Developing a Scheduling Tool for Work Zones on Houston Freeways

In Houston the condition of the existing highway network has deteriorated at a far greater rate than can be maintained without affecting traffic severely or endangering the safety of maintenance crews. Consequently, traffic managers have been required to use special techniques, such as real-time traffic control, to maintain an acceptable traffic flow around urban highway maintenance operations during weekday daylight hours. These innovative traffic control strategies require scheduling and planning procedures that have not heretofore been available. The development of just such a scheduling and planning tool is described. The concept of active traffic management in work zones is presented along with a description of a work-zone strategy computer analysis model called Queue and User Cost Evaluation of Work Zones (QUEWZ). A pilot freeway section is used to provide a data base for the development work, and special mapping procedures are used to convey the results of the analysis to traffic managers in Houston.