The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois (U of I) and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) are working to develop design guidelines for smart work zone systems.

According to a blog post from IDOT, the goal of the Illinois Center for Transportation project is to improve safety and mobility in work zones by determining when smart work zone systems are needed, how to design them, and how to ensure the systems are adequately operating…

The research team will also develop a tool to assess when smart work zone systems are needed on different types of projects. This tool is expected to help IDOT designers identify the need for smart work zone systems in different projects based on their specific conditions and characteristics, such as work zone length, number of lane closures, and more.