The presence of work zones due to pavement repair
and rehabilitation is very common in highway facilities. Lane closures
associated with work zones result in capacity reduction, which, in turn, often
leads to increased congestion at such locations. This paper documents findings
from a study that investigated the performance of freeway facilities in the
presence of work zones under various Temporary Traffic Control (TTC) and lane
closure scenarios while taking under consideration traffic composition and
driving behaviors. The study site was an approximately 10-mile freeway segment
of Interstate 65 (I-65) located in Birmingham, AL.The testbed was coded in PTV VISSIM, a microscopic
simulation analysis platform, for: 1) baseline conditions (i.e., no work zone presence) and 2) work zone conditions with single lane closure (i.e., 3-to-2 lane closure). Work zone
scenarios were coded for two TTC strategies, namely, early merge and late merge
control and for three different positions of the lane closure (i.e., left, right, and center lane
closures). The length of the work zones varied from 1000 to 2000, and 3000 ft.
Sensitivity analysis was performed to document the operational impacts of
varying heavy vehicle percentages, changes in drivers’ aggressiveness, and
projected traffic demand changes. The impacts were quantified using
linked-based measures of effectiveness (MOEs) such as travel time, and travel
time index. The study results show that there is no significant change in
travel time index due to the variation of work zone length across the study
corridor. Under similar traffic control and demand conditions, a
References
[1]
Wolff, G. (2007) Traffic Control Safety: Meeting the FHWA Minimums Is Not Enough. ASSE Professional Development Conference, Orlando, 24-27 June 2007, 1-10.
[2]
Chitturi, M.V., Benekohal, R.F. and Kaja-Mohideen, A.-Z. (2008) Methodology for Computing Delay and User Costs in Work Zones. Transportation Research Record, 2055, 31-38. https://doi.org/10.3141/2055-04
[3]
Nemeth, Z.A. and Rouphail, N.M. (1982) Lane Closures at Freeway Work Zones: Simulation Study. Transportation Research Record, 869, 19-25.
[4]
Khattak, A.J., Khattak, A.J. and Council, F.M. (2002) Effects of Work Zone Presence on Injury and Non-Injury Crashes. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 34, 19-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0001-4575(00)00099-3
[5]
Performance Measurement Development. FHWA Work Zone. https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/wz/decision_support/performance-development.htm
[6]
Ramadan, O.E. and Sisiopiku, V.P. (2018) Modeling Highway Performance under Various Short-Term Work Zone Configurations. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 144. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000176
[7]
Hadi, M., Sinha, P. and Wang, A. (2007) Modeling Reductions in Freeway Capacity due to Incidents in Microscopic Simulation Models. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1999, 62-68. https://doi.org/10.3141/1999-07
[8]
Ramadan, O. and Sisiopiku, V. (2015) Bottleneck Merge Control Strategies for Work Zones: Available Options and Current Practices. Open Journal of Civil Engineering, 5, 428-436. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojce.2015.54043
[9]
Lammers-Staats, E., Pigman, J.G., Howell, B.K. and Kirk, A.J. (2018) Applicability of Zipper Merge versus Early Merge in Kentucky Work Zones. Kentucky Transportation Center, Lexington. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ktc_researchreports/1593/
[10]
Paolo, P. and Sar, D. (2012) Driving Speed Behaviour Approaching Road Work Zoneson Two-Lane Rural Roads. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 53, 672-681. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.917
[11]
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/
[12]
von der Heiden, N. and Geistefeldt, J. (2016) Capacity of Freeway Work Zones in Germany. Transportation Research Procedia, 15, 233-244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2016.06.020
[13]
Datta, T., Schattler, K. L., Guha, A., Kar, P. and Guha, A. (2004) Development and Evaluation of an Advanced Dynamic Lane Merge Traffic Control System for 3 to 2 Lane Transition Areas in Work Zones. Michigan Department of Transportation Construction & Technology Division, Lansing.
[14]
Beacher, A.G., Fontaine, M.D. and Garber, N.J. (2005) Field Evaluation of Late Merge Traffic Control in Work Zones. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1911, 33-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198105191100104
[15]
Yuan, Y., Liu, Y. and Liu, W. (2019) Dynamic Lane-Based Signal Merge Control for Freeway Work Zone Operations. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 145. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000256
[16]
Sarvi, M., Kuwahara, M. and Ceder, A. (2003) Developing Control Strategies For Freeway Merging Points under Congested Traffic Situations Using Modeling and a Simulation Approach. Journal of Advanced Transportation, 37, 173-194. https://doi.org/10.1002/atr.5670370204
[17]
Al-Kaisy, A., Zhou, M. and Hall, F. (2000) New Insights into Freeway Capacity at Work Zones: Empirical Case Study. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the transportation Research Board, 1710, 154-160. https://doi.org/10.3141/1710-18
[18]
Gartner, N.H., Messer, C.J. and Rathi, A. (2002) Traffic Flow Theory—A State-of-the-Art Report: Revised Monograph on Traffic Flow Theory. https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/35775
[19]
Ge, Q. and Menendez, M. (2013) A Simulation Study for the Static Early Merge and Late Merge Controls at Freeway Work Zones. 13th Swiss Transport Research Conference (STRC 2013), Ascona, 24-26 April 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/356580
[20]
Swearingen, R. (2006) Vissim Calibration and Validation. Washington State Department of Transportation, Olympia.
[21]
PTV Vissim 10 User Manual (2018). https://usermanual.wiki/Document/Vissim20102020Manual.1098038624.pdf
