This report reviews the safety performances of 17 major roadwork sites on dual 3-lane motorways. The majority of sites employed full contra-flow layouts, with 2-lane crossovers. Over 63 million vehicle passages, totalling 1000 million vehicle kilometres of travel, were recorded at these work sites, and a similar number at the same locations when no works were in progress. There were 155 personal injury accidents during the periods with roadworks, compared with 89 in the absence of works. The personal injury accident rate per million vehicle kilometres over the whole works site (i.e., the contra-flow section, plus 6 km either side) for all the traffic management layouts was 1.6 times the no-works rate. This factor did not differ from that found in a similar study conducted in 1982, and confirms that major roadworks on motorways are still appreciably safer than all-purpose roads without works.
Abstract