SYNTHESIS OF TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR URBAN FREEWAY RECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

Managing traffic during an urban freeway reconstruction project is a significant and complex problem. Fortunately, the planning efforts for future projects can benefit from the traffic management experiences from a number of successfully completed reconstruction projects. This paper compiles the corridor traffic management strategies employed at a sample of eight projects in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Houston, Syracuse, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Minneapolis. The paper also summarizes the observed effectiveness of the various strategies. Corridor traffic management plans are divided into three components: (a) a traffic-handling strategy for the highway being reconstructed, (b) impact-mitigation strategies for alternative routes and modes, and (c) a public information program. The three basic traffic-handling strategies are minor capacity reductions, lane closures, and total roadway closures on the highway being reconstructed. There have been successful applications of all three traffic-handling strategies. Keys to successful traffic management during reconstruction have been a coordinated, corridorwide perspective for managing traffic and an effective public information program for advising motorists about the project, prevailing traffic conditions, and travel alternatives.