July/August
2001
QuickZone
by
Deborah Curtis
What
is the true cost of a road construction or improvement project? Very
few state and local highway officials or construction contractors
can give a full answer, even after projects are completed and paid
for. That's because, in the overwhelming majority of cases, officials
and contractors have calculated only "hard costs," such as labor and
materials.
But there
are also "soft costs" to every road project. These are the costs to
road users - motorists and their passengers - who must spend extra
minutes or even hours of their valuable time in their vehicles trying
to negotiate their way through work zones. This type of traveler delay
is significant - especially to the traveler - but its cost is rarely
factored in.
Meanwhile,
the traveler must operate with only a vague idea of what his/her delays
will be. He knows there will be delays, but he doesn't know how long
they will last.
In short,
a tool to quantify delays and estimate user cost would benefit everyone
affected by work zones, including highway officials, workers, and
motorists.
Enter
QuickZone. QuickZone is recently released software that will estimate
traveler delay due to work zones. By doing so, it will provide a more
complete and realistic view of total construction costs. The software
was developed by the Office of Research, Development, and Technology
in the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and by Mitretek Systems.
QuickZone
is a key component of the Strategic Work-Zone Analysis Tools (SWAT)
Program of FHWA. The SWAT team at FHWA's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research
Center in McLean, Va., developed QuickZone following the 1998 release
of the FHWA report Meeting the Customer's Needs for Mobility and Safety
During Construction and Maintenance Operations.
This
report states that road-user cost is typically not considered when
construction zones are planned. It recommends the development of an
analytic tool, such as an easy-to-use software program, that would
estimate and quantify work-zone delays and resulting user costs.
QuickZone
will provide results in an easily readable spreadsheet form.
"Spreadsheets
are tools that people are familiar with," said James Larkin, a senior
systems engineer at Mitretek. "We wanted it to be easy for people
to use, easy for them to put information in, and to get information
out."
This
tool is particularly necessary in light of the fact that many interstate
highways are approaching the end of their design life. As a result,
work zones are encountered more and more frequently. The motorist
is affected not only as he commutes to work but on pleasure trips
as well. Frustration with work-zone delays will only continue to increase.
QuickZone,
a Microsoft Excel Workbook application, can be used by anyone with
Excel 97 or higher. The only other requirements are a Windows-based
computer with minimal memory and processing speed. The cost of the
software is also minimal - in the $200 range. The typical QuickZone
users are state and local highway officials and other officials planning
highway construction. However, consultants may also use QuickZone
to analyze different project alternatives.
To use
QuickZone, a user would input data such as:
- Work
zone location.
- Projected
detour routes, if any.
- Anticipated
volumes of traffic.
- Construction
dates and times.
The program
is designed so that the setup of a typical work-zone network should
take less than an hour. Once the data is entered, results should be
available in graphic form in about three minutes. The graphic will
display the amount of delay in vehicle-hours as well as the maximum
length of the queue that can be expected.
Once
officials, planners, and contractors have these numbers, they can
analyze them to determine whether the amount of delay is reasonable
and acceptable. If so, they can proceed on course. But if not, QuickZone
can help once again. The program will offer suggestions for bringing
the amount of delay under control. Suggestions may include:
- A
news media campaign to get information out about the planned work
zone so that drivers may choose other routes if possible.
- Posting
or activating highway information signs that will inform motorists
of the scheduled dates and times of the work zone.
- Retiming
signals on detour routes so that motorists won't have to stop at
multiple red lights.
- Changing
the times of construction to make the project more cost-effective
to both the contractor and the motorist. For example, officials
may have planned night construction to ease delays, but it may actually
be more cost-effective for everyone to do a project over the course
of one full day rather than two or three nights. Or, it may be better
to close a lane and finish a project in two weeks rather than trying
to keep all lanes open and making it a six-week project.
Armed
with this information, officials and contractors can figure out the
best schedule for construction, taking user costs (motorist costs)
into account. QuickZone simply provides a more realistic and complete
view of total construction costs.
QuickZone
is available now on the Web (www.tfhrc.gov/its/quickzon.htm), but
the program has not yet been field-tested. A version of QuickZone
(1.0) that has been field-tested, using data from work zones, will
be available in October. QuickZone (1.0) and full technical support
will be available from McTrans at the University of Florida.
![Strategic Workzone Illustration.](images/swatlogo.jpg) |
Strategic
Workzone Analysis Tools |
|
The program
has been well-received so far. In addition, highway officials, construction
contractors, and universities have expressed interest. So have the
U.S. military services, which build roads on bases, as well as the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, which builds roads on Native American reservations.
FHWA
and Mitretek are eager to develop partnerships for field-testing QuickZone.
One potential partnership will be with the University of Maryland.
The university has its own version of the program and is modifying
it for use by the Maryland Department of Transportation.
The QuickZone
partnership program is open to all interested parties. FHWA will provide
free source code and technical support in exchange for rights to include
any updates or additions in the FHWA-release version of QuickZone.
"I think
we've hit gold," said Larkin. "We've gotten a very positive response.
We really think we've filled a niche. We think we can achieve a substantial
reduction in user delay. What is the cost to the user sitting in his
car? That is the heart of the QuickZone program."
Deborah
Curtis is a highway research engineer on the Travel Management
Team of FHWA's Office of Operations Research and Development.
Go
to the QuickZone Web site at: http://www.tfhrc.gov/its/quickzon.htm
Other
Articles in this Issue:
HELP
WANTED - Meeting the Need for Tomorrow's Transportation Work Force
The
Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program: Preparing
for the Future of Transportation
The
Millennium Manual Matters
QuickZone
Iowa's
Approach to Environmental Stewardship
Moveable
Barrier Solves Work-Zone Dilemma
Learning
From the Big Dig
A
Light at the End of the Tunnel
International
Cooperation to Prevent Collisions at Intersections
Pay
Attention - Buckle Up: Safe Driving Is a Full-Time Job