A Study of the Effectiveness of Steady Burn Warning Lights on Drums in Construction Work Zones

Because of the increasing number of work zone fatalities, work zone safety has become a high priority issue for road agencies and the road building industry. In addition, almost half of all traffic fatalities occur during the nighttime hours, even through the traffic volume during the nighttime hours is lower than the daytime traffic. Due to this reduced traffic, the MUTCD suggests that nighttime construction work should be considered. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of orange colored drums with orange and white reflectorized stripes used as a delineation treatment in highway work zone traffic control with and without steady burn warning lights through a field experiment and a controlled laboratory experiment utilizing a driving simulator. Currently in Michigan, warning lights are used on drums in work zones. It should be noted that in the United States, only five other states (in addition to Michigan) require the use of warning lights on drums for work zone traffic control. The purpose of this study was to evaluate driver performance in terms of vehicle operational characteristics including vehicular lateral placement, speed, steering reversals and traffic crash experiences. The statistical analysis performed with the field data and the laboratory data did not indicate any significant difference in driver performance between work zone traffic control with and without steady burn warning lights on drums.