Optimizing Work Zone Lighting
The fundamental problem to be addressed in the proposed scope of work offered by the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is to provide guidance to the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) to tame the "visual chaos" associated with nighttime work zones in New Jersey. A plethora of new technologies, including solid state lighting (and in particular, light emitting diodes), balloon lights to reduce glare, improved reflective sheeting and marking materials, and warning lights able to respond to changes in the surrounding environment, all offer substantial promise to provide meaningful visual information to drivers in and near nighttime work zones. However, guidance for the proper planning and integration of these technologies is needed in order to prevent new forms of "visual chaos." The LRC proposes to conduct a series of technical, visibility, glare, economics and operational analyses to identify schemes or patterns that optimize worker visibility against the visual needs of drivers for the safety of both of these groups. The LRC's familiarity with visibility and safety issues related to work zone lighting provide a strong technical basis for the present proposal. A brief summary of relevant literature and of the LRC's previous work in this area is included in the Literature Search section of the Research Plan, in order to provide additional background to the NJDOT problem statement.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Completed
- Funding: $106375
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Contract Numbers:
49198-38-27
75144-02-27
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Sponsor Organizations:
New Jersey Department of Transportation
1035 Parkway Avenue
Trenton, NJ United States 08625 -
Project Managers:
Eickemeyer, Penny
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Performing Organizations:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
110 8th Street
Troy, NY United States 12180 -
Principal Investigators:
Rea, Mark
Bullough, John
- Start Date: 20150501
- Expected Completion Date: 20160430
- Actual Completion Date: 0
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Glare; Light emitting diodes; Lighting; Marking materials; Night visibility; Night vision devices; Optimization; Work zone safety
- Subject Areas: Construction; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01576062
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: University Transportation Research Center
- Contract Numbers: 49198-38-27, 75144-02-27
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Sep 23 2015 4:23PM