Simulation Study of Construction Work Zones – A Case Study

Abstract

Rapid infrastructure development paves way to widening and strengthening of highways. During this process, construction work zones are encountered. Speed in the construction work zones is a vital factor to be focused upon, especially on highways. If the speed is high, fatal accidents will occur in the work zone and if it is too low, it will contribute towards the delay, followed by increased queue lengths and thereby increased vehicle operating cost (VOC). The variation of speed in different construction work zones during various stages of construction has been studied with a case study of a four-laning project of Trichy-Thanjavur section of NH-67. An attempt has been made to model the construction work zone in VISSIM, a microsimulation software. Simulation models of the work zones were generated with the entities, attributes of entities and activities within the entities involved in the work zone system. The output travel time for different components of the work zones obtained from the simulation run was analyzed and compiled. Validation is done using the travel time data observed experimentally in different work zone sections and a comparison between the observed and simulated results is presented.

Keywords: Speed, simulation, travel time, VISSIM, work zones