Effective Post-Construction Evaluation Practices for Work Zone Management Strategies

Abstract

State departments of transportation (DOTs) invest a significant amount of effort to develop and implement transportation management plans (TMPs) in order to effectively manage the traffic flow of work zones and secure the safety of workers and the traveling public during construction of highway projects. State DOTs typically spend an average 3% to 5% of the total construction cost for TMP development and implementation, but some urban projects, in highly congested areas, may require up to 30% of the total construction cost for this effort. For continuous improvement of TMP development and implementation, it is critically important to monitor the performance of work zone management strategies during construction and evaluate them at the conclusion of construction. However, most state DOTs lack structured policies and/or work processes to ensure the implementation of these important monitoring and evaluation components as part of the TMP. A working feedback loop must be established in the project delivery process to document lessons learned, successes and failures, potential changes to the TMP, and transfer them back to the early TMP development stage. This research extensively reviews existing literature and evaluates the current practices of monitoring and evaluating work zone management strategies. This study identifies and presents effective practices for continuous improvement of TMP development and implementation through creating a working feedback loop.

Post-construction evaluation for work zones and construction engineers training

“…Each DOT may have its own definition for project success. However, a post-construction evaluation may bring benefits to all of them; besides bringing benefits to the agency and the overall projects, Volk et al (2018) state that an evaluation can provide improvement to TMPs.…”

“…Both performance measurements and TMPs can help manage work zones and monitoring and analyzing them can help the project management. Each DOT can deal differently with TMPs, and data collection and analysis for performance measurements (Volk et al, 2018). Some DOTs might develop their own TMPs, while others might have consultants and/or contractors or a combination of DOT and consultants/contractors to develop those TMPs (Volk et al, 2018).…”

“…The collection of data, along with performance measurements analysis, bring benefits to the DOTs and TMPs revisions. They could help with the project evaluation, and according to Volk et al (2018), the process of evaluation is the process with less information available.…”

“…Each department of transportation (DOT) in the United States of America has its own way of developing the TMPs. Some might develop on their own, others might leave it to the contractor to create the document, or a combination of contractor and DOT may be used to create a project TMP (Volk, Jeong, & Shane, 2018).…”

“…The TMP can start being elaborated in the preconstruction phase. As stated by Volk et al (2018), the development of TMPs starts while planning a project, which is an activity in the preconstruction phase. Moreover, since a TMP starts being developed as early as the planning phase, data could be collected in different stages of the project, including (i) planning, (ii) programming and preliminary design, (iii) final design, and (iv) construction.…”