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Work Zone Awareness Week
More Planning for Work Zone Mobility
FHWA calls for New Emphasis
Planning for work zone impacts on traffic is a familiar job to VDOT employees. Communicating with the public about these changes also is a task performed for many projects.
Nevertheless, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is calling on DOTs to formalize the planning process for work zones, and to place greater emphasis on mobility for motorists affected by projects, as well as on safety for them. The FHWA wants a policy about this in place by October.
Mobility planning has obvious importance, according to Paul Kelley, a VDOT work zone safety coordinator: “We’re not adding many new roadways anymore; rather, we’re adding capacity to present roads—and we’re doing it under traffic conditions.”
VDOT has some excellent examples of planning for work zone impacts on motorists, including reconstruction of the Springfield Interchange, Coleman Bridge and the I-95 James River Bridge. However, Kelly says that there is no formal guidance about this in the department—for planning or reviewing the results of planning. In many cases, he adds, an analysis of traffic impacts and planning for temporary traffic control has come late in the project development process.
In the new policy, Kelley says regional traffic engineers will be responsible for a traffic impact analysis early on. That analysis will be given to project managers for development of the temporary traffic control plan. Then the project team will plan for traffic operations and public information campaigns. During construction, regional work zone safety coordinators and construction managers will work with contractors to implement the plans and address problems that develop. After the project is complete, the construction manager will meet with all parties to assess a work zone’s effectiveness and make a report.
Kelley says that in addition to new guidance on preparing for work zones, another major change is likely to be seen in the future: more detours.
“There will be more emphasis on road closings and detours for projects,” he explains. The reasons: Without traffic, projects are safer; the work gets done faster; the quality of work increases; and the costs for construction and the costs for motorists who would have been in work zones probably will be reduced.
“If you are reconstructing an intersection and you shut it down on weekends and detour traffic, you might get the job done in three or four weekends, as opposed to three or four months if you work with traffic moving through the intersection,” Kelley says.
Work Zone Awareness Week: New work zone training >
