Dashboards for Closing the Loop on Monitoring Interstate Work Zone Maintenance of Traffic

Although most agencies have extensive processes in place for designing interstate construction work zones, there is very little quantitative assessment performed on how those work zones operate. Operational feedback is critical for ensuring the design assumptions reasonably reflect operational conditions. A weekly work zone report was developed for use by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) work zone traffic management personnel for the purpose of assessing their pre-construction work zone queue estimates, evaluating their maintenance of traffic (MOT) designs, and fine-tuning those MOTs. The report includes a number of graphs, figures, and statistics to present a comprehensive picture of performance. Six work zones were chosen as case studies for this initiative. Simulation results for expected queueing were compared to actual queues by using connected vehicle speed data. For one work zone, the median observed queue lengths were found to be at least 4.5 times greater than the expected queue length. The maximum observed congested approach among all six work zones was 17.89 miles. This weekly report provided a mechanism for INDOT staff to maintain situational awareness of which work zones were most challenging for queues and during what periods those were likely to occur. These weekly reports provided the foundation for objective dialog with contractors and project managers to identify mechanisms for minimizing queueing and allocating public safety resources.