Impact of Trucks on Arterial LOS and Freeway Work Zone Capacity Part B: Freeway Work Zone Capacity

The existing FDOT lane closure analysis method was developed several years ago, and it is the desire of the Department to evaluate and update it accordingly. The objective of this research was to develop analytical models and procedures for estimating the capacity of a freeway work zone considering various geometric and traffic parameters. Due to the Unavailability of real-world work zone data, the study was based on simulation. CORSIM (version 5.1) was used to develop a comprehensive database which was used in the analytical model development. Models were developed for three types of work zone configurations (2-to-1, 3-to-2, and 3-to-1 lane closures). Two different types of models were developed for each lane closure configuration; a planning model and an operational model. The Planning model is the simplest once and it applies when a capacity estimate is required, but the work zone is not in place. The operational model requires more data as input, and it may be used for estimating the capacity of an existing work zone.