• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
Logo

Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse

Library of Resources to Improve Roadway Work Zone Safety for All Roadway Users

  • About
  • Join Listserv
  • Contact
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Work Zone Data
    • At a Glance
    • National & State Traffic Data
    • Work Zone Traffic Crash Trends and Statistics
    • Worker Fatalities and Injuries at Road Construction Sites
  • Topics of Interest
    • Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety
    • Smart Work Zones
    • Transportation Management Plans
    • Accommodating Pedestrians
    • Worker Safety and Welfare
    • Project Coordination in Work Zones
  • Training
    • Flagger
    • Online Courses
    • Toolboxes
    • FHWA Safety Grant Products
    • Certification and
      Accreditation
  • Work Zone Devices
  • Laws, Standards & Policies
    • COVID-19 Guidance
  • Public Awareness
  • Events
  • About
  • Listserv
  • Contact
  • Search
Publication

A Spatial Queuing Approach to Optimize Coordinated Signal Settings to Obviate Gridlock in Adjacent Work Zones

Author/Presenter: Wong, C.K.; Wong, S.C.; Lo, Hong K.
Abstract:

Gridlock is defined when traffic comes to a complete halt inducing huge delays. If a work zone on a two-lane two-way highway is set up, in which one of the traffic lanes is closed for maintenance road works, the remaining lane has to be controlled to serve the two-way traffic alternatively. The study objective is to optimize the traffic signal controls across two closely spaced work zones to prevent a gridlock, which can occur easily if upstream and downstream signals are not well coordinated. When vehicle queues build up in the middle sections between two work zones and further expand to occupy the single available lanes in both directions, the two-way traffic is then blocked and no vehicle can leave from the queues generating a gridlock. To address this problem, spatial queues are important parameters that must be explicitly analyzed. The cell transmission model, which is known to be a robust mathematical tool for the modeling of queue dynamics, is adopted in this study. A signal cell is used to represent each traffic signal control, the exit flow capacity of which is defined in accordance with the signal plan. A set of linear constraints is established to relate all of the model parameters and variables. The objective function is taken as the total number of vehicles in the critical section between the two work zones. The minimization of this objective function can effectively obviate the occurrence of a gridlock. The optimization problem is formulated as a Binary-Mixed-Integer-Linear-Program that can be solved by the standard branch-and-bound technique. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.

Source: Journal of Advanced Transportation
Volume: 44
Issue: 4
Publication Date: 2010
Full Text URL: Link to URL
Publication Types: Books, Reports, Papers, and Research Articles
Topics: Temporary Traffic Control; Traffic Congestion; Traffic Queuing; Traffic Signals

Copyright © 2023 American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). The National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse is a project of the ARTBA Transportation Development Foundation. It is operated in cooperation with the U.S. Federal Highway Administration and Texas A&M Transportation Institute. | Copyright Statement · Privacy Policy · Disclaimer
American Road and Transportation Builders Association Transportation Development Foundation, American Road and Transportation Builders Association U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration Texas A&M Transportation Institute