Guidelines for Work Zone Designers – Positive Protection

Most State and many other transportation departments in the U.S. maintain roadway and/or work zone design manuals containing State specific regulations, policies, and design guidance for their designers and consultants to use. However, those manuals vary widely in the depth of coverage and the work zone design topics offered. National work zone design guidelines are lacking. This series of guidelines for work zone designers covers various work zone safety design topics for states, design manual decision makers, editors, and subject matter experts to develop or enhance their own guidance materials. “Guidelines for Work Zone Designers – Positive Protection” provides guidance covering the topic of positive protection in work zones and is not intended to be a stand-alone document for designing work zone traffic control plans. State, county, local, and tribal transportation agency subject matter experts, should use this material as reference material to augment their own work zone design policies and guidance. The material in this guide was gathered from existing State design manuals, considered as best state-of-the-practice by the authors and worthy of sharing with other states, and from state-of-the-art work zone safety and traffic management research documents developed by the Transportation Research Board, the FHWA and other institutions.