ATSSA Signal September October 2020

American Traffic Safety Services Association 22 Innovation Both DOTs advise that strips be placed adjacent to the “Be Prepared to Stop,” “Reduce Speed Ahead,” or “One Lane Road Ahead” sign in a work zone. VDOT advises deploying a “Rumble Strips Ahead” sign upstream in all cases, while MDT recommends use of this warning sign if an area has high motorcycle traffic, or if the strips result in erratic driver behavior. In both states, strips are to be placed in arrays of three, with spacing distance determined by the road’s speed limit. Case Study 4: Presence Lighting Nighttime Traffic Control To safely take advantage of the bene - fits of performing road construction at night, work crews need adequate lighting solutions that can be moved in and out of a work zone as needed. Work zone lighting can fall into two categories: task lighting, which helps workers see to perform the work at hand, and presence lighting, which supplements task lighting, alerts driv - ers to the presence of a work zone and helps them see the roadway and any obstacles they should avoid. The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) does not provide guid - ance on work zone lighting systems. However, several states have devel - oped their own guidance. Commonly used temporary task light - ing systems include: • Portable Light Plant Towers, which consist of several luminaires mounted to a mast arm attached to a trailer with a generator, which can be towed by a vehicle. • Balloon Lighting, a large balloon- like luminaire that can distribute glare-free light over a fairly large area and can be mounted to slow-moving equipment or portable light towers. • Roadway Luminaires Mounted on Temporary Poles, where permanent roadway light fixtures are attached to temporary poles and hard-wired into the roadway electrical system. Case Study 3, Figure 4 – Typical installation on a two-lane roadway using flaggers. (Diagram Courtesy of Virginia Department of Transportation. Traffic Engineering Division Instructional & Informational Memorandum. Number IIM-TE-386.1. November 6, 2017) Case Study 4, Figure 1 – A presence lighting fixture. (Photo Courtesy of Steven Kite, PE) September 2019 Page 6H-55 Lane Closure on a Two-Lane Roadway Using Flaggers (Figure TTC-23.2) 1: Revision 1 – 4/1/2015 2: Revision 2 – 9/1/2019