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Work Zone Data Examples

Section 630.1008 of the Work Zone Safety and Mobility Rule requires agencies to use work zone data at both the project and process-levels to manage and improve work zone safety and mobility, and to maintain data resources to support these efforts. More information about work zone data can be found in Implementing the Rule on Work Zone Safety and Mobility.

The following examples are meant to assist agencies with developing their own methods of collecting and analyzing work zone data, and are not meant to advocate a "one size fits all" approach.

Kansas Department of Transportation

Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) has standard operating procedures for reporting accidents and collecting data in construction and maintenance work zones. The KDOT District Engineer is responsible for providing law enforcement agencies with the contact information for agency personnel authorized to receive crash information. The District Engineer also must inform law enforcement agencies in the District that they need to notify authorized agency personnel of any and all crashes that occur in construction or maintenance work zones and supply those personnel with all of the necessary information concerning the crash. The KDOT supervisor in charge at a construction or maintenance work zone must review the crash information provided by the law enforcement agency for probable causes of the crash and complete a crash report. This report includes the Accident Investigation Report form.

As an example of using data at the process-level, KDOT has analyzed collected work zone crash data to help develop and implement effective countermeasures to prevent future work zone crashes. Two recent reports from a study, "Determining the Major Causes of Highway Work Zone Accidents in Kansas," describe how KDOT examined crash data from the KDOT accident database and accident reports and systematically examined the work zone fatal crashes using statistical analysis methods such as descriptive analyses and regression analyses. As a result KDOT was able to determine unique crash characteristics and risk factors in work zones and make recommendations for work zone safety improvements.

• KDOT Accident Reporting Policy
• Accident Investigation Report (HTML, PDF 7KB)
• Determining the Major Causes of Highway Work Zone Accidents in Kansas
  • Phase 1 Report (type KU-05-1 in "Search For" Field)
  • Phase 2 Report (type KU-06-1 in "Search For" Field)

Montana Department of Transportation

Appendix G of the Montana Department of Transportation's (MDT) Work Zone Safety and Mobility Policy (PDF 537KB) includes guidelines for data collection. At the project level, the policy states that MDT should use available construction zone crash data and operational information to manage construction zone impacts for specific projects during implementation. Construction personnel should use the data to evaluate whether or not mitigation strategies are needed to correct deficiencies or to improve safety and/or mobility. Both real-time and archived data from systems can be used to identify safety and mobility issues and trends and take appropriate action as necessary. The policy recommends the use of police crash reports as useful tools for evaluating construction zone practices. MDT plans to set up procedures to collect traffic delay data and traffic volume data in construction zones for significant projects. MDT staff will analyze the data and use it to compare actual performance against the projected delays and mobility objectives determined during the design stage.

At the process level, MDT is continually pursuing improvements of construction zone safety and mobility by analyzing construction zone crash and operational data from multiple projects to improve MDT processes and procedures. Every two years, the MDT Safety Management Section performs a statewide construction zone safety engineering analysis, based on the statewide crash records from the Montana Highway Patrol. Every year the MDT Work Zone Safety & Mobility Core Team assesses the past construction zone crashes to see if any immediate corrective action can be implemented.

New 06/10/08 Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) maintains a memorandum of understanding with the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) which provides for PSP assistance in construction zones for alerting motorists of queues in freeway traffic projects. As part of this program, PSP monitors queue lengths every 30 minutes while performing their PSP assistance role, records this information on a form, and then provides this information to the project and work zone manager at the beginning of each week. PennDOT districts are expected to use this data to help predict queue length on future projects. The PennDOT Traffic Engineering and Operations Manual provides detailed information, procedures, and guidelines about the PSP assistance program, and also includes the Queue Length Reporting Form.

• PennDOT Traffic Engineering and Operations Manual (PDF 5.91MB) - Information about the PSP assistance program begins on page 389 and the Queue Length Reporting Form is on page 413.

Ohio Department of Transportation

In 2002, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) embarked on a data analysis effort to determine if an increased number of work zones was causing more crashes, and if so, what could be done to prevent the increase in crashes. Using data collected during construction and prior to construction, ODOT performed a before/after comparison of crash rates on major Interstate work zones. Based on the findings of this analysis, ODOT was able to make several improvements to its work zone planning and design procedures. This led ODOT, in 2004, to develop a process to monitor work zone crashes in near real-time. ODOT obtains work zone crash reports in near real-time from local law enforcement and then inputs this information into a database that sorts crashes into one half mile segments for comparison to historical pre-construction average crash frequency. When ODOT finds abnormally high concentrations of crashes in a certain location after implementation of a work zone, ODOT performs a field visit to the construction area to look for causes and potential fixes.

• Work Zone Crash Analysis and Traffic Management in Work Zones - the ODOT MOT Process (PPT 2.27MB), by David Holstein, P.E., State Traffic Engineer, Ohio Department of Transportation

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