Download or read book Simulation based Approach to Estimate the Capacity of a Temporary Freeway Work Zone Lane Closure written by Diego F. Arguea and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ABSTRACT: The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is interested in updating its methodologies for estimating capacities on freeway work zones in Florida. The current methods have not been modified since 1995, and the FDOT is particularly interested in new ways to facilitate the scheduling and managing of lane closures. This thesis proposes new simulation-based models for estimating the capacity of a temporary freeway work zone lane closure. Some of the factors considered in model development include the location of the upstream warning sign, the presence of trucks, the presence of law enforcement and/or heavy equipment, and the length of the work zone. In addition to these inputs, the average speeds per vehicle and the vehicular lane distributions for specific network links were considered in model development. A large matrix of scenarios was created so that the effects of all combinations of factors could be observed. Data were collected from simulation of these scenarios using the software package CORSIM 5.1. Three lane closure configurations (2-to-1, 3-to-2, and 3-to-1) were simulated and one model for estimating capacity was developed for each. All models for each lane closure configuration consider the input factors named previously as well as average speeds per vehicle and lane distributions of vehicles upstream of the work zone lane closure. The final models show the effects of each of these factors on the throughput capacity of a freeway lane closure. A higher fraction of vehicles in the to-be closed lane(s) prior to the work zone leads to a significant decrease in capacity. Likewise, higher speeds in the to-be closed lane(s) also lead to a capacity decrease. The result of this simulation modeling offers valuable insights into the relative capacities under different geometric configurations and traffic stream scenarios. Future research is recommended to calibrate the models to actual field conditions.
Download or read book Updated Short term Freeway Work Zone Lane Closure Capacity Values written by Raymond A. Krammes and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recommendations on estimating the capacity of short-term freeway work zone lane closures are presented. The recommendations are based upon 45 hours of capacity counts at 33 different work zones between 1987 and 1991. These new data indicate average capacities for short-term freeway work zone lane closures from 3 to 1 lanes and from 2 to 1 lanes that are significantly higher than older values reported in the 1985 Highway Capacity Manual. A base capacity value of 1,600 pcphpl is recommended for all short-term freeway work zone lane closure configurations.
Download or read book A Methodology to Estimate Work Zone Capacity on Freeway Lane Closures written by Ahmed-Zameem Kaja-Mohideen and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Work Zone Simulation Model written by T. H. Maze and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To support the analysis of driver behavior at rural freeway work zone lane closure merge points, Center for Transportation Research and Education staff collected traffic data at merge areas using video image processing technology. The collection of data and the calculation of the capacity of lane closures are reported in a companion report, "Traffic Management Strategies for Merge Areas in Rural Interstate Work Zones". These data are used in the work reported in this document and are used to calibrate a microscopic simulation model of a typical, Iowa rural freeway lane closure. The model developed is a high fidelity computer simulation with an animation interface. It simulates traffic operations at a work zone lane closure. This model enables traffic engineers to visually demonstrate the forecasted delay that is likely to result when freeway reconstruction makes it necessary to close freeway lanes. Further, the model is also sensitive to variations in driver behavior and is used to test the impact of slow moving vehicles and other driver behaviors. This report consists of two parts. The first part describes the development of the work zone simulation model. The simulation analysis is calibrated and verified through data collected at a work zone in Interstate Highway 80 in Scott County, Iowa. The second part is a user's manual for the simulation model, which is provided to assist users with its set up and operation. No prior computer programming skills are required to use the simulation model.
Download or read book Evaluation of Construction Work Zone Operational Issues written by and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Work Zones and Their Impact on User Costs written by Ghulam H. Bham and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report defines a work zone, its capacity, and how it is estimated. The importance of capacity is also mentioned since it is directly used in the calculation of user delay due to a work zone. The impact of delay on user costs is also discussed. A methodology is presented which relates queue delay with ADT. Queue delay due to a work zone is calculated using a plot between time, cumulative volume, and capacity. The area between the curves represents queue delay. Three software packages are evaluated for calculation of user delay and cost due to a work zone. None of them were adequate for calculating delay due to queue formation.
Download or read book Evaluation of Interstate Highway Capacity in Short term Work Zones written by Wayne A. Sarasua and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Work Zone Lane Closure Analysis Model written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Traffic Capacity Through Work Zones on Urban Freeways Interim Report written by C. L. Dudek and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Impact of Trucks on Arterial LOS and Freeway Work Zone Capacity written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Estimation of Traffic Impacts at Work Zones written by Praveen Kumar Edara and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Assessing the safety and mobility impacts of work zones across the project development phases of road construction and maintenance projects is an emphasis area of the Federal Highway Administration's Final Rule on Work Zone Safety and Mobility1 (Final Rule). Specifically, the design phase of developing traffic control plans requires performing a traffic analysis to estimate queue lengths, travel times, and delays to determine lane closure times. State departments of transportation (DOTs) must comply with the requirements of the Final Rule by October 2007. To this end, this study was conducted to provide the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) with the state-of-the-practice tools that are available and used by other state agencies for estimating the traffic impacts at work zones. The researcher found that all models based on the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) assume capacity as an exogenous variable that is given as input to the model; delay and queue length are dependent on capacity. A good estimate of the capacity of a work zone bottleneck is essential to obtain an accurate estimate of traffic impacts. The capacity charts in HCM 1994 were determined for work zones in Texas based on studies conducted before 1982. Based on the recommendations in HCM 2000, it is clear that the 1994 capacity charts significantly under-predict the capacity values at short-term freeway work zones. However, it is possible to obtain realistic capacity estimates from HCM 2000 by using base capacity values specific to the state and applying the necessary adjustment factors for intensity of work activity, effect of heavy vehicles, and presence of ramps in close proximity to the work zone. Data intensiveness, level of effort, and accuracy of the estimates are the key elements state DOTs use to choose the tools for traffic impact analysis. It can be safely assumed that most of the HCM-based tools are easy to use, are not data intensive, and generate quick results, with the exception of QuickZone, which could be data intensive and might require greater user effort. Many state DOTs use the size of the project as an element. Comprehensive tools such as QuickZone and microscopic simulation that are highly detailed and incorporate traveler response to the prevailing traffic conditions might be suitable for use for large projects. There is evidence that simple spreadsheet models and the QUEWZ model produce more accurate estimates of traffic impacts than do QuickZone and microscopic simulation. The inability of many available traffic simulation models to model the oversaturated conditions at work zone bottlenecks is one reason for the erroneous estimates. The conclusions in this study should help VDOT choose the appropriate tool(s) for estimating the traffic impacts in and around work zones. This is a very high priority for VDOT's Traffic Engineering Division as it works on the development of an agency-wide plan to comply with the Final Rule for roll out by the end of 2006.
Download or read book Evaluation of Interstate Highway Capacity for Short term Work Zone Lane Closures written by Michael Markvan and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Lane Closures at Freeway Work Zones written by Zoltan Anthony Nemeth and published by . This book was released on 1982* with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Effects of Road Construction Intensity and Operations on Rural Freeway Work Zone Capacity written by Ronaldo Luna and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Capacity is affected by construction type and its intensity on adjacent open traffic lanes. The effect on capacity is a function of vehicles moving in and out of the closed lanes of the work zone, and the presence of heavy construction vehicles. Construction activity and its intensity, however, are not commonly considered in estimating capacity of a highway lane. The main purpose of this project was to attempt to quantify the effects of construction type and intensity (e.g. maintenance, rehabilitation, reconstruction, and milling) on work zone capacity. The objective of this project is to quantify the effects of construction type and its intensity on work zone capacity and to develop guidelines for MoDOT to estimate the specific operation type and intensity that will improve the traffic flow by reducing the traffic flow and queue length commonly associated with work zones. Despite the effort put into field data collection, the data collected did not show a full speed-flow chart therefore extracting a reliable capacity value was difficult. A statistical comparison between the capacity values found in this study using either methodologies indicates that there is an effect of construction activity on the values work zone capacity. It was found that the heavy construction activity reduces the capacity. It is very beneficial to conduct similar studies on the capacity of work zone with different lane closure barriers, which is also directly related to the type of work zone being short-term or long-term work zones. Also, the effect of different geometric and environmental characteristics of the roadway should be considered in future studies.
Download or read book Updated Capacity Values for Short term Freeway Work Zone Lane Closures written by Raymond A. Krammes and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Phase II written by Helmut T. Zwahlen and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This project contains three major parts. In the first part a digital computer simulation model was developed with the aim to model the traffic through a freeway work zone situation. The model was based on the Arena simulation software and used cumulative interarrival times as the input. Its aim was to determine the traffic volumes through the work zone and the queue lengths in advance of lane restrictions. The program was designed to handle up to 15 miles in length, up to six lanes, and up to 20 entrance and exit ramps. The developed program has not been validated due to the lack of reliable field data and the program appears to produce unreasonably short queue lengths and low exit ramp traffic counts compared to the input traffic data for cases where the exit ramps are spaced closely together. In the second part a diversion analysis was performed to determine the effects of closed ramps. The work zone sites were assigned by Ohio Department of Transportation and the diversion effects for these situations were in one case very minimal and in the other case as expected (traffic shifted to the next open exit ramp). In the third part guidelines for ramp management and ramp metering were established on a 24/7 basis giving special considerations to freeway mainline throughput and local traffic access to freeway.
Download or read book Freeway Workzone Capacity and Associated Economic Concepts written by Imtiaz Ali Shaikh and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like many other transportation agencies, the Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO) is also using the same work zone closure strategies and standards that it has used for decades. However, the lane closure strategies should incorporate the impacts of construction duration and inconvenience to the road users and find the balance where users face minimal inconvenience while contractors have the appropriate amount of time to finish the work and produce a high quality product. In-order to evaluate and assess the appropriate time for lane closures, it is important to estimate the capacity of the lanes. The capacity estimates can help in determining the optimized time for lane closures to minimize the user delays while providing sufficient time for contractors to achieve the desired productivity and quality of work. There are different models, computer Software and wide variety of studies to evaluate and estimate the Workzone Capacity and associated User Delay Costs at workzones. These costs are primarily affected by traffic flows, vehicle speeds, and work zone capacities. In-view of the above, this study is designed to estimate freeway capacity of construction workzones and discuss the associated user delay costs and economic issues. For this study, the capacity at the work zones was measured as the mean queue discharge flow rate during forced-flow conditions. Forced-flow conditions were defined as congested conditions during which a sustained queue formed. There are several studies and approaches for collecting traffic volume data for estimating workzone capacity. For this study, it was decided to utilize a manual counting method for volume data. This would help provide the visual confirmation of queuing and intensity of work activity at workzones. Six sites located in Southern Ontario, were selected for this study. The data from these sites is used to develop a mathematical model for estimating workzone capacity for Ontario.
