Abstract
Maintenance and rehabilitation projects of interstate facilities typically mandate lane closures. Lane closures require merging maneuvers that often result in reduced speeds and traffic bottlenecks. Work zone impacts on traffic operations are magnified when project durations are extended. Conventionally, work zone traffic control plans are developed to address work zone impacts. This study evaluated various merge control strategies at interstate work zones peak and off-peak traffic conditions and summarized related impacts. A comprehensive microscopic simulation model was developed in full consideration of driver/vehicle behavior at work zones. The analysis of simulation results revealed that merge control strategies, when implemented during peak and off-peak conditions, can preserve the level of service and provide favorable mobility, safety, and environmental impacts. In addition, results indicate that transportation agencies’ practice of scheduling work zone activities during the off-peak may not be the most optimum approach. Overall, the findings of this study highlight the need for evaluation of work zone scheduling practices in full consideration of agency, user, and project costs.
Highlights
Highway maintenance and rehabilitation projects are essential for maintaining the nation’s infrastructure functionality
The authors [6] performed a comprehensive literature review and a national survey of practices where they identified alternative traffic control strategies that hold promise toward improving effectiveness as compared to conventional merge control. Such alternative control strategies were categorized in that study as follows: Late merge control, which encourages drivers to retain their lanes until they reach the lane closure taper
This is the latest version of Corridor Simulation (CORSIM) that was released by McTrans Center at the University of Florida for the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
Summary
Highway maintenance and rehabilitation projects are essential for maintaining the nation’s infrastructure functionality. The authors [6] performed a comprehensive literature review and a national survey of practices where they identified alternative traffic control strategies that hold promise toward improving effectiveness as compared to conventional merge control. Earlier literature review and a national survey of agencies practices indicated that there are four alternative bottleneck merge control strategies for interstate work zones [6]. Two of the identified strategies are still a matter of research, indicating a gap between research and practice In their earlier literature review and survey of practices, the authors noticed that all existing studies evaluate these bottleneck merge control strategies only under off-peak conditions. There is a need to study and evaluate the identified bottleneck merge control strategies at work zones, to better understand their impacts and benefits, and to provide some guidance to agencies for selecting an appropriate strategy
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