Appendix C - Information on Companion Guidance Documents

To supplement this Rule Implementation Guide, FHWA has also developed a suite of companion guidance documents that provide more detail on the following aspects of the updated work zone Rule (the Rule):

• Work Zone Impacts Assessment
• Work Zone Transportation Management Plans (TMPs)
• Work Zone Public Information and Outreach Strategies

Starting in late 2005, these documents will be available in hard copy and can also be downloaded from http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/wz/resources/final_rule.htm.

A synopsis of each of the Guides follows.

Work Zone Impacts Assessment: An Approach to Assess and Manage Work Zone Safety and Mobility Impacts of Road Projects

This Guide offers some guiding principles and a general approach for assessing the potential safety and mobility impacts of road projects and developing strategies to manage the expected impacts. The Rule encourages agencies to develop and implement procedures for work zone impacts assessment. The Guide is intended to assist agencies with developing and/or updating their own procedures for assessing and managing work zone impacts.

The approach used in the Guide is structured to mirror the program delivery process commonly used by Departments of Transportation (DOTs). The Guide presents the work zone impacts assessment process activities organized according to the program delivery stages, as follows:

• Developing and implementing an overall work zone safety and mobility policy at the policy-level.
• Conducting a first-cut work zone impacts assessment at the systems planning-level.
• Conducting a preliminary project-level work zone impacts assessment during preliminary engineering.
• Conducting detailed project-level work zone impacts assessment during design.
• Monitoring and managing work zone impacts during construction.
• Conducting post-construction work zone performance assessments.
• Incorporating work zone impacts assessment procedures in ongoing management, operations, and maintenance.

Within this Guide, a variety of methods are used to describe how work zone impacts assessment may be incorporated into the respective program delivery stages, including:

• Process diagrams.
• Work flow explanations.
• Real-world examples.
• Links to more detailed information about each example.

Developing and Implementing Transportation Management Plans (TMPs) for Work Zones

A TMP lays out a set of coordinated strategies and describes how these strategies will be used to manage the work zone impacts of a road project. The Rule requires the development and implementation of a TMP for all Federal-aid highway projects. The TMP requirement in the Rule helps to expand mitigation of work zone impacts beyond traffic safety and control to other transportation management strategies that address operations and management of the work zone and public information. The scope, content, and level of detail of a TMP will vary based on the agency's work zone policy, the anticipated work zone impacts of the project, and whether the project is determined to be a significant project. [1]

This Guide is a resource to help agencies develop, implement, and monitor TMPs. The Guide recognizes that work zone objectives, needs, and issues vary from project to project, and that it is ultimately up to the agency to establish and implement TMPs that best serve the safety and mobility needs of the motoring public, highway workers, businesses, and community.

The Guide covers:

• What a TMP is and the benefits TMPs can provide.
• Recommendations of how and when to develop a TMP.
• A list of components to consider for inclusion in TMPs.
• A matrix of strategies for managing work zone impacts.
• Examples of current TMP practices from several DOTs.
• A list of TMP resources.

Work Zone Public Information and Outreach Strategies

A public information and outreach campaign involves communicating to road users, the general public, area residents and businesses, and appropriate public entities about a road project, the impacts expected from the project's work zone, and changing conditions on the project. A typical campaign will include traveler information strategies for providing information about what to expect in and around the work zone—such as lane and shoulder closings, new traffic patterns, and traffic delay—and available travel alternatives such as different routes and travel modes. For a significant project, the TMP for the project must include public information and outreach strategies to inform those affected by the project of expected work zone impacts and changing conditions. [2]

To help states develop and implement public information and outreach strategies, the Public Information and Outreach Strategies Guide presents information based on a review of approximately 30 project-specific work zone public outreach campaigns used around the country, as well as other available information. The campaigns reviewed were for projects ranging from a major, multi-year Interstate reconstruction project, to an Interstate rehabilitation project done over two weekends, to a street widening project in the downtown of small city.

The underlying theme of the Guide is that successful public information and outreach campaigns are typically well thought out by the project partners and planned well in advance of work zone deployment. For highway officials planning a public information and outreach campaign, the Guide provides tips, examples, and practices on a range of topics including:

• The information and resources needed to plan and evaluate a campaign.
• The different audiences that need to be reached.
• The types of information that need to be conveyed to the various audiences (e.g. project duration, details of lane closures, up-to-the minute traffic delay information, alternative routes or methods of transportation);
• Methods of communication (e.g. newspaper advertisements, brochures, interactive web pages, dynamic message signs).
• When to begin a public information and outreach campaign.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of a public information and outreach campaign.

The Guide also provides a checklist and a set of templates to help agencies with developing a campaign and putting together a public information and outreach plan to implement the campaign.