle. The comment line also indicates the year for which the price is measured. 

With the exception of fuel prices, which are in 2000 dollars, the version of PARAMS.DAT included 

in the distribution package lists 1995 values for the component prices. 

B.1.7 Price Indices for Costs 

HERS-ST provides two approaches to updating costs to the data year: updating of the cost values 

to data year dollars, or indexing costs from the entry year using the Pridx indices. Whichever 

method is chosen, all costs should resolve to dollars of the data year. Several indices are applied 

to a range of values (such as all rural improvement costs); these values should all be of the same 

year dollars, as the index will be applied to them all. The “neutral” index value (used when the 

costs are entered in data year dollars) is 100. 

For example, in the version of PARAMS.DAT included in the distribution package, which is 

constructed for the 1997 data year, the cost of fuel is listed in 1997 dollars: therefore, it’s index 

value is 100. The other four operating cost components are listed in 1995 dollars; their indices 

have values which adjust each cost to 1997 dollars. 

The primary sources for the price indices include the Consumer Price Indices (CPI) published by 

the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); and the U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of 

Economic Analysis (BEA). The table lists the base year for each cost, which is the dollar year in 

which the data are entered. 

 

15 The cost for oil includes the cost of the labor to change it. 
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Two of the entries, Fuel and Value of Life, are entered in 1997 dollars, and therefore an index of 

100 is used. Fuel prices for two-axle vehicles were derived by subtracting federal and state 

gasoline taxes16 from the 1997 retail price of gasoline, and fuel prices for larger vehicles were 

derived by subtracting taxes on diesel fuel from the average 1997 retail price of highway diesel 

fuel.17 The value of life entry was specified by the U. S. Department of Transportation. 

The entry for urban alignment costs includes a factor converting the 1988 costs of alignment 

improvements (which were based upon rural costs) to urban costs. 

If you enter cost values for a new dollar year in dollars of that year, set the appropriate indices to 

100. 

B.1.8 Variables for the APLVM Routine 

These four entries (VR1, VR2, PSRB, and VRSLOP) are used by the “Aggregate Probabilistic 

Limiting 

Velocity Model” (APLVM) in calculating a section’s “free-flow” speed. Specifically, these entries 

define the limit imposed on speed due to the roughness of the pavement (VROUGH). 

The default value (5.0) of VR1 sets the maximum speed on pavement with a PSR of zero at five 

miles per hour. The default value (20.0) of VR2 sets the maximum speed on pavement with a PSR 

equal to the value in PSRB (the default entry is 1.0) at twenty miles per hour. The entry VRSLOP 

indicates the slope at which speed increases as PSR increases above PSRB. The default value of 

VRSLOP is 32.5; a section with a PSR rating of 2.0 would thus have a VROUGH limit of 52.5 miles 

per hour (VR2+VRSLOP x (PSR-PSRB)). 

B.1.9 Variables for the PAVIMP Routine 

The first three entries used by the pavement improvement routine (PAVIMP) are used in 

determining a section’s PSR after improvement. They are structured the same way: the first line is 

for rural sections, the second for urban, with four columns of entries on each line. The columns are 

arranged by surface type. From left to right, these are: high flexible; high rigid; intermediate; and 

low. 

The PSRRec entries are used to assign PSR values to sections which have undergone pavement 

reconstruction. For sections receiving a resurfacing improvement, the appropriate value from 

PSRInc is added to the section’s PSR at the time of improvement. The resultant PSR is limited by 

the corresponding value in PSRMax. 

For pavements being reconstructed, HERS-ST assumes that pavement thickness is a function of 

pavement material (determined by surface type) and traffic load during the design period. The 

range limit entries in RNGLimRngLim establish six levels of anticipated traffic load during the 

design period, which correspond to the PavThk entries on lines nine and fourteen. Using the 

default values as an example, a rigid section with 49,000 ESALS anticipated during the design 

period (thus falling in the lowest range limit in the left most column) would be reconstructed with a 

pavement 6.5 inches thick (taken from the corresponding column in the PavThk entry). 

The SNCNew entries are used in calculating a new structural number (SN) for flexible pavements 

after improvement. The default entries are selected to approximate the relationship between SN 

and pavement thickness presented in Table IV-3 of the HPMS Field Manual 18 . 

 

16 U. S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics, 1997, 

Washington, D.C., 1998, Table MF-121T. 

17 U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, “On-Highway Diesel Fuel Price Survey,” 

Form EIA-888, 1995. 

18 U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Performance Monitoring 

System Field Manual, Washington, D.C., Table IV-2, December 1, 1987. 
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B.1.10 Variables for the FORCST Routine 

The FORCST routine predicts future pavement condition when a section has not undergone 

improvement. The two PDRAF entries provide a means of adjusting the deterioration rate of 

flexible and rigid pavements. The default is the neutral value, 1.0. The MAXPD entry limits the 

amount PSR can be decreased in a year. 

The maximum pavement life entries are arranged in two lines: the first for flexible, and the second 

for rigid, pavements. The three columns correspond to heavy, medium, and light pavement 

sections, respectively. The default entry values are set to the hard-coded values used in the model. 

B.1.11 Variables for the SAFETY Routine 

Fortunately, the large number of entries for the SAFETY routine can be divided into three groups: 

entries specifying the costs of safety incidents; ratios which determine the number of incidents per 

crash, and adjustments to those ratios; and entries of safety parameters for rural and urban 

multilane freeways. Many of the entries (InjCost, PDCost, FCR, and ICR) are entered by functional 

class, with one entry per line. Within each rural/urban set, the entries begin with Interstate and 

proceed to the lowest functional class. 

HERS’ places values on safety incidents by calculating the number of crashes likely to occur on a 

section. The number of fatalities and injuries per crash are determined by the crash ratios; the 

number of fatalities and injuries are multiplied by their respective costs. Property damage is 

assumed to occur for each crash, therefore no per crash ratios are required. 

The first entry is the value of life: the cost in dollars of each fatality. The default value of $2.7 million 

is the U. S. Department of Transportation estimate used in the preparation of the 1999 C&P 

Report. When preparing to evaluate using a different data year, you should examine these values 

for possible modification, or else index them using the appropriate Pridx entries. 

The second group of entries begins with the ratios of fatalities per crash and injuries per crash. 

Most users will not need to alter the crash ratios, or the next entry (FICRY), which identifies 1995 

as the year to which these rates apply. The next three entries allow you to specify an annual 

percentage decline in the ratios of fatalities per crash (APDFCR), injuries per crash (APDICR), and 

overall crash rates (APDCR). 

The next three lines contain the entries for safety parameters used in determining crash rates for 

rural multilane sections. The default values for RMLDD (driveway density for, in the left entry, rural 

type development, and, on the right, dense development) and RMLRHR (roadside hazard rating). 

The entry for RMLIMax, the maximum number of intersections per mile, is used as the upper limit 

for the variable INTSPM (intersections per mile). The next line contains the entries (MINSPM, left 

entry, and MAXSPM, right entry) for the minimum and maximum number of signals per mile on 

urban multilane sections. 

Other than dollar year adjustments to the value of life and injury and property damage costs, you 

will likely prefer to use the supplied entries for the safety parameters unless you are specifically 

analyzing the functioning of the HERS-ST safety model. 

B.1.12 Variables for the R2LANE Routine 

The R2LANE routine calculates the number of crashes per 100 million vehicle miles of travel on 

rural two lane sections. As with the non-cost safety rates, you will likely prefer to use the supplied 

values. IR2Max (maximum number of intersections per mile) is used to limit/scale the variables 

NSIG and NOINT. 
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B.1.13 Value of Travel Time Cost Components 

This set of entries consists four lines, each containing entries for one of the four components of 

travel time cost: 

• TTCPPH — Travel time cost per person per hour; 

• VDEPPH — Vehicle depreciation cost per hour; 

• INVCPH — Inventory cost per hour; and 

• AVO — Average vehicle occupancy. 

The seven entries per line are in order of vehicle types. The input values supplied are in 1995 

dollars. While you may wish to adjust these values to a different dollar year, you may prefer to use 

the appropriate price index (Pridx). 

B.1.14 Variables for the ALNCST Routine 

All three sets of alignment cost (ALNCST) entries consist of three lines, one line each for flat, 

rolling, and mountainous terrain. 

The last set of three lines consists of heterogeneous entries. The first column is for ANBC, the 

average number of box culverts per mile. The second column is for ANPC, the average number of 

pipe culverts per mile. 

B.1.15 State Cost Factors 

HERS-ST reads and interprets the two first columns of each line. The first column is the state’s 

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) code (see Table B-2). The second column lists a 

cost factor for each state. The cost factors are derived from Price Trends 19 as a three-year rolling 

average, and are applied to all capital costs associated with the improvement. The factors in the 

default file are for 1997. 

You will want to consider these entries when changing to a different dollar year. If your analysis is 

confined to one or several states, and you have specific improvement costs you wish to use (in the 

IMPRCOST.DAT file), you will probably want to set the STFCT entries for those states to 1.0. 20

 

19 Office of Infrastructure, Office of Program Administration, Price Trends for Federal-Aid Highway 

Construction, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C., 

quarterly. 

20 Alternatively, when processing sections which reside within a single state, these factors could be used to 

differentiate between improvement costs in various counties or districts. This requires identifying each set of 

sections with like improvement costs with a unique value in the State Code field of the section data records, 

and then setting the cost factor index to represent these costs. 
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Table B-2 FIPS State Codes 

State Code State Code State Code 

Alabama 01 Maine 23 Pennsylvania 42 

Alaska 02 Maryland 24 Rhode Island 44 

Arizona 04 Massachusetts 25 South Carolina 45 

Arkansas 05 Michigan 26 South Dakota 46 

California 06 Minnesota 27 Tennessee 47 

Colorado 08 Mississippi 28 Texas 48 

Connecticut 09 Missouri 29 Utah 49 

Delaware 10 Montana 30 Vermont 50 

District of Columbia 11 Nebraska 31 Virginia 51 

Florida 12 Nevada 32 Washington 53 

Georgia 13 New Hampshire 33 West Virginia 54 

Hawaii 15 New Jersey 34 Wisconsin 55 

Idaho 16 New Mexico 35 Wyoming 56 

Illinois 17 New York 36 

Indiana 18 North Carolina 37 Puerto Rico 72 

Iowa 19 North Dakota 38 American Samoa 60 

Kansas 20 Ohio 39 Guam 66 

Kentucky 21 Oklahoma 40 Virgin Islands 78 

Louisiana 22 Oregon 41 

Table B-3 ImpCost.Dat Elements 

Element Description 

Attribute FileID 

CGCost 

FSTPCost 

CRSCost 

NBCost 

FnCost 

LtCost 

File identification 

Clearing and grubbing cost per square yard in dollars 

Pavement cost for flexible surface treatment per square yard in dollars 

Additional cost for continuously reinforced slabs per square yard in dollars 

Average cost of a new bridge in dollars 

Average cost of new fencing per mile in dollars 

Average cost of highway lighting per mile in dollars 

List RRWCost 

URWCost 

EWCost 

DrCost 

FAPCost 

FACPCost 

RSPCost 

GrCost 

PTLCost 

OUCost 

Rural right-of-way costs in thousands of dollars per lane-mile 

Urban right-of-way costs in thousands of dollars per lane-mile 

Cost of earth work per cubic yard in dollars 

Cost of drainage work per foot in dollars 

Pavement cost for flexible aggregates for base or sub-base 

Pavement cost for flexible asphaltic concrete for surface or base 

Pavement cost for un-reinforced rigid slabs per square yard in dollars 

Cost of guard rails and curbs per mile in dollars 

Cost of painting traffic lines per mile in dollars 

Optional costs for addressing substandard conditions on urban freeways 

Table RICost 

UICost 

Rural improvement costs in thousands of dollars per line-mile. 

Urban improvement costs in thousands of dollars per line-mile. 

B.2 THE IMPRCOST.DAT FILE

The improvement cost file, IMPRCOST.DAT, contains data HERS-ST uses in estimating the cost 

of improvements. 

The costs of improvements that do not include alignment modifications are specified in the first two 

sections of this file, and most of the remainder of the file contains cost parameters used to estimate 

the incremental cost of alignment improvements. The last section contains optional additional costs 

for addressing four specific conditions of substandard urban freeways. 

In addition to the values entered in IMPRCOST, there are three additional factors which influence 

the effective cost of improvements used within HERS. First is the price index (Pridx in 
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PARAMS.DAT) which can be used to adjust the dollar year of the costs. Second is the 

improvement cost scale factor (in RUNSPEC.DAT), which is applied to all improvement costs, and 

can be used to examine assumptions about the cost of improvements. These two factors are 

applied during HERS’ initialization sequence to yield a set of improvement costs which reflect the 

national average. The third factor is the state cost factors. During the capital cost computation, the 

factor for the section’s state is applied against the national average to yield a state-specific cost. 

It is important to keep these three factors in mind when adjusting to a different dollar year, or if you 

have a different set of costs you wish to employ. If, for example, you wanted to use specific costs, 

you would want to enter the costs in IMPRCOST, use the price indices to adjust the dollar year (if 

necessary), set the improvement cost scale factor to 1.0, and set the state cost factors to 1.0 for all 

states represented in your data set. You might then wish to examine the sensitivity of the model to 

the improvement costs you used by scaling them up and down by, for example, five and ten 

percent, using the improvement cost scale factor. 

B.2.1 Improvement Costs Without Alignment Modification 

The improvement costs in the first two sections of the default file (those which do not include 

alignment modifications) are in thousands of 1995 dollars. You can adjust these costs uniformly to 

dollars of another year by modifying the price indices for improvement costs in the PARAMS.DAT 

file, or you can modify them individually. However, be sure to specify all costs used by HERS-ST in 

the same year dollars. 

The costs provided represent a national average of costs. They were computed as a three-year 

rolling average of costs taken from FHWA's Composite Bid Price Index for Federal-Aid Highway 

Construction.21 The table of state cost factors in PARAMS.DAT is used to adjust these costs to 

reflect the cost differences between states. 

The abbreviations at the head of the columns represent the following improvements: 

• RCHC Reconstruction with lanes added at high cost; 

• RCNC Reconstruction with lanes added at normal cost; 

• RCWL Reconstruction with wider lanes; 

• RC Pavement reconstruction (includes improvements to shoulders); 

• MWHC Major widening (resurfacing and adding lanes) with lanes added at high cost (also 

known as RSHC: resurfacing with lanes added at high cost); 

• MWNC Major widening (resurfacing and adding lanes) with lanes added at normal cost (also 

known as RSNC: resurfacing with lanes added at normal cost); 

• MinW Minor widening (resurfacing and widening lanes, also known as RSWL, resurfacing with 

wider lanes); 

• RsSh Resurfacing with shoulder improvements; and 

• Rs Resurfacing. 

These costs are applied to that portion of a section that does not require alignment improvement; if 

the alignment is not to be modified, these costs are applied to the entire section. 

“High cost lanes” are lanes added beyond the state-supplied widening feasibility code for a section 

up to the limit of either (a) the Federal widening feasibility override value coded in WFOvrd (in 

PARAMS.DAT) or (b) the maximum allowable number of lanes per functional class specified in 

LnsMax (also in PARAMS.DAT). It is possible for a section to have one or two lanes added at 

normal cost and additional lanes added at high cost. There are, in fact, four different formulas by 

which HERS-ST calculates improvement costs. Of particular note is that, for urban major widening, 

only added lanes are included in the cost calculation. This should be considered when devising 

 

21 Office of Infrastructure, Office of Program Administration, Price Trends for Federal-Aid Highway 

Construction, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C., 

quarterly. 
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costs for improvements. This is why, in the default file, the per-lane-mile costs for urban major 

widening are greater than the per lane-mile costs for reconstruction with additional lanes. Note that 

in the default file, the costs for adding rural high cost lanes are the same as for adding lanes at 

normal cost. 

On sections where costs are computed using both costs (e.g., two lanes at normal cost plus two 

lanes at high cost), for output purposes the section is categorized as having been improved with 

high cost lanes only. 

B.2.2 The Cost of Improvements with Modified Alignment 

Other improvement costs used by HERS-ST (specifically the alignment related costs and the costs 

of upgrading substandard urban freeways) are shown in the default IMPRCOST.DAT file in 1988 

dollars. These can be adjusted to dollars of another year by modifying the appropriate price index 

for alignment related costs in the PARAMS.DAT file. The price index in the default PARAMS.DAT 

file adjusts these costs to 1997 dollars. 

HERS-ST computes alignment costs based upon estimated amounts of clearing and grubbing; 

earthwork; drainage and culverts; structures; additional right-of-way; miscellaneous costs (including 

curbs and guard rails at shoulder or median, fencing, painting, and lighting); and base and surface 

pavements required. Additional entries affecting the cost of improving alignment include: box 

culverts per mile; clearing and grubbing parameter; earthwork parameters; generic drainage 

parameter; and pipe culverts per mile. (All of these entries are made in the PARAMS.DAT file.) 

B.2.3 Optional Urban Improvement Costs 

The final section of the IMPRCOST file22 is used to enable HERS-ST to compute the extra cost of 

addressing four substandard conditions on urban freeways. These conditions are un-surfaced 

shoulders, lack of full access control, lack of a positive-barrier median, and a median width that is 

below the design standard. These corrections are only made when reconstructing the section. 

Specifying the costs of correcting these conditions (in thousands of dollars per mile) enables 

HERS-ST to consider the costs as well as the benefits of correcting these conditions. This reduces 

the benefit/cost ratio for reconstructing the section and reduces the likelihood that HERS-ST will 

select the reconstruction improvement for implementation. 

Table B-4 DLTbls.DAT Elements 

Element Description 

Attribute FileID File identification 

List CrvCat 

GrdCat 

MedWidth 

ULnWidth 

URSWidth 

USfType 

Design standard for the highest curve category allowed 

Design standard for the highest grade category allowed 

Design standard for median-width in feet 

Design standard for urban lane-width in feet 

Design standard for urban shoulder-width in feet 

Design standard for urban surface-type 

Table IRI 

PSR 

SfType 

VCR 

LnWidth 

RSWidth 

ShType 

HAlign 

VAlign 

Design standard for the International Roughness Index (IRI) 

Design standard for the Present Serviceability Rating (PSR) 

Design standard for the type of surface 

Design standard for Volume to Capacity Ratio (VCR) 

Design standard for lane width in feet 

Design standard for the right shoulder width in feet 

Design standard for the shoulder type 

Design standard for horizontal alignment 

Design standard for vertical alignment 

 

22 The portion of the file headed “Construction Costs of New Facilities...” is not currently used by HERS-ST. 
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B.3 THE DLTBLS.DAT FILE

The deficiency table file, DLTBLS.DAT contains criteria used by HERS-ST in assessing section 

deficiencies; designing candidate improvements; determining the effects of improvements; and 

reporting output statistics. The file contains fourteen entry sets for different section characteristics. 

The first eight entry sets for Pavement Condition, Surface Type, V/C Ratio, Lane Width, RightShoulder Width, Shoulder Type, Horizontal Alignment and Vertical Alignment, each contain entries 

for four or five types of criteria. In each of the first eight entry sets, each line represents a group of 

sections which share the same criteria. Rural sections are grouped by terrain type (flat, rolling, 

mountainous), functional class, and (except for Interstates) by volume level. An example of such a 

section group would be “rural collectors in mountainous terrain with daily traffic between 400 and 

1000 vehicles”. Urban sections are grouped by functional class. Each column of entries represents 

a different criteria type. 

The last six entry sets for Curve Categories, Grade Categories, Median Width, Lane Width, 

Shoulder Width and Surface Type, each contain a single entry column for design standards. The 

last three of these six sets were not included in the earlier entry sets because for these section 

characteristics the grouping of urban sections for design standards is different than that used for 

the other criteria. 

The DLTBLS.DAT file contains six criteria types: 

• Design Standards (DSs); 

• Unacceptability Levels (ULs); 

• Deficiency Levels (DLs); 

• Serious Deficiency Levels (SDLs); and 

• Reconstruction Levels (RLs). 

Note that the function of these criteria types is not always readily apparent from their names, so it 

is important to examine how HERS-ST utilizes each type before changing any values. The 

deficiency levels (DLs) are the most critical of the six criteria. 

B.3.1 Design Standards 

HERS-ST references the design standards when designing and implementing improvements. For 

example, when reconstructing a section, HERS-ST will increase the right shoulder width to the 

design standard (unless widening is not feasible or the section is curbed). 

The design standards for curve and grade categories specify the highest curve or grade class 

allowed under the design standard. The curve and grade categories are used by the HERS-ST 

Preprocessor (but not by HERS-ST); both programs use the design standards for median width. 

Accordingly, the Preprocessor will be rerun whenever these design standards are revised. 

B.3.2 Unacceptability Levels 

Unacceptability levels (ULs) are utilized only when you have enabled the mandatory improvements 

option in the RUNSPEC.DAT file. See paragraph 8.3.6, ”Mandatory Improvements.” 

If the mandatory improvements switch is not enabled, HERS-ST ignores the ULs entered in the 

DLTBLS.DAT file. This mandatory improvements option was not used in preparation of data for the 

1999 Conditions and Performance Report. 

If the mandatory improvements switch has been enabled, HERS-ST uses the ULs to identify 

sections that qualify for improvements to correct the unacceptable conditions. Sections whose 

pavement condition and V/C ratios do not violate the ULs are not considered for mandatory 

improvements, even though other section characteristics may be unacceptable. However, when 

unacceptable pavement conditions are corrected, all other unacceptable conditions are corrected 
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B-12 

as well. Typically, mandatory improvements will be implemented automatically regardless of their 

benefit-cost ratio, unless the analysis is constrained by available funding. 

B.3.3 Deficiency Levels 

The deficiency levels (DLs) are the most critical of the six criteria. HERS-ST utilizes deficiency 

levels to identify deficiencies that warrant analysis by HERS. HERS-ST will only consider improving 

a section if one of the following three conditions is met: the section is unpaved and the surface type 

DL specifies pavement; at the end of the funding period the PSR is below the pavement condition 

DL; or at the end of the funding period the V/C ratio is above the V/C DL. After one of these 

conditions has been met, HERS-ST will design alternative improvement options to correct these 

deficiencies, and any other characteristics that violate a DL threshold. 

For example, if a section has only a shoulder type deficiency, HERS-ST will not evaluate any 

potential improvements. However, if a section has both a pavement deficiency and a shoulder type 

deficiency, HERS-ST will identify two improvements for evaluation, resurfacing (to correct the 

pavement deficiency) and resurfacing with shoulder improvements (to correct both conditions). 

HERS-ST will subject both these alternatives to benefit cost analysis and may implement one of 

them, depending on the constraints of the scenario. 

A major function of the DLs to reduce computation time by limiting the number of potential 

improvements analyzed by HERS. If the DLs were set equal to the design standards, this would 

cause HERS-ST to analyze a number of potential improvements that would be extremely unlikely 

to be cost-beneficial. Relaxing the DLs will limit the number of potential improvements analyzed by 

HERS-ST and significantly decrease computation time. However, relaxing the DLs too far may 

cause HERS-ST to ignore potential improvements that would be cost-beneficial. 

B.3.4 Serious Deficiency Levels 

The serious deficiency levels (SDLs) are typically set to describe more severe levels of inadequacy 

than the DLs. When a section has a seriously deficient condition, HERS-ST will design all 

candidate improvements to correct that deficiency. For example, if a section has a pavement 

deficiency and a seriously deficient shoulder type, HERS-ST will consider only resurfacing with 

shoulder improvements as an improvement option. HERS-ST will subject this improvement option 

to benefit cost analysis and may implement it, depending on the constraints of the scenario. HERSST would not consider resurfacing alone, because it would not address the serious shoulder 

deficiency. 

SDLs also can have a significant impact on HERS-ST computation time, by limiting the number of 

alternative improvements analyzed for a given section. If all SDLs are set equal to the DLs, HERSST considers the smallest number of improvement alternatives. The larger the difference between 

the corresponding SDLs and DLs, the more likely HERS-ST is to consider a wider range of 

possible improvement options on any section. Note that even if several serious deficiencies occur, 

HERS-ST will not consider improving a section unless one of the three conditions identified in 

paragraph B.3.3 are met. 

B.3.5 Reconstruction Levels 

Reconstruction levels (RLs) are provided only for pavement conditions. They are always set lower 

than the DLs and represent the level at which resurfacing the pavement is no longer an option: 

reconstruction is the only way to restore the pavement. In this way, the RLs reflect engineering 

considerations and are inherently objective. (DLs, SDLs, and ULs are inherently subjective criteria.) 

Because HERS-ST considers only one type of pavement improvement for each section, there is no 

need for SDLs for pavement condition. 

While the PSR at the end of the funding period is compared to the DL, it is the pavement condition 

at the beginning of the funding period, which is compared to the RL. The reason for this is that 

HERS-ST assumes pavements whose PSR would fall below the RL during a funding period would 

be resurfaced while resurfacing was still an option.
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APPENDIX C - Control Data 
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Table C-1 PPSpec.DAT Elements 

Element Description 

Attribute FileID 

HwyFile 

HERSFile 

DistFile 

StInFile 

StOutFile 

Format 

BaseYear 

PSRUPS 

CapOvrd 

TGRMax 

TGRNew 

TGR 

PGTMax 

PGTMin 

AADTCRMax 

MRErr 

TCDMax 

NTDErr 

SPLMax 

RUErr 

AASwitch 

PLErr 

PSRIRI 

Override 

File identification 

Name of the original highway data file to preprocessed 

Name of the HERS-ST data file to be created 

Name of the truck VMT distribution file to be created 

Name of the input file that contains the state specified improvements 

Name of the binary state specified improvement file to be created 

Selects between the 1993 and 1999 highway data format 

Base year of data 

PSR for unpaved sections 

Selects the use of coded capacities 

Maximum annual traffic growth rate (%) 

Description of new Traffic Growth Rate (TGR) Input 

TGR for sections whose growth rate exceeds the maximum (%) 

Top limit for the percentage of green time (%) 

Bottom limit for the percentage of green time (%) 

Upper limit for AADT/Capacity ratio 

Report AADT over capacity 

Maximum average number of traffic control devices 

Report when traffic control devices exceed maximum 

Maximum speed limit in miles per hour 

Report inconsistent coding of the RurUrb highway data field 

Selects the use of the coded values for alignment adequacy 

Report peak lane errors 

Indicates priority when both PSR and IRI are coded 

Select between the HERS-ST basic and override operating modes 

List PGTRUR Default percentage of green time for listed items 

C.1 PREPARING PPSPEC.DAT 

C.1.1 Preparing PPSPEC, the Preprocessor Control File 

The Preprocessor control file, PPSPEC.DAT, contains 19 user entry fields. Three of these identify 

the input and output files; one identifies the base data year; twelve specify limits or defaults for 

input data; and three control the generation of messages by Preprocessor. Typically, only the three 

entries dealing with input and output files need be changed. 

For each field, Table C-2 lists the line number and the columns in which Preprocessor expects to 

find the item. Specific fields names, when applicable, are shown within parentheses in upper case. 
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C-3 

Table C-2. The Fields of PPSPEC.DAT 

Line Columns Content

6 1-23 HPMS section data file name -- the input file. 

7 1-23 HERS-ST binary file name --an output file. 

8 1-23 Distribution file name -- an output file. 

9 1-2 Base Year of Section Data. (BaseYear) This must match the data year of the 

section data or a program error may result. 

10 1-3 Default PSR for Unpaved Sections. (PSRUPS) Must be greater than zero: if zero 

used, 1.0 will be substituted. This value is used as the PSR for all unpaved sections. 

12 1-4 Maximum Annual Traffic Growth Rate, in percent. (TGRMax) 

13 1 Description of New Traffic Growth Rate Input. If one, then the default rate on line 

18 will be used for all sections with initial growth rates above TGRMax. If two, then 

Preprocessor will interactively query the operator for each section with an initial 

growth rate above TGRMax. 

18 1-4 Traffic Growth Rate for Sections Whose Initial Growth Rate Exceeds TGRMax 

(only when the entry on line 13 is one). 

20 1 Error Reporting Flag. Set to one to have Preprocessor print an error message for 

each section missing both SNorD and PAVSEC data, or set to zero to turn off this 

error message. (Preprocessor will infer both from surface type.) 

24 1-2 Upper Limit for Percentage Of Green Time. (PGTMax) Preprocessor will use this 

value for sections with reported percentage of green time above this value. 

25 1-2 Lower Limit for Percentage Of Green Time. (PGTMin) Preprocessor will use this 

value for sections with reported percentage of green time below this value. 

26 1-2 Default Percentage of Green Time for Principal Arterials. (PGTRUR) 

Preprocessor will use this value for principal arterial sections with traffic signals but 

no reported percentage of green time. 

26 4-5 Default Percentage of Green Time for Minor Arterials. (PGTRUR) Preprocessor 

will use this value for minor arterial sections with traffic signals but no reported 

percentage of green time. 

26 7-8 Default Percentage of Green Time for Collectors. (PGTRUR) Preprocessor will 

use this value for collectors with traffic signals but no reported percentage of green 

time. 

28 1-2 Upper Limit for AADT/Capacity Ratio. (AADTTCRMax) Preprocessor will use 

AADTTCRMax, and adjust capacity accordingly, on sections whose AADT/ capacity 

ratio is above this value. 

29 1 Error Reporting Flag. Set to one to have Preprocessor print an error message for 

each section whose AADT/capacity ratio exceeds AADTTCRMax, or set to zero to 

turn off this error message. 

33 1-2 Upper Limit for Average Number of Stop Signs and Traffic Signals Per Mile. 

(TCDMax) Preprocessor will use this value for sections with greater density of traffic 

control devices. 

35 1 Error Reporting Flag. Set to one to have Preprocessor print an error 

message for each section whose traffic control device density 

exceeds TCDMax, or set to zero to turn off this error message. 

41 2 Maximum Speed Limit in miles per hour. 
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Table C-3 RunSpec.DAT Elements 

Element Description 

Attribute FileID 

RunNumber 

RunDescription 

Overwrite 

Delete 

HERSFile 

StOutFile 

DistFile 

PrintFile 

Period 

Periods 

AADT 

LRS 

SRE 

Discount 

Backlog 

ImprSt 

WarnMSI 

WarnMsg 

NTDMax 

MndImp 

Needs 

BCRMin 

Objective 

MCC 

CSpec 

AIUnit 

MCUnit 

PPDUnit 

BCAPMax 

File identification 

Run number to appear at top of every page of the report 

A description to appear at top of every page of the report 

Allows HERS-ST input data file to be overwritten while processing 

Allows HERS-ST to delete files describing the system at the end of analysis 

Name of the HERS-ST data file to be processed 

Name of the state implementations file from the Preprocessor 

Name of the truck VMT distribution file 

The output-tables file (PRN for printer) 

Length of funding period (Years) 

Number of funding periods to be analyzed 

Type of Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) calculation to perform 

Long Run Share (LRS) of elasticity 

Short Run Elasticity (SRE) 

Discount rate in percent 

Backlog printing option 

Specify if state specified exogenous improvements are printed 

Specify if warning messages for exogenous improvements are issued 

Specify if the warning messages are sent to a file or the screen 

Maximum number traffic control devices per mile 

Priority given to mandatory improvements 

Specify the type of needs analysis 

Minimum Benefit/Cost Ratio 

Specify an analysis objective 

Maintenance of current conditions 

Description of constraint (or goal) specification 

Units of funds to be used for improvements of unacceptable conditions 

Units of funds for specified goal for maintenance cost 

Units of the peak period delay 

Maximum length of BCAP in years 

List CostUnits 

VMTUnits 

MsgInterval 

Units of costs 

Units of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) 

Number of items to be processed between printings of messages 

Table FAPG 

FRDS 

CostWts 

IBCRWts 

Outputs 

Funds available or performance goals for each period 

Portion of funds reserved for mandatory improvements of deficient sections 

Cost weights used in calculating goal 

Weights used in calculating incremental benefit/cost ratio 

HERS-ST output options 

C.2 PREPARING RUNSPEC.DAT 

RUNSPEC.DAT, the HERS-ST control file, is rather more involved than the Preprocessor control 

file, containing 397 data fields. Of these, 144 comprise two matrices used in setting constraints; 

181 are used to set weights used in calculating performance goals and BCRs; and 49 are used to 

specify output options. This leaves 27 unique entry fields. 

Unlike the Preprocessor, which always performs the same processing task, the HERS-ST program 

can perform any one of several different types of analysis (as discussed in paragraph 8.3, ”HERSST Analysis Types”). The four control fields identified in Table C-2, “The Fields of PPSPEC.DAT,” 

are used to select the type of analysis. 
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C.2.1 Run Number Field 

The eight characters comprising the run number will be printed on each page of the HERS-ST 

output. It is useful to choose unique combinations that encode meaningful information about the 

run. 

C.2.2 Run Description 

Like the Run Number, the Run Description will be printed on each page of the HERS-ST output. 

The entry field consists of two lines, each 50 characters in length. 

C.2.3 Input File Overwrite Switch 

When set to zero, HERS-ST will create a copy of the binary input file. Messages about the 

progress of the copy operation will be displayed on the screen. This preserves the input file for 

subsequent re-use. When this switch is set to one, HERS-ST will overwrite the binary input file. We 

suggest having HERS-ST create a copy (the switch set to zero). 

C.2.4 File Delete Switch 

At the end of each funding period, the program produces an updated HERS-ST binary file 

describing the simulated condition of the sample sections. This file is then used as the input file for 

processing during the next funding period. The file is also produced after the last funding period. If 

the file delete switch is set to one, this file will be deleted. 

If you set this switch to zero, the program will save the file. This allows you the option of using this 

file as input to a subsequent HERS-ST run. If you allowed HERS-ST to overwrite the input file (by 

setting the input file overwrite switch to one), the output file will have the same name as the input 

file. If you specified that HERS-ST preserve the input file, the output file is titled XXHERS01.BIN. 

C.2.5 File Names 

The HERS-ST program requires three names and an optional name: if exogenous improvements 

are to be processed, the input file (which is an output from the Preprocessor) must also be 

specified. When the field is blank, no exogenous improvements will be processed. Two of these, 

the HERS-ST binary data file, and the distribution file, are outputs of the HERS-ST Preprocessor. 

The third is the name of the file HERS-ST is to create which will contain the output print pages. 

This file should not exist at the time the model begins execution, as HERS-ST will not over-write an 

existing output file. 

C.2.6 Length of Funding Period Field 

The default value of five years is recommended. HERS-ST uses the funding period length as the 

length of the benefit-cost analysis period and, for most sections, bases the decision of whether to 

improve in the current funding period or a later funding period on a benefit-cost analysis period 

equal in length to a single funding period. With a shorter funding period, the benefit stream 

following an improvement is also shorter, and the number of improvements meeting the benefitcost criteria drops. With a longer funding period, more improvements will meet the benefit-cost 

criteria as a result of the longer benefit stream. 

C.2.7 Number of Funding Periods Field 

While HERS-ST can be set to process up to 99 funding periods, the two matrices used to define 

fund and performance constraints are limited to four funding periods of specific input values. When 

processing more than four funding periods in a constrained mode, HERS-ST will use the entries for 

the fourth funding period for all subsequent funding periods. 
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C-6 

C.2.8 AADT Calculation Field 

This field selects the algorithm used by HERS-ST in forecasting baseline traffic volume growth. 

The options are: 

1. “original” method — concave geometric growth; 

2. “straight line” method — linear growth. 

The concave geometric is a constant growth rate formula in which traffic increases (or decreases) 

as a fixed percentage of the previous year’s volume. The linear growth method adds the same 

number of vehicles in each year. The 1999 Conditions and Performance Report was prepared 

using the linear option. 

C.2.9 Elasticities 

HERS-ST models the effect on traffic volume of changes to the price of highway travel. An 

increase in the price to the user results in a decrease in demand and traffic volume: a decrease in 

price prompts a rise in demand and traffic volume. The components of the user price are travel 

time, vehicle operating costs, and the costs of “safety incidents” (property damage, injury and 

fatality costs, and the cost of delay due to crashes). Highway section characteristics affecting these 

cost components include PSR, capacity, and traffic volume. 

The elasticities govern the relationship between the percentage of price change and the percentage of volume change. For example, an elasticity of one means that a price change of 10% results 

in a volume change of 10%. The elasticity values are negative so that price and volume will move 

in opposite directions: i.e., an increase in price brings about a decrease in volume, and vice versa. 

Significant short-run elasticity effects will occur within one year of a price change, while other longrun effects may occur for upwards of 20 years. 

The HERS-ST model requires values for two components of elasticity. The short-run elasticity 

(SRE) represents the portion of elasticity that will occur within a funding period. The long-run share 

(LRS) represents the portion of long-run elasticity (LRE) that will occur between funding periods. 

The supplied values, -1.0 for short-run elasticity and -0.6 for long-run share, were used in the 

preparation of the 1999 Conditions and Performance Report and are the products of considerable 

research and expert review. 

The LRS is sensitive to the length of the funding period. The longer the funding period, the higher 

the long-run share of elasticity to be applied between funding periods; the shorter the funding 

period, the lower the value to be used. The SRE theoretically represents effects that are expected 

to occur within one year, and generally should not be sensitive to funding period length. However, 

for long funding periods, the user may want to select an SRE value towards the higher end of the 

recommended range. 

Studies to date have shown long range elasticities in a -1.0 to -2.0 range; including short-run 

elasticities from -0.5 to -1.0 and long-run shares from -0.5 to -1.0. Table C-4, “Recommended SRE 

and LRS Values by Funding Period Length,” shows suggested short-run elasticity and long-run 

share values for funding periods of various lengths. The first set of values are derived from the 

1999 Conditions and Performance Report, adjusted for funding period length, and are consistent 

with the upper end of the recommended elasticity ranges. The second set of values represent the 

lower end of the recommended elasticity ranges. Note that the 20-year funding period row is 

included to show the long-run elasticities from which the long-run shares for different 

funding periods are derived. It is not recommended that users select funding periods longer than 

seven years. 

The model will reject entries greater than or equal to -0. 
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Table C-4 Recommended SRE and LRS Values by Funding Period Length 

Funding 

Period 

Length 

1999 C&P Report Values Lower Range of Recommended Values 

 SRE LRS SRE LRS 

1 Year -1.0 -0.150 -0.5 -0.075 

2 Years -1.0 -0.285 -0.5 -0.143 

3 Years -1.0 -0.404 -0.5 -0.202 

4 Years -1.0 -0.508 -0.5 -0.254 

5 Years -1.0 -0.600 -0.5 -0.300 

6 Years -1.0 -0.679 -0.5 -0.340 

7 Years -1.0 -0.747 -0.5 -0.374 

20 Years -1.0 -1.000 -0.5 -0.500 

C.2.10 Discount Rate 

The discount rate is the value used to calculate the discounted present value of future benefits and 

costs. Increasing the discount rate decreases the discounted present value of the benefits and 

decreases the BCRs calculated for all improvements. The supplied value of seven percent is 

recommended by the Office of Management and Budget. 

C.2.11 Maximum Number of Traffic Devices Per Mile 

This entry limits the effective number of traffic control devices (stop signs and traffic signals) per 

mile. 

C.2.12 Mandatory Improvement Switch 

This is the first of the four HERS-ST control fields; it’s field name is MndImp. To instruct the model 

to implement mandatory improvements, set this switch to one. Set the switch to zero to avoid 

mandatory improvements. See paragraph 8.3.6, ”Mandatory Improvements,” for background 

information. This option was not used (it was set to zero) in preparation of data for the 1999 

Conditions and Performance Report. 

C.2.13 Full Needs Switch 

The second control field, this switch (Needs) selects the full needs analysis type when it is set to 

one: it must be set to zero to select any other type of analysis. 

C.2.14 Minimum BCR 

This entry (BCRMin) is required when the Objective entry is set to 3, and is ignored otherwise. It 

specifies the minimum required benefit-cost ratio of all implemented improvements during a 

minimum BCR run. 

C.2.15 Objective 

This control field (Objective) selects the analytical objective to be performed. Set to one to select 

constraint by funds, to two for constraint by performance, or three for minimum BCR. This entry is 

ignored when the full needs switch is set to one, and is required otherwise. 

C.2.16 Maintain Current Conditions Switch 

This switch is the last of the four control fields. During performance constrained analysis, this 

switch (MCC) specifies the source of the performance goals. Set to one to use the initial 
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performance of the system as the performance goal (a maintain performance analysis); set to zero 

to specify performance goals in the first matrix. This switch is only active during a performanceconstrained run: HERS-ST ignores MCC when Objective is not set to 2. 

C.2.17 Constraint Specification 

The CSpec parameter allows you to specify how to subdivide the highway system when running a 

constrained fund or performance goal analysis. Analysis (including selection of improvements, 

evaluation of performance goals, and the application of funding constraints) is performed 

separately for each group: 

• By each Functional Class; 

• By Principal Arterial/Other and Rural/Urban; 

• By Principal Arterial/Other; 

• By Rural/Urban; and 

• For the Whole System at Once. 

Generally, the larger the grouping, the more opportunity is given to the model to select 

improvements with the highest benefits. For example, a performance constrained run over the 

whole system should yield a higher average BCR than an otherwise identical run performed over 

each functional class. This is because the model is able to select the “next best improvement for 

the system” from all candidate improvements for each section. When run by functional class, the 

selection universe consists only of improvements to sections in that class. However, it should be 

expected that, in a “whole system” run, the levels of performance of individual functional classes 

will be above and below the system level, with one or more functional classes relatively “overimproved,” and several others correspondingly “under-improved.” In the “functional class” run, the 

performance level is maintained for each class, and improvements within each class are selected 

by benefit/cost analysis, but the benefit/cost ratios of the last improvement in each class may differ 

by several percentage points. 

Note that HERS-ST will use the entry in this field when determining which portions of the two 

matrices to reference for available funds and/or performance constraints. 

C.2.18 First Matrix: Funds Available or Performance Goals 

This matrix is used to enter either of two sets of values: available funds (when performing 

constrained fund analysis) or performance goals (for performance constrained analysis with userspecified goals). For available funds, values are entered in millions of dollars. For performance 

goals, values are entered in dollars or incidents per vehicle mile traveled, or in dollars per mile, 

depending upon the type of performance goal specified in the Cost Weights entries. The matrix is 

ignored during minimum BCR runs and maintain performance runs. 

The matrix consists of five sets of one to 9 lines, each set corresponding to one of the functional 

class groupings of CSpec. HERS-ST will use the value in CSpec to determine which set holds the 

entry values, and ignores the other sets. Each line has 4 entry fields (arranged in columns) 

corresponding to the first 4 funding periods. If HERS-ST encounters a zero in a field designated for 

the second, third, or fourth funding period, it will assume that the entry for the previous funding 

period is intended for the zero-filled entry. If more than four funding periods are specified in the 

number of funding period's field, the values used for the fourth funding period will be used for all 

subsequent funding periods. 

Note that when entering values for a performance constrained run, the entered performance goals 

should represent the sum of the various goal cost components selected in the cost weights 

(CostWts) table. 
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C.2.19 Second Matrix: Funds Reserved for Deficient Sections 

This matrix is only used during fund constrained runs with mandatory improvements. During this 

type of analysis, HERS-ST will interpret the values in this matrix as specifying which portion of the 

overall funds (specified in the first matrix) are not available for mandatory improvements, but are to 

be invested in improvements with the highest BCRs. 

This matrix has the same structure as the first matrix, with the active set of entries designated by 

CSpec. If HERS-ST encounters a zero in a field designated for the second, third, or fourth funding 

period, it will assume that the entry for the previous funding period is intended for the zero-filled 

entry. If more than four funding periods are specified in the number of funding period's field, the 

values used for the fourth funding period will be used for all subsequent funding periods. A 

separate entry, Units of Funds (AIUnit), determines whether entries are in millions of dollars, or a 

percentage of the values in the first matrix. 

C.2.20 Cost Weights and Maintenance Cost Units 

The cost weights table (CostWts) consists of eleven pairs of lines. Each line-pair represents a cost 

component used in establishing a performance goal, and includes an entry field for each of the 

nine functional classes. The first line of each pair contains the four rural entry fields: the second 

line the five urban entries. Setting an entry field to zero removes that cost component/functional 

class combination from the performance goal. To evenly weight cost components, set the desired 

values to 1.0. Entries must be greater than or equal to zero. 

These entries are required when executing any performance constrained run, whether the goal is 

to maintain a current performance level or to achieve a user-specified level, and ignored otherwise. 

Three types of goal can be specified using the weight entry fields and the Maintenance Cost Units 

(MCUnit) field: dollars per vehicle mile; safety incidents per vehicle mile; and maintenance costs 

per highway mile. 

The usual form is the performance goal specified in dollars per vehicle mile. The goal can be 

composed of any combination of operating cost, travel time cost, property damage cost, injury cost, 

cost of delay due to crashes, maintenance cost, and emissions damage cost: at least one entry 

field in one of these cost components must be non-zero. Typically, all weights for each of these 

cost components are set to 1.0. The “Number of” entries for crashes, injuries, and fatalities must all 

be set to zero. The MCUnit field must be set to one. 

The second form of performance goal is the “number of” safety incidents per vehicle mile. The 

three safety incidents are crashes, injuries, and fatalities. At least one entry field in one of these 

categories must be non-zero. The entries for all other cost component categories must be set to 

zero. 

The final form of performance goal is annual maintenance costs per highway mile. At least one of 

the entry fields for maintenance cost must be non-zero; all other cost component entries must be 

zero; and MCUnit must be set to two. 

C.2.21 Incremental BCR Weights 

This table is constructed similarly to CostWts, containing nine line pairs which correspond to the 

nine benefits which comprise the numerator of the benefit-cost ratio. This table permits you to 

weight the benefits in the numerator of the BCR. For example, agency benefits might be weighted 

twice as heavily as highway user benefits. 

The sequence in which potential improvements are selected by HERS-ST is determined by their 

incremental benefit/cost ratio (IBCR). For any potential improvement, this ratio is obtained by 

estimating the discounted present value of all incremental costs and benefits. When choosing 

weights for the various benefits, it is important to recognize that improvements are selected only if 

weighted benefits exceed cost; hence, use of weights less than one tends to reduce the set of 

improvements considered for implementation. 

These entries are used in all types of analysis. 
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C.2.22 Output Options 

Use the Output Options entries to select the optional output pages that you need to evaluate a 

specific scenario. (These pages are in addition to the three “System Conditions” pages that are 

always produced for each funding period and the overall analysis period.) At the end of each 

funding period and at the end of the overall analysis period, an extensive variety of statistics can be 

produced describing changes in the highway system, the improvements selected, and the costs 

and resulting benefits. All the information is expanded to describe the larger universe represented 

by the sample highway sections. 

The following output pages can be selected for the end of each funding period and summed for the 

total analysis period: 

• Total initial cost of selected improvements; 

• Lane-Miles improved; 

• Lane-Miles of mandatory improvements; 

• Lane-Miles of non-mandatory improvements; 

• Net present value of the residual value of all improvements; 

• Average B/C ratio of selected improvements; 

• Capital requirements by IBCR range; 

• Sample sections improved by IBCR range; 

• Miles improved by IBCR range; 

• Travel-time benefits to user-benefits ratios; and 

• Lane-miles added. 

The following output pages can be selected for the end of each funding period: 

• Total benefits in the last year of period; 

• Maintenance-cost savings in the last year of period; 

• User benefits in the last year of period; 

• Travel-time savings in the last year of period; 

• Operating-cost savings in the last year of period; 

• Safety benefits in the last year of period; 

• Crashes avoided in the last year of period; 

• Injuries avoided in the last year of period; 

• Lives saved in the last year of period; 

• VMT for improved sections in the last year of period; 

• Miles improved; 

• Miles of mandatory improvements; 

• Miles of non-mandatory improvements; 

• Pollution damage savings in last year of period; 

• Deficiencies as % of VMT; and 

• Deficiencies as % of miles. 
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To select a specific page at the end of each funding period, enter a one in column one. For those 

entries with optional end of overall analysis period pages, enter a one in column two. Enter zeroes 

to exclude pages from being generated. For example, if you are performing an analysis without 

mandatory improvements, you would set the mandatory/non-mandatory entries for miles and lanemiles improved to zero. 

C.2.23 Units of Costs 

These entries permit you to scale specific output pages to match your sample data. The nine 

scalable output pages are: 

• Total initial cost of selected improvements; 

• Net present value of the residual value of all improvements; 

• Total benefits in the last year of period; 

• Maintenance-cost savings in the last year of period; 

• User benefits in the last year of period; 

• Travel-time benefits to user-benefits ratios; 

• Operating-cost savings in the last year of period; 

• Safety benefits in the last year of period; and 

• Capital requirements by IBCR range. 

Set the page’s entry to one for output in millions of dollars, or to two for output in thousands of 

dollars. Note that all HERS-ST output dollars are in “constant year dollars.” 

C.2.24 Units of VMT 

These entries allow you to scale the VMT outputs. The first entry permits you to scale the page 

containing VMT for improved sections in the last year of period, and the second controls the 

scaling of VMT on the basic report page. Set the entries to one for millions of vehicle-miles; two for 

thousands of vehicle-miles; or three for billions of vehicle-miles. 

C.2.25 Message Interval Selection 

While processing, HERS-ST outputs messages to the screen to indicate its progress. These two 

entries allow you to control the interval at which HERS-ST generates these messages. You may 

want to set this number to about one-tenth of the number of records in your data set in order to 

receive comforting evidence that the model is processing normally. You may set these entries to 

zero to avoid the message entirely. If you set the interval above the number of sections in your 

dataset, the model will generate messages for zero sections processed, selected, and 

implemented. Note that the model will only print the “number of improvements selected” message 

during a constrained run. 

Each of the two entries control several output message sets. The “number of sections processed” 

entry controls the interval between messages counting: 

• the evaluation of improvements to address unacceptable conditions; 

• the evaluation of improvements to address deficiencies; and 

• the implementation of selected improvements. 
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The “number of selected improvements” entry controls the interval between messages counting: 

• the selection of improvements to correct unacceptable conditions; and 

• the selection of improvements to correct deficiencies. 

If you set either of these entries to zero, the messages controlled by that entry are suppressed. 

Table C-5 Coding Conventions for RUNSPEC File 

Control Fields Data Fields 

Types of Analysis 

Needs Objective MCC MndImp BCRMin First Matrix Second Matrix and AIUnit CostWts 

Minimum BCR (no mandatory improvements) 0 3 — 0 R — — — 

Minimum BCR (with mandatory improvements) 0 3 — 1 R — — — 

Full Needs 1 — — — — — — — 

Constrained Fund (no mandatory improvements) 0 1 — 0 — R — — 

Constrained Fund (with mandatory improvements) 0 1 — 1 — R R — 

Performance Constrained (no mandatory 

improvements) 0 2 0 0 — R — R 

Performance Constrained (with mandatory 

improvements) 0 2 0 1 — R — R 

Maintain Performance (no mandatory 

improvements) 0 2 1 0 — — — R 

Maintain Performance (with mandatory 

improvements) 0 2 1 1 — — — R 

Where: “R” indicates a value or values are required; “—” indicates that this field will be ignored.
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APPENDIX D - Output Files 
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D.1 SYSTEMS CONDITIONS OUTPUT

The standard output describing the condition of the highway system appears in several guises. 

The first presents the initial condition of the highway system as contained in the input HPMS data. 

The same format is used to present the state of the system after each funding period, and also to 

detail the changes that have occurred for each data item during the course of the funding period. 

Both of these pages are printed for each funding period. Finally, a page is printed detailing the 

changes between the initial condition of the system and the state of the system at the end of the 

overall analysis period. Thus, this format would be used to print ten pages for each four funding 

period run. 

The system conditions output page summarizes the following information for each functional class, 

with rural and urban subtotals, and an overall total: 

• System conditions — system miles; average PSR and IRI; average speed; congestion and 

total delay; and vehicle miles traveled. 

• User costs — user costs per thousand vehicle miles are listed for: travel time costs; operating 

costs (for four-tire vehicles, trucks, and all vehicles); crash costs; and total user costs. 

• Safety rates — rates per 100 million vehicle miles for crashes, injuries, and fatalities. 

• Agency costs — the average annual maintenance costs per mile. 

• External costs — the average cost of damage due to vehicle-induced air pollution per 

thousand vehicle miles. 

• VMT below USTs — the percentage of vehicle miles traveled which occurs below the minimum 

tolerable conditions (specified in PARAMS.DAT) for PSR; V/C ratio; lane width; shoulder width; 

shoulder type; surface type; and horizontal and vertical alignment.23

For constrained fund runs, the model prints the benefit-cost ratio of the last selected improvement 

at the bottom of the “Changes During Period” page. This is the lowest BCR selected: all other 

improvements selected during the period have higher BCRs. This output reflects the CSpec 

setting: if, for example, CSpec was set to indicate that HERS-ST should consider rural and urban 

sections separately, separate lowest BCRs for rural and urban sections groups would be shown. 

For performance-constrained runs, HERS-ST would output, in addition to the BCR of the last 

selected improvement, the performance goal specified (which may have been user-supplied or, if 

maintain current conditions, calculated by HERS), and the performance level achieved. Again, the 

goals specified and levels achieved reflect the CSpec setting. 

D.2 FUNCTIONAL CLASS BY IMPROVEMENT TYPE OUTPUT

The second format for printed HERS-ST output is organized by functional class (columns) and 

improvement type (rows). The upper portion of each page reports data for all improvements; the 

lower portion reports for only those sections on which all or a portion of the section’s alignment was 

improved. HERS-ST uses this format to present two types of data: summary data about the 

improvements selected during each funding period; and data expressing the effects of the selected 

improvements on the improved sections during the last year of the funding period. 

The twenty-one pages printed in this format are optional, and seven of them can be specified for 

the overall analysis period. 

D.2.1 Summary Data About Selected Improvements 

These ten output pages provide information about the improvements HERS-ST has selected for 

implementation during each funding period. The topics generally quantify the aggregated selected 

improvements: how many miles, how much capital investment, etc. 

 

23 The horizontal alignment failure rates for urban collectors and minor arterials and the vertical alignment 

failure rates for all urban sections are zero, since HERS-ST (like HPMS) does not incorporate any standards 

for evaluating the alignment adequacy of these sections 
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D.2.2 Effects of Implementing Improvements 

The specific pages which present estimates of the costs and benefits of implementing 

improvements are presented as the annual costs and benefits in the last year of the funding period 

that result from implementing all improvements in the middle of the period. 

These pages of output indicate that, although improvements are selected only if they produce 

overall benefits, at least some selected improvements may increase certain types of costs (shown 

as negative benefits in the tables). In particular, adding lanes to urban sections generally increases 

the number of fatalities (due to higher speeds). Also, adding lanes to urban or rural sections 

sometimes increases the number of crashes and the number of injuries occurring and can increase 

maintenance costs. Although net reductions in vehicle operating costs are usually appreciable, on 

some sections these costs show a net increase (due to higher operating speeds) and so some 

negative entries may appear in the “Operating-Cost Savings” table. Similarly, the increased traffic 

on improved sections may result in more safety incidents (even despite a decrease in the rates of 

safety incidents) and negative entries in the safety benefits pages. 

The “VMT on Improved Sections” page of optional output presents forecast VMT for the last year of 

the funding period for sections improved during the period. These forecasts are presented by 

functional system and improvement type in the same format used for presenting the costs and 

benefits of the improvements. The VMT forecasts can be used in conjunction with the estimates of 

costs and benefits to derive estimates of costs and benefits per vehicle mile for improved sections 

by functional system and improvement type. 

D.2.3 Output Statistics by IBCR Range 

This output format is arranged similarly to the previous (functional classes in columns, and 

improvement type in rows), with the addition of, for each improvement type, seven different ranges 

of IBCR values: 

• 1.0 — 1.2 

• 1.2 — 2.0 

• 2.0 — 3.0 

• 3.0 — 4.0 

• 4.0 — 5.0 

• 5.0 — 6.0 

• greater than 6.0 

There is also a total row for each improvement type, and an “Overall” section which contains 

information for all improvement types by IBCR range. The additional rows result in a format which 

prints on two pages. 

These pages provide a profile of the benefits returned per the capital invested in the improvements. 

They include only the non-mandatory improvements: mandatory improvements, which do not have 

to pass any minimum BCR threshold, would often fall below the lowest IBCR range of 1.0. 

The “Travel-Time Benefits to User-Benefits Ratios” page expresses, within each IBCR range, the 

percentage of total user benefits (which includes travel-time savings, operating cost savings, and 

safety benefits) which is derived from travel-time savings. It also demonstrates the complexity 

which often accompanies interpretation of the HERS-ST output. At first glance, the user might well 

be puzzled by the presence of both negative percentages and percentages greater than 100 in the 

output data. 

The negative percentages can arise when the total user benefits are negative. This would usually 

be driven by safety benefits, which are often negative, reflecting the greater number of accidents at 

high speed. Coupled with a positive benefit from travel-time savings, this yields a negative 

percentage. But if total user benefits are negative, why was the improvement selected? The other 

benefit components are agency costs, residual value, and emission benefits: a large enough sum 

of these can produce positive benefits which, if the capital costs are modest, could qualify the 

improvement. 
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Similarly, a significant safety dis-benefit could result in a positive sum of total user benefits which is 

less than the travel-time benefit. This produces travel-time benefits which are greater than 100% of 

the total user benefit. 

Table D-1 Section File Format and Column Headings 

Field Column Heading Data Type 

Section Identification 

1. Record number RECNO I 

2. County code CNTY I 

3. Section identification SECID A 

4. Sample identifier SAMPID A 

5. LRS identification LRSID A 

6. LRS beginning point BEGMP F 

7. LRS ending point ENDMP F 

Deficiencies 

8. PSR PSR0 F 

9. Volume/Capacity ratio VCR0 F 

10. Lane width LW0 I 

11. Shoulder type SHLT0 I 

12. Right shoulder width RSHLW0 I 

13. Horizontal alignment adequacy HORA0 I 

14. Vertical alignment adequacy VERA0 I 

Improvement 

15. Improvement type ITYPE I 

16. Lanes added LADD I 

17. Increase in capacity CAPINC F 

18. Type of selection TYPSEL I 

19. BCR BCR F 

Characteristics at End of FP 

20. Volume/Capacity ratio VCR F 

21. Average speed SPD F 

22. PSR PSR F 

23. IRI (inches/mile) IRI F 

24. Total lanes TLAN I 

25. Peak lanes - peak direction PLAN I 

26. Peak lanes - opposite direction CPLAN I 

27. Peak capacity - peak direction PCAP F 

28. Peak capacity - opposite direction CPCAP F 

29. Off-peak capacity OPCAP F 

30. Access control ACCESS I 

31. Lane width LWID I 

32. Shoulder type SHLT I 

33. Right shoulder width RSHLW I 

34. Median type MEDT I 

35. Median width MEDW I 

36. Widening feasibility WFEAS I 

37. Horizontal alignment adequacy HORA I 

38. Vertical alignment adequacy VERA I 

39. AADT AADT F 

40. Emissions costs EMC F 

Costs and Benefits 

41. Improvement cost IMPC F 

42. Emissions benefits EMB F 

43. Travel-time benefits TTB F 

44. Operating-cost benefits OPCB F 

45. Safety benefits SAFB F 

46. Total benefits TOTB F 

State Control Field 

47. State control field SCF A 
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D.3 THE SECTION FILES

The first data item in each record contains the record number of the HPMS file containing the 

original description of the section. This number may be useful in locating the record. 

Items 2 - 7 contain additional identification of the section. These items are obtained from Items 6, 

5, 47, and 10 - 12 of the corresponding HPMS record. 

Items 8 - 14 identify deficiencies that will exist by the end of the FP if the section is not improved, 

except PSR0, which is the same as that in the HPMS input record (it is the value at the beginning 

of the funding period under analysis). Four of these items (PSR, lane width, shoulder type, and 

right shoulder width) correspond to items in the HPMS file. Volume/capacity (v/c) ratio (Item 8) is 

HERS’ estimate of the ratio of design-hour volume to peak-period hourly capacity. Horizontal and 

vertical alignment adequacy (Items 12 and 13) are either derived from information supplied on 

curves and grades by class (input Items 63 - 68 and 72 - 77) or they are obtained from the input 

values for horizontal and vertical alignment adequacy (input Items 69 and 71). In both cases, they 

use the HPMS codes for alignment adequacy. A simplified description of these codes24 is: 

1. All curves (or grades) meet design standards. 

2. Some curves (or grades) do not meet design standards, but they do not affect speed or safety. 

3. Infrequent curves (or grades) affect speed or safety. 

4. Several curves (or grades) affect speed or safety. 

Items 8 - 14 are printed only when the corresponding characteristic of the section is or will be 

deficient by the end of the FP. Otherwise, asterisks are printed in these fields. The next five items 

describe the improvement that is finally selected for the section, if any. If one or more potential 

improvements are identified but none are selected, these items describe the rejected improvement 

with the highest BCR. If no potential improvement is evaluated in this FP, these items are blank. 

The use of these items when an improvement is selected is described below: 

15. Improvement type. A code identifying the type of improvement. The codes used for the 

improvement types that can be generated in basic runs are shown in the last two columns of 

Table A-5. As discussed in paragraph 8.2.2, in override runs, the HERS-ST user may 

introduce additional codes to represent other types of (user-specified) improvements. The 

improvement types shown in Table A-5, are the only ones analyzed by the National HERS 

system. In Chapter 8, these improvement types are referred to as “HERS-type” improvements. 

16. Lanes added is the number of lanes added by the improvement (if any). 

17. Increase in capacity. The increase in peak-period peak-direction capacity (if any) produced by 

this improvement. 

18. Type of selection. This field identifies the roles played by HERS-ST and the user in the 

improvement selection process. The codes used by HERS-ST 2.0 are: 

0. Improvement was evaluated by HERS-ST but not selected. 

1. Improvement was selected by HERS-ST. 

2. Improvement was specified by user. (User requested HERS-ST not to add additional 

options). 

3. Improvement was requested by user; HERS-ST did not find any cost-effective options to 

add. 

4. Improvement combines options requested by user with options added by HERS. 

5. Improvement combines a HERS-ST selection for this FP with a Type 1, 2 or 6 improvement 

requested by the user for a subsequent FP. 

 

24 More formal descriptions of the alignment adequacy codes are contained in FHWA, Highway 

Performance Monitoring System Field Manual, December 2000. 
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It should be noted that HERS-ST ST 2.0 produces information about some improvements that were 

not selected. 

19. BCR. Normally, the BCR of the improvement is the discounted present value (at the time of 

improvement implementation) of the sum of the user and agency benefits of the improvement 

divided by the implementation costs. An exception occurs when the system is operating under 

a funding constraint or with a performance goal (i.e., when objective type is 1 or 2) and two (or 

more) alternative improvements are provisionally selected for a section in sequence. In this 

case, the BCR of the improvement is an incremental BCR; i.e., it is derived from the 

incremental benefits and costs of choosing the improvement that is finally selected to replace 

the last previous improvement that had been provisionally selected. 

The next 21 items describe the section at the end of the FP. Items 22 - 25, 27, 30 - 36, and 39 

correspond to items in the HPMS file. Items 20, 37, and 38 correspond to Items 9, 13, and 14 of 

the SECNSnn file and are described above. Items 21 and 40 are the program’s estimates of: the 

overall average speed on the section (in mph); and the external costs of emissions in the last year 

of the FP generated by vehicles using the section (in thousands of dollars). Item 39 is HERS’ 

estimate of AADT at the end of the FP. 

Item 26 is the number of “counterpeak” lanes; i.e., the number of peak-period lanes in the “nonpeak” direction. This value is usually obtained by subtracting the number of peak lanes in the peak 

direction (Item 25) from the total number of (off-peak) through lanes (Item 24). However, for some 

sections, HERS-ST infers the likely existence of extra peak-period lanes resulting from parking 

restrictions or use of shoulders as travel lanes during the peak period. For these sections, total 

peak lanes (Items 25 and 26) will exceed (off-peak) through lanes (Item 24). For rural sections with 

less than four lanes, “peak” lanes represent the total number of lanes in both directions, and 

counterpeak lanes equals zero. 

Corresponding to peak, counterpeak, and through lanes are three values of capacity: peak, 

counterpeak, and off-peak capacity (Items 27 - 29). For rural roads with less than four lanes, the 

peak and off-peak capacities are two-way capacity, and counterpeak capacity is zero. For all other 

roads, the three capacities are one-way capacities. Peak capacity is the capacity coded in the 

HPMS record. Off-peak and counterpeak capacities may be equal to or smaller than peak capacity. 

The next part of the record contains information about the costs and benefits of any improvement. 

The first of these fields contains improvement costs (in thousands of dollars) supplied by the user 

and/or estimated by the program. When section-specific estimates of improvement costs are not 

supplied by the user (in the STATEIMP.DAT file), the HERSST program estimates the costs of 

improvements using cost information provided in the IMPRCOST.DAT and PARAMS.DAT files. 

(See Section Appendix B.) 

When section-specific estimates of improvement costs for a specific improvement are supplied by 

the user in the STATEIMP.DAT file, these costs are used for that improvement. If the HERSST 

program chooses to combine this improvement with an additional widening option, the incremental 

cost of this option is estimated using the costs supplied in the IMPRCOST.DAT and PARAMS.DAT 

files. If the program chooses to add alignment improvements to the section, the incremental costs 

of the alignment improvement are estimated and added to the total. 

The next five fields are the program’s estimates of the user and external benefits of the 

improvement in the last year of the FP, in thousands of dollars. Separate estimates are provided of 

benefits because of reductions in emissions costs, travel time, operating costs, and crash costs, 

along with the sum of all four types of benefits. Negative values in the fields for emissions benefits 

or safety benefits indicate an estimated increase in emissions or safety costs. For improvements 

that are estimated by the program to result in increased use of the section, estimated benefits 

include the benefits to new users of the section (estimated per new vehicle to equal half the pervehicle benefits to old users). If no potential improvement is evaluated in the FP, these fields are 

blank. 

The final field of the record reproduces the contents of the State Control Field (Field 8 of the HPMS 

record). 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

D -7 

Table D-2 .SS1 File Acronyms 

Acronym Meaning 

APSR Average PSR 

AIRI Average IRI (inches per mile) 

ASPD Average Speed 

CONG Congestion Delay (hours per 1000 VMT) 

TDEL Total Delay (hours per 1000 VMT) 

VMT VMT (in user-selected units: millions, thousands, or billions) 

TTC Travel Time Costs ($ per 1000 VMT) 

4TOC 4-Tire Vehicle Operating Costs ($ per 1000 VMT) 

TKOC Truck Operating Costs ($ per 1000 VMT) 

AVOC Operating Costs — All Vehicles ($ per 1000 VMT) 

CRAC Crash Costs ($ per 1000 VMT) 

TUC Total User Costs ($ per 1000 VMT) 

CRAR Crash Rate (per 100 million VMT) 

ICR Injury Rate (per 100 million VMT) 

FCR Fatality Rate (per 100 million VMT) 

MNT Average Annual Maintenance Costs ($ per mile) 

EMIC Average Pollution Damage Cost ($ per 1000 VMT) 

%PSR % VMT below User Specified Thresholds (USTs) for PSR 

%VC % VMT below USTs for Volume/Capacity Ratio 

%LNW % VMT below USTs for Lane Width 

%SHW % VMT below USTs for Shoulder Width 

%SHT % VMT below USTs for Shoulder Type 

%SFT % VMT below USTs for Surface Type 

%HAL % VMT below USTs for Horizontal Alignment 

%VAL % VMT below USTs for Vertical Alignment 

HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

E -1 

APPENDIX E - Predefined Queries and Charts 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

E -2 

Table E-1 Predefined Queries 

Name Source Description 

Average Annual 

Funding 

Improvement Costs 

(SS2) 

This query retrieves the Total Initial Cost of the design period 

and divides it by the length of the design period. The length of 

the design period is the length of the funding period multiplied 

by the number of funding periods. One value is returned per 

iteration. 

Average PSR System Conditions 

(SS1) 

This query retrieves the Average Total PSR (APSR) of the last 

funding period. One value is returned per iteration. 

Average Effective 

Speed 

System Conditions 

(SS1) 

This query retrieves the Total Overall Average Speed (ASPDOverall) of the last funding period. One value is returned per 

iteration. 

Congestion Delay System Conditions 

(SS1) 

This query retrieves the Total Congestion Delay (DEL-Other)

of the last funding period. One value is returned per iteration. 

Average Crash 

Rate 

System Conditions 

(SS1) 

This query retrieves the Total Average Crash Rate (CRAR) of 

the last funding period. One value is returned per iteration. 

Average Annual 

User Costs 

System Conditions 

(SS1) 

This query retrieves the Total User Costs (TUC) and Vehicle 

Miles Traveled (VMT) of the last funding period and multiplies 

them together. The result is divided by the length of the 

design period. The length of the design period is the length of 

the funding period multiplied by the number of funding periods. 

One value is returned per iteration. 

User Benefits Improvement Costs 

(SS2) 

This query retrieves the Total Initial Cost and the Total 

Average Benefit/Cost Ratio for the design period and 

multiplies them together. The result is divided by the length of 

the design period. The length of the design period is the 

length of the funding period multiplied by the number of 

funding periods. One value is returned per iteration. 

Volume/Capacity 

Ratio 

System Conditions 

(SS1) 

This query retrieves Percent of Deficient VCR Miles (%MilesVCDL) of the last funding period. One value is returned per 

iteration. 

Total Initial Cost Improvement Costs 

(SS2) 

This query retrieves Total Initial Cost for the design period. 

One value is returned per iteration. 

Minimum BCR Run Iterations This query retrieves the value of the minimum Benefit/Cost 

Ratio used for the run iterations of a multiple minimum BCR 

configuration. A configuration for a single run will return a 0. 

One value is returned per iteration. 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

E -3 

Table E-2 Predefined Charts (Multiple Run) 

Name Axis Description 

Annual Investment vs. X-Axis Result of Average Annual Funding query. 

Pavement Conditions 

Y-Axis Result of Average PSR query. 

Annual Investment vs. X-Axis Result of Average Annual Funding query. 

Effective Speed 

Y-Axis Result of Average Effective Speed query. 

Annual Investment vs. X-Axis Result of Average Annual Funding query. 

Congestion Delay 

Y-Axis Result of Congestion Delay query. 

Annual Investment vs. X-Axis Result of Average Annual Funding query. 

Crash Rate 

Y-Axis Result of Average Crash Rate query. 

Annual Investment vs. X-Axis Result of Average Annual Funding query. 

User Costs 

Y-Axis Result of Average Annual User Costs query. 

Annual Investment vs. X-Axis Result of Average Annual User Costs query. 

User Benefit 

Y-Axis Result of User Benefits query. 

Annual Investment vs. X-Axis Result of Average Annual User Costs query. 

Volume/Capacity Ratio 

Y-Axis Result of Volume/Capacity Ratio query. 

X-Axis Result of Average Annual User Costs query. 

Y-Axis 

(Plot1) 

Query SS1 for the Percent of Deficient PSR Miles (%MILESPSRDL) of the last funding period. One value is returned per 

iteration. 

Y-Axis 

(Plot2) 

Query SS1 for the Percent of Deficient VCR Miles (%MILES-VCDL)

of the last funding period. One value is returned per iteration. 

Y-Axis 

(Plot3) 

Query SS1 for the Percent of Deficient Horizontal Alignment Miles 

(%MILES-HORALIGNDL) of the last funding period. One value is 

returned per iteration. 

Annual Investment vs. 

System-Wide Backlog 

Y-Axis 

(Plot4) 

Query SS1 for the Percent of Deficient Vertical Alignment Miles 

(%MILES-VERTALIGNDL) of the last funding period. One value is 

returned per iteration. 

Initial Costs vs. X-Axis Result of Total Initial Cost query. 

Minimum BCR 

Y-Axis Result of Minimum BCR query. 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

E -4 

Table E-3 Predefined Charts (Single Run) 

Name Axis Description 

X-Axis Improvement Types. 

Y-Axis 

(Bar 1) 

Query SS2 for the Initial Cost for each improvement type for the 

first funding period. Ten values are returned, one for each 

improvement type. 

Funding Level per 

Improvement Type 

Y-Axis 

(Bar n) 

Repeat previous query for each funding period. 

X-Axis Funding Periods. 

Y-Axis 

(Bar 1) 

Query SS1 for the Percent of Deficient PSR Miles (%MILESPSRDL) for each funding period. One value is returned per funding 

period. 

Y-Axis 

(Bar 2) 

Query SS1 for the Percent of Deficient VCR Miles (%MILES-VCDL)

for each funding period. One value is returned per funding period. 

Y-Axis 

(Bar 3) 

Query SS1 for the Percent of Deficient Horizontal Alignment Miles 

(%MILES-HORALIGNDL) for each funding period. One value is 

returned per funding period. 

Backlog per 

Funding Period 

Y-Axis 

(Bar 4) 

Query SS1 for the Percent of Deficient Vertical Alignment Miles 

(%MILES-VERTALIGNDL) record for each funding period. One 

value is returned per funding period. 
H

F - 1 

APPENDIX F - Object Diagrams 
H

F - 2 

Highway State Control Parameter Configuration

Tab

Ch

Logon

ADO

Connection

Database

Project Attribu

Highways States Controls Parameters Configurations 

HERS-ST GUI v2.0Project Object Model

See Highway and State Object ModelsSee Control Object ModelSee Parameter Object ModelSee Configuration Object ModelSee Report Object Models

ΦΦ Ψ ∆ Σ

ΦΨ∆ΣΠ

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseSelectedControlSelectedParameterSelectedHighwaySelectedState

Methods _InitializeUpdateConcludeHighwayAddHighwayRemoveStateAddStateRemove

ControlAddControlRemoveParameterAddParameterRemoveReportAddReportRemoveConfigurationAddConfigurationRemoveObjectCloneObjectGet

NaMoUsDe

PropertiesUsernamePasswordDatabase

MethodsLogon

Native Drivers

Container Object (Collection / Database)Process Object
H

F - 3 

State Attributes

NameModifiedUserNameDescriptionSelected

Fields

(One Improvement Record)

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeImportExportCloneSectionAddSectionRemoveSectionUpdate

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParentBookmarkSectionChangedFileName

Sections

(ADO RecordSet)

EvenProce

Highway Attributes

NameModifiedUserNameDescriptionSelected

Fields

(One HPMS Record)

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeImportExportCloneSectionAddSectionRemoveSectionUpdateSectionSelect

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParentBookmarkSectionChangedFileName

Sections

(ADO RecordSet)

Validation

PropertiesListMsgFormatRules

MethodsValidate

EventsProcessing

HERS-ST GUI v2.0Highway and State Object Models
H

F - 4 

Control

RunSpec

Indices

Attrib

Matrices

Attributes

NameModifiedUserNameDescriptionSelected

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeClone

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParent

ModifUserNDesc(File A

(File Indices)

(File Matrices)

PPSpec

Indices

Attributes

ModifiedUserNameDescription(File Attributes)

(File Indices)

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeImportExportPropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParentFileName

HERS-ST GUI v2.0Control Object Model
H

F - 5 

Parameter

DLTbls

Indices

Matrices

Attributes

NameModifiedUserNameDescriptionSelected

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeClone

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParent

(File Indices)

(File Matrices) ImprCost

Params

Indices

Attributes

Matrices

ModifiedUserNameDescription(File Attributes)

(File Indices)

(File Matrices)

Attributes

ModifiedUserNameDescription(File Attributes)

Indices

(File Indices)

Matrices

(File Matrices)

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeImportExportPropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParentFileName

HERS-ST GUI v2.0Parameter Object Model
H

F - 6 

Configuration

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeIterationAddIterationRemoveSettingInsertRun

Attributes

NameModifiedUserNameDescription

Iterations

Iteration

Results

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParentIterationAttributeIterationStartIterationStopIterationStep

Att

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeResultAddResultRemove

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParent

Settings

Read Only

Highway Parameter

State Control

SS1 SS2 Improvements TabOutp

HERS-ST GUI v2.0Configuration Object Model 

∆∆ ∆ 
H

F - 7 

TabOutput 

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeImportExport

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParentFileName

SS1

MethInitialiUpdatConclImportExpor

PropertiesIDKeyChangedDatabaseParentFileName

Improvements

FundingPeriods

Attributes

NameModifiedUserNameDescription

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeImportExport

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParent

FundingPeriod

Indices

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeImportExport

PropertiesKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParent

SS2

MethInitialiUpdatConclImportExpor

PropertiesIDKeyChangedDatabaseParentFileName

(File Information)

HERS-ST GUI v2.0Result Object Models
H

F - 8 

Table

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeClone

Attributes

NameModifiedUserNameDescriptionQuery

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParent

Chart Attributes

NameModifiedUserNameDescriptionChart

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeClone

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParent

Report Attributes

NameModifiedUserNameDescriptionFilePath

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeClone

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParent

GIS Attributes

NameModifiedUserNameDescriptionConfigurationIterationFundingPeriodThicknessBaseColorHighlightColorFilePath

MethodsInitializeUpdateConcludeClone

PropertiesIDKeyChangedReadOnlyDatabaseParent

HERS-ST GUI v2.0Report Object Models
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

G - 1 

APPENDIX G - Third Party Controls and Components 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

G - 2 

File Description Version Vendor 

dbc32.lic License file for dbGIS N/A Abaco srl 

dbcdbf32.dll Dbase Driver 1.600.0.0 Abaco srl 

dbcdib32.dll Device Independent Bitmap Drivers 1.600.0.0 Abaco srl 

dbcdll32.dll Function Library 1.600.0.0 Abaco srl 

dbcdwg32.dll AutoCAD dwg Drivers 1.600.0.1 Abaco srl 

dbcdxd32.dll ? Drivers 1.600.0.0 Abaco srl 

dbcgdi32.dll GDI Drivers 1.600.0.0 Abaco srl 

dbcgeo32.dll GIS Drivers 1.600.0.1 Abaco srl 

dbclst32.dll LST Drivers 1.600.0.0 Abaco srl 

dbcocx32.ocx DbCAD dev Control 1.600.0.0 Abaco srl 

dbctif32.dll TIF Drivers 1.600.0.0 Abaco srl 

ngshpdrv.dll Shape file drivers 1.5.1.0 Abaco srl 

olch2x7.ocx Chart 7.0 2D OLE/ActiveX Control 7.0.23.0 ComponentOne 

vsflex7.ocx VSFlexGrid 7.0 Pro (ADO Bound) 7.0.1.151 ComponentOne 

vsflex7l.ocx VSFlexGrid 7.0 Pro (Light) 7.0.0.78 ComponentOne 

vsprint7.ocx VSPrinter7 7.0.0.49 ComponentOne 

vsvport7.ocx VSViewPort7 7.0.0.4 ComponentOne 

ab2dll.dll ActiveBar 2.0 Control 2.0.1.1111 Data Dynamics 

ardespro2.dll Active Reports Design Time Components 2.0.0.1170 Data Dynamics 

arpro2.dll Active Reports 2.0.0.1170 Data Dynamics 

arview2.ocx Active Reports View Control 2.0.0.1170 Data Dynamics 

excelexpt.dll Microsoft Excel export filter 2.0.0.1160 Data Dynamics 

htmlexpt.dll HTML export filter 2.0.0.1154 Data Dynamics 

pdfexpt.dll Adobe Acrobat export filter 2.0.0.1159 Data Dynamics 

proplist.ocx Property List box Control 1.0.0.1168 Data Dynamics 

rtfexpt.dll RTF export filter 2.0.0.1165 Data Dynamics 

textexpt.dll Text Export Filter 2.0.0.1159 Data Dynamics 

pvtreex.ocx TreeViewX v8.0 8.0.4.0 Infragistics 

asycfilt.dll Asynchronous Filters 2.40.4517 Microsoft 

comcat.dll Component Category Manager Library 5.0.2195.1 Microsoft 

comdlg32.ocx Common Dialog 6.0.84.18 Microsoft 

mfc42.dll Foundation Class Library 6.0.8665.0 Microsoft 

mscomct2.ocx Common Controls 2 6.0.88.4 Microsoft 

mscomctl.ocx Common Controls 6.0.88.62 Microsoft 

msflxgrd.ocx FlexGrid 6.0.84.18 Microsoft 

msvbvm60.dll Visual BASIC 6.0 virtual machine 6.0.89.64 Microsoft 

msvcrt.dll C Run-Time 6.1.9359.0 Microsoft 

oleaut32.dll OLE Automation 2.40.4517.0 Microsoft 

olepro32.dll OLE Pro 5.0.4517.0 Microsoft 

scrrun.dll Scripting Runtime 5.6.0.6626 Microsoft 

stdole32.tlb Standard OLE Type Library 2.10.3027.1 Microsoft 

sysinfo.ocx System Info 6.0.81.69 Microsoft 

tabctl32.ocx Tab Control 32-Bit 6.0.90.43 Microsoft 

siqrybld.ocx QueryBuilder 2.0.0.129 SiLogic 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

H - 1 

APPENDIX H - Data Dictionary 
H

H - 2 

Table Column Data Type Size Primary Key Allow Zero Length Descripti

tdConfigurationItems fnItemID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each detail of tdConfigurationItems fwConfigID Long Integer 4 No Foreign Key which ties record to higher levtdConfigurationItems 

fsRefClass Text 50 No 

Refers to the object type (bcoHighwayDS, bcoStateDS) and corresponding table. Paspecific record. 

tdConfigurationItems fwRefID Long Integer 4 No Combined with fsRefClass, points to a spetdConfigurations fnConfigID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each ConfigurtdConfigurations fwProjectID Long Integer 4 No Foreign Key which ties record to higher levtdConfigurations fsName Text 50 No User-specified name of a specific configuratdConfigurations fsDescription Text 255 Yes User-specified description of a specific contdConfigurations fsUserName Text 50 No User whom last modified the object tdConfigurations ftLastModified Date/Time 8 No Date and Time the object was saved or uptdControlModels fnModelID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each Control MtdControlModels fsName Text 50 No User-specified name of the control model tdControlModels fsDescription Text 255 Yes User-specified description of the control mtdControlModels fsUserName Text 50 No User whom last modified the object tdControlModels ftLastModified Date/Time 8 No Date and Time the object was saved or uptdControlObjects fnControlID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each Control MtdControlObjects fwModelID Long Integer 4 No Foreign Key which ties record to higher levtdControlObjects fsClass Text 50 No Object type (bcoPPSpec or bcoRunSpec) tdControlObjects fsDescription Text 255 Yes User-specified description of the control mtdControlObjects 

foFile Memo No 

Stores delimited text of data contained in a PPSpec or RunSpec 

tdControlObjects fsUserName Text 50 No User whom last modified the object tdControlObjects ftLastModified Date/Time 8 No Date and Time the object was saved or uptdFuncClassByImp 

fnFuncClassByImpID Long Integer 4 Yes No 

Unique number assigned to each Function(SS2) data file 

tdFuncClassByImpDets fnFuncClassDetID Long Integer 4 Yes Yes Unique number assigned for each SS2 dettdFuncClassByImpDets fwFuncClassByImpID Long Integer 4 Yes Foreign Key which ties record to higher levtdFuncClassByImpDets fsFundingPeriod Text 20 Yes Funding Period tdFuncClassByImpDets fsCategory Text 10 Yes Indicates sub grouping of data (Initial Cost tdFuncClassByImpDets ImpType Text 100 Yes Improvement Type tdFuncClassByImpDets RuralInt Single 4 Yes Rural Interstate tdFuncClassByImpDets RuralOPA Single 4 Yes Rural - Other Principal Arterial tdFuncClassByImpDets RuralMA Single 4 Yes Rural - Major Arterial 
H

H - 3 

Table Column Data Type Size Primary Key Allow Zero Length Descripti

tdFuncClassByImpDets RuralMajCol Single 4 Yes Rural - Major Collector tdFuncClassByImpDets RuralTotal Single 4 Yes Rural Total tdFuncClassByImpDets UrbanInt Single 4 Yes Urban - Interstate tdFuncClassByImpDets UrbanOFE Single 4 Yes Urban - Other Freeway or Expressway tdFuncClassByImpDets UrbanOPA Single 4 Yes Urban - Other Principal Arterial tdFuncClassByImpDets UrbanMA Single 4 Yes Urban - Other Major Arterial tdFuncClassByImpDets UrbanCol Single 4 Yes Urban - Collector tdFuncClassByImpDets UrbanTotal Single 4 Yes Urban - Total tdFuncClassByImpDets Total Single 4 Yes Total tdGIStemp Key Text 50 No For internal use. Refers to object using the tdGIStemp ShapeID Long Integer 4 No ID of each shape from the spatial data tdGIStemp fnSectCondDetID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each section itdGIStemp fwSectCondID Long Integer 4 No Relates information to high level info in tabtdGIStemp fwFundingPeriod Integer 2 No Funding Period of Improvement tdGIStemp RECNO Long Integer 4 No Record Number tdGIStemp CNTY Long Integer 4 No County Code (from Highway Data) tdGIStemp SECTID Text 14 No Section Identification (from Highway Data) tdGIStemp SAMPID Text 14 No Sample Identifier (from Highway Data) tdGIStemp LRSID Text 14 No LRS Identification (from Highway Data) tdGIStemp BEGMP Single 4 No LRS Beginning Point (from Highway Data) tdGIStemp ENDMP Single 4 No LRS Ending Point (from Highway Data) tdGIStemp PSR0 Single 4 No Original Present Serviceability Rating (from tdGIStemp VCR0 Single 4 No Original Volume Capacity ration (from HightdGIStemp LW0 Long Integer 4 No Original Lane Width (from Highway Data) tdGIStemp SHLT0 Long Integer 4 No Original Shoulder Type (from Highway DattdGIStemp RSHLW0 Long Integer 4 No Original Right Shoulder Width (from HighwtdGIStemp HORA0 Long Integer 4 No Original Horizontal Alignment Adequacy (ftdGIStemp VERA0 Long Integer 4 No Original Vertical Alignment Adequacy (from tdGIStemp ITYPE Integer 2 No Improvement Type tdGIStemp LADD Integer 2 No Lanes Added tdGIStemp CAPINC Single 4 No Increase in Capacity tdGIStemp TYPSEL Integer 2 No Type of Selection tdGIStemp BCR Single 4 No Benefit to Cost Ratio tdGIStemp VCR Single 4 No Volume to Capacity Ratio (at End of FP) tdGIStemp AES Single 4 No Average Effective Speed (at End of FP) 
H

H - 4 

Table Column Data Type Size Primary Key Allow Zero Length Descripti

tdGIStemp PSR Single 4 No Present Serviceability Rating (at End of FPtdGIStemp IRI Single 4 No Measured Pavement Roughness (at End otdGIStemp TLAN Integer 2 No Total Lanes (at End of FP) tdGIStemp PLAN Integer 2 No Peak Lanes, Peak Direction (at End of FP) tdGIStemp CPLAN Integer 2 No Peak Lanes, Opposite Direction (at End of tdGIStemp PCAP Single 4 No Peak Capacity, Peak Direction (at End of FtdGIStemp CPCAP Single 4 No Peak Capacity, Opposite Direction (at End tdGIStemp OPCAP Single 4 No Off-Peak Capacity (at End of FP) tdGIStemp ACCESS Long Integer 4 No Access Control (at End of FP) tdGIStemp LWID Integer 2 No Lane Width (at End of FP) tdGIStemp SHLT Integer 2 No Shoulder Type (at End of FP) tdGIStemp RSHLW Integer 2 No Right Shoulder Width (at End of FP) tdGIStemp MEDT Integer 2 No Median Type (at End of FP) tdGIStemp MEDW Integer 2 No Median Width (at End of FP) tdGIStemp WFEAS Integer 2 No Widening Feasibility (at End of FP) tdGIStemp HORA Long Integer 4 No Horizontal Alignment Adequacy (at End of tdGIStemp VERA Long Integer 4 No Vertical Alignment Adequacy (at End of FPtdGIStemp AADT Single 4 No Average Annual Daily Traffic (at End of FPtdGIStemp EMC Single 4 No Emission Costs (at End of FP) tdGIStemp IMPC Single 4 No Improvement Cost (at End of FP) tdGIStemp EMB Single 4 No Emissions Benefits (at End of FP) tdGIStemp TTB Single 4 No Travel-Time Benefits (at End of FP) tdGIStemp OPCB Single 4 No Operating-Cost Benefits (at End of FP) tdGIStemp SAFB Single 4 No Safety Benefits (at End of FP) tdGIStemp TOTB Single 4 No Total Benefits (at End of FP) tdGIStemp SCF Text 102 No State Control Field (from Highway Data) tdHighways fnHighwayID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned for each Highway tdHighways fsName Text 50 No User-specified name of the Highway Data tdHighways fsDescription Text 255 Yes User-specified description of the Highway tdHighways fsUserName Text 50 No User whom last modified the object tdHighways ftLastModified Date/Time 8 No Date and Time the object was saved or uptdHighways foFile OLE Object No Stores delimited text of data for a single HitdHighwaySections00 Selected Yes/No 1 No Record is selected for export ('Checked') tdHighwaySections00 Error Yes/No 1 No Record violates one or more validation ruletdHighwaySections00 ID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique Identification number of record (Da
H

H - 5 

Table Column Data Type Size Primary Key Allow Zero Length Descripti

tdHighwaySections00 Key Text 50 No Unique Identification number of record (SotdHighwaySections00 Comment Text 100 No User-specified Comment tdHighwaySections00 Year Integer 2 No Year of Data tdHighwaySections00 State Integer 2 No State Code tdHighwaySections00 Metric Yes/No 1 No Reporting Units - Metric or English tdHighwaySections00 County Integer 2 No County Code tdHighwaySections00 SectionID Text 14 Yes Section Identification tdHighwaySections00 Sample Yes/No 1 No Is Standard Sample tdHighwaySections00 Donut Yes/No 1 No Is Donut Sample tdHighwaySections00 StateControl Text 102 Yes State Control Field tdHighwaySections00 GroupedSection Yes/No 1 No Is Section Grouped tdHighwaySections00 LRSID Text 14 Yes LRS Identification tdHighwaySections00 LRSStart Single 4 No LRS Beginning Point tdHighwaySections00 LRSEnd Single 4 No LRS Ending Point tdHighwaySections00 RurUrb Byte 1 No Rural/Urban Designation tdHighwaySections00 UrbSampTech Byte 1 No Urbanized Area Sampling Technique tdHighwaySections00 UrbAreaCode Integer 2 No Urbanized Area Code tdHighwaySections00 NonAttainCode Integer 2 No NAAQS Nonattainment Area Code tdHighwaySections00 FunctSys Integer 2 No Functional System Code tdHighwaySections00 GenFuncSys Byte 1 No Generated Functional System Code tdHighwaySections00 NHS Byte 1 No National Highway System tdHighwaySections00 UnbuiltFac Byte 1 No Planned Unbuilt Facility tdHighwaySections00 InstRtNum Text 7 Yes Official Interstate Route Number tdHighwaySections00 RouteSign Byte 1 No Route Signing tdHighwaySections00 RouteSignQual Byte 1 No Route Signing Qualifier tdHighwaySections00 SignRouteNum Text 10 Yes Signed Route Number tdHighwaySections00 GovOwn Byte 1 No Governmental Ownership tdHighwaySections00 SpecSys Yes/No 1 No Special Systems tdHighwaySections00 TypeOfFac Byte 1 No Type of Facility tdHighwaySections00 DesTrkRoute Yes/No 1 No Designated Truck Route tdHighwaySections00 Toll Yes/No 1 No Toll tdHighwaySections00 SecLength Single 4 No Section Length tdHighwaySections00 DonutAADTVolGrp Byte 1 No Donut Area Sample AADT Volume Group tdHighwaySections00 StdAADTVolGrop Single 4 No Standard Sample AADT Volume Group IdetdHighwaySections00 AADT Long Integer 4 No Annual Average Daily Traffic 
H

H - 6 

Table Column Data Type Size Primary Key Allow Zero Length Descripti

tdHighwaySections00 ThruLanes Integer 2 No Number of Through Lanes tdHighwaySections00 IRI Single 4 No Measured Pavement Roughness tdHighwaySections00 PSR Single 4 No Present Serviceability Rating tdHighwaySections00 HOVOps Byte 1 No High Occupancy Vehicle Operations tdHighwaySections00 HWSurvSysA Yes/No 1 No Highway Surveillance Systems tdHighwaySections00 HWSurvSysB Yes/No 1 No Highway Surveillance Systems tdHighwaySections00 HWSurvSysC Yes/No 1 No Highway Surveillance Systems tdHighwaySections00 HWSurvSysD Yes/No 1 No Highway Surveillance Systems tdHighwaySections00 HWSurvSysE Yes/No 1 No Highway Surveillance Systems tdHighwaySections00 HWSurvSysF Yes/No 1 No Highway Surveillance Systems tdHighwaySections00 HWSurvSysG Yes/No 1 No Highway Surveillance Systems tdHighwaySections00 HWSurvSysH Yes/No 1 No Highway Surveillance Systems tdHighwaySections00 HWSurvSysI Yes/No 1 No Highway Surveillance Systems tdHighwaySections00 SampID Text 14 Yes Sample Identifier tdHighwaySections00 DonutExpFact Double 8 No Donut Area Sample Expansion Factor tdHighwaySections00 StdExpFact Double 8 No Standard Sample Expansion Factor tdHighwaySections00 SuftPvmtType Byte 1 No Surface/Pavement Type tdHighwaySections00 SNorD Single 4 No Structural Number or Depth tdHighwaySections00 ClimateZone Byte 1 No General Climate Zone tdHighwaySections00 YearSurfImp Integer 2 No Year of Surface Improvement tdHighwaySections00 LaneWidth Single 4 No Lane Width tdHighwaySections00 AccessCtrl Byte 1 No Access Control tdHighwaySections00 MedType Byte 1 No Median Type tdHighwaySections00 MedWidth Byte 1 No Median Width tdHighwaySections00 ShoulderType Byte 1 No Shoulder Type tdHighwaySections00 RtShoulderWidth Single 4 No Right Shoulder Width tdHighwaySections00 LtShoulderWidth Single 4 No Left Shoulder Width tdHighwaySections00 PeakParking Byte 1 No Peak Parking tdHighwaySections00 WideFeas Byte 1 No Widening Feasibility tdHighwaySections00 CurvesByClassA Single 4 No Curves by Class tdHighwaySections00 CurvesByClassB Single 4 No Curves by Class tdHighwaySections00 CurvesByClassC Single 4 No Curves by Class tdHighwaySections00 CurvesByClassD Single 4 No Curves by Class tdHighwaySections00 CurvesByClassE Single 4 No Curves by Class tdHighwaySections00 CurvesByClassF Single 4 No Curves by Class 
H

H - 7 

Table Column Data Type Size Primary Key Allow Zero Length Descripti

tdHighwaySections00 HorzAlignAdeq Byte 1 No Horizontal Alignment Adequacy tdHighwaySections00 TerrainType Byte 1 No Type of Terrain tdHighwaySections00 VertAlignAdeq Byte 1 No Vertical Alignment Adequacy tdHighwaySections00 GradesByClassA Single 4 No Grades by Class tdHighwaySections00 GradesByClassB Single 4 No Grades by Class tdHighwaySections00 GradesByClassC Single 4 No Grades by Class tdHighwaySections00 GradesByClassD Single 4 No Grades by Class tdHighwaySections00 GradesByClassE Single 4 No Grades by Class tdHighwaySections00 GradesByClassF Single 4 No Grades by Class tdHighwaySections00 PctPassSightDis Integer 2 No Percent Passing Sight Distance tdHighwaySections00 WghtDsgnSpeed Integer 2 No Weighted Design Speed tdHighwaySections00 SpeedLim Integer 2 No Speed Limit tdHighwaySections00 PctPkSUTrks Integer 2 No Percent Peak Single Unit Trucks tdHighwaySections00 PctAvgDlySUTrks Integer 2 No Percent Average Daily Single Unit Trucks tdHighwaySections00 PctPkCTrks Integer 2 No Percent Peak Combination Trucks tdHighwaySections00 PctAvgDlyCTrks Integer 2 No Percent Average Daily Combination Trucks tdHighwaySections00 KFact Integer 2 No K-Factor tdHighwaySections00 DirFact Integer 2 No Directional Factor tdHighwaySections00 NumPkLanes Integer 2 No Number of Peak lanes tdHighwaySections00 LtTurnLanes Byte 1 No Left Turning Lanes tdHighwaySections00 RtTurnLanes Byte 1 No Right Turning Lanes tdHighwaySections00 PrvalTypSignal Byte 1 No Prevailing Type of Signalization tdHighwaySections00 TypPkPGT Integer 2 No Typical Peak percent Green Time tdHighwaySections00 AtGrdInterSignals Integer 2 No Number of At-Grade Intersections with SigtdHighwaySections00 AtGrdInterSigns Integer 2 No Number of At-Grade Intersections with SigtdHighwaySections00 AtGrdInterOther Integer 2 No Number of At-Grade Intersections with OthtdHighwaySections00 PkCap Long Integer 4 No peak Capacity tdHighwaySections00 VSF Single 4 No Volume/Service Flow Ratio tdHighwaySections00 FutureAADT Long Integer 4 No Future AADT tdHighwaySections00 FutureAADTYear Integer 2 No Year of Future AADT tdHighwaySections00 Unknown1 Integer 2 No TBD tdHighwaySections00 Unknown2 Integer 2 No TBD tdIterationItems fnItemID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each detail of tdIterationItems fwIterationID Long Integer 4 No Foreign Key which ties record to higher lev
H

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Table Column Data Type Size Primary Key Allow Zero Length Descripti

tdIterationItems 

fsRefClass Text 50 No 

Refers to the object type (bcoSS1, bcoSS2bcoImprovements) and corresponding tablspecific record. 

tdIterationItems fwRefID Long Integer 4 No Combined with fsRefClass, points to a spetdIterations fnIterationID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each Iteration tdIterations fwConfigID Long Integer 4 No Foreign Key which ties record to higher levtdIterations fsName Text 50 Yes User-specified name of the specific iteratiotdIterations fsAttribute Text 50 Yes Name of parameter varied during multi-run tdIterations fwValue Double 8 No Value of the parameter specified by fsAttribtdParamModels fnModelID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each ParamettdParamModels fsName Text 50 No User-specified name of the parameter modtdParamModels fsDescription Text 255 Yes User-specified description of the ParametetdParamModels fsUserName Text 50 No User whom last modified the object tdParamModels ftLastModified Date/Time 8 No Date and Time the object was saved or uptdParamObjects fnParamID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each ParamettdParamObjects fwModelID Long Integer 4 No Foreign Key which ties record to higher levtdParamObjects fsClass Text 50 No Object type (bcoDLTbls, bcoImprCost, bcotdParamObjects fsDescription Text 255 Yes User-specified description of the ParametetdParamObjects 

foFile Memo No 

Stores delimited text of data contained in a Params, ImprCost or DLTbls 

tdParamObjects fsUserName Text 50 No User whom last modified the object tdParamObjects ftLastModified Date/Time 8 No Date and Time the object was saved or uptdProjectItems fnItemID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each model in tdProjectItems fwProjectID Long Integer 4 No Foreign Key which ties record to higher levtdProjectItems 

fsRefClass Text 50 No 

Refers to the object type (bcoHighwayDS, bcoStateDS) and corresponding table. Paspecific record. 

tdProjectItems fwRefID Long Integer 4 No Combined with fsRefClass, points to a spetdProjects fnProjectID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each Project tdProjects fsName Text 50 No User-specified name of the Project tdProjects fsDescription Text 255 Yes User-specified description of the Project tdProjects fsUserName Text 50 No User whom last modified the object tdProjects ftLastModified Date/Time 8 No Date and Time the object was saved or uptdReports fnReportID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each user-deftdReports fwProjectID Long Integer 4 No Foreign Key which ties record to higher lev
H

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Table Column Data Type Size Primary Key Allow Zero Length Descripti

tdReports fsName Text 50 No User-specified name of the report tdReports fsDescription Text 255 Yes User-specified description of a user-definetdReports fsUserName Text 50 Yes User whom last modified the object tdReports ftLastModified Date/Time 8 No Date and Time the object was saved or uptdReports 

fsRefClass Text 50 No 

Refers to the specific report object type (bcbcoChart) being stored. 

tdReports 

foReport Memo No 

Stores a path/filename to the XML file cont

tdSectionCondDet fnSectCondDetID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each section itdSectionCondDet 

fwSectCondID Long Integer 4 No 

Foreign Key which ties record to higher lev

tdSectionCondDet fwFundingPeriod Integer 2 No Funding Period of Improvement tdSectionCondDet RECNO Long Integer 4 No Record Number tdSectionCondDet CNTY Long Integer 4 No County Code (from Highway Data) tdSectionCondDet SECTID Text 14 No Section Identification (from Highway Data) tdSectionCondDet SAMPID Text 14 No Sample Identifier (from Highway Data) tdSectionCondDet LRSID Text 14 No LRS Identification (from Highway Data) tdSectionCondDet BEGMP Single 4 No LRS Beginning Point (from Highway Data) tdSectionCondDet ENDMP Single 4 No LRS Ending Point (from Highway Data) tdSectionCondDet PSR0 Single 4 No Original Present Serviceability Rating (from tdSectionCondDet VCR0 Single 4 No Original Volume Capacity ration (from HightdSectionCondDet LW0 Long Integer 4 No Original Lane Width (from Highway Data) tdSectionCondDet SHLT0 Long Integer 4 No Original Shoulder Type (from Highway DattdSectionCondDet RSHLW0 Long Integer 4 No Original Right Shoulder Width (from HighwtdSectionCondDet HORA0 Long Integer 4 No Original Horizontal Alignment Adequacy (ftdSectionCondDet VERA0 Long Integer 4 No Original Vertical Alignment Adequacy (from tdSectionCondDet ITYPE Integer 2 No Improvement Type tdSectionCondDet LADD Integer 2 No Lanes Added tdSectionCondDet CAPINC Single 4 No Increase in Capacity tdSectionCondDet TYPSEL Integer 2 No Type of Selection tdSectionCondDet BCR Single 4 No Benefit to Cost Ratio tdSectionCondDet VCR Single 4 No Volume to Capacity Ratio (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet AES Single 4 No Average Effective Speed (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet PSR Single 4 No Present Serviceability Rating (at End of FPtdSectionCondDet IRI Single 4 No Measured Pavement Roughness (at End o
H

H - 10 

Table Column Data Type Size Primary Key Allow Zero Length Descripti

tdSectionCondDet TLAN Integer 2 No Total Lanes (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet PLAN Integer 2 No Peak Lanes, Peak Direction (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet CPLAN Integer 2 No Peak Lanes, Opposite Direction (at End of tdSectionCondDet PCAP Single 4 No Peak Capacity, Peak Direction (at End of FtdSectionCondDet CPCAP Single 4 No Peak Capacity, Opposite Direction (at End tdSectionCondDet OPCAP Single 4 No Off-Peak Capacity (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet ACCESS Long Integer 4 No Access Control (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet LWID Integer 2 No Lane Width (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet SHLT Integer 2 No Shoulder Type (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet RSHLW Integer 2 No Right Shoulder Width (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet MEDT Integer 2 No Median Type (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet MEDW Integer 2 No Median Width (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet WFEAS Integer 2 No Widening Feasibility (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet HORA Long Integer 4 No Horizontal Alignment Adequacy (at End of tdSectionCondDet VERA Long Integer 4 No Vertical Alignment Adequacy (at End of FPtdSectionCondDet AADT Single 4 No Average Annual Daily Traffic (at End of FPtdSectionCondDet EMC Single 4 No Emission Costs (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet IMPC Single 4 No Improvement Cost (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet EMB Single 4 No Emissions Benefits (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet TTB Single 4 No Travel-Time Benefits (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet OPCB Single 4 No Operating-Cost Benefits (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet SAFB Single 4 No Safety Benefits (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet TOTB Single 4 No Total Benefits (at End of FP) tdSectionCondDet SCF Text 102 No State Control Field (from Highway Data) tdSectionConditions fnSectCondID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each set of setdSectionConditions fsSectCondName Text 50 No User-specified name of the Section CondittdSectionConditions fsSectCondDesc Text 255 No User-specified description tdSectionConditions fsUserName Text 50 No User whom last modified the object tdSectionConditions ftCreateDate Date/Time 8 No Date and Time the object was saved or uptdStateFields fnStateID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to state-specified tdStateFields fsName Text 50 No User-specified name of the State ImprovemtdStateFields fsDescription Text 255 Yes User-specified description of the State ImptdStateFields fsUserName Text 50 No User whom last modified the object tdStateFields ftLastModified Date/Time 8 No Date and Time the object was saved or uptdStateFields foFile OLE Object No Stores delimited test of data for a single St
H

H - 11 

Table Column Data Type Size Primary Key Allow Zero Length Descripti

tdStateSections00 ID Long Integer 4 No Foreign Key which ties record to higher levtdStateSections00 Key Text 50 Yes For internal use. Refers to object using the tdStateSections00 Improvements Integer 2 No Number of Improvements for the Section tdStateSections00 County Integer 2 No County Code tdStateSections00 SectionID Text 14 Yes Section Identification tdStateSections00 SF1_Year Integer 2 No Year of Improvement - Improvement 1 tdStateSections00 SF1_ImpTyp Integer 2 No Improvement Type - Improvement 1 tdStateSections00 SF1_Ovrd Long Integer 4 No Override Flag - Improvement 1 tdStateSections00 SF1_ImpCst Long Integer 4 No Cost of Improvement - Improvement 1 tdStateSections00 SF1_LaneAdd Long Integer 4 No Lanes Added - Improvement 1 tdStateSections00 SF1_IncCap Long Integer 4 No Increase in Capacity - Improvement 1 tdStateSections00 SF2_Year Integer 2 No Year of Improvement - Improvement 2 tdStateSections00 SF2_ImpTyp Integer 2 No Improvement Type - Improvement 2 tdStateSections00 SF2_Ovrd Long Integer 4 No Override Flag - Improvement 2 tdStateSections00 SF2_ImpCst Long Integer 4 No Cost of Improvement - Improvement 2 tdStateSections00 SF2_LaneAdd Long Integer 4 No Lanes Added - Improvement 2 tdStateSections00 SF2_IncCap Long Integer 4 No Increase in Capacity - Improvement 2 tdStateSections00 SF3_Year Integer 2 No Year of Improvement - Improvement 3 tdStateSections00 SF3_ImpTyp Integer 2 No Improvement Type - Improvement 3 tdStateSections00 SF3_Ovrd Long Integer 4 No Override Flag - Improvement 3 tdStateSections00 SF3_ImpCst Long Integer 4 No Cost of Improvement - Improvement 3 tdStateSections00 SF3_LaneAdd Long Integer 4 No Lanes Added - Improvement 3 tdStateSections00 SF3_IncCap Long Integer 4 No Increase in Capacity - Improvement 3 tdStateSections00 SF4_Year Integer 2 No Year of Improvement - Improvement 4 tdStateSections00 SF4_ImpTyp Integer 2 No Improvement Type - Improvement 4 tdStateSections00 SF4_Ovrd Long Integer 4 No Override Flag - Improvement 4 tdStateSections00 SF4_ImpCst Long Integer 4 No Cost of Improvement - Improvement 4 tdStateSections00 SF4_LaneAdd Long Integer 4 No Lanes Added - Improvement 4 tdStateSections00 SF4_IncCap Long Integer 4 No Increase in Capacity - Improvement 4 tdStateSections00 SF5_Year Integer 2 No Year of Improvement - Improvement 5 tdStateSections00 SF5_ImpTyp Integer 2 No Improvement Type - Improvement 5 tdStateSections00 SF5_Ovrd Long Integer 4 No Override Flag - Improvement 5 tdStateSections00 SF5_ImpCst Long Integer 4 No Cost of Improvement - Improvement 5 tdStateSections00 SF5_LaneAdd Long Integer 4 No Lanes Added - Improvement 5 tdStateSections00 SF5_IncCap Long Integer 4 No Increase in Capacity - Improvement 5 
H

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Table Column Data Type Size Primary Key Allow Zero Length Descripti

tdStateSections00 SF6_Year Integer 2 No Year of Improvement - Improvement 6 tdStateSections00 SF6_ImpTyp Integer 2 No Improvement Type - Improvement 6 tdStateSections00 SF6_Ovrd Long Integer 4 No Override Flag - Improvement 6 tdStateSections00 SF6_ImpCst Long Integer 4 No Cost of Improvement - Improvement 6 tdStateSections00 SF6_LaneAdd Long Integer 4 No Lanes Added - Improvement 6 tdStateSections00 SF6_IncCap Long Integer 4 No Increase in Capacity - Improvement 6 tdStateSections00 SF7_Year Integer 2 No Year of Improvement - Improvement 7 tdStateSections00 SF7_ImpTyp Integer 2 No Improvement Type - Improvement 7 tdStateSections00 SF7_Ovrd Long Integer 4 No Override Flag - Improvement 7 tdStateSections00 SF7_ImpCst Long Integer 4 No Cost of Improvement - Improvement 7 tdStateSections00 SF7_LaneAdd Long Integer 4 No Lanes Added - Improvement 7 tdStateSections00 SF7_IncCap Long Integer 4 No Increase in Capacity - Improvement 7 tdStateSections00 SF8_Year Integer 2 No Year of Improvement - Improvement 8 tdStateSections00 SF8_ImpTyp Integer 2 No Improvement Type - Improvement 8 tdStateSections00 SF8_Ovrd Long Integer 4 No Override Flag - Improvement 8 tdStateSections00 SF8_ImpCst Long Integer 4 No Cost of Improvement - Improvement 8 tdStateSections00 SF8_LaneAdd Long Integer 4 No Lanes Added - Improvement 8 tdStateSections00 SF8_IncCap Long Integer 4 No Increase in Capacity - Improvement 8 tdStateSections00 SF9_Year Integer 2 No Year of Improvement - Improvement 9 tdStateSections00 SF9_ImpTyp Integer 2 No Improvement Type - Improvement 9 tdStateSections00 SF9_Ovrd Long Integer 4 No Override Flag - Improvement 9 tdStateSections00 SF9_ImpCst Long Integer 4 No Cost of Improvement - Improvement 9 tdStateSections00 SF9_LaneAdd Long Integer 4 No Lanes Added - Improvement 9 tdStateSections00 SF9_IncCap Long Integer 4 No Increase in Capacity - Improvement 9 tdStateSections00 SF10_Year Integer 2 No Year of Improvement - Improvement 10 tdStateSections00 SF10_ImpTyp Integer 2 No Improvement Type - Improvement 10 tdStateSections00 SF10_Ovrd Long Integer 4 No Override Flag - Improvement 10 tdStateSections00 SF10_ImpCst Long Integer 4 No Cost of Improvement - Improvement 10 tdStateSections00 SF10_LaneAdd Long Integer 4 No Lanes Added - Improvement 10 tdStateSections00 SF10_IncCap Long Integer 4 No Increase in Capacity - Improvement 10 tdSysCondDets fnSysCondDetID Long Integer 4 Yes Yes Unique number assigned to each SS1 detatdSysCondDets fwSysCondID Long Integer 4 Yes Foreign Key which ties record to higher levtdSysCondDets fsFundingPeriod Text 40 Yes Funding Period tdSysCondDets fsLabel Text 30 Yes Identifies the type of data contained in this tdSysCondDets RuralInt Single 4 Yes Rural Interstate 
H

H - 13 

Table Column Data Type Size Primary Key Allow Zero Length Descripti

tdSysCondDets RuralOPA Single 4 Yes Rural - Other Principal Arterial tdSysCondDets RuralMA Single 4 Yes Rural - Major Arterial tdSysCondDets RuralMajCol Single 4 Yes Rural - Major Collector tdSysCondDets RuralTotal Single 4 Yes Rural Total tdSysCondDets UrbanInt Single 4 Yes Urban - Interstate tdSysCondDets UrbanOFE Single 4 Yes Urban - Other Freeway or Expressway tdSysCondDets UrbanOPA Single 4 Yes Urban - Other Principal Arterial tdSysCondDets UrbanMA Single 4 Yes Urban - Other Major Arterial tdSysCondDets UrbanCol Single 4 Yes Urban - Collector tdSysCondDets UrbanTotal Single 4 Yes Urban - Total tdSysCondDets Total Single 4 Yes Total tdSysCondtions fnSysCondID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each System CtdTabularData fnTabularID Long Integer 4 Yes No Unique number assigned to each Tabular OtdTabularData fsName Text 50 No User-specified name of the Tabular result dtdTabularData fsDescription Text 255 Yes User-specified description tdTabularData 

foFile OLE Object No 

Stores full ASCII text of the Tabular OutpuHERS-ST Analysis 

tdTabularData fsUserName Text 50 No User whom last modified the object tdTabularData ftLastModified Date/Time 8 No Date and Time the object was saved or uptlLayouts fsName Text 50 Yes No User-specified name of the Layout tlLayouts 

fsRefClass Text 50 Yes No 

Refers to the object type for which the layobcoImprovements) 

tlLayouts foLayout Memo Yes Stores a delimited string of settings used btlQueries fsName Text 50 No User-specified name of the filter Query tlQueries fsQuery Text 250 Yes SQL Where clause 

HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

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APPENDIX I - Database Schema 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

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tdProjects

PK fnProjectID

fsName

fsDescription

fsUserName

ftLastModified

tdProjectItems

PK fnItemID

FK1 fwProjectID

fsRefClass

fwRefID

tdConfigurations

PK fnConfigID

FK1 fwProjectID

fsName

fsDescription

fsUserName

ftLastModified

tdConfigurationItems

PK fnItemID

FK1 fwConfigID

fsRefClass

fwRefID

tdIterations

PK fnIterationID

FK1 fwConfigID

fsName

fsAttribute

fwValue

tdIterationItems

PK fnItemID

FK1 fwIterationID

fsRefClass

fwRefID

tdReports

PK fnReportID

FK1 fwProjectID

fsName

fsDescription

fsUserName

ftLastModified

fsRefClass

foReport
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 August 2002 

I - 3 

tdControlObjects

PK fnControlID

FK1 fwModelID

fsClass

fsDescription

foFile

fsUserName

ftLastModified

tdControlModels

PK fnModelID

fsName

fsDescription

fsUserName

ftLastModified

tdParamModels

PK fnModelID

fsName

fsDescription

fsUserName

ftLastModified

tdParamObjects

PK fnParamID

FK1 fwModelID

fsClass

fsDescription

foFile

fsUserName

ftLastModified

tdStateSections00

PK ID

Key

Improvements

County

SectionID

SF1_Year

SF1_ImpTyp

SF1_Ovrd

SF1_ImpCst

SF1_LaneAdd

SF1_IncCap

SF2_Ovrd

thru

SF10_IncCap

tdStateFields

PK fnStateID

fsName

fsDescription

fsUserName

ftLastModified

foFile

tdHighways

PK fnHighwayID

fsName

fsDescription

fsUserName

ftLastModified

foFile

tdHighwaySections00

Selected

Error

PK ID

Key

Comment

Year

State

Metric

County

SectionID

Sample

Donut

StateControl

GroupedSection

LRSID

LRSStart

LRSEnd

continued__
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

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I - 4 

tdTabularData

PK fnTabularID

fsName

fsDescription

foFile

fsUserName

ftLastModified

tdSysConditions

PK fnSysCondID

tdSysCondDets

PK fnSysCondDetID

FK1 fwSysCondID

fsFundingPeriod

fsLabel

RuralInt

RuralOPA

RuralMA

RuralMajCol

RuralTotal

UrbanInt

UrbanOFE

UrbanOPA

UrbanMA

UrbanCol

UrbanTotal

Total

tdFuncClassByImp

PK fnFuncClassByImpID

tdFuncClassByImpDets

PK fnFuncClassDetID

FK1 fwFuncClassByImpID

fsFundingPeriod

fsCategory

ImpType

RuralInt

RuralOPA

RuralMA

RuralMajCol

RuralTotal

UrbanInt

UrbanOFE

UrbanOPA

UrbanMA

UrbanCol

UrbanTotal

Total

tdSectionConditions

PK fnSectCondID

fsSectCondName

fsSectCondDesc

fsUserName

ftCreateDate

tdSectionCondDet

PK fnSectCondDetID

FK1 fwSectCondID

fwFundingPeriod

RECNO

CNTY

SECTID

SAMPID

LRSID

BEGMP

ENDMP

PSR0

VCR0

LW0

SHLT0

RSHLW0

HORA0

VERA0

ITYPE

LADD

CAPINC

TYPSEL

BCR

VCR

SPD

PSR

IRI

TLAN

PLAN

CPLAN

PCAP

CPCAP

OPCAP

ACCESS

LWID

SHLT

RSHLW

MEDT

MEDW

WFEAS

HORA

VERA

AADT

EMC

IMPC

EMB

TTB

OPCB

SAFB

TOTB

SCF
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

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APPENDIX J - Highway Data Validation Rules 
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Number Description 

1 Sections cannot exist for unbuilt or unopened facilities.

Condition: The UnbuiltFac (20) field equals 2 (Unbuilt) 

2 A paved section with a two-way road but only one lane cannot exist.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field equals 2 (Two-Way Road) AND 

 The ThruLanes (34) field equals 1 AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field is greater than 1 (Unpaved) 

3 Sections must have an AADT greater than zero.

Condition: The AADT (33) field is not greater than 0 

4 Sections must have at least one lane.

Condition: The ThruLanes (34) field is not greater than 0 

5 The length of all sections in a volume group cannot exceed the total length of the group.

Condition: The StdExpFact (49) field is less than 1 

6 Paved sections must have either a Measured Pavement Roughness (IRI) or a Pavement 

Condition (PSR).

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The IRI (35) and PSR (36) fields equal 0 AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field is greater than 1 (Unpaved) 

7 Sections must have a lane width greater than zero.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The LaneWidth (54) field equals 0 

8 A paved rural section must have a peak capacity greater than zero.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field is greater than 1 (Unpaved) AND 

The RurUrb (13) field equals 1 (Rural) AND 

 The PkCap (95) field equals 0 

9 A paved urbanized or small urban section must have a peak capacity greater than zero.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field is greater than 1 (Rural) AND 

 The PkCap (95) field equals 0 

10 An urbanized or small urban section with at least one intersection must have a percentage of 

green time greater then zero.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field does not equal 1 (Rural) AND 

 The TypPkPGT (91) field equals 0 AND 

 The AtGrdInterSignals (92) field is greater than 0 
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Number Description 

11 A section must have a future AADT value.

Condition: The FutureAADT (97) field equals 0 

12 A section must have a future AADT year.

Condition: The FutureAADTYear (98) field equals 0 

13 An interstate section is not usually one-way.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field equals 1 (One-Way Road) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

14 An interstate section usually has an AADT of 1000 or greater.

Condition: The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) AND 

 The AADT (33) field is less than 1000 

15 Two-way interstate sections usually have four or more lanes.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field equals 2 (Two-Way Road) AND 

 The ThruLanes (34) field is less than 4 AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

16 An interstate section usually has a surface of a high flexible or better type construction and 

materials.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field is less than 4 (High Flexible) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

20 An interstate section with a supplied pavement condition usually is rated at 2.0 or greater.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The IRI (35) field equals 0 AND 

 The PSR (36) field is not 0 and less than 2 AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

21 An interstate section usually has full access control.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The AccessCtrl (55) field does not equal 1 (Full) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

22 An interstate section usually has a width of twelve feet or greater.

Condition: The LaneWidth (54) field is less than 12 AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

23 An interstate section usually has shoulders and also is built of materials better then bare earth.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The ShoulderType (58) field equals 1 (None) or 5 (Earth) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 
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Number Description 

24 An uncurbed interstate section having shoulders built of materials better than bare earth usually 

also has shoulder widths greater than eight feet.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The ShoulderType (58) field is between 1 (None) and 5 (Earth) AND 

 The RtShoulderWidth (59) field is less than 8 AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

25 An interstate section usually has a median of some type.

Condition: The MedType (56) equals 4 (None) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

26 An interstate section usually has a median width of greater than zero.

Condition: The MedWidth (57) equals 0 AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

27 An interstate section usually has curves that can be negotiated safely at the prevailing speed 

limit for the section.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The HorzAlignAdeq (69) field is greater than 2 (Acceptable) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

28 An interstate section usually has grades that provide safe sight distance and can be negotiated 

by trucks safely at the prevailing speed limit for the section.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The VertAlignAdeq (71) field is greater than 2 (Acceptable) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

29 An interstate section usually has a speed limit of 50 mph or greater.

Condition: The SpeedLim (80) field is less than 50 AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

30 A rural interstate section usually has a design speed of 70 mph or greater.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field equals 1 (Rural) AND 

 The WghtDsgnSpeed (79) field is less than 70 AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

31 An interstate section usually has no turning lanes or provisions to do so.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The LtTurnLanes (88) field or 

 RtTurnLanes (89) field is greater than 0 AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

32 A rural interstate section usually does not have signalized intersections.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field equals 1 (Rural) AND 

 The PrvalTypSignal (90) field equals 1, 2 or 3 (Signalized) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 
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Number Description 

33 An interstate section usually has zero percent green time, since there are no signalized 

intersections.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The TypPkPGT (91) field is greater than 0 AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

34 An urban interstate section usually has no parking allowed.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field does not equal (Rural) AND 

 The PeakParking (61) field is not equal to 3 (No Parking) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

36 An interstate section usually has no intersections.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The AtGrdInterSignals (92) field or 

 AtGrdInterSigns (93) field or 

 AtGrdInterOther (94) field is greater than 0 AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 (Interstate) 

38 A two-way one-lane section is usually paved.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field equals 2 (Two-Way Road) AND 

 The ThruLanes (34) field equals 1 AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field equals 1 (Unpaved) 

39 A section usually has less than 13 lanes.

Condition: The ThruLanes (34) field is greater than 12 

40 The summed average daily percentage of trucks of a section is usually 50% or less.

Condition: The PctAvgDlySUTrks (82) field PLUS 

 The PctAvgDlyCTrks (84) field is greater than 50 

41 The summed percentage of peak trucks of a section is usually 50% or less.

Condition: The PctPkSUTrks (81) field PLUS 

 The PctPkCTrks (83) field is greater than 50 

42 A section usually has a volume/service flow ratio of 1.20 or less.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The VSF (96) field is greater than 1.2 

43 A section with an AADT of 250 or greater usually does not have a future AADT increase of 

greater than 200 percent of its current AADT.

Condition: The AADT (33) field is greater than 250 AND 

 100 * ( 20 * (∆AADT / ∆YEAR) / AADT) > 200 

 Where: ∆AADT = FutureAADT - AADT 

 ∆YEAR = FutureAADTYear – Year 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

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Number Description 

44 A section with an AADT of 250 or greater usually does not have a future AADT value decrease 

of more than 25 percent. 

Condition: The AADT (33) field is greater than 250 AND 

 100 * ( 20 * (∆AADT / ∆YEAR) / AADT) < -25 

 Where: ∆AADT = FutureAADT - AADT 

 ∆YEAR = FutureAADTYear – Year 

45 A rural section in flat terrain usually does not have grades and vertical curves that are below 

minimum design standards.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field equals 1 (Rural) AND 

 The TerrainType (70) field equals 1 (Level) AND 

 The VertAlignAdeq (71) field is greater than 2 (Acceptable) 

46 A section with parking on both sides cannot have shoulders.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The ShoulderType (58) field is not 1 (None) or 6 (Barrier) AND 

 The PeakParking (61) field equals 2 (Both Sides) 

47 A section improved in the last two years usually has a PSR greater than or equal to 2.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field is not 1 (Unpaved) AND 

 The Year (1) MINUS YearSurfImp (53) is greater than 2 AND 

 The IRI (35) field equals 0 AND 

 The PSR (36) field is not 0 and less than 2 

48 Sections improved in the last two years usually have a roughness less than 100.0 feet/mile.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field is not 1 (Unpaved) AND 

 The Year (1) MINUS YearSurfImp (53) is greater than 2 AND 

 The IRI (35) field is not 0 and greater than 100 

49 A paved section usually has an IRI of 25 feet/mile or more.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field is not 1 (Unpaved) AND 

 The IRI (35) field is not 0 and less than 25 

50 A paved section usually has an IRI of 400 feet/mile or less.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field is not 1 (Unpaved) AND 

 The IRI (35) field is not 0 and greater than 400 

51 A section with a PSR greater than 4.0 usually has an IRI of 150 feet/mile or less.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field is not 1 (Unpaved) AND 

 The PSR (36) field is not 0 and is greater than 4 AND 

 The IRI (35) field is not 0 and is greater than 150 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

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Number Description 

52 A section with a PSR less than 2.0 usually has an IRI of 100 feet/mile or more.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field is not 1 (Unpaved) AND 

 The PSR (36) field is not 0 and is less than 2 AND 

 The IRI (35) field is not 0 and is less than 100 

53 A section usually has a K-factor of 5 or larger.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The KFact (85) field is less than 5 

54 A section usually has a K-factor of 19 or less.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The KFact (85) field is greater than 19 

55 A two-way section usually has a directional factor of 70 or less.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The DirFact (86) field is not 100 and is greater than 70 

56 Sections usually have a speed limit that is a multiple of 5.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The SpeedLim (80) field is not divisible by 5 

62 A non-interstate, paved section should have a PSR greater than 1.0.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field is not 1 (Interstate) AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field is not 1 (Unpaved) AND 

 The PSR (36) field is not 0 and is less than 1 AND 

 The IRI (35) field equals 0 

63 Urban principal arterials and other freeway and expressway sections with signals usually have a 

green time of 35% or greater.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 2 or 3 (Arterial) AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field does not equal 1 (Rural) AND 

 The TypPkPGT (91) field is less than 35 AND 

 The AtGrdInterSignals (92) field is greater than 0 

64 Urban principal arterials with signals usually have a green time of 90% or less.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 2 (Principal Arterial) AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field does not equal 1 (Rural) AND 

 The TypPkPGT (91) field is greater than 90 AND 

 The AtGrdInterSignals (92) field is greater than 0 

65 Urban minor arterials with signals usually have a green time of 90% or less.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 3 (Minor Arterial) AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field does not equal 1 (Rural) AND 

 The TypPkPGT (91) field is greater than 90 AND 

 The AtGrdInterSignals (92) field is greater than 0 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

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Number Description 

66 Urban collectors and local roads with signals usually have a green time of 80% or less.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 4, 5 or 6 (Collectors, Local) AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field does not equal 1 (Rural) AND 

 The TypPkPGT (91) field is greater than 80 AND 

 The AtGrdInterSignals (92) field is greater than 0 

67 Urban principal arterials usually have access control.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 2 (Principal Arterial) AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field does not equal 1 (Rural) AND 

 The AccessCtrl (55) field equals 3 (None) 

68 The primary arterial system is normally in a paved condition.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field is 1 or 2 (Road) AND 

 The FunctSys (17) field is 1, 2, 11, 12 or 14 (Interstate, Arterial) AND 

 The SurfPvmtType (50) field equals 1 (Unpaved) 

69 The peak percentage of daily single-unit trucks cannot be more than the average percentage of 

daily single-unit trucks.

Condition: The PctPkSUTrks (81) field is greater than PctAvgDlySUTrks (82) 

70 The peak percentage of daily combination trucks cannot be more than the average percentage 

of daily combination trucks.

Condition: The PctPkCTrks (83) field is greater than PctAvgDlyCTrks (84) 

71 A one-way section cannot have a median.

Condition: The TypeOfFac (27) field equals 1 or 3 (One-Way) AND 

 The MedType (56) field does not equal 4 (None) AND 

 The MedWidth (57) field is greater than 0 

72 A one-lane section cannot have a median.

Condition: The ThruLanes (34) field equals 1 AND 

 The MedType (56) field does not equal 4 (None) AND 

 The MedWidth (57) field is greater than 0 

73 The primary arterial system is not normally one lane.

Condition: The ThruLanes (34) field equals 1 AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field equals 1 (Rural) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1 or 2 (Interstate, Principal Arterial) 

Condition: The ThruLanes (34) field equals 1 AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field does not equal 1 (Rural) AND 

 The GenFuncSys (18) field equals 1, 2 or 3 (Interstate, Arterial) 

78 A non-freeway section usually has a speed limit of 55 mph or less.

Condition: The ThruLanes (34) field is less than 4 AND 

 The RurUrb (13) field does not equal 1 (Rural) AND 

 The SpeedLim (80) field is greater than 55 
HERS-ST GUI User’s Guide v2.0 

 August 2002 

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FHWA-IF-02-059