Traffic management for middle lane maintenance on urban freeways.

This report summarizes field evaluation results of two innovative approaches used by District 12 (Houston) of the Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation for managing traffic during middle lane maintenance operations on a 3-lane urban freeway section. The two approaches are: (1) Traffic shifting with use of the shoulder; and (2) Traffic splitting. The results indicated that, compared to the multi-lane closure strategy commonly used at middle lane worksites, both approaches significantly increased capacity and reduced queueing on the freeway.