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    <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
    <image>
      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
      <url>https://rip.trb.org/Images/PageHeader-wTitle-RIP.jpg</url>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Effectiveness of Wearable Safety Lights for Nighttime Workers</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2593919</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Technologies for wearable safety lights, such as lighted safety vests, have evolved in recent years, allowing for use in construction to improve worker visibility. The aim of this project is to evaluate wearable safety lights for use to enhance the safety of road workers. The researchers will test the brightness of wearable safety lights as well as various types of lighting through several potential uses such as construction, road maintenance and patrol. The researchers will provide Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and road maintenance agencies with safety-enhancement recommendations for workers, aiming to increase worker visibility and reduce the number of crashes involving workers.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 28 Aug 2025 09:52:54 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2593919</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Supporting Workforce Mental Health and Work Zone Safety

</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2558376</link>
      <description><![CDATA[State departments of transportation (DOTs) have long prioritized minimizing disruption to the traveling public during transportation projects, often resulting in accelerated schedules and work zones positioned adjacent to live traffic. While traffic operations in the work zones continue, workers have experienced the consequences of working in these work zones. These consequences may include long working hours, high-pressure deadlines, staffing challenges, adverse environmental conditions, and exposure to dangerous work environments that may compound and affect workers' mental health.

While mental health efforts—such as awareness initiatives, training programs, employee assistance programs, and other resources—are helpful, they remain insufficient without practical tools and strategies to support workforce mental health on the job site. Mental health impacts are rarely considered in project design, scheduling, delivery, or maintenance processes. Incorporating mental health considerations into all project phases—from planning to delivery—could not only enhance workers’ safety and satisfaction but also help state DOTs and their construction partners attract and retain talent by fostering safer work environments. To support long-term improvements, research is needed to develop strategies and decision-making tools that balance transportation workforce well-being with public mobility, tight deadlines, and cost constraints.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research is to develop a guide that includes strategies and decision-making tools that state DOTs and their partners can use to integrate mental health considerations into project phases while balancing mobility, deadlines, and cost constraints.

]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 29 May 2025 12:53:33 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2558376</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Accurate Collection and Reporting of Worker Presence in Work Zones </title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2548660</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Accurately knowing and sharing the location of highway construction workers within a large work zone offers several benefits. First, it can enhance worker safety by informing motorists of the presence of workers on foot, thereby increasing their alertness and reducing the risk of crashes. Worker presence information is an important feature of the work zone data exchange feeds that DOTs are increasingly sharing with the public, including commercial motor vehicle drivers. Second, in the event of a crash, knowing the location of a worker also allows faster response time for incident management. Third, tracking worker locations helps improve efficiency and project management, as the information can help optimize resource allocation and streamline workflow coordination through better personnel and task tracking.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 30 Apr 2025 09:34:31 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2548660</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Development of Manual of Procedure Training Videos for Highway Technicians 
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2431339</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The goal of this research is to develop technology transfer reference tools for Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) construction and maintenance crews on key job duties included in the Construction and Materials Specifications Manual, Construction Administration Manual of Procedures, and Maintenance Operations Manual. The primary focus would be on identifying or creating job aids (e.g., short tutorial videos) demonstrating activities performed by Subject Matter Experts. These aids could be used to help train new employees or serve as reminders for seasoned staff that have not recently performed those duties. It may also help encourage consistency in how routine activities are performed.  The Research Advisory Board (RAB) recognized the importance of having a variety of tools readily available to train ODOT's workforce. While information on requirements and guidance is available in written manuals, the methods in which individuals consume and retain this knowledge differs greatly. As more and more staff retire, ODOT is losing a wealth of knowledge. Developing a video library to augment training classes will help educate ODOT's workforce and develop experts in the field. This research is expected to be the first step in this process by identifying the key job duties to focus on, creating a process for identifying existing reference tools or developing new ones, and developing the first series of reference tools. This research project is not anticipated to create these tools for all of ODOT's manuals but serve as the framework for ODOT to use.               ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 17 Sep 2024 11:21:09 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2431339</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Use and Worker Perceptions of Wearable Lighted Apparel</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2389223</link>
      <description><![CDATA[During recent years, there has been significant development in lighted apparel. Advances in solid-state lighting and battery technology have allowed for lightweight and flexible applications with the potential to increase visibility and provide the wearer with task lighting. Lighted apparel can also provide signaling and notification to a worker who might be outside of the boundary of a work zone or have the possibility of being endangered by an encroaching vehicle. However, the effectiveness of these technologies has not been fully characterized. For example, the visibility improvements resulting from lighted apparel may be effective in one instance and not in another based on the presence of other lighting in the work area. Lighted apparel might also be heavier and less flexible than traditional clothing, potentially limiting the user or causing significant fatigue. These aspects of lighted apparel need to be measured to truly establish a usage recommendation for Virginia work zones. The purpose of this project is to develop a recommendation for the use of lighted apparel in a variety of application cases, including Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) road workers and operational personnel. 

The developed recommendations depend on the answers to the following questions: 
(1) What is the optimal apparel specification for increasing worker visibility while maintaining or reducing user risk and user fatigue? (2) What are the apparel usage priorities based on the type of activity being performed? (3) How do workers perceive and accept the technology? (4) What are the barriers to usage, including issues related to apparel durability and usability?]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2024 07:38:38 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2389223</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Effect of Nighttime Lighting on Construction Workers' Safety</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2387152</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Current roadway lighting is designed specifically to provide illumination for vehicles and pedestrians in support of residential street and highway operations. However, the illumination levels are usually less than 20% of what is required for work operations [1] and do not take nighttime construction operations into consideration. Many state Departments of Transportation (DOT) use some form of nighttime work zone lighting based on the Federal Highway Administration's Nighttime Lighting Guidelines [2] and NCHRP’s Illumination Guidelines [3] to conduct construction and maintenance activities on or near the travel portion of the road system. However, in the past 10 years, light emitting diode (LED) technology has evolved and the illuminance of lighting sources has been increased; the resources for nighttime lighting design from the two national guidelines have been outdated and need improvements and updates. More recently, Indiana DOT [4] and Virginia DOT [5] have conducted research projects about the glare assessment based on the lighting system’s parameters and luminance levels of lighting sources, but their demonstration settings were performed in a controlled environment and no real field test was used to assess the effectiveness of the proposed lighting set-ups. The geometry and characteristics of construction operations and highway profiles vary by place, so lighting arrangements should be conducted in a practical way that would be suitable for the structure of highways in Nebraska. Therefore, this proposal is prepared to provide Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT), construction organizations (e.g., Associated General Contractors of America, AGC Nebraska Chapter), and contractors with a list of recommendation of nighttime lighting arrangements for construction operations at night as well as to supplement informed knowledge about construction lighting setups and update guidelines to the NDOT “Standard Specifications for Highway Construction”.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 03 Jun 2024 16:17:08 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2387152</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Synthesis of Information Related to Highway Practices. Topic 56-04. Practices on Mental Health, Suicide Prevention, and Addiction Mitigation in Construction and Maintenance
</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2384704</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The National Cooperative Highway Research program (NCHRP) Synthesis 658: Mental Health, Suicide Prevention, and Addiction Mitigation in Construction and Maintenance presents the state of practice of state departments of transportation (DOTs) on addressing mental health issues, suicide, and substance misuse in construction and maintenance workforces. The synthesis includes information on trends in these workplace issues and initiatives in use by state DOTs and industry partners to address them.

Under NCHRP Synthesis Project 20-05/Topic 56-04, “Practices on Mental Health, Suicide Prevention, and Addiction Mitigation in Construction and Maintenance,” Colorado State University was asked to synthesize information to document state DOT practices on education and promotion of mental health, suicide prevention, and addiction mitigation for highway workers. Information used in this study was obtained through a literature review, a survey of state DOTs, and interviews to develop in-depth case examples. Chapter 4 provides five case examples that highlight policies, workforce awareness of programs, deployed mental health programs, performance measures, and organizational dynamics.

This synthesis is an immediately useful document that records the practices that were acceptable within the limitations of the knowledge available at the time of its preparation. As progress in research and practice continues, new knowledge will be added to that now at hand. The audience for this synthesis is state DOT human resource employees, construction and maintenance workforce supervisors, and employee safety officials.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 31 May 2024 20:22:03 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2384704</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Strategies to Improve Safe Behaviors of Highway Construction Workers</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2341569</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Safety and well-being of the workforce remain an ever-present challenge and critical to meeting state departments of transportation (DOTs), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) missions to promote and apply safe work behaviors.  Despite significant efforts, the highway construction and maintenance sector has consistently reported magnitude higher recordable injury rates than most other occupational sectors.  One of the practices that have been shown to be effective in curbing the frequency and severity of incidents in the construction industry is applying incentive programs that have focused on improving the reporting culture of unsafe conditions as well as supporting continual learning.  Incentive safety programs have the capacity to reinforce positive behavior and discourage risky decisions through negative consequences.  The intended outcome of this study is to produce guidance on the critical evaluation of safety incentive programs within state DOTs.  The guidance will also identify critical success factors, opportunities and challenges, and strategies for implementing safety incentives and disincentive programs to mitigate the risk of accidents for highway construction and maintenance workers.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 19 Feb 2024 16:25:26 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2341569</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Highway Construction Workforce Partnership – Creating the Next Generation Heavy Highway Worker</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2244386</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The heavy highway infrastructure industry serves as one of the life bloods of this country. Texas has the largest transportation network of any other state with over 314,000 miles of roads. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) estimates that it will cost $547 billion to keep Texas’ roads “in a good state of repair” through 2040. Despite the amount of work, in 2019, 84% of Texas contractors reported challenges filling some or all job positions. With proper training and education, a prospective employee could earn up to $18/hour near the beginning of their career. Combined with the potential for overtime, employees in rural areas could expect early career gross pay ranging from $40,000 to $45,000 per year. Due to the command for higher wages, employees in urban and metro areas could exceed this. Employees with a desire to continue growing in the industry could fast-track their path toward project foreman and project superintendent positions by continuing their education and training. Highway superintendents are often compensated at more than $75,000 per year and individuals that can manage large and complex projects often exceed an annual income of $100,000. The Highway Construction Workforce Partnership (HCWP) will help train and educate the next generation of the heavy highway workforce. This training will offer the state’s diverse population an opportunity to obtain consistent and high paying employment. Furthermore, increasing the knowledge and skills of the heavy highway workforce will result in higher quality projects that are completed on budget and on time.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 13 Sep 2023 14:04:06 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2244386</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Workforce Development and Job Training Pilot</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1840493</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The 2012 National Transportation Workforce Development Summit (http://netwc.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/NTWS_Summary_of_Results1.pdf) identified the challenges involved in developing and maintaining the transportation workforce for the future.   However, there is still a general lack of awareness of opportunities in the transportation field, and Delaware faces significant shortages in the construction industry. Furthermore, many of the communities with high proportions of underrepresented minorities are even less aware of the opportunities.  Building on University of Delaware’s relatively new Construction Engineering and Management program, we are proposing to develop and pilot a 20-hour training course on “Blueprint Reading and Basic CAD Skills in Transportation Construction and Renewal” that provides 20 hours of online instruction and could serve as the basis for further courses.  The proposed course addresses CIAMTIS’s goal of Improving the Durability and Extending the Life of Transportation Infrastructure, and the Center’s mission of improving integrated asset management requires a knowledgeable workforce to implement the relevant technologies.  This knowledge is critical for implementation of technologies in all three thrust areas. This course is a first step. The course is aimed at new employees and potential employees from the City of Wilmington, as the community has chronic unemployment issues and a high proportion of underrepresented minorities.  
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2021 11:29:41 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1840493</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>TRC2101 - Update of the ARDOT Workforce Forecasting System</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1765890</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The software used to predict the manpower needed in the Resident Engineer Offices to inspect and administer construction projects is no longer supported; is needing an upgrade due to its age; and is no longer applicable to the current workforce and types of projects being let. The objectives are to develop: an annual forecasting model, a long-range forecasting model and a construction workforce forecasting software tool. The equations used to create the models will be updated by regression modeling, econometric modeling and artificial neural networks.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 28 Jan 2021 12:19:24 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1765890</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Preventing Struck-by Hazards: Defying Risk-desensitization via Virtual Accident Simulation</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1751142</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Repeated exposures to hazards in road construction work zones often generate worker habituation to the risks associated with the hazards, one of the main causal factors in workplace accidents. Understanding the developmental process of risk habituation and providing effective safety training is critical to preventing fatalities in road construction work zones. To effectively prevent/mitigate risk habituation, this project will develop a virtual reality (VR) training system that elicits workers’ biased risk perceptions and generates interventions by demonstrating potential consequences of their habituated behaviors. Specifically, the project will create adaptive safety learning environments that trigger VR-simulated accidents in response to trainees’ risk habituation; the development of risk habituation will be detected based on behavioral and physiological responses (i.e., eye tracking, vigilant behavior), and the accident simulation will involve visual, auditory, and haptic feedback. The impact of the proposed learning environments will be assessed through an experiment involving actual road construction crews demonstrating varying levels of risk habituation. This project will generate new knowledge regarding how a VR-enabled safety-training module can effectively interrupt workers’ habituated behaviors. Since a worker’s unsafe behaviors are rarely replicated and observed in a training setting, detecting workers’ risk habituation is a significant undertaking. The proposed research will generate a system to efficiently trigger a worker’s unsafe/habituated behaviors, sense the habituation (i.e., a decrease in vigilant behavior), and present accident simulations, thereby enabling a worker to experience the consequences of his/her habituated behaviors. This project will also assess individual differences in risk habituation. Consequently, the findings of this research will provide a theoretical foundation for personalized safety training that effectively prevents struck-by fatalities in road construction work zones.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 10 Nov 2020 19:48:39 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1751142</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Specialized Safety Training and Tracking for KYTC Construction and Maintenance Personnel</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1736829</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In the scope of occupational safety and health, training is an important tool for informing employees of workplace hazards and increasing their awareness of safety controls to remove and/or minimize associated risks. According to OSHA-recommended practices for safety and health programs, specialized training is necessary for workers and supervisors when the workplace presents unique hazards. Minimal attention has been given to specialized training programs for the highway construction and maintenance sector. There is also a notable lack of training resources highway construction and maintenance crews can use in their work scope. This indicates an urgent need for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) to develop a specialized training program for highway construction and maintenance employees that is specific to their work scope and addresses safety issues that beyond those covered in the OSHA 10-hour course. Identifying needs and development of the program will be done in cooperation with the crews. The final product will be a specialized safety training program with recommendations for implementation, evaluation, and tracking.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:47:07 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1736829</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Assess Highway Construction Workers Behavior while Driving through Work Zones in Comparison to General Drivers Sensitized Using Virtual Reality and a Driving Simulator</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1705302</link>
      <description><![CDATA[To ensure the safety of construction workers and drivers in work zones is a challenge due to the work zones complex geometry, which includes the temporary presence of signs, channeling devices, lane reduction, lane changes, and modified road configuration. In 2017, the Fatal Analysis Reporting System (FARS) reported 710 fatal crashes in work zones in the United States, out of which 132 involved construction workers. A study conducted by the Associated General Contractor (AGC) in 2019 showed that 67% of workers reported that motor vehicles had crashed into their work zone, and 8% of these crashes ended in fatalities. Also, 73% of the construction workers feel a higher risk now than a decade ago. The general public is often not as aware of these risks due to not having exposure to these hazards in their everyday work. To heighten awareness regarding the risks to construction workers in work zones, the general public needs to develop empathy to understand the experience of construction workers from within their frame of reference, that is, placing themselves in the construction worker´s position. The research objective is to investigate if using virtual reality to expose drivers to the work hazards that construction workers typically encounter in work zones influences their behavior while driving through work zones in a driving simulator. The goal is to investigate if exposing the general public to safety risks construction workers face in work zones increases empathy and leads to risk perception and behavior changes. The proposal includes a behavior and risk perception survey, the use of virtual reality to immerse general drivers in virtual work zones environments where they have to perform typical work zone tasks, and the use of the UPRM driving simulator to evaluate driver’s behavior in terms of speed, lateral position, and reaction time in a high-speed divided freeway work zone. This research will contribute to the understanding of the impact of work experience in the work zone, and the driver ́s risk perception and behavior in work zones. An educational module will be developed to increase empathy and awareness about the risks that workers face in construction work zones. The goal of the educational module is to provide information so that the general public can visualize themselves in the construction workers’ situation and modify their behavior while driving through construction work zones.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 07 May 2020 12:42:31 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1705302</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Increasing Work Zone Safety: Worker Behavioral Analysis with Integration of Wearable Sensors and Virtual Reality</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1607555</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Despite increased regulations, restrictive measures, and devices used for warning, work zone injuries and fatalities are still observed at highway construction projects with alarms/notifications being ignored. With a vision to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities, this project aims to understand the key parameters (e.g., work zone location characteristics, personal vigilance levels, types of construction work) that play roles in achieving responsive behaviors in workers. Key questions this research answers are, at what conditions people ignore/response to warnings at work zones? How we can calibrate notification systems for getting responsive actions from workers? What are the modalities, frequencies, and timings of pushing notifications in these calibrated systems? Through wearable sensors and realistic representations of work zones in virtual reality, the research team plans to collect worker behavioral and physiological (heart rate) responses to alarms/warnings/notifications issued under various realistic scenarios and modalities of warning mechanisms (e.g., sensory, visual, audial). With a reinforcement learning based approach, the collected data will be used for determining expected worker/driver behaviors (validated through subjects’ heart rate data) when prompted with an alarm/warning/notification learned from similar behaviors. The outcome of this research will help to calibrate when, at what frequency, and how to (with what modalities) share warnings with habitants of work zones for effective responses towards reduction of incidents.   ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 22 May 2019 13:19:22 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1607555</guid>
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