Guidance for Conducting Effective Work Zone Process Reviews

Chapter 2. Work Zone Process Reviews: Tips for Sussess

A 9-step approach to performing a process review is shown in the box to the right. Looking across the experiences of agencies that have successfully completed process reviews to date, several high-value activities stand out as keys to success:

• Creating an effective process review team
• Adopting a continuous improvement perspective of process reviews
• Deciding what to target in the review

Suggested Process Review Steps Assemble a multidisciplinary team Develop a review plan Conduct review Analyze and interpret results Develop inferences, recommendations, and lessons learned Prioritize recommendations and lessons learned Develop an action plan to implement the prioritized recommendations Present findings Initiate the action plan

CREATING EFFECTIVE PROCESS REVIEW TEAMS

Participation from multiple offices and divisions of an agency is essential in a process review because it helps ensure that processes throughout the project development cycle, and those involving other types of work zone activities (maintenance, data collection, etc.) are included and considered. Also, involving divisions and offices throughout the agency aids in identifying, gathering, and using available data for the review, as well as in determining what data should be collected for future process reviews. It is important that process reviews be holistic, considering all parts of an agency’s operation that influence work zone safety and mobility.

It is important that process reviews be holistic, considering all parts of an agency’s operation that influence work zone safety and mobility.

Recommended Division/Office Representatives to Include on Process Review Teams Planning Occupational (Worker) Safety Construction Administration Roadway/Project Design Materials Traffic Operations/Management Traffic Safety Permitting Maintenance District Staff (Resident, Area, and/or District Engineers) Training/Workforce Development Public Information Office Design Consultants FHWA Division Office

The offices and representatives that should be included on the review team are noted in the box to the right. Active participation from all relevant parts of the agency is needed in order to perform an effective process review. Having upper agency management support of the process review effort makes it easier to achieve good participation.

Having upper agency management support of the process review effort makes it easier to achieve good participation.

It is recommended that the FHWA Division Office be included on the review team to provide support as needed. However, the process review is the responsibility and for the benefit of the SHA. FHWA should not lead an SHA’s process review effort.

ADOPTING A CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT PERSPECTIVE OF PROCESS REVIEWS

Process reviews are intended to assist SHAs in developing a continuous improvement culture towards work zone safety and mobility management. This concept, illustrated graphically in Figure 1, is a major reason why process reviews are required every two years. The two-year cycle encourages SHAs to take an incremental, systematic approach towards improvement. Each process review should build upon the knowledge gained, lessons learned, and improvement successes achieved with previous reviews.

Adopting a continuous improvement perspective towards process reviews also has practical value to an SHA. Given current work demands on agency staff, it is often not feasible for SHAs to spend large amounts of time during each process review examining in detail all aspects of agency operations that could relate to improved work zone safety and mobility. Consequently, agencies with a continuous improvement perspective typically take a high-level look at the current effectiveness of their overall work zone safety and mobility policies and procedures during each review, and then focus in greater detail on one or two topic areas. These areas of special emphasis then rotate for each process review. For example, an agency may choose to focus on how to significantly improve its work zone mobility and safety data collection and analysis procedures to achieve useful performance measures in one process review. In the next process review, the agency might then work on determining how to best use those performance measures in project planning and project development tasks.

Some agencies have also established standing work zone management “teams” that meet regularly to review recent data, identify and discuss work zone safety and mobility-related issues at a program level, identify potential improvements, and establish action plans to implement those improvements. For these agencies, process reviews are used more to collate and document those ongoing improvement actions and assess overall how well the actions are working.

Figure 1. Work Zone Process Reviews: The Continuous Improvement Cycle

DECIDING WHAT TO TARGET IN EACH REVIEW

By establishing a continuing improvement perspective regarding process reviews, agencies can further investigate specific aspects of its work zone safety and mobility procedures and better understand what is working and what needs to be changed. Determining what to target within a given process review is a key activity that influences the effectiveness of each review. Three key questions (with follow-up questions about how to answer those main questions) can help an agency maintain a continuing improvement perspective, as depicted in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Questions to Help Guide Process Review Planning

In developing a plan for conducting process reviews, the agency should consider where it stands in this sequence, and base its plans for upcoming and subsequent reviews accordingly. Early process review efforts by many agencies have focused on verifying that all of the federal requirements regarding work zone safety and mobility policies and procedures are in place, and on assessing how well the policies and procedures have been implemented. Determining the level of implementation has been fairly easy for some agencies, but more difficult for others due to a lack of records or other data. Determining how best to verify implementation in future process reviews might be a focus area for those agencies. Eventually, it is desirable for agencies to be able to assess whether the required policies and procedures are having the desired effect on safety and mobility, and determining how best to obtain data to assess that could be another focus area of a future process review. If the agency determines that simply meeting the minimum requirements is not providing an adequate level of work zone safety and mobility performance, decisions may be made to establish new policies and procedures above the minimum requirements as part of the process review. This feedback would take the agency back to the first set of questions in Figure 2, with the emphasis focused on those new policies and procedures.

Thus, for most agencies, verifying compliance with the Work Zone Safety and Mobility Rule and the Temporary Traffic Control Devices Rule is the first priority in the process reviews. Figure 3 highlights the key requirements in those two Rules which agencies should verify that they have in place (and quickly recheck in future process reviews to ensure no changes have occurred) and are implementing. A simple, separate checklist to further aid agencies in assessing these requirements is included in Appendix A.

Subpart J and K Requirements to Check/Verify in a Process Review Assessment and management procedures for work zone safety and mobility impacts have been incorporated into the entire project development cycle Data to manage work zone impacts is being collected and used during work zone implementation Training is available and required for personnel involved in all aspects of work zone transportation management and traffic control Procedures exist to identify significant projects and consider their needs throughout the project development process All Federal-Aid projects are required to have a transportation management plan (TMP), which at a minimum must include a temporary traffic control (TTC) plan that addresses traffic safety and control through the work zone; a TMP is encouraged for other projects as well The TMP requirements for significant projects also includes a transportation operations plan for the work zone impact area and a public information component; consideration of these components is encouraged for all projects TMPs are developed in consultation with other stakeholders (when appropriate) Plans, specifications, and estimates (PS&Es) include pay item provisions for implementing the TMP (either method-based or performance-based) and are not incidental to the contract Both the State and the contractor each designate a responsible person on each project trained and with authority to implement the TMP and address other safety and mobility impacts Policies and procedures are in place that promote consideration of: Work zone positive protection devices to prevent intrusions Exposure controls to avoid or minimize worker and road user exposure to work activities Other traffic control measures to minimize work zone crashes Safety entry/exit of work vehicles to/from the travel lanes Interagency agreement/memorandum of understandings (e.g. utilities) Policy is in place addressing the use of uniform law enforcement, including some or all of the following: Interagency agreements Interactions between highway agency and law enforcement during project planning and development Conditions where law enforcement needed or beneficial Nature of law enforcement services to be provided, and procedures to determine project-specific services Appropriate training on work zone safety and mobility for the officers Procedures for interagency and project-level communications Reimbursement agreements for law enforcement services Work zone traffic control is a separate pay item, and not incidental to the project: Separate items are used for major categories of traffic control devices (TCDs), safety features (such as positive protection), work zone safety activities (such as law enforcement) Lump sum can be used when estimates of TTC need is included in the PS&E Unit price is used when contractor has no control over quantity and no firm quantity estimate is in PS&E

Figure 3. Sample List of Rule (Subparts J and K) Requirements

Many of the questions listed in Figure 2 imply a need for data. The type and amount of “data” that best serves an agency during a process review depends on which of the questions the agency is working to answer. For answers to the question “Do we have all of the required/recommended/desired policies and procedures in place within our organization?”, it may be sufficient to simply document chapters/section numbers or active hyperlinks to those chapters/sections of the agency manuals, policies, guidelines, etc. that address the requirements. Meanwhile, some agencies striving to verify whether their policies and procedures are being implemented can examine forms, plans, reports, etc. that they require to be submitted as part of their project documentation efforts.

In other instances, agencies have used email questionnaires and/or in-person interviews by process team members to assess 1) awareness and 2) implementation of their work zone safety and mobility policies and procedures by their various division (e.g., planning, design, construction, project management, operations, maintenance, safety, etc.) and district/region staff. Agencies find that questions that are specific, measurable, and tailored to the type of work zone safety and mobility involvement of each division tend to be more valuable than questions that are vague and have no baseline. Examples of ways that questions can be made more specific and targeted are shown in Figure 4. Examples of questions to examine staff awareness, level of implementation, and perceived effectiveness of policies and procedures are illustrated in Figure 5. Other possible questions that might be included are included in Appendix B.

General Questions are Less Useful	Specific Questions are More Useful
Was consideration given to potential work zone impacts during planning efforts for the project?	During planning, how are potential travel time impacts for projects estimated? Were the results included in the assessment of build alternatives? How does their consideration affect the decisions made?
Are TMPs being developed for significant projects?	Did the projects examined have a TMP developed and implemented? What strategies were included? Were the TMPs evaluated? What were the results?
Are travel conditions being monitored through the project? Have there been any problems?	What methods are being used to measure or estimate travel delays on projects? Are times when delays have exceeded policy thresholds being documented in project files? On projects examined, how many times did travel delays exceed the policy threshold?
Has the use of law enforcement been considered for significant projects?	For projects where law enforcement was used, how was the decision to use enforcement made? How much enforcement was used? How was this decided?
Are work zones being coordinated to minimize impacts?	What steps are taken to minimize multiple lane closures at the same time on the same section of roadway? On adjacent roadways that are used as alternative routes for each other?

Figure 4. Specific, Targeted Questions Help Answer Questions Posed in Process Reviews

One of the advantages of using questionnaires and interviews is to gather information on impediments to implementing policies and procedures. For example:

• Is it because of the way the policies and procedures are worded?
• Is it because it is not clear what constitutes implementation?
• Is it because there is disagreement with the policies/procedures, suggesting that more outreach and training to improve understanding and buy-in on them?

Although interviews and surveys are helpful to agencies in assessing the level of implementation of work zone safety and mobility policies and procedures as well as in obtaining perceptions of how effective the policies/procedures may be, outcome-based per formance measures of both work zone safety and mobility impact are the most direct indicators of agency work zone safety and mobility mitigation efforts. Outcome measures include changes in crashes or crash risks, increases in delays and/or queues, and level of customer satisfaction with travel quality and/or efforts to mitigate other impacts. Additional information regarding the selection and use of outcome-based performance measures for process reviews is provided in the next section.

Outcome-based performance measures of both work zone safety and mobility are the most direct indicators of the impacts of agency improvement efforts,

Assessing Staff Awareness of Policies and Procedures: Are you aware of the agency policy regarding the development, implementation, and evaluation of transportation management plans for significant projects? Do you know what training is available regarding work zone safety and mobility management? Assessing Staff Implementation of Policies and Procedures: At what step in the project development process are significant projects first identified? What traffic control plan and work zone safety and mobility procedure-required strategies were used on this project? When does TMP development begin for significant projects in your jurisdiction? Are crash reports reviewed by project personnel during a project? Are changes made to the project in response to those data? What examples can you provide? Is a feedback mechanism being used by project staff to report problems with the TMP back to other project development personnel for future projects? Assessing Staff Perceptions of Effectiveness of Policies and Procedures: Do the impacts assessment procedures used to evaluate significant projects provide realistic and useful estimates? Has the number of change orders to address work zone safety and mobility issues during construction increased or decreased since the work zone policy was changed? Have the operational goals established in the work zone policy been met on most of the significant projects? For those projects where it was not, what reasons led to the failure to comply?

Figure 5. Questionnaires and Interviews can Assess Staff Awareness, Level of Implementation, and Perceived Effectiveness of Work Zone Policies and Procedures

DEVELOPING FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND ACTION PLANS

The findings, recommendations, and action plans are where the value of a process review is achieved. It is useful to document the three main types of findings in the review:

• Are there any instances in which our agency not in compliance with regulations and requirements?
• What requirements has our agency met, and how is our agency doing well and exceeding the requirements?
• Are there other policies and procedures that we should put in place to achieve our work zone safety and mobility mitigation goals?

Developing recommendations from the findings is then straightforward. An agency may find value in looking back over previous process reviews recommendations as part of this effort. Those recommendations not acted upon from the previous review should be examined to determine why they were not implemented (such as limitations in time availability, funding, or data). The reasons for inaction may be useful when developing the specific recommendations for the current review.

Once the recommendations have been developed, they can then be prioritized and an action plan established to implement the high-priority actions. One of the challenges that some agencies have encountered with process review findings is in the magnitude of recommendations that are generated. A continuous improvement perspective of process reviews is once again valuable here, looking at which actions need to occur before others can take place. The action plan should include:

• The specific action that needs to be taken;
• Who will be responsible for making it happen (i.e., the owner/champion);
• What resources, if any, will be required for implementation; and
• The anticipated timeline for completion.

DEVELOPING AND PRESENTING THE PROCESS REVIEW REPORT

A process review report need not be a lengthy document. A report that is focused and well-written is preferable, providing the necessary work zone safety and mobility improvement action plan for the agency over the next two years. Effective process review reports include:

• A simple statement of the objectives, scope, and plan identified for the review;
• The members of the team who participated in the review;
• The methodology used to conduct the review;
• The observations and findings identified;
• Recommendations generated; and
• The agreed-upon action plan.

Appendix C presents a process review report template to aid agencies in preparing their document.

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