• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.37-46
• /
• 2013

Lane closure in freeway work zone due to maintenance and repair of freeway facilities results in abrupt change of traffic flow. Sudden change of traffic flow results strong interactions among vehicles, and reduces capacity compared to the ordinary traffic condition. Such capacity reduction is likely to cause congestion, traffic queues, and economic loss cost. This study aims to determine the base capacity for a short-term freeway work zone that can be used to establish a work zone schedule in advance without any traffic impact. First, the research collected detector data and schedule data of road works on all freeways in Korea. Second, the research determined 23 study sites finding the capacity values of work zone after matching two kinds of data. All study sites had varying characteristics regarding traffic flow being adjacent to work zone during road works. The capacity values were reviewed in terms of lane closure configuration, the types of work, and design speed. Finally, research proposed capacity values for a short-term freeway work zone with the design speeds of 100 kph, 120 kph and 1,700 pcphpl, 1,750 pcphpl, respectively.