The State Department of Transportation (DOT) must develop an adequate traffic operations management and congestion mitigation plan for every roadway maintenance and construction project based on the work zone length and schedule. Therefore, it is critical to obtain accurate and reliable estimates of traffic impacts associated with pertinent maintenance and construction projects, and the corresponding roadway capacity reductions. The current analytical models used by DOT were developed based on traditional volume/capacity formulae and deterministic traffic queuing modeling method. The shortcomings of these methods often result in inaccurate estimates of traffic delay and the associated costs, which may be significantly improved by utilizing floating car data (FCD).

The objective of this research project is to develop a methodology for integrating FCD into the traffic impact analysis model, and to formulate a mathematical model for optimizing work zone length and schedule on multilane highways via minimizing the total cost of transportation agencies, road users, and vehicle emissions. To achieve the objective, the work scope shall include:

• Review past studies and current practices on work zone scheduling and traffic control
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• Develop methods to estimates work zone related costs of agencies, road users, vehicle emissions, and fuel consumption and an optimization model considering road geometry, traffic volume, work zone length and schedule, and vehicle composition, which minimize the total cost
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• Identify a study site within NY/NJ metropolitan area and collect data, including road geometry, FCD (i.e. speed and travel time), and work zone related information
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• Conduct a case study to demonstrate the model applicability and explore the relationship between decision variables and model parameters; and Develop a final report to demonstrate optimal results and conclude research findings.