The Safety of Narrow Lanes for Traffic Control at a Construction Site

A 1979 study on the operation of 103 construction sites concluded that narrow lanes were particularly harzardous on high-speed roadways carrying nonlocal traffic. To gain further accident experience on the use of narrow lanes in construction zones, the Federal Highway Administration conducted a research study on the use of narrow lanes as part of a traffic control plan that was used for reconstructing and widening five bridge decks on the George Washington Memorial Parkway (GWMP) near Washington, D.C. The study was designed to examine how frequencies, kinds, costs, and reported causes of accidents differed between control and test (reconstruction) sections and how these factors differed between the 17-month period before reconstruction (December 1977 through April 1979) and the 17-month period during reconstruction (May 1979 through September 1980). This article discusses the results of the study.