Congestion is the challenge: an FHWA team addresses one of the agency's toughest priorities by tackling work zone delays

Public Roads, May-June, 2004 by Scott Battles

Highway congestion threatens the mobility that is so essential to the quality of the air Americans breathe, the satisfaction of highway users, and the Nation's economic vitality. The Texas Transportation Institute's 2003 Urban Mobility Report estimated that the cost of congestion in 75 of the Nation's large urban areas in 2001 was $69.5 billion. Corresponding to the dollar losses were 3.5 billion hours of delay and 5.7 billion gallons of excess fuel consumed.

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Simply put, congestion occurs when traffic demand exceeds available capacity. Causes of recurring congestion include insufficient facility capacity and ineffective management of existing capacity (such as poor signal timing). Causes of nonrecurring congestion include work zones, incidents, weather events, special events, and emergencies.

From the user's perspective, highway construction work zones are among the more irritating causes of nonrecurring congestion. At any time during the peak construction season, work zones are in force on 20 percent of the National Highway System, and, according to an Oak Ridge National Laboratory report titled "Temporary Losses of Highway Capacity and Impacts on Performance," published May 2002, work zones are the cause of 24 percent of the nonrecurring congestion on our Nation's highways.

Even more important is their impact on the safety of the motoring public and the construction workforce. In 2002, 1,181 fatalities and more than 40,000 injuries resulted from crashes in work zones. Each year, an estimated 130 workers lose their lives in work zones.

Still, work zones are necessary to meet the need to maintain and upgrade the U.S. aging highway infrastructure. As much of the Nation's transportation infrastructure approaches the end of its service life, the need for preservation, rehabilitation, and maintenance will increase. At the same time, traffic continues to grow and create more congestion. The combination of more work zones and heavier traffic volumes will result in more impacts on mobility and safety. According to the FHWA report, Moving Ahead: The American Public Speaks on Roadways and Transportation in Communities (FHWA-OP-01-017), American drivers cited work zones as second only to poor traffic flow in causing traveler dissatisfaction. The top improvements suggested by the public relate to roadway repairs and work zones: more durable paving materials, repairs made during nonpeak hours, and reduced repair time.

The challenge before the highway community is not to eliminate work zones, but to reduce their impact on safety and mobility. This goal can be accomplished by applying a variety of strategies to decrease the need for work zones and their duration, and to improve the operational and safety characteristics of those that are necessary.

The Goal

The importance of this problem is reflected in the fact that mitigation of traffic congestion is one of FHWA's vital focus areas. To address the "congestion" priority, FHWA is working toward three specific objectives.

The first objective is to mitigate the overall impacts of congestion through effective local partnerships. The goal is to establish at least 52 State and local partnerships focused specifically on implementing State and local strategies for the mitigation of congestion. During the first year, the focus is on establishing the partnerships. During the second through fifth years, FHWA will identify work zone improvement strategies and implement mitigation measures at a national level.

The second objective is to reduce work zone delays over the next 5 years by ensuring that all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Federal Lands offices are engaged in aggressively anticipating and mitigationg the congestion caused by work zones. The target objective is for all 50 States through local FHWA Division Offices and Federal Lands offices to implement aggressive work zone initiatives by 2007, as measured in part by a national work zone self-assessment process initiated in 2002.

The third objective is to reduce incident delays over the next 5 years by ensuring that all States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Federal Lands offices are engaged in aggressively anticipating and mitigating congestion caused by traffic incidents. The target is for up to 30 States containing the largest 75 metropolitan areas to implement aggressive programs to manage traffic incidents by 2007, as measured in part by the FHWA Office of Operations through a best practices self-assessment process initiated in 2003.

FHWA will develop a composite national measure of progress using the traffic incident management and work zone self-assessment results from each State. FHWA units will proactively assert their leadership with transportation stakeholders by championing implementation of innovative solutions to reduce traffic delays caused by incidents and work zones.

The FHWA Office of Operations' Work Zone Mobility and Safety Program addresses construction-related congestion and crashes by researching, developing, and promoting: