Determining Queue and Congestion in Highway Work Zone Bottlenecks

This study investigated some of the issues in capacity, queue length, and delay estimation in work zones. In particular, the current methods for analyzing congestion in work zones are examined. Further requirements to improve the accuracy of analysis are identified and discussed.
The effect of large gaps between vehicles on capacity measurement is determined using field data. Alternative methods for computing work zone capacity were developed. Furthermore, two types of moving queue are studied: 1) intermittent moving queue, 2) continuous moving queue. The characteristics of each type of queue are studied using field data. A methodology to estimate intermittent queue length and delay is proposed. The study investigates continuous moving queue propagation and dissipation using shockwave theory. Also, formulations are developed to estimate continuous moving queue length and delay.