Strategies For Work Zone Transportation Management Plans

One of the ways a state department of transportation or other transportation agency can address work zone safety and other impacts is to develop and implement a Transportation Management Plan (TMP). The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP Research Report 945: Strategies for Work Zone Transportation Management Plans provides a practitioner-ready guidebook on how to select and implement strategies that improve safety and traffic operations in roadway construction work zones. Supplemental materials to the report include NCHRP Web-Only Document 276: Evaluating Strategies for Work ZoneTransportation Management Plans; fact sheets on ramp meter, reversible lane, and truck restrictions; and guidebook appendices.

This Guide is designed to help transportation agencies develop and implement transportation management plans (TMPs). A TMP lays out a set of coordinated transportation management strategies and describes how they will be used to manage the work zone impacts of a road project. The scope, content, and level of detail of a TMP may vary based on an agency's work zone policy and the anticipated work zone impacts of the project. The intended audience for this Guide is the persons responsible for developing TMPs. Depending on the agency's processes and procedures, this may be agency personnel and/ or contractors. Persons responsible for TMP-related policy/procedure development and revision, implementation, review, approval, and assessment will also benefit from this Guide. This document also provides support to agencies in their efforts to implement the recently updated work zone regulations. In September 2004, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published updates to the work zone regulations at 23 CFR 630 Subpart J. The updated rule is referred to as the Work Zone Safety and Mobility Rule (Rule) and applies to all State and local governments that receive Federal-aid highway funding. Transportation agencies are required to comply with the provisions of the Rule by October 12, 2007. The changes made to the regulations broaden the former rule to better address the work zone issues of today and the future. Growing congestion on many roads, and an increasing need to perform rehabilitation and reconstruction work on existing roads already carrying traffic, are some of the issues that have lead to additional, more complex challenges to maintaining work zone safety and mobility. To help address these issues, the Rule provides a decision-making framework that facilitates comprehensive consideration of the broader safety and mobility impacts of work zones across project development stages, and the adoption of additional strategies that help manage these impacts during project implementation. The Rule requires agencies to develop an agency-level work zone safety and mobility policy to support systematic consideration and management of work zone impacts across all stages of project development. Based on the policy, agencies will develop processes and procedures to support implementation of the policy. The third primary element of the Rule calls for the development of project-level procedures to address the work zone impacts of individual projects. This includes requirements for identifying significant projects and developing and implementing TMPs for all Federal-aid highway projects. This document is the third of four guidance documents on the Rule and contains guidance, as well as many examples of how transportation agencies have developed and implemented TMPs or similar plans.

This Guide is designed to help transportation agencies develop and/or update their own procedures for assessing and managing the work zone impacts of their road projects throughout the different program delivery stages. Understanding work zone impacts is critical to developing effective work zone transportation management plans (TMPs) that provide for safety, mobility, and quality in maintaining, rehabilitating, and rebuilding the nation's highways. The primary intended audience for this Guide is transportation agency staff, including technical staff (planners, designers, construction/traffic engineers, highway/safety engineers, etc.); management and executive-level staff responsible for setting policy and program direction; field staff responsible for building projects and managing work zones; and staff responsible for assessing performance in these areas. This document also provides support to agencies in their efforts to implement the recently updated work zone regulations. In September 2004, the FHWA published updates to the work zone regulations at 23 CFR 630 Subpart J. The updated rule is referred to as the Work Zone Safety and Mobility Rule (Rule) and applies to all State and local governments that receive Federal-aid highway funding. Transportation agencies are required to comply with the provisions of the Rule by October 12, 2007. The changes made to the regulations broaden the former Rule to better address the work zone issues of today and the future. The Rule provides a decision-making framework that facilitates comprehensive consideration of the broader safety and mobility impacts of work zones across project development stages, and the adoption of additional strategies that help manage these impacts during project implementation. The Rule requires agencies to develop an agency-level work zone safety and mobility policy to support systematic consideration and management of work zone impacts across all stages of project development. Based on the policy, agencies will develop processes and procedures to support implementation of the policy. These include procedures that address work zone impacts assessment, work zone data, work zone training, and process reviews. The Rule also calls for the development of project-level procedures to help agencies assess and manage the work zone impacts of individual projects. While the Rule does not require a specific work zone impacts assessment process/procedure, it recommends that agencies develop and implement systematic procedures to assess work zone impacts in project development, and to manage safety and mobility during project implementation. This document is the last of four guidance documents developed on the Rule, and provides a general approach for conducting work zone impacts assessment and management, as well as many examples of the approaches currently being used by transportation agencies.

This document is meant to help transportation agencies plan and implement effective public information and outreach campaigns for work zones. The focus of this document is not on project selection and design, but on the travel impacts of a work zone – such as lane closings, new traffic patterns, and traffic delay – and available travel alternatives (e.g., different routes and travel modes). This document provides information and strategies for developing public information and outreach campaigns for specific work zones, rather than general work zone education and safety campaigns. It is primarily designed for personnel in transportation agencies responsible for planning and operating highway work zones and those responsible for public relations and public information. It will also be of interest to transportation policy makers, work zone contractors, consultants, public relations firms, and emergency responders. This document also provides support to agencies in their efforts to implement the recently updated work zone regulations. In September 2004, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published updates to the work zone regulations at 23 CFR 630 Subpart J. The updated rule addresses the use of public information and outreach as a work zone management tool. The updated rule is referred to as the Work Zone Safety and Mobility Rule (Rule) and applies to all State and local governments that receive Federal-aid highway funding. Transportation agencies are required to comply with the provisions of the Rule by October 12, 2007. The changes made to the regulations broaden the former rule to better address the work zone issues of today and the future. Growing congestion on many roads, and an increasing need to perform rehabilitation and reconstruction work on existing roads already carrying traffic, are some of the issues that have lead to additional, more complex challenges to maintaining work zone safety and mobility. To help address these issues, the Rule provides a decision-making framework that facilitates comprehensive consideration of the broader safety and mobility impacts of work zones across project development stages, and the adoption of additional strategies that help manage these impacts during project implementation. The Rule requires agencies to develop an agency-level work zone safety and mobility policy to support systematic consideration and management of work zone impacts across all stages of project development. Based on the policy, agencies will develop processes and procedures to support implementation of the policy. The third primary element of the Rule calls for the development of project-level procedures to address the work zone impacts of individual projects. This includes requirements for identifying significant projects and developing and implementing transportation management plans (TMPs) for all projects. For significant projects, the TMP must include public information and outreach strategies to inform those affected by the project of expected work zone impacts and changing conditions. This document is the second of four guidance documents on the Rule and contains guidance, as well as many examples of work zone public information and outreach campaigns used by transportation agencies.