Review of Safety Measures to Reduce Work Zone Crashes

Given the emphasis on maintaining and reconstructing existing infrastructure from one hand and road traffic volumes on the other hand, the issue of work zone safety has become more prominent in recent years. Maintaining efficient and safe movement of traffic through work zones is a major challenge for authorities. The work zone driving conditions differ from normal driving conditions. Further, the driving conditions of each type of work zone may differ from those of another type of work zone. These factors can result in violations of road user expectancy, which in turn can lead to congestion, erratic maneuvers, and ultimately crashes. In addition, the lack of driver knowledge about appropriate work zone driving actions, failure to obey traffic laws, and lack of awareness of work zones and/or workers also reduce work zone safety. This paper reviews work zone safety measures and aims to provide an appropriate tool for road authorities in order to apply possible measure based on conditions to enhance safety and reduce associated crashes.