Application and Validation of HCM2010 Freeway Facility Methodology for Work Zone Operations

This paper describes the application and validation of the HCM2010 Freeway Facilities Methodology to Work Zone Operations. An operational analysis of work zones has recently been formally mandated by the Federal Highway Administration in the US for “significant” projects with a high impact to the traveling public, and is receiving increasing attention internationally. The paper discusses in detail how the current methodology in Chapter 10 of the 2010 Highway Capacity Manual can be applied to the analysis of freeway work zone operations. It shows that realistic and customizable results can be obtained through proper calibration of the free flow speed, lane closure specifications, capacity reduction factors, and origin-destination demand adjustment factors. The methodology is applied to several work zones with varying control strategies. These include daytime barrier work, and nighttime lane closure scenarios with one, two, and three lanes closed. The operational analysis results are validated with data extracted from automated lane-by-lane roadside radar sensors that enable a validation across an extended time-space domain. The paper presents relevant empirical validation on the feasibility of adapting the freeway facilities procedure to work zone applications. The results offer some evidence that the use of analytical HCM approaches for analyzing freeway facilities shows a lot of merit, and should be considered as a viable alternative for work zone analysis to a simulation-based analysis. However, the paper shows that calibration remains a critical piece to assure valid results.