This document provides quantitative benefits of using Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in highway construction and maintenance work zones. The summary report covers case study sites in the District of Columbia, Texas, Michigan, Arkansas, and North Carolina and provides insights into the mobility and safety benefits of ITS for work zone traffic management.

This document provides quantitative benefits of using Intelligent Transportation Systems in highway construction and maintenance work zones. The technical report covers case study sites in the District of Columbia, Texas, Michigan, Arkansas, and North Carolina. The document provides insights into the mobility and safety benefits of ITS for work zone traffic management.

Intelligent Transportation Systems, or ITS, is the application of electronics, communications, and/or information processing to improve the efficiency and/or safety of surface transportation systems. ITS can improve transportation safety, mobility, and societal productivity through the integration of advanced communications technologies into the transportation infrastructure and in vehicles. ITS encompasses a broad range of wireless and wire line communications-based information and electronics technologies. This report documents several case studies of how agencies used work zone intelligent transportation systems (ITS) to mitigate safety and mobility issues in work zones. The report illustrates how to apply a systems engineering-based decision-making process to designing, selecting, and implementing a system to address work zone needs. The report presents the steps followed by the agency/contractor in this decision-making framework for five specific projects. The work zone ITS deployments documented provide examples of selecting and deploying commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) systems; a tailored design and integration of ITS for a specific work zone purpose; and using and supplementing permanent ITS deployments for work zone management purposes. Tips are provided for how to effectively apply ITS to other work zones.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have been developed to help relieve traffic congestion and improve safety on highways. Work zones are key areas to deploy ITS because of the high risk of congestion and accidents due to lane closures. This thesis developed a methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of ITS in work zones. Past studies have not consistently used all necessary performance measures in their evaluations such as diversion, delay, queue lengths, accident rates, and various speed measurements. This thesis includes a comprehensive literature review on ITS in work zones, a general framework for evaluating work zone ITS deployments, application of the developed framework to I-70 and I-44 work zones, and a benefit-cost analysis to estimate the monetized ITS benefits. I-70 had a benefit-cost ratio of 5.1 to 1 if all of the cost of permanent equipment is included and 19.8 to 1 if only the work zone duration cost of permanent equipment is included. I-44 had a benefit-cost ratio of 17 to 1 if all of the cost of permanent equipment is included and 48.6 to 1 if only the work zone duration cost of permanent equipment is included. The benefits for each of these case studies could be better estimated if there was data for a period of time when DMS was not used, since accident rate reduction could be added to the I-70 benefits and delay reduction could be added to the I-44 benefits.