Work Zone Safety and Mobility Process Review

In support of work zone safety, FHWA requires state agencies to conduct a Process Review every two years to review their work zone safety and mobility (WZSM) processes and procedures. As in past years, a CDOT task force was formed in March 2018 and met periodically to review CDOT’s WZSM policies, procedures, and practices and  knowledge and application thereof. The task force reviewed construction crash data, CDOT’s policies, procedures, and memos, reviewed comments made by engineering and maintenance stakeholders involved in the Traffic Control Reviews (TCR) of select construction projects during the summers of 2018 and 2019, and reviewed results of a survey on CDOT work zone safety and mobility conducted in December of 2019. Based on the above thorough review, the CDOT task force found the following key findings:

2018-2020 Accomplishments and Progress

• Smart WZ strategies are having a positive impact on significant projects, but in limited applications
• A process for crash and incident reporting on projects has been developed and implemented
• Work Zone Policies have been consolidated and updated
• WZ Training specific to CDOT engineering is being developed
• CDOT’s Temporary Speed Limit setting procedure and form was updated and implemented

2018-2020 Findings and Recommendations (from Task Force, TCRs, and Survey)

• Continued training is needed for all those involved in work zones
  • A new WZSM training program is needed to ensure all Region design, construction and maintenance section personnel have a uniform, working knowledge of the program goals and requirements.
  • A need to develop a multi-tiered work zone safety training program, tailored to address the differing needs of project personnel, was identified.
• Flagger performance improvement – improved training, certification process, and online capacity is needed
• More Smart WZ strategies and connection into CDOT’s public information systems are needed.
  • There continues to be a need for work zone end-of-queue detection and public information.
  • There is a need for leadership support of implementing smarter work zone strategies on CDOT projects statewide.
• Projects are utilizing the safety data and analysis generated by CDOT’s TSMO Evaluation, but more work is needed on implementation of those recommendations.