Integrating Activities Risk and Traffic Microsimulation Data for Temporal Risk Assessment in Construction Work Zones: A Proof of Concept

Construction work zones impose mobility constraints and remain major contributors toward incidents on our highways. Pro-active hazard identification and risk assessment is necessary in order to remediate the occurrences of incidents. The existing framework and applications in literature are not adequate in assimilating the hazards posed by both the construction activities and the dynamic flow of traffic in daily safety planning. This paper proposes a novel framework that leverages the capabilities offered by models in both construction safety models and traffic engineering domains to address this problem. Specifically, this study systematically integrates the outcomes from activity-based construction risk assessment and simulation-based traffic conflicts assessment for quantifying daily risk in highway construction. The application of this framework is demonstrated by a numerical example analogous to practice. Results indicate that enhancing the risk assessment of construction activities by chronologically integrating them with traffic conflicts around work zones capture safety hazards more realistically and completely. The integrated safety assessment index developed in this study will assist in accurate representation of risky work zone periods to devise preventive measures. The results and insights from this study will provide a holistic framework to support both the traffic planners and the construction project engineers in their day-to-day safety planning for highway projects.