National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW) is an annual spring campaign held at the start of construction season to encourage safe driving through highway work zones. The key message is for drivers to use extra caution in work zones. NWZAW is April 21-25, hosted by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT).

Learn more about National Work Zone Awareness week at: https://www.nwzaw.org/

The Maricopa County Department of Transportation (MCDOT), as part of AZTech and the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA’s) Every Day Counts initiative, developed a system for deployment of Smarter Work Zone technology at work zone sites. The smart work zone system is designed to be implemented during the construction of MCDOT's MC-85 project. The system will use the Connected Vehicle Work Zone (CVWZ) technology to provide dynamic, real time, and continuous work-zone related in-vehicle information.

In June 2016, MCDOT conducted a Smart Work Zone Technical Feasibility Concept Study to layout the project’s operational concepts and performance measure strategies (See the study here).

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) developed the Work Zone Data Exchange (WZDx) initiative to standardize work zone data amongst agencies and third-party navigation companies. WZDx’s intended purpose is to deliver important data right into connected and ultimately, autonomous vehicles.

Iowa is the crossroads of America’s Heartland with Interstates 35 and 80 crisscrossing the state. A recent report by TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit, indicates freight moved by trucks in Iowa will increase 53 percent (by value) from 2016 to 2045. Managing interstate and other critical regional connections to meet the needs of existing and projected freight growth has challenged the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) to focus on minimizing delays and improving safety, especially when highway construction creates these issues. Iowa DOT’s 2016 TSMO Strategic and Program Plans reinforced the Department’s continued need to focus on proactive work zone management as one of eight critical areas.