About the Guidebook
- Foreword
- Notice
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Useful Web Sites with Work Zone or Related Information
- Printed Guidebook
Foreword
This guidebook is the first release of a resource designed to give state and local transportation agencies, construction contractors, transportation planners, trainers, and others with interest in work zone operations access to information and points of contact about current best practices for achieving work zone mobility and safety. As new best practices emerge and are documented, they will be appended to the guidebook and cross-referenced as appropriate. Additionally, a web-based version of the guidebook is under development and will make this same information available in an easily accessible web format. This interactive CD-ROM provides added search and cross-referencing capabilities and facilitates widespread distribution and use of the guidebook.
In addition to the work zone best practices and cross-references, the guidebook includes three forms designed to make the guidebook more useful to current and future users. These are 1) a registration form, 2) a best practices submission form, and 3) a best practices review and comment form. Please complete the registration form so that you can be included in distributions of future editions of this document (paper or CD-ROM versions) and notified when updated information is available through web sites or other methods.
Copies of this document can be obtained through the Office of Transportation Operations, Federal Highway Administration.
Jeffrey Lindley, Acting Director
Office of Transportation Operations
Operations Core Business Unit
Federal Highway Administration
Notice
This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The United States Government assumes no liability for its content or use thereof. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.
The United States Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade and manufacturers' names appear in this report only because they are considered essential to the object of the document.
Acknowledgments
The Work Zone Best Practices Guidebook builds on work lead by a Federal Highway Administration review team consisting of:
Daniel M. Mathis, P.E.
Assistant Division Administrator
Illinois Division
Springfield, Illinois
James B. Sorenson
Senior Engineer
Office of Engineering
Washington, D.C.
Edward A. Terry, Jr., P.E.
Engineering Specialist
Office of Program Quality Coordination
Washington, D.C.
The review team was assisted by other Headquarters program offices and a representative from each of the FHWA region offices who accompanied the Review Team during the visits to their respective region. In addition, individuals from 115 transportation agencies, associations, organizations, and industries shared their experiences, knowledge, and information with the review team so that the best practices included in this guidebook could be properly documented.
The guidebook's origins date back to the June 1999 AASHTO Meeting of the Subcommittee on Traffic Engineering. At that meeting, Don Steinke, Director or FHWA's Office of Transportation Operations, and Sterling Davis, Engineer for Traffic and Safety at the Utah Department of Transportation and then Chairman of the AASHTO Subcommittee's Best Practices in Work Zones Task Force, agreed to collaborate on the development, publication, and distribution of a Work Zones Best Practices Guidebook that would give practitioners easy access to these best practices. Mike Crow of the Kansas Department of Transportation succeeded Sterling Davis as Task Force Chairperson and continued the collaboration.
The Guidebook was prepared collaboratively with FHWA's Work Zone Mobility and Safety Product Team serving as the primary focus point at the federal level and the AASHTO Best Practices in Work Zones Task Force providing views and comments from the state perspective.
Introduction
This Work Zone Best Practices Guidebook is a reference document that can be updated with new approaches, technologies, and practices as they become "state-of-the-practice" in Work Zone Mobility and Safety Management. These initial best practices are drawn from those observed during a work zone scanning tour of 26 states during 1998. Each best practice is described in detail, including the location where it was observed and points of contact for further information.
The best practices are descriptive not prescriptive. That is, they describe approaches used by transportation agencies, along with contact information. Each organization must determine which of these practices are best suited for its particular situation, considering all factors that affect work zone operations.
The best practices recorded in the 1998 FHWA report "Meeting Customers' Needs for Mobility and Safety During Construction and Maintenance Operations"were organized into eleven major groupings. The groupings collected similar practices so that readers could easily find all of the practices that deal with a particular topic. This guidebook leverages the collection of work zone operations best practices by providing an easily accessible compilation of the best practices, a series of cross-references that enable users to find best practices in several different ways, and a topical index that offers 41 topics and subtopics for more specific searches. The guidebook is assembled in a three-ring binder so that updated or new best practices can be added easily. The reference numbers shown are consecutive numbers assigned to each best practice so that as new best practices are added, they can be added to the guidebook and the cross-reference listings.
Each of the eleven sections begins with an assessment of the state-of-the-art for work zone practice in each area and a brief description of how transportation agencies can achieve the state-of-the-art. Following this overview of the category, each of the work zone best practices is described in greater detail. The descriptions include:
- A Best Practice Reference Number Used in the Cross-Reference Section
- Location of the Best Practice/Policy
- The Best Practice Title Used in the Meeting Customers' Needs Report
- Description of the Best Practice/Policy
- Reason(s) for Adopting the Best Practice/Policy
- Biggest Benefit(s) Being Realized from this Best Practice/Policy
- Location and Type(s) of Projects Where this Practice/Policy Is Most Applicable/Effective
- Contact(s)
The cross-reference section of the guidebook provides a variety of cross-references that allow practitioners to identify best practices based on where they were observed, project life cycle stage, type of organization, geographic or demographic characteristics, nature of the work zone activity, traffic conditions in the work zone, and the type of roadway involved.
Useful Web Sites with Work Zone or Related Information
The following web sites have information specifically related to work zone operations or organizations and programs that address work zone issues. The Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse maintained by the Texas Transportation Institute is a particularly valuable source of current work zone information and contacts.
American Road and Transportation Builders Association http://www.artba.org
American Traffic Safety Services Association http://www.atssa.com
American General Contractors http://www.agc.org
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials http://www.aashto.org
Federal Highway Administration http://www.fhwa.dot.gov
FHWA Highway Rail/Grade Crossing http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/safetyprogs/hiway/hiwaygradexing.htm
FHWA MUTCD web site http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov
FHWA Work Zone Safety Program http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/safetyprogs/hiway/wkzone.htm
Institute of Transportation Engineers http://www.ite.org
Local Transportation Assistance Program http://www.ltap.org
National Utilities Contractors Association http://www.nuca.com
Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse http://www.workzonesafety.org
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