Technical Report Documentation Page

1. Report No.

FHWA-HOP-11-022

2. Government Accession No.

3. Recipient's Catalog No.

4. Title and Subtitle

WORK ZONE PERFORMANCE MEASURES PILOT TEST

5. Report Date

April 2011

6. Performing Organization Code

7. Author(s)

Gerald L. Ullman , Timothy J. Lomax , and Fan Ye -TTI
Tracy Scriba – FHWA

8. Performing Organization Report No.

9. Performing Organization Name and Address

Texas Transportation Institute
The Texas A&M University System
College Station, Texas 77843-3135

10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS)

11. Contract or Grant No.

DTFH61-06-D-00007

12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address

U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
Office of Operations
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590

13. Type of Report and Period Covered

14. Sponsoring Agency Code

HOTO

15. Supplementary Notes

Project Leader: Tracy Scriba, FHWA.
Project carried out under contract to Battelle for the FHWA Office of Operations.

16. Abstract

Currently, a well-defined and validated set of metrics to use in monitoring work zone performance do not exist. This pilot test was conducted to assist state DOTs in identifying what work zone performance measures can and should be targeted, what data they will need to collect to compute those measures, and what methods exist to obtain that data. Work zone activity and traffic data from five work zone projects were gathered and analyzed. Multiple data sources and collection methods were examined and utilized to the extent available at each project. These sources were field crew personnel manually documenting queue presence, length, and duration; traffic surveillance data from a transportation management center or from portable work zone ITS; and third-party probe vehicle data (in this test, large truck speed data obtained via the FHWA Office of Freight Management).

The results of the pilot test indicate that manual documentation of queuing by field personnel, and the use of permanent or portable traffic sensor data can be used effectively to measure work zone impacts, given that information as to the time and location of work activities is known. Probe vehicle data is also believed to be a viable source of data, but sample size issues did limit is applicability in this pilot test. Average and maximum queue lengths and duration, duration of queues exceeding pre-determined thresholds, vehicle exposure to queues, and vehicle delays when queues are present were among the several performance measures tested and demonstrated as viable indicators of work zone mobility impacts. A number of lessons learned through this pilot test effort are also included in the report. A primer on how to select and compute work zone performance measures is being developed based on the findings documented in this report.

17. Key Words

WORK ZONE SAFETY AND MOBILITY, TRAFFIC IMPACTS, PERFORMANCE MEASURES

18. Distribution Statement

No restrictions.

19. Security Classification (of this report)

Unclassified

20. Security Classification (of this page)

Unclassified

21. No of Pages

112

22. Price