Work zones directly impact the safety and mobility of road users and highway workers. These safety and mobility impacts are exacerbated by an aging highway infrastructure and growing congestion in many locations. Addressing these safety and mobility issues requires considerations that start early in project development and continue through project completion. Part 6 of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD) (incorporated by reference, see § 630.1018) sets forth basic principles and prescribes standards for the design, application, installation, and maintenance of traffic control devices for highway and street construction, maintenance operation, and utility work. In addition to the provisions in the MUTCD, there are other actions that could be taken to further help mitigate the safety and mobility impacts of work zones. This subpart establishes requirements and provides guidance for systematically addressing the safety and mobility impacts of work zones, and for developing strategies to help manage these impacts on Federal-aid highway projects.

As used in this subpart:

Agency means a State or local highway agency or authority that receives Federal-aid highway funding.

Highway workers include, but are not limited to, personnel of the contractor, subcontractor, agency, utilities, and law enforcement, performing work within the right-of-way of a transportation facility.

Mobility is the ability to move from place to place and is significantly dependent on the availability of transportation facilities and on system operating conditions. With specific reference to work zones, mobility pertains to moving road users efficiently through or around a work zone area with minimum delay compared to baseline travel when no work zone is present, while not compromising the safety of highway workers or road users. The commonly used performance measures for the assessment of mobility include delay, speed, travel time, and queue lengths.

Safety is a representation of the level of exposure to potential hazards for users of transportation facilities and highway workers. With specific reference to work zones, safety refers to minimizing potential hazards to road users in the vicinity of a work zone and highway workers at the work zone interface with traffic. The commonly used performance measures for highway work zone safety are the number of crashes or the consequences of crashes (fatalities and injuries) at a given location or along a section of highway during a period of time. In terms of highway worker safety performance measures, the number of highway worker fatalities and injuries at a given location or along a section of highway during a period of time are commonly used measures.

State refers to a State department of transportation.

Transportation management plan (TMP) consists of strategies to manage the work zone impacts of a project. Its scope, content, and degree of detail may vary based upon the agency's work zone policy and the agency's understanding of the expected work zone impacts of the project. Refer to § 630.1010(d) and § 630.1012(b) for more information on a TMP and its components.

Work zone is an area of a highway with construction, maintenance, or utility work activities. A work zone is typically marked by one or more of the following: signs, channelizing devices, barriers, pavement markings, or work vehicles. It extends from the first warning sign or high intensity rotating, flashing, oscillating, or strobe lights on a vehicle to the END ROAD WORK sign or the last temporary traffic control (TTC) device. See MUTCD, Part 6, “Temporary Traffic Control” (incorporated elsewhere in this subpart).

Work zone crash is a crash that occurs in or related to a construction, maintenance, or utility work zone, whether or not workers were actually present at the time of the crash. “Work zone-related” crashes may also include crashes involving motor vehicles slowed or stopped because of the work zone, even if the first harmful event occurred before the first warning sign. See “Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria Guideline” (MMUCC), 5thEd. (Electronic), 2017, produced by NHTSA. Available at the following website: https://www.nhtsa.gov/mmucc-1.

Work zone impacts refer to work zone-induced deviations from the normal range of transportation system safety and mobility. The extent of the work zone impacts may vary based on factors such as: road classification and geometrics; area type (urban, suburban, and rural); traffic and travel characteristics (volumes, speeds, vehicle mix and classification, etc.); type of work being performed; type of temporary traffic control; distance between workers and traffic; availability of escape paths for workers; time of day/night; and complexity and duration of the project. These impacts may extend beyond the physical location of the work zone itself, including upstream or downstream of the work zone location, other highway corridors, other modes of transportation, and/or the regional transportation network.

Work zone programmatic review is a data-driven, systematic, and holistic analysis that uses quantitative and qualitative data from different sources to assess the safety and mobility performance of work zones under a State's jurisdiction in order to identify improvements to that agency's work zone processes and procedures.

(a) Each State shall implement a policy for the systematic consideration and management of work zone impacts on all Federal-aid highway projects. This policy shall address work zone impacts throughout the various stages of the project development and implementation process. This policy may take the form of processes, procedures, or guidance, and may vary based on the characteristics and expected work zone impacts of individual projects or classes of projects.

(b) At a minimum, the policy shall identify safety and mobility performance measures that will be used to manage work zone performance. Examples of such performance measures include number of fatal and injury crashes occurring in a work zone, percent of projects that exceed a preestablished crash rate in the work zone, number of highway worker fatalities and injuries experienced, highway worker fatality and injury rate per hours worked, percent of projects that experience queues above a predefined threshold, and percent of time when speeds in a work zone drop below a predefined threshold.

(c) The States should institute this policy using a multi-disciplinary team and in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The States are encouraged to implement this policy for non-Federal-aid projects as well.

(a) General. This section consists of State-level processes and procedures for States to implement and sustain their respective work zone safety and mobility policies. State-level processes and procedures, data and information resources, training, and periodic evaluation enable a systematic approach for addressing and managing the safety and mobility impacts of work zones.

(b) Work zone assessment and management procedures. States shall develop and implement systematic procedures to assess likely work zone impacts to all highway workers and anticipated road users in project development and to manage safety and mobility impacts occurring during project implementation. The scope of these procedures shall be based on the project characteristics.

(c) Work zone data. States shall use field observations, available work zone crash data, available safety surrogate data, available operational information, and available exposure data to monitor and manage work zone impacts for specific projects during implementation and to perform its work zone programmatic reviews. Examples of crash data include fatalities, injuries, and crashes; examples of safety surrogate data include speed differentials, hard braking, and other data from connected and autonomous vehicles; examples of available operational information include speeds, travel times, queue length, and duration; and examples of available exposure data include number of projects, number and length of lane closures, and vehicle-miles traveled through work zones.

(d) Training. States shall require that personnel involved in the development, design, implementation, operation, inspection, and enforcement of work-zone-related transportation management and traffic control be trained, appropriate to the job decisions each individual is required to make. States shall require periodic training updates that reflect changing industry practices and State processes and procedures.

(e) Work zone programmatic review. In order to assess the effectiveness of work zone safety and mobility processes and procedures, States shall perform a work zone programmatic review every 5 years and share that review with FHWA by the end of the 5-year review period.

(1) The work zone programmatic review shall include a data-driven assessment of the safety and mobility performance of the State's work zones. At a minimum, this review shall include a representative sample of the State's significant work zones over the 5-year period being reviewed. The approach used for selecting the representative projects shall be documented and should be based on factors such as land use (urban and rural locations), roadway type, type of work zone, and extent of the work zone impacts.

(2) Each programmatic review shall include an assessment of the work zone safety and mobility performance occurring since the last review was performed, systematic identification and assessment of the States' work zone management processes and procedures to be improved, action items to be taken to achieve improvement, State divisions or offices responsible for implementing the actions, and estimated timeline for implementation.

(3) States shall use available crash data, available safety surrogate data, available operational data, and the performance measures specified in their work zone policy to conduct the assessment. Section 630.1008(c) provides example performance measures for each data source listed in this section. To ensure assessment of the safety and mobility performance of their work zones on a continuous basis, States shall monitor performance annually.

(4) The work zone programmatic review shall include examination of efforts across State divisions or offices affecting work zone safety and mobility management, including but not limited to: project planning, project design, project implementation, maintenance activities, transportation operations and management, permitting (e.g., utilities, oversize/overweight, lane closures, sidewalk closures), training, and public information and outreach.

(5) Appropriate personnel who represent the project development and implementation stages and the different offices within the State and FHWA should participate in this review. Other non-State stakeholders may also be included in this review, as appropriate.

(a) A significant project is one that, alone or in combination with other concurrent projects nearby, is anticipated to cause sustained work zone impacts (as defined in § 630.1004) that are greater than what is considered tolerable based on State policy and engineering judgment.

(b) The applicability of the provisions in §§ 630.1012(b)(2) and 630.1012(b)(3) is dependent upon whether a project is determined to be significant. The State shall identify upcoming projects that are expected to be significant. This identification of significant projects should be done as early as possible in the project delivery and development process, and in cooperation with FHWA. The State's work zone policy provisions, the project's characteristics, and the magnitude and extent of the anticipated work zone impacts should be considered when determining if a project is significant or not.

(c) All Interstate system projects within the boundaries of a designated Transportation Management Area that require intermittent or continuous lane closures for 3 or more consecutive days shall be considered as significant projects.

(d) For an Interstate system project or categories of Interstate system projects that are classified as significant through the application of the provisions in paragraph (c) of this section but in the judgment of the State do not cause sustained work zone impacts, the State may request from FHWA an exception to §§ 630.1012(b)(2) and 630.1012(b)(3). The FHWA may grant exceptions to these provisions based on the State's ability to show that the specific Interstate system project or categories of Interstate system projects do not have sustained work zone impacts.

(e) Non-interstate system projects with less than 3 consecutive days of intermittent or continuous lane closures do not require the transportation operations (TO) or public information and outreach (PIO) components of a TMP (as described in § 630.1012(b)).

(a) Scope. This section provides guidance and establishes procedures for States to manage the work zone impacts of individual projects.

(b) Transportation Management Plan. For significant projects (as described in § 630.1010), the State shall develop a TMP that consists of a TTC plan and addresses both TO and PIO components. For individual projects or classes of projects that the State determines to have less than significant work zone impacts, the TMP may consist only of a TTC plan. States are encouraged to consider TO and PIO issues for all projects.

(1) A TTC plan describes TTC measures to be used for facilitating road users through a work zone or an incident area. The TTC plan shall be consistent with the provisions under Part 6 of the MUTCD (incorporated by reference, see § 630.1018). In developing and implementing the TTC plan, pre-existing roadside safety hardware shall be maintained at an equivalent or better level than existed prior to project implementation. The scope of the TTC plan is determined by the project characteristics and the traffic safety and control requirements identified by the State for that project. The TTC plan shall either be a reference to specific TTC elements in the MUTCD, approved standard TTC plans, State transportation department TTC manual, or be designed specifically for the project.

(2) The TO component of the TMP shall include the identification of strategies that the State will use to mitigate impacts of the work zone on the operation and management of the transportation system within the work zone impact area. Typical TO strategies may include, but are not limited to, demand management, corridor/network management, safety management and enforcement, and work zone traffic management. The scope of the TO component should be determined by the project characteristics and the transportation operations and safety strategies identified by the State.

(3) The PIO component of the TMP shall include communications strategies that seek to inform affected road users, the general public, area residences and businesses, and appropriate public entities about the project, the expected work zone impacts, and the changing conditions on the project. This may include traveler information strategies. The scope of the PIO component should be determined by the project characteristics and the public information and outreach strategies identified by the State. Public information and outreach should be provided through methods best suited for the project, and may include, but not be limited to, information on the project characteristics, expected impacts, closure details, and commuter alternatives.

(4) States should develop and implement the TMP in sustained consultation with stakeholders (e.g., other transportation agencies, railroad agencies/operators, transit providers, freight movers, utility suppliers, police, fire, emergency medical services, schools, business communities, and regional transportation management centers).

(c) Inclusion of TMP in Plans, Specification, and Estimates. The Plans, Specifications, and Estimates (PS&E) shall include either a TMP or provisions for contractors to develop a TMP at the most appropriate project phase as applicable to the State's chosen contracting methodology for the project. A contractor-developed TMP shall be subject to the approval of the State and shall not be implemented before it is approved by the State.

(d) Inclusion of Pay Item Provisions in Plans, Specification, and Estimates. The PS&Es shall include appropriate pay item provisions for implementing the TMP, either through method- or performance-based specifications.

(e) Responsible persons. The State and the contractor shall each designate a trained person, as specified in § 630.1008(d), at the project level who has the primary responsibility and sufficient authority for implementing the TMP and other safety and mobility aspects of the project.

Each State shall work in cooperation with FHWA in the implementation of its policies and procedures to improve work zone safety and mobility. At a minimum, this shall involve an FHWA review of conformance of the State's policies and procedures with this regulation and reassessment of the State's implementation of its procedures at appropriate intervals. Each State is encouraged to address implementation of this regulation in its stewardship agreement with FHWA.

States shall comply with all the provisions of this rule no later than December 31, 2026. The next work zone programmatic review will be due December 31, 2030. For projects that are in the later stages of development at or about the compliance date, and if it is determined that the delivery of those projects would be significantly impacted as a result of this rule's provisions, States may request variances for those projects from FHWA on a project-by-project basis.

Certain material is incorporated by reference into this subpart with the approval of the Director of the Federal Register under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51. All approved incorporation by reference (IBR) material is available for inspection at FHWA and at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Contact FHWA at: Federal Highway Administration, Office of Transportation Operations, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590; phone: (202) 366-8043; website: ops.fhwa.dot.gov/contactus.htm. For information on the availability of this material at NARA, visit www.archives.gov/federal-register/cfr/ibr-locations or email [email protected]. The material may be obtained from the following sources:

(a) FHWA, Federal Highway Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590; phone: (202) 366-1993; website: mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov.

(1) Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD), 11th Edition, FHWA, December 2023; approved for §§ 630.1002; 630.1012.

(2) [Reserved]

(b) [Reserved]