Abstract

Safety in work zones continues to remain a high-priority issue for highway agencies partly due to the limited understanding of the causes of the crashes. The objective of this presentation is to give an overview of two projects that have looked at this issue in some detail.

The first project entitled Frequency of Work Zone Accidents on Construction Projects was funded by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and Region 2 of the University Transportation Research Center at City College of New York. This project was completed in August 2005.

The overall objective of this research was to study work zone accidents in New York State, with particular attention to the occurrence and mitigation of rear-end vehicle accidents. The specific objectives were to: ? Recommend changes to the NYSDOT?s accident database system for more efficient management and analysis. ? Conduct a detailed investigation of rear-end crashes in work zones and recommend measures that can reduce the frequency of these types of crashes. ? Report on traffic exposure data and accident patterns / parameters to be incorporated into future NYSDOT accident data analysis.

The presentation will describe the methodology that was used in this study and a summary of the results.

The second project entitled Traffic Safety Evaluation of Day-Time and Night-Time Work Zones is being funded by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) through Project 17-30. The objectives of this ongoing research project as defined by the NCHRP Panel are fourfold: 1) Determine the crash rates for nighttime and daytime work zones; 2) Determine the nature of, and identify similarities and differences between, traffic-related crashes in nighttime and daytime work zones; 3) Develop management practices that promote safety and mobility in nighttime and daytime work zones; and 4) Develop work zone crash reporting recommendations to further improve the data collected on work zone crashes. This project is expected to be completed in early 2007. The presentation will discuss the approach that is being followed in the study and the expected results.