The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) strives to maintain mobility while improving and rehabilitating its aging road network. To better meet the needs of motorists, ODOT has implemented a statewide policy to reduce traffic delay resulting from work zones. The ODOT Maintenance of Traffic (MOT) policy applies to all individuals who plan and perform work on interstate highways and freeways. It requires practitioners to coordinate construction activity with other ongoing projects, assess the potential impacts of work zones on the length of queues, and, above all, maintain adequate traffic flow during road rehabilitation. Specifically, the policy limits the number of lanes that may be closed for construction and maintenance on Interstate highways and other freeways. The policy requires sufficient mainline capacity during construction and maintenance and mandates allowable queue thresholds that must be met.
The MOT policy requires each district to designate a District Work Zone Traffic Manager (DWZTM) to assist in the development of a Permitted Lane Closure Map (PLCM). The PLCM is a schedule of times lanes are permitted to be closed on Interstates and other freeways in the district. Any project that will violate the PLCM lane closure times requires the district to perform an analysis of the project impact on traffic. If the analysis shows that expected queues violate the allowable queue thresholds of the policy the district must submit an exception request the Maintenance of Traffic Exception Committee (MOTEC). Submitted with the exception request is a comparison of alternative work zone strategies, including but not limited to road-user costs, construction costs, construction schedule, and associated traffic queues for each alternative. The Multi-Lane Coordinator and any applicable Central Office specialty sections review the submitted work zone alternatives and provide recommendations to the MOTEC. The MOTEC will accept or deny the recommendations and can require further alternative recommendations or analysis from project personnel. The goal of the MOT policy and MOTEC review is to encourage project personnel and contractors to think creatively when considering and mitigating the impacts of work zones on congestion.
For Dave Holstein, Administrator of ODOT's Office of Traffic Engineering, the overarching principle of work zone safety and mobility is early planning. "It is absolutely critical to identify potential work zone impacts early enough in the project development process to be able to include an engineering solution in the subsequent plan development," he says. "You don't want to get too far into a project and then realize you needed wider bridges, more right-of-way, or a different environmental footprint to mitigate work zone impacts. When an impact cannot be completely designed out of the project, innovative contracting or innovative construction techniques can be used to minimize the time an impact is present."