Utilizing Work Zone Event Data in Connected and Smarter Work Zone Applications – Maricopa County, Arizona

As the nation develops an increasing reliance on technology and next generation transportation management, ensuring the availability of consistent, reliable data describing work zone events is critical to enabling agency management of highway operations. The FHWA is leading the Work Zone Data Initiative (WZDI) to improve the availability of information on work zone events—the “when, where, and how” of highway construction activity—by promoting standards and processes that enhance agency capabilities to manage transportation operations around work zones and enable sharing this valuable information with other transportation operations stakeholders. This case study focuses on efforts by the Maricopa County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) to utilize the USDOT’s Work Zone Data Exchange (WZDx) specification to manage Work Zone Event Data (WZED) within a long-term, connected, and smart work zone on an arterial roadway.