# Presentation: 410278

## Making Work Zones    Work Better

**Chung Eng**
**Work Zone Mobility & Safety Team**
**Office of Transportation Operations**
**Federal Highway Administration**
**US Department of Transportation**

**Talking Freight Seminar**
**June 20, 2006**

## Slide 2

## Agenda

- What Do We Know?
- What Can Be Done?
- What is FHWA Doing?

- Work Zones:

## Work Zones – What We Know:

- Our highway infrastructure is aging
- Construction work is increasing
- Growth in VMT is outpacing the addition of new lane miles
- Congestion is growing

## Growth in Wasted Hours 

- Congestion has increased dramatically over the past 2 decades.
- In the 13 largest cities, drivers spend the equivalent of almost eight work days each year stuck in traffic.
- Work Zones account for 10% of overall congestion.

- Source: Texas Transportation Institute, 2005 Urban Mobility Report

**Annual Hours Lost to Congestion Per Peak Hour **
**Driver**
**Very Large Metro Areas, 1983 v. 2003**

## Cost of Congestion to U.S. Businesses

- Portland General Electric estimates that it **spends around $500K/year for additional travel time for maintenance crews** due to congestion.
- In 2000, congestion at the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, **cost motor carriers between $150M and $200M.**

- Intel has **moved their last shipment departure time up two hours for outbound shipments through PDX** due to increased pm peak congestion.
- Atlanta area distributor of pet food with an 11-truck fleet finds it **difficult for one truck to make more than 12 daily deliveries**; in 1984, one truck made as many as 20 deliveries each day.

***Cost of Congestion to U.S. Businesses***

## Work Zones – What We Know:

- Our highway infrastructure is aging
- Construction work is increasing
- Growth in VMT is outpacing the addition of new lane miles
- Congestion is growing
- Crashes are increasing

## Work Zones – What We Know:Crashes are Increasing

*According to a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration analysis, approximately 25% of work zone fatal crashes in 2005 involved a large truck.*

## What Can Be Done?

- To reduce work zone delay
- To reduce crashes, fatalities, and injuries?

## What Can be Done to Make Work Zones Work Better?

- Recognize impacts early and develop projects to include strategies that minimize impacts
- Look for ways to reduce exposure:
- Reduce number work zones
- Reduce duration of work zones
- Work during off-peak periods
- Consider full closures as appropriate
- Provide information to drivers
- Reduce hazards in work zones

## What is FHWA doing?

- Issued Work Zone Safety and Mobility Rule
- Identifying & promoting best practices
- Providing training
- Providing guidance
- Providing technical assistance and facilitating information sharing

## WZ Safety and Mobility Rule

- Published Sept 2004 – Compliance by Oct 2007
- Major Provisions
- Develop & Implement a WZ Policy
- Implement Processes and Procedures to Support the Policy
- 	- WZ impacts assessment & management
- 	- Training
- 	- Use of safety & operational data
- 	- Process reviews
- Implement Project Procedures
- 	- Identify significant projects
- 	- Develop transportation management plans (TMPs)

## WZ Safety and Mobility Rule

- What We Expect to See
- More focus on system impacts versus individual WZ site impacts
- WZs impacts considered throughout project delivery process
- More WZ training
- More effective communication with the public
- Safer WZs
- More performance monitoring and assessment

## Work Zone Best Practices

- Best Practices Guide
- Case Studies
- Fact Sheets

## Training

- New NHI Course – Advanced Work Zone Management
- Work Zone Law Enforcement Training
- WZ Safety and Awareness Program for New Drivers
- Quick Zone Training
- Work Zone Safety Grants – Development of Training & Guidance

## Guidance

- Implementing the Rule on WZ Safety & Mobility
- WZ Public Information & Outreach Strategies
- Developing & Implementing TMPs for Work Zones
- WZ Impacts Assessment

## Technical Assistance 

- Work Zone Peer-to-Peer Program (WZ P2P) – Provides short-term assistance in the application of methods, tools, and strategies to improve WZ safety and mobility.

## For More Information . . .

- Chung Eng, FHWA Work Zone Team Leader, _[chung.eng@fhwa.dot.gov](mailto:chung.eng@fhwa.dot.gov)_
- Tracy Scriba, FHWA Work Zone Team _[tracy.scriba@fhwa.dot.gov](mailto:tracy.scriba@fhwa.dot.gov)_
- FHWA Work Zone Website, _[http://](http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/workzones/)__[www.fhwa.dot.gov/workzones](http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/workzones/)_