FHWA Roadway Work Zone Training Consortium - Winter 2008 Newsletter, Volume II
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Inside
- State Standards, Regulations and Guidelines
- National Traffic Management & Work Zone Safety Conference Recap
- Audience response System Enhances Training Evaluations
- ANSI A10.47 Work Zone Safety for Highway Construction Standard
State Standards, Regulations and Guidelines
A key element of the Roadway Work Zone Consortium's program of work is the Roadway Safety+ Interactive training program. Recent versions of the training program CD include the ability to identify appropriate federal standards, regulations, and guidelines that relate to specific items mentioned in the CD. As part of the FHWA Work Zone Safety Grant program, this standard and regulation information cross-referencing feature is being significantly expanded.
First, those states who maintain their own occupational and safety health regulations as they pertain to road construction activities are being incorporated into the database so that users of the CD will be able to cite the actual state reference, where appropriate. In addition, some of these regulations exceed federal regulations, and so entries are being created to include these additional requirements.
States that have state occupational safety and health regulations relevant to the training program CD include California, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, and Washington. Second, the consortium is working to include additional state standards and regulations pertaining to other aspects addressed in the Roadway Safety+ CD. Flagging training and certification requirements and internal traffic control plans are among the various topics being examined for incorporation into the database.
At the conclusion of this effort, it is envisioned that it will be possible for those using the training program to identify the state of those being trained, and have the database identify the standards, regulations, and guidelines that are pertinent to that location.
Night Work Sub Group
The Consortium has finished developing content for the modules covering safety during night work operations.
Currently the Night Work course is made up of seven modules. The first module, “Risks and Health Issues” is the anchor for the course and the additional modules are designed to be inserted into the course based on the audience or topics needed to review. The first module has already been formatted to blend into the Roadway Safety Program.
Custom night work graphics, icons and pictures are being developed to insert into the slides of the module. Drafts of two of the seven modules will be ready in the first quarter of 2008.
National Traffic Management & Work Zone Safety Conference
The FHWA Work Zone Consortium was a key player and participant in the National Traffic management and Work Zone Safety Conference held October 9-13, 2007, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Nearly 300 people participated in the conference and events hosted by The National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse.
The conference effectively brought together many perspectives on work zone safety, including traffic and worker safety, public and private sector concerns, contractors, designers, engineers, etc., in one location to share ideas and best practices in an effort to improve roadway work zone safety for all roadway users.
The conference featured over 30 technical sessions, 70 speakers, off-site tours and live crash response demonstrations.
Attendees to the conference were also allowed to attend and participate in Intertraffic North America 2007, a trade show aimed specifically at the traffic management and construction industry.
In an effort to make the conference information available to a wider audience, the Clearinghouse has posted the following materials on their website: www.workzonesafety.org:
- 24 of the session presentations
- 5 video taped presentations and events:
- Two articles highlighting special events held during the conference, a tour of the Broward County Traffic Management Center and a live incident management demonstration.
All materials may be viewed at no cost. More presentations and videos from this conference will be posted as permission and information becomes available.
Audience Response System Enhances Training Evaluation
One goal of the Consortium is to evaluate the impact the training program has the attitudes and behavior of trainees. To do this the Consortium began piloting an Audience Response System (ARS) for quantitative evaluation of training program impact. ARS consists of a remote ‘voting’ keypad for each trainee and a base-station connected to a computer with projection system.
Consortium member FOF Communications created proprietary software to permit ARS-collected data to input directly into the Roadway Safety Program Macromedia software product. The ARS permits immediate trainee response for classroom review and captures responses in data files for later analysis.
The Consortium developed a question set of four pre/post items per module to capture impact on key behaviors or work practices. The first pilots took place at the National Traffic Management & Work Zone Safety Conference and an Laborers-AGC instructor workshop. These pilots involved managers
and trainers. Future pilots will involve target trainees – road construction workers, supervisors, and 
others.
Results. Sample results here demonstrate the ARS process. However, they are not predictive of outcomes with target trainees due to the nature of the pilot audiences. Results show percent answering ‘very likely’ to each of four pre/post questions. Pre-training, 50% to 80% were ‘very likely’ to take the action. Post-training, 71% to 92% were ‘very likely’ to take the action. For Q1, Q3, and Q4, these differences are significant with the 95% Confidence Interval for the true difference ranging from at least 3% to as much as 70%, depending on the question.
Benefits include:
- Immediate feedback to instructor on classroom comprehension.
- Instructor knows immediately if he is being effective.
- Instructor can re-teach or change teaching techniques.
- Allows quiet students to be heard anonymously.
- Instructor can pinpoint topics that were not mastered by class.
The ANSI A10.47 Work Zone Safety For Highway Construction Standard
FHWA Roadway Work Zone Training Consortium Partners
Laborers' Health & Safety Fund of North America
American Road & Transportation Builders Association
National Asphalt Pavement Association
International Union of Operating Engineers
Laborers'-AGC Education & Training Fund
American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials
CNA
Texas Transportation Institute
James E. Bryden, PE
FOF Communications
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Work Zone Safety Grant Information
Background... Work zones remain a dangerous element of the transportation network, representing over 1000 fatalities annually. The work zone realted injuries and fatalities involve motorists traveling through the work zone, as well as workers working on roadway construction/maintenance/utility projects. The trends of growing traffic, increased road construction, and public frustration with work zones have contributed to the growing intensity of work zone safety impacts on workers and traveling public. The impacts raise an urgent need for guidance and training for work zone workers, the public, and transportation agencies and groups towards prevention of highway work zone injuries and fatalities.
Grant Tasks...The objective of this grant is to provide assistance for highway work zone safety training and guideline development towards the improvement of highway work zone safety. The Roadway Safety Coalition will perform the following tasks under this grant: Highway Work Zone Worker Safety Training; The Highway Work Zone Safety Guidelines Development; and Highway Work Zone Safety Guidelines Training. More information.
This material is based upon work supported by the Federal Highway Administration under grant agreement No.DTFH61-06-G-00007. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the Author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Federal Highway Administration.
Posted: 10/17/2008
Categories: Best Practices | Falls | Night Work | Standards | Temporary Traffic Control | Tort Liability | Training | Work Zone Safety | Worker Safety | FHWA Work Zone Safety Grant ProgramDid you choose not to download this program? Will you please take a moment to tell us why?
