Innovations to Enhance Employee Safety in the Field

The nation’s aging transportation infrastructure is increasing the need for maintenance and reconstruction activities conducted under traffic. While work zones are essential to address these needs, changing traffic patterns, narrowed lane widths, and the presence of workers and work vehicles create safety challenges for all road users traveling through work zones, including motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Continued traffic growth further complicates work zone operations and often pushes agencies to schedule work at night, adding additional risk factors and operational constraints. In response, agencies are deploying a range of innovations intended to reduce worker exposure and improve safety outcomes. These include technologies that remove employees from hazardous situations (e.g., unmanned aerial systems, automated truck-mounted attenuators, positive protective systems, dynamic signing, and remote monitoring), improved engineering controls (e.g., enhanced advance warning systems, intrusion alerts, and in-vehicle notifications), and administrative approaches (e.g., speed management, move-over laws, and targeted law enforcement support). Agencies are also adopting advancements in personal protective equipment and using virtual and augmented reality for immersive safety training that allows workers to practice procedures in controlled environments. Documenting and sharing these practices can support broader adoption of safety-enhancing innovations across the highway community. OBJECTIVE: This scan will identify and document proven innovations that highway transportation agencies are using to improve the safety of field personnel. Agencies to be examined may include state departments of transportation (DOTs), counties, municipalities, and toll agencies that have implemented effective safety innovations. The scan will compile lessons learned and effective practices from participating agencies to inform a practical “toolbox” of resources that other agencies can adapt to their needs. The scan will also identify gaps, challenges, and opportunities to improve current approaches and technologies.

• Record URL:
  • http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=6015
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $210,000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 20-68, Scan 25-01

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Irvin, Deborah

• Start Date: 20250915
• Expected Completion Date: 20280914
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Best practices; Highway safety; Occupational safety; Technological innovations; Work zone safety
• Subject Areas: Construction; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01982448
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 20-68, Scan 25-01
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Mar 17 2026 3:01PM