A simplified framework for sequencing of transportation projects considering user costs and benefits

City, regional and state transportation planning authorities typically need to undertake multiple transportation improvement projects to maintain the desired level of service in a road network. Due to budgetary restrictions and to avoid inconvenience to network users, sequencing (or stage construction) of highway projects is usually considered by these decision-making agencies. This paper proposes a two-step process to determine the optimal sequencing of road network capacity improvement projects. In the first step, bi-level problems determine an optimal set of capacity improvement projects for potential links in a network. Then, in the second step, sequencing of projects is determined through an optimization framework with twofold prioritization criteria. The implementation feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated through the numerical experiments using city, county and regional networks. The results of numerical experiments suggest that a proper sequencing of transportation projects can lead to significant network user travel time savings during construction.