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(air whooshing)

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- [Narrator] Smart work
zones have been shown

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to increase the safety and movement

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of traffic on Texas roads.

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These work zones have become
more common on road projects,

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but there are questions
about why some areas

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have benefited more than others.

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The Texas Department of Transportation

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and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute

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investigated how
implementation and maintenance

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can influence smart work zones,

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and what processes can be improved

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and changed on future designs.

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- Smart work zones have been shown to be

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at a very effective way of improving

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both safety and mobility in
work zones, but to do so,

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they have to be put out
where they are most needed,

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they have to be designed
properly, procured properly,

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operated and maintained.

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And so this project was
designed to investigate

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what TxDOT needed to do to
increase the effectiveness

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of their smart work zone utilization.

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- This project was great.

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It did look at all smart
work zone technologies,

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but it really focused on end
of queue warning systems.

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We have these queues that might develop

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because maybe we have a lane
closure or a lane reduction.

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When we utilize these end
of queue warning systems,

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it absolutely reduces severe crashes

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that happen in work zone queues.

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- We did a bit of a, some
operational and safety analysis

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of of deployments to see how we think,

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how effective they were.

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- The fact that we've shown
that these smart work zones

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can reduce severe crashes and save lives

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meant that we had to
implement it successfully.

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So part of it understanding
how it has been implemented

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was the ability to go out there

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and interview the right people at TxDOT

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and to review the information
that was collected

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on the road on the projects.

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- Rural districts are
struggling a little bit

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with how do you design 'em?

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What steps, when do I
decide when to use 'em,

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and those kind of things.

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So I think the biggest finding

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was by incorporating these recommendations

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into their workflows, the
use of smart work zones

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are gonna be more
effective across the state,

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not just in the urban areas.

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- We're definitely in
the implementation phase,

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so we're gonna see more implementation

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of this technology across TxDOT.

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But more exciting than that

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is to even think outside of work zones.

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We think we have a technology now

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to take it to the next step

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to basically create an all-in-one
unit that we can deploy,

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whether that's for special
events, emergency situations,

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winter weather operations
that TxDOT conducts,

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things like that.

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So we're definitely thinking ahead there.

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- For more information and
to find the publications

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for this project, please visit
the TxDOT research library

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at the link shown below.