Updating the Lane Closure Guide for Urban Highways in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area

Download or read book Updating the Lane Closure Guide for Urban Highways in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area written by Eric John Fitzsimmons and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each year short- and long-term work zones are put into place to allow for maintenance and rehabilitation of highways. However, work zones can have a significant impact on traffic flow. To reduce the impacts of work zones, KDOT developed a Lane Closure Guide to recommend times during a day a lane could be shut down for construction. The existing Lane Closure Guide was developed on limited information and estimations of traffic volumes. The objective of this research was to evaluate the existing Lane Closure Guide, survey other highway agencies on their policies for closing a lane, and update the Lane Closure Guide with traffic management center data. The results of this study found inconsistencies in the existing Lane Closure Guide and gaps in information such as directional split. The research team utilized Kansas City Scout data to update the Lane Closure Guide with accurate information that reflects current field conditions. Additionally, the research team developed a quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) process to ensure the Lane Closure Guide performed in a consistent and accurate way. Two areas for future work emerged from the results of this research project. A program should be developed that can automatically update the Lane Closure Guide each year or in real time. Also, gaps in data coverage should be updated when additional information is available or obtained from counters placed in areas that previously lacked counters. Ideally, the Gateway project area should be the first location where traffic counters should be placed, followed by a counter on the bridge over the Missouri River.