New Work Zone Safety Devices

Highway maintenance work is one of the most hazardous occupations throughout the world. The growing necessity to repair existing pavements and structures facilities while maintaining traffic flow makes work site safety of increasing concern to workers and motorists alike. Realizing this concern, the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) initiated two projects with a view to develop new and more effective ways to enhance work zone safety of workers and motorists during short-term (12 hours or less) maintenance operations. The paper discusses the results of these two projects. The first project identified new devices through analyses of existing maintenance operations. In all, 25 devices were conceived and recommended for further development, testing and evaluation in the second project. The paper then goes on to discuss the closed track and open highway tests of the 25 devices, together with the conclusions and recommendations for implementation.