TRAFFIC INCIDENT MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE WORK ZONES
4.0 PRE-CONSTRUCTION STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
Incorporating incident management strategies and techniques needs to occur in the very initial preparation and design stages of the work zone project. This section highlights some of the strategies and activities that work zone planners and incident managers can perform during the initial planning stages of a construction or maintenance project.
Role of the Contractor/Construction Personnel in Work Zone Incident Management
One of the first issues that must be dealt with in determining which type of incident management to include in a work zone transportation management plan (TMP) is the issue of the particular role the contractor or construction personnel should play in managing incidents in work zones. In some cases, the contractor may be responsible for providing clearance functions of minor incidents. In other cases, the contractor may be required to purchase and install equipment and systems to support detection and clearance functions. Changes in the construction phasing may be required to better facilitate incident responders. Whatever role the contractor is to play, it must be clearly spelled out in the development of the plans, specifications and estimates (PS&Es) for the project.
Contractors and construction personnel should never be asked to perform investigatory functions associated with clearing incidents. At a minimum, contractors and construction personnel should be briefed on the procedures for the types of information to include when reporting incidents that occur in the work zone. These procedures should be clearly defined and construction personnel should receive adequate training on the information that is needed by incident managers to respond to different types of incidents.
In some situations, on-scene construction personnel may be asked or directed to provide assistance with establishing traffic control, or providing on-site scene management. Furthermore, contractors and construction personnel may also be asked to post incident-related messages on portable dynamic message signs (DMS) intended to provide work-zone related messages. At a minimum, construction personnel and incident responders should discuss potential uses of construction-related traffic control devices and traveler information systems for incident management purposes; and all agencies need to understand when and where it is appropriate to modify an established TMP in response to an incident. Private contractors should be made fully aware of the liability issues associated with using their equipment or personnel to assist in managing incidents in the work zone.
For larger construction projects, contractors may be required to provide specified incident management functions (such as providing courtesy patrol, implementing wrecker contracts, installing incident detection and surveillance equipment, etc.) as part of the transportation operation element of the TMP for the work zone. The work zone regulations require agencies to provide appropriate pay item provisions for implementing the TMPs (which may include contractor provided traffic incident management [TIM] functions), either through method or performance-based specifications.2
Institutional Arrangement and Agreements
Incident management is a cooperative and collaborative effort between multiple agencies and entities. Successful incident management programs have a solid foundation of trust between incident responders. Participants in the process know and understand their roles and responsibilities.
One of the first things that must occur after work zone planners and incident responders have agreed upon the types of strategies to be deployed in a work zone is to examine what, if any, new or existing agreements, policies, or laws need to be enacted or modified to ensure that they are applicable to a particular work zone situation. In most cases, modifying existing policies and laws can require extensive lead time and effort to accomplish. For example, many agencies rely upon “move-it” laws or quick clearance policies to ensure the rapid removal of minor crashes and debris from overturned vehicles. In some cases, agencies may need to work with state and local legislators to establish “move-it” laws or quick clearance policies. In other cases, existing legislation may need to be amended so it can be extended to work zone application. Work zone planners need to check with local incident management providers to determine which type of agreement already exists in an area, and what needs to be done to strengthen or adapt these policies to a specific work zone situation.
Another potential agreement, which might be helpful to incident managers and responders in managing incidents in work zones, is a mutual aid agreement. Mutual aid agreements are common between fire and emergency medical responders. These agreements permit these responders to provide emergency assistance to each other in the event of disasters or emergencies (Mutual Aid Agreements for Public Assistance and Fire Management Assistance (Available at http://www.fema.gov/government/grant/pa/9523_6.shtm).13 Similar types of agreements can be used to allow other governmental agencies to provide incident management functions outside their own jurisdictions.
Coordination with Existing Incident Management Programs
As discussed previously, many agencies and locations have already established protocols and procedures for responding to incidents. These may be formally adopted procedures that are documented in a TIM plan or may be informal, common practices that have developed over time. Work zone planners should not try to re-invent TIM, but instead work with incident managers to identify, incorporate, or supplement the special needs of a particular work zone project in the existing TIM program. For example, as part of the Big I Interchange Reconstruction, the New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department (NMSHTD) purchased two additional courtesy patrol vehicles (or HELP vehicles) using construction funds and then allowed the contractor (with a no-cost lease) to use this vehicle to move a disabled vehicle from the work zone during weekday, daytime periods. At the end of the construction period, the vehicles were turned back over to NMSHTD for continued use in their existing incident management program.14
Another important existing incident management asset that work zone planners should consider when planning a work zone is keeping existing incident detection and surveillance technologies operating as long as possible. For incident managers and traffic operators, it is important to keep this technology operating as it is often their “eyes” for assessing the operation of the roadway. Incident managers and traffic operators frequently use traffic detection and video surveillance technologies to detect when and where incidents occur and to assist them in dispatching resources and managing traffic during incidents. This technology can be a valuable asset when managing incidents in work zones as well. Work zone planners and operators need to work together to develop strategies to keep this equipment operating and maintained throughout the construction project (through the use of temporary devices or communications systems).
Existing incident management capabilities can be expanded as part of a construction project. Common methods used to promote expansion of exiting traffic management capabilities are including communication conduits and constructing device or cabinet foundations. In other cases, actual surveillance and control technologies can be designed and installed as part of a construction project. Again, the Big I Reconstruction project serves as an example of how a construction project was used to expand the incident management capabilities of an agency. In this project, NMSHTD used a design contractor with construction oversight to design and implement an intelligent transportation system (ITS) network as part of the work zone. The contract called for the purchase and installation of all components of the ITS network as a lump sum purchase. Through a subcontractor, the system hardware and software components were implemented as part of the construction project. To utilize the system while construction was still ongoing, temporary wireless communications were established to the devices in the work zone. NMSHTD employees then used the system to detect and manage incidents in the Big I work zone.14
Alternate Route Planning
Another important pre-construction activity that work zone planners and incident responders need to do is decide how to detour traffic to an alternate route when a major incident occurs in the work zone. Diverting traffic to a parallel roadway specified in a carefully planned alternate route plan is an effective, temporary response that can be used to mitigate the effects of incidents on roadways. Since it is common practice to provide alternate route information as part of the normal work zone TMP, work zone planners and incident managers must work together to determine appropriate alternate routes which can be used to manage work zone traffic during an incident condition. To compound the problem of establishing incident-related alternate routes in a work zone, planners need to consider not only what to do when an incident occurs on the roadway that is under construction, they also need to consider what to do when an incident occurs on a detour route that has been established as part of the work zone TMP.
The Alternate Route Handbook15 suggests that the following factors be considered when selecting alternate routes:
- Proximity of alternate route to closed roadway,
- Ease of access to/from alternate route,
- Safety of motorists on alternate route,
- Height, weight, width, and turning restrictions on alternate route,
- Number of travel lanes/capacity of alternate route,
- Congestion induced on alternate route,
- Traffic conditions on alternate route,
- Number of signalized intersections, stops signs, and unprotected left turns on alternate routes,
- Travel time on alternate route,
- Pavement conditions on alternate route,
- Type and intensity of residential development on alternate route,
- Existence of schools and hospitals on alternate route,
- Percentage of heavy vehicles (e.g., trucks, buses, RVs, etc.) on route form which traffic is to be diverted,
- Grades on alternate route,
- Type and intensity of commercial development on alternate route,
- Availability of fuel, rest stops, and food facilities along alternate route,
- Noise pollution,
- Transit bus accommodation,
- Air quality,
- Ability to control timing of traffic signals on alternate route,
- Ownership of road,
- Availability of ITS surveillance equipment on alternate route, and
- Availability of ITS information dissemination equipment (such as DMSs, and HAR) on alternate route.
In planning alternate routes, work zone planners and incident responders should realize that the suitability of selected alternate routes may change over time. Work zone planners and incident responders should meet prior to each stage of construction to review and revise the alternate routes plans.
In addition to identifying and selecting candidate alternate routes that can be used to manage work zone traffic during an incident, agencies also need to develop guidelines and criteria that define when traffic should be diverted to an alternate route in response to a work zone incident. The Alternate Route Handbook15 recommends that the following factors be considered when developing guidelines for when to establish alternative routes:
- Anticipated duration of the incident,
- Number of lanes blocked by the incident,
- Observed traffic conditions, both on the roadway where the incident exist and on the alternate route,
- Time-of-day and day-of-week when the incident occurred,
- Capacity of the proposed alternate route,
- Resources (in terms of personnel, equipment, and traffic control) needed to establish the alternate route, and
- Time required to deploy those resources.
Figure 3 shows the criteria developed by the Colorado Department of Transportation for determining when to establish an alternate route in response to an incident during the T-REX construction project.
Figure 3. Sample Criteria for Determining When to Use Alternate Routes in Response to an Incident12
When to Establish an Alternate Route
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Work zone planners and incident managers also need to agree to the processes and procedures for implementing alternate route plans during each phase of construction. Incident mangers need to keep in mind that an alternative route or detour route may already be established for the work zone and that the availability of alternate routes may be limited. Furthermore, motorists traveling in a work zone may already be confronted with complex signing associated with the work zone. The potential exists to overload motorists with too much (and potentially conflicting) information when establishing an alternative route for an incident in a work zone. Work zone planners and incident responders should work together to develop step-by-step procedures on how to establish an agreed upon alternate route plan in response to an incident in a work zone, including the following:
- Procedures and contact information for notifying a stakeholder when implementing an alternate route,
- Procedures for transitioning traffic signal timings and other active traffic control devices along the alternate route,
- Procedures for deploying signing, law enforcement personnel, and other traffic control devices along the alternate route, and
- Candidate messages to be deployed on traveler information devices (e.g., DMSs, HARs, Web pages, etc.) during the incident conditions.
Agreements may also be needed that allow agencies for one jurisdiction to deploy resources in another agency’s jurisdiction.
Work zone planners and incident managers also need to reach consensus on criteria and procedures for discontinuing an alternate route and removing the deployed traffic control from the detour route. The criteria need to clearly define which stakeholders have the authority to make the decision to discontinue the use of the alternate route and under what circumstances they can make that decision. Guidelines should be developed that provide step-by-step instructions for removing deployed signing and returning active traffic control devices, such as the traffic signals, to normal operations.
Training
Training of both incident responders and construction personnel is another key element that needs to be addressed early in the construction planning process. This training can be as simple as including a review of developed incident management manuals and guidelines during regularly scheduled training or safety briefings; or as complex as instructor-led training courses which could potentially include field and tabletop exercises. This training should be geared toward incident responders as well as construction and maintenance personnel. It is essential that all personnel, both incident responders and construction personnel, are fully aware of the policies, procedures, and practices that have been implemented for a construction project.
During the project planning stages, it may be helpful to provide work zone planners and project designers with basic training related to incident management concepts and principles so that key incident management amenities (such as accident investigation sites, site access improvements, emergency staging areas, etc.) can be incorporated in the PS&E development process.
On-site construction personnel also need to be provided with training related to proper techniques and procedures to use for securing an incident scene and should be well briefed on the agreements made between incident responder and project planners on how incidents will be managed in the construction zone. If construction personnel are to be used to assist in providing basic incident management functions (such as providing motorist assistance, establishing incident traffic control, etc.), then they need to be provided adequate training on how to perform these functions. Depending upon the type of incident management strategies to be deployed in a work zone, construction personnel should receive specific project-related training on the following incident management practices:10
- Notification procedures and incident reporting
- Emergency traffic control
- Moving damaged or disabled vehicles.
- Implementing alternate routes
- Procedures and policies relating to media contacts
Incident response personnel also need to be provided with specialized training for handling projects in work zones. This training should be tailored to the specific strategies that will be deployed as part of the TIM program developed for the project. Furthermore, it is critical that response personnel are aware of any agreements that have been made with construction personnel or other incident responders during the development of the incident management plan. Consideration should be given to providing incident responders with project-specific training on the following:10
- Response manual policies and procedures
- Use of emergency flashers
- Apparatus parking and staging
- Implementation of alternate routes
- Communications procedures with other incident management providers
- Vehicle removal policies and procedures
- Procedures for working with the media
Information Sharing
Information sharing is another critical issue that needs to be addressed during the early phases of a construction planning process. Information is vital to providing an effective incident response. With better information, incident response is improved by ensuring that the proper equipment and resources are available to the responders at the time when it is needed on-scene. Better information allows travelers to make better decisions regarding departure time, mode choice, and route to take. As part of the initial planning phase of a project, work zone planners and incident managers should develop strategies to improve information sharing within and between response agencies, with the media, and to the public as a whole.
Within and Between Response Agencies
Interagency communication is critical to achieving effective on-scene management of traffic incidents. Issues with intra- and interagency communications become more critical when the incident response is complex or spread out over a large area. Strategies used to improve interagency communication include the following:
- Conducting incident management preparedness training exercises,
- Adopting common communications and data transmission standards,
- Adopting and using Incident Command System (ICS) practices to manage traffic incidents,
- Establishing electronic paging or an email alert system for notifying incident responders,
- Developing a matrix of radio frequencies used be on-scene incident responders.
Figure 4 shows the radio frequency matrix developed by the Colorado Department of Transportation for the T-REX construction project.
Figure 4. Example Radio Frequency Matrix for Incident Responders 12
Channel |
Agency |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Arap. Cty Road & Bridge |
Arap. Cty Sheriff |
Aurora Fire |
Aurora Police |
Aurora Public Works |
Castle Rock Fire |
CDOT TOC |
CDOT Region 6 |
CSP |
Cunningham Fire |
Denver Fire |
Denver Paramedics |
Denver Police |
Denver Public Works |
Doug. Cty Road & Bridge |
Doug. Cty. Sheriff |
Greenwood Village Police |
Parker Fire |
Skyline Fire |
South Metro Fire |
ASCO 1 |
X |
X |
|
|
|
|
|
|
X |
X |
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|
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|
|
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
ASCO EOC |
X |
X |
|
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|
|
|
X |
X |
|
|
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|
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|
X |
|
X |
X |
CSP1 |
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|
X |
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|
X |
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CSP 2 |
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|
X |
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|
X |
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|
CDOT Traffic 1 |
|
X |
X |
X |
|
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
|
|
X |
X |
|
|
X |
CDOT Traffic 2 |
|
X |
X |
X |
|
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
|
|
X |
X |
|
|
X |
CLEER |
|
X |
X |
X |
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|
X |
X |
|
X |
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|
X |
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DCSO A |
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X |
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X |
X |
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DCSO B |
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X |
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X |
X |
X |
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DCSO C |
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X |
X |
X |
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DEC |
|
X |
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X |
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X |
X |
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|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
DISP 1 |
|
X |
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X |
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X |
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X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
FERN |
|
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
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|
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
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|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
GVPD 1 |
|
X |
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|
X |
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|
X |
|
X |
X |
ICALL |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
ITAC 1 |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
ITAC 2 |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
ITAC 3 |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
ITAC 4 |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
MAC 1 |
|
X |
|
|
|
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
MAC 2 |
|
X |
|
|
|
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
MAC 3 |
|
X |
|
|
|
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
SNOW |
|
|
X |
X |
X |
|
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STAC 5 |
X |
X |
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|
X |
|
|
X |
X |
|
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|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
Public Education and Outreach
Most large construction projects utilize Web sites, press releases, and/or newsletters to provide the public with information about planned construction and project phasing activities. These outreach efforts can also be utilized to educate the public about the incident management procedures that are also associated with a construction project. Information about motorist assistance or courtesy patrols, “move it,” or quick clearance policies can all be disseminated using outreach efforts. Past experience has shown that the use of public education campaigns, press releases, and signs in the work zone greatly enhance compliance with “move-it” laws and accident alerts.10
Procedures for Working with Media
The media can also be considered a partner in disseminating information about incidents and incident management procedures and policies in work zones. Incident responders need to develop procedures and practices for working with the media during incident conditions. The media can be a fast and reliable means of disseminating information about incident conditions and travel alternatives to the traveling public. The media can also serve as an outlet for disseminating information about incident management procedures deployed as part of the construction activities. Media packets which describe the project and steps that agencies are taking to minimize the impacts of incidents on traffic operations can be a valuable asset to local media providers. Media packets can be used to disseminate information about who the media can contact in the event that an incident occurs in the work zone, maps showing potential staging areas designated for the media, and maps showing how traffic is being detoured in response to major road closures. Other information that can be distributed to the public via the media includes the following:10
- How to report an incident to 911,
- Where to go to obtain traffic information during an incident condition, and
- What are “move-it” laws and how do they apply to drivers.
Liability and Legal Issues
In some jurisdictions, incident responders are often hesitant to take actions to quickly clear and remove vehicles and debris from the roadway because of liability concerns over additional damages to vehicles or the losses of cargo and other personal property inside the vehicle. To reduce these concerns, many states have enacted “hold harmless” laws that permit incident responders to quickly clear incidents. These laws give incident responders immunity from civil liability in connection with removing vehicles and cargo involved in a traffic incident and obstructing adjacent traffic flow. According to a recent National Cooperative Highway Research Program Synthesis16, three types of hold harmless laws pertain to the removal of traffic incidents.
The first type of law applies to drivers or other individuals who remove a vehicle involved in a crash (commonly referred to as “Move-It” laws). This law states that drivers or any other individual who move a vehicle involved in a crash are not liable or at fault with regard to the cause of the crash. The second type of hold harmless law protects incident responders who are fulfilling the requirements set forth in authority removal laws or authority tow laws. This law is designed to protect law enforcement, state departments of transportation (DOTs), and others from incurring liability in connection with damages resulting from the removal of disabled or wrecked vehicles and cargo that creates obstructions or hazards to normal flow of traffic. The final type of hold harmless law provides immunity to incident responders from any potential liability incurred by NOT executing the requirement of a quick clearance law. In these cases, agencies may not be held responsible for any damages or claims that may result from not clearing the incidents from the roadway. This is important for those situations where a detailed investigation may be required or other special extenuating circumstances may exist
Before requiring the contractor to implement any type of incident management, work zone planners and incident responders should examine the types of hold harmless laws that are present in their state or jurisdiction and determine whether or not the contractor, if required to perform these functions, is also covered by these provisions. It may be necessary to amend or expand these protections to work zone personnel who are required or contracted to perform these services.
