Development of recommendations for arterial lane closures to optimize traffic operations.

The 2010 FDOT Design Standards provide information regarding traffic control through work zones at multilane arterials. However, there are currently no quantitative guidelines for optimizing signal control around work zones. The objective of this project was to formulate suitable recommendations for the development of signal control plans, including phasing, signal timings, and channelization. The research focused on multilane arterial streets. These signal control optimization guidelines were developed distinguishing between three different cases: * Case 1: Lane Closure before the Intersection. In this case, the work zone area blocks one or more lanes upstream of the intersection, and there is some distance from the work zone to the stop bar. * Case 2: Lane Closure at the Stop Bar. This case can be further divided into two subcases: lane closure at the stop bar that causes changes in the type of the remaining lanes and lane closure at the stop bar that reduces the number of lanes * but does not change the remaining channelization. * Case 3: Lane Closure at Some Distance Downstream from the Subject Intersection. In this case, the work zone area will block some lanes in the middle of an arterial link between two intersections. There are three key parameters in this case: demand from the upstream intersection (Dupstream), capacity of the lane closure area (Cclosure), and capacity of the downstream intersection (Cdownstream). Detailed guidelines were developed to optimize signal control around each of the work zone cases described above. A combination of field data and simulation was used to evaluate these guidelines and document their effectiveness under different demand conditions. Generally, signal retiming around work zones is warranted only when the work zone is expected to significantly impact operations and increase delay. This occurs when demand is high, approaching or exceeding capacity. If that is not the case, the existing signalization plan should be retained. The report provides the basic steps of the guidelines developed for each of the three cases, and the equations for performing the respective calculations. (Author/publisher)