A QuickZone Tailor-Made for Maryland
The prototype version of QuickZone, a new work zone delay estimation
software developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and
Mitretek Systems, is now available for use and assessment by highway
agencies. One State getting ready to give it a real-world tryout is
Maryland.
"We had an ongoing project with the University of Maryland where
we were looking at capacity in work zones and trying to come up with
a tool for estimating queues and delays," says Jawad Paracha
of the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA). "When we
found out about QuickZone, we decided to combine the two efforts."
QuickZone, which is the first product to come out of FHWA's new strategic
Work Zone Analysis Tools (SWAT) program (see July/August 2000 Focus),
can be used to compare the traffic impacts for work zone mitigation
strategies and estimate the costs associated with these impacts. The
costs can be estimated for both an average day of work and for the
whole life cycle of construction. The software, says lead developer
Karl Wunderlich of Mitretek Systems, "will help highway agencies
better phase and stage their construction activities. It can help
them determine what times of day and what times of the year are best
for a certain project, for example."
QuickZone's open source code has allowed the University of Maryland,
under contract with SHA, to customize the program to better meet the
State's needs. The university, for example, has added its own capacity
estimation model to the program. In Maryland's version of the program,
users can also define the criteria that will be used for analysis,
such as setting a maximum allowable queue of vehicles or length of
delay. And the Maryland version uses a 24-hour traffic count, instead
of the average daily traffic count found in the standard program.
Maryland's version of QuickZone is scheduled to be ready this month.
Copies will be distributed to all of the State's district traffic
engineers so that they can perform validation testing and use it for
general analysis. "We believe that the program can guide the
engineers in the right direction and provide a more accurate estimation
of delays and queues," says Paracha.
A user need only have Microsoft Excel 97 or higher running on a Windows-based
PC to use the QuickZone application. Version 0.91 can be downloaded
from the Web at www.tfhrc.gov/its/quickzon.htm.
Version 0.99 of the prototype is due out in April, while Version 1.0
of the software is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2001. For
more information on the software, contact Deborah Curtis at FHWA,
202-493-3267 (fax: 202-493-3419; email: deborah.curtis@fhwa.dot.gov).
For more information on the Maryland version of QuickZone, contact
Jawad Paracha at the Maryland SHA, 410-787-5891 (jparacha@sha.state.md.us).
FHWA is encouraging other States to customize QuickZone for their
own use through its QuickZone Partnership Program. The partnership
program will take advantage of QuickZones's open source code as a
means of further improving the software and providing State and local
agencies with a tool that best meets their needs. If you are interested
in participating in the partnership program, please contact Matthew
Hardy at Mitretek Systems, 202-863-2982 (email: matthew.hardy@mitretek.org).