Development of a Work Zone Safety Audit Risk Assessment Tool

Work zones limit capacity, create queues, and present distractions for motorists. As technology has improved, so have Temporary Traffic Control (TTC) devices in the attempt to make traffic flow smoother through work zones and increase the safety. New standards in the 2009 Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) identify the traffic control challenges associated with typical work zone set ups and provides guidance on how to address them. Changes in the 2009 MUTCD include guidelines for pedestrian safety, guidelines for incident management, and guidelines on the use of a range of devices for work zone specific traffic control. While the guidelines are a major step forward, there is a significant challenge ahead in implementation and compliance. A team of Utah State University researchers worked with the Utah Department of addressed eleven out of eighteen active high speed road work zones throughout the state. The purpose of the audits was to classify and begin to quantify the efforts that will be required as the state moves towards full implementation and compliance. A key product of the research was a simple evaluation tool used to document, classify, and quantify the set up quality of the work zones. The tool, the Work Zone Safety Assessment Risk Analysis Tool (WZ-SARA) proved to a valuable aid to identify work zone areas of concern on an individual site basis, on a similar site basis, and on a global basis. The output is an estimation of overall risk and the impact that individual or collective improvements will have on work zone safety. The simplicity of the tool and the standardization of audit parameters provides a cost-effective way for inspectors to effectively oversees multiple work zones.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB55 Work Zone Traffic Control
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Lindheimer, Tomas
  • Heaslip, Kevin
  • Louisell, William
  • Gardiner, Kevin
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2012-1-22 to 2012-1-26
• Date: 2012

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 13p
• Monograph Title: TRB 91st Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Highway safety; Incident management; Temporary barriers; Traffic flow; Work zone safety
• Identifier Terms: Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices
• Uncontrolled Terms: Temporary traffic control devices
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01372779
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 12-4168
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jun 15 2012 4:04PM