A multi-objective network design model for road freight transportation using the eHighway system

New technological innovations of eco-friendly vehicles for freight transport combined with the usage of renewable energy sources showed significant results in mitigating transport-related carbon footprint. Therefore, in this paper, we present a multi-objective network design model considering a novel technology, the eHighway system, based on electrified roads to supply new Overhead Catenary (OC) hybrid trucks. This work investigates the opportunities of adopting eHighways and evaluates its environmental benefits considering limited budget resources for infrastructure electrification. We propose an optimization problem formulation including three objectives: the minimization of infrastructure and environmental costs, and the maximization of the total number of OC hybrid trucks served on electrified arcs. The Pareto optimization approach is considered for a comprehensive analysis of all possible solutions according to different criteria weights. The proposed model has been evaluated on a test network and the numerical results of Pareto optimization show the environmental improvement we can obtain by using the eHighway system up to about 99% according to the assumed available budget and assigned criteria weights. As a result, the model can be considered as a useful tool for decision-makers in the eHighway network design.