Improving Commercial Motor Vehicles’ Ability to Navigate Work Zone Lane Shifts

Temporary lane shifts in roadway construction projects, essential for providing space for work activities, often create challenges for drivers, particularly for commercial motor vehicle operators of truck tractor-trailer combinations. Traditional lane shift deployments can lead to difficulties in maintaining lane positioning, resulting in vehicle encroachments and increased sideswipe crashes. The Indiana Department of Transportation has adopted a method to enhance driver navigation through work zone lane shifts by slightly widening lanes within the transition. This is achieved by offsetting the start of the shift for each lane or edge line, thereby accommodating the off-tracking tendencies of large vehicles and reducing encroachments and collisions. This approach, effective on roadways with operating speeds of 55 mph or higher, is complemented by recommendations to avoid placing lane shifts near curves, interchanges, entrance ramps, and construction workspace access points.