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Work Zone Incident Durations Cut by 44% with Temporary Deployment of ITS Services
The consequences of highway incidents, in both delay and secondary accidents, are compounded in work zones. The New Mexico State Highway Transportation Department made use of several ITS services to significantly reduce the time it takes to identify and clear incidents, resulting in better maintenance of traffic flow and safety.
An evaluation effort assessed the impact of work zone incident management systems designed to improve safety and incident response times during reconstruction at the “Big I” interchange (I-25 and I-40) in Albuquerque. The aggressive two-year project transformed the “Big I” into a five-level interchange with 55 new or renovated bridges. To improve safety and promote efficient travel, the Highway Department established a temporary traffic management center to monitor work zone traffic conditions, assess incidents, and coordinate response actions between police, wreckers, and on-site courtesy patrols.
On-site work zone surveillance was achieved through closed circuit television cameras, broadband wireless communications, and directional antennas. Motorists approaching the interchange were made aware of traffic conditions (lanes affected) via information displayed on permanent dynamic message signs (DMS), and through strategic deployment of portable DMS. In addition, pre-trip traffic information was updated every three minutes on the "Big I" internet web-site.
During weekday operations the Highway Department allocated two courtesy patrol units to patrol the construction zone between 5am and 8pm on weekdays, and a wrecker was an on-call from 6am to 6pm. With the work zone ITS in place, the average incident clearance time at the "Big I" was 20 minutes faster than the historical average clearance time of 45 minutes. In addition, the average response time was under eight minutes, and no fatalities occurred.
See the ITS Benefits Database entry on this study
for more information
.
A cross-cutting study is available documenting experience with
Intelligent Transportation Systems in Work Zones
. The study discusses the "Big I" implementation, as well as experiences in 3 other states.
Past
"Benefit of the Month"
summaries are also available.