Construction project administration and management for mitigating work zone crashes and fatalities: An integrated risk management model

Each year in the United States hundreds of people die in automobile crashes in highway work zones and tens of thousands of motorists suffer injury or property damage due to crashes in highway work zones. The traveling public, designers, department of transportation agencies, and contractors will all benefit from research aimed at the reduction of crashes in highway work zones. Although much past research has delved into the various causes of work zone crashes and the various strategies to mitigate work zone crashes, little effort has been given to the overall management of the risks associated with work zone crashes. The goal of this research is to develop a new, integrated approach to the management of these risks. This goal is achieved through the development of a formal integrated risk management model to be utilized during the construction management and administration of highway projects for all stages of the project lifecycle. Within this integrated risk management program, validation and application of the model is accomplished by focusing on the three components of the standard risk management model: risk identification, risk analysis, and risk response. This project requires a multi-faceted research approach employing several methodologies. With the exception of the risk assessment portion of this research, the methodology for this project is primarily qualitative, using focus groups, surveys, personal interviews, and content analysis to identify work zone risks, mitigating strategies and the proper stakeholders and project phases in which to implement mitigating strategies. The model validation phase of this research involves qualitative assessments along with an analytic assessment of work zone hazards through database queries into a statewide crash database to produce a risk matrix tool. The risk matrix tool is a two dimensional representation of the frequency and severity of crashes with specific characteristics (hazards) that are associated with the crash and can be used by a risk management team to prioritize their responses to work zone risk.