Traffic management in large urban road work zones

Large road improvement projects on the main road network need traffic management on the network level; mode choice guidance, route guidance and real-time information on the traffic status. The aim of this work was to identify the needs for workzone traffic management, to suggest a organisation model and concrete actions, and to test them in practise at the Hakamaentie improvement project in Helsinki. On the basis of the pilot evaluation, a general model was created for the traffic management in large road works in the future. The traffic management pilot at the Hakamaentien improvement project started in July 2006 and continued until May 2007. In the evaluation project the traffic management model was evaluated from the perspectives of all stakeholders. The quality of the piloted information services was considered high, however, improvement needs were seen especially in the information for cyclists and pedestrians. On basis of the experiences from the pilot, in the future projects it is necessary to reduce the number of actors and to write contracts on important responsibilities. Key parts of the information services should be included in the actual construction project. For traffic monitoring systems, to improve cost-effectiveness it is important to utilise existing monitoring systems and add new ones only where necessary. The largest impact to the work zone traffic flow is generated in the planning of the work zone traffic arrangements. In the urban access roads, it is necessary to maintain the normal number of lanes on peak hours as well as minimise the stops to traffic flow. With the help of traffic management it is pos-sible to divert traffic flow around the work zone on the network level and to ease down traffic when ac-cessing the work zone. With the help of multi-channel traffic information it is possible to improve general knowledge on the project, affect to individuals' travel choices and plans and further to improve the public image of the construction project. The result of the project was a tested general model for road works traffic management, which was documented in the form of instructions. The actors and the stakeholders, their responsibilities and the interfaces are all clarified in the model's functional architecture. The descrip-tion serves the planning and procurement of the traffic management services in the future projects. The instructions include concrete examples of the piloted services and also information on what features should be taken into account in traffic information and the implementation of the real-time internet page. This report may be found at http://www.aino.info/julkaisut/3_tilainfo/aino54_2007.pdf