Work Zone Mobility and Safety Program

7.0 Summary

The QuickZone case study document is intended to provide potential users with an introduction to the use of QuickZone and different examples of how it has already been used in the field by planners and engineers. Clearly, the utilization of QuickZone is not relegated to just one type of roadway facility or location and the case studies presented in this document highlight this. QuickZone can be used for multiple applications including:

  • Rural or Urban—Four of the projects were rural applications and four were urban applications. The Beartooth Highway project highlights the need for work zone analysis even on roads with little to no demand while the Woodrow Wilson Bridge demonstrated the effectiveness of using QuickZone on high demand projects.
  • Big Projects/Small Projects—The Woodrow Wilson Bridge project shows that QuickZone can be effectively used for large projects to establish a dialog among stakeholders to create a win-win situation. The Zion project, though a fraction of the size, had the same results.
  • Operations and Planning—Three of the eight projects were used for operations while five were used for planning purposes. The Knoxville, TN project is one of the planning projects where the results have had a clear impact on the direction of the project and prompted state personnel to consider a more detailed analysis of the proposed detour route.
  • Freeway and Arterial—Two of the eight projects were classified as freeway and two as arterial. With regards to the Reeves Street project, without the results of QuickZone, the decision to perform construction at night could not have been made and the impact to motorists would have been more severe. In addition, the use of QuickZone helped Nova Scotia DOT avoid public outcry and complaints as was seen in the Little Bras d'Or project.
  • Single Work Zones to Projects with Multiple, Interacting Work Zones—All of the projects included at least one work zone while some had five or more interacting work zones.. The Beartooth Highway, in particular, demonstrated the need for QuickZone to analyze multiple work zones that impact each other.
  • Full and Partial Lane Closures, Flagging Operations, Periodic Full Closure—Modeling each of these traffic control elements was necessary in QuickZone. The Little Bras d'Or Bridge project highlighted the need for more direct analysis of flagging operations, in QuickZone Version 0.99 Beta, a feature incorporated into Version 2.0 and CFLHD-QuickZone.
  • Projects with Good Detour Routes—Two of the projects included detours. The Knoxville, TN project showed the need for the QuickZone user to fully analyze and understand a proposed detour route; while the Louis Lake Road project demonstrated the need of QuickZone to take into account detour travel times and additional travel distances.
  • Projects with No Detour Routes—Most of the projects did not include detour routes. While there are no detour routes through Yosemite National Park, the project did demonstrate the effectiveness of QuickZone in its ability to test various construction scenarios to determine which construction phasing plan is best.

In 2003, an update to QuickZone 1.0 began based upon the needs and concerns of current QuickZone users, some of which were documented in the case study analysis. The development of QuickZone 2.0 has been a direct result of the needs and feedback generated by previous versions of QuickZone and the partnership program. The feedback from QuickZone users included three major requests for enhancements. The first concern was generating and inputting networks into QuickZone. Version 1.0 did not include a network editing program and all networks had to be developed using pen-and-paper or Microsoft PowerPoint and then carefully entered into QuickZone. This was a time consuming and tedious task that was seen as a barrier to the success of QuickZone. To solve this problem, the network editor for the TSIS simulation program was adapted for use in QuickZone. The QuickZone Network Editor now provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface to easily create and modify QuickZone networks.

The second most frequent request of QuickZone users was the modeling of two way one-lane operations, including flagging operations. Version 1.0 did not include a direct method to analyze these types of work zones. In response, Version 2.0 has been enhanced to calculate capacities and directly model various types of two way one-lane operations including signal controlled (both fixed and optimized) and flagging operations.

The third requested enhancement of QuickZone users was improved user cost estimation. Version 1.0 has a simple cost estimator based upon a delay cost per hour for passenger cars and trucks. CFLHD, in particular, saw a need for QuickZone but wanted a more robust method to analyze the user cost. Therefore, a major focus area for CHLHD-QuickZone was a detailed analysis of user cost estimation and the development of a more detailed user cost estimation module for QuickZone. The efforts applied to CFLHD-QuickZone will be incorporated into Version 2.0.

In addition to these three improvements, other features included in QuickZone 2.0 are:

  • MDSHA's work zone capacity estimator;
  • Ability to model more complex work zone configurations;
  • Improved data entry including a re-designed work zone project information interface and the ability to copy construction phasing and work zone plans;
  • More comprehensive outputs that can be modified by the user; and
  • Packaging of the QuickZone and QZEdit (network editor) together.

After the release of QuickZone 2.0, planned for release in January 2005, additional case studies will be documented in order to continue to highlight its use in various roadway constitution projects as well as other unique applications. These new case studies will aid in the further refinement of QuickZone 2.0 and the development and addition of new features. For more information regarding QuickZone, please visit the QuickZone web site at http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/wz/traffic_analysis/quickzone/index.htm.

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