This paper discusses the parameters involved in night-time maintenance and construction operations, and provides guidance in establishing standard procedures for such operations. The authors have surveyed the literature on this subject, listed the issues to be considered (traffic-related, construction-related, social, economic, and environmental), and presented an eight-step process for the evaluation of arguments for day or night operations. The paper concludes that although every project is unique, the most influential factors in deciding whether to work at night are: (1) impact on the roadway traffic patterns; and (2) the comparative cost of alternative (daytime) scheduling, bearing in mind that the foremost consideration must always be safety. (a).
Abstract