Performance Measurement Development
A key component of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) program for improved work zone safety and mobility is the development of initiatives to track and analyze work zone performance. This initiative includes the development of national and project-level performance measures, the tracking of measures over time, and the encouragement of widespread use and understanding of these measures. Areas for these performance measures include delay, user costs, exposure, safety, and public perception. Of interest are measures that are useful for from a national program level and for state level transportation agencies, as well as measures that resonate with road users’ experiences in work zones. While performance measures have a clear role in systems management, carefully crafted performance measures can also be used in a broad outreach function, for informing and educating the public on trends on the number of work zones and the impact these work zones have on road user safety and mobility as well as for providing traveler information.
Current Efforts
Some efforts to lay the groundwork for establishing measures have been done. These efforts include the periodic collection and synthesis of work zone data from state roadwork websites ("A Snapshot of Summer 2001 Work Zone Activity" (HTML, PDF 527K) as well as the examination of detailed inspection and financial records of work zones in selected jurisdictions (Work Zone Safety and Exposure Assessment effort). These efforts can lead to estimates of the number of work zones put in place annually across the nation, the number of travelers exposed to active or inactive work zones, and the amount of capacity lost to work zones across the nation. These specific activities provide increased understanding and are the basis for moving towards establishing work zone performance measures. FHWA is in the process of developing a range of potential work zone performance measures and plans to conduct field evaluations of the measures.
FHWA has also developed a Work Zone Self-Assessment Tool to assist State departments of transportation (DOTs) in evaluating the state-of-their-practices for reducing the incidence of delay and crashes associated with work zones.
Past Efforts
In 1997 and 1998, FHWA conducted a quality improvement review, resulting in a report called "Meeting the Customer's Needs for Mobility and Safety During Construction and Maintenance Operations." To foster continuous quality improvement in the area of work zone mobility and safety, a Model Work Zone Traffic Management Program and Self-Evaluation Guide was developed to accompany the quality improvement review report. The model traffic management program is an idealistic model that was developed using traffic management concepts reported in research studies and papers and effective techniques currently being used by States to minimize motorist delays and enhance work zone safety. This model is a benchmarking tool that allows transportation agencies to assess their own work zone traffic management programs. View or download the Model Work Zone Traffic Management Program and Self-Evaluation Guide (PDF, 238MB).
To view PDF files, you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader.
