max volumes for flagger control?

[ACtrafficengr]

How much volume can flaggers be expected to handle? I recall seeing 850 vph proposed as a cutoff for alternating one-way signal control, but I've never seen any studies about flaggers.

There would be a lot of variables - presence or absence of sideroads, expereince level of the flaggers, length of the work zone, etc. Let's say it's a short work zone, without sideroads, and average flaggers.

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"Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys typing on a million typewriters, and the Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare.

Blair Houghton

 

[KRSServices]

To reply, I think the overiding issue would be that of safety. Is the traffic count and average or a peak? Is the work on a highway or highspeed (or lowspeed) urban?

If the work area is constantly shifting, such as a pipeline construction, I would tend to go with flag persons during construction and the abiltiy to open traffic to two way flow once finished for the day. If one way is to be only alternative, then I would consider the temporary lighting (traffic control devices) such that the work area is safe, particularly at night. Constant vigilance in terms of redefining the traffic/lane transition points are going to be required on a daily basis.

If the work area does not change such as bridge work, the safest would be to set up temporary traffic control devices.

The danger is that the permissive and clearance timing have to be calculated for optimal flow, otherwise unreasonable waiting periods, particularly at night, will cause problems.

KRS Services

http://www.krs-services.com

 

[ACtrafficengr]

KRS - thanks for taking the time to respond, but I think you've misunderstood my question.

Perhaps I need to add some information. I'm looking at a driveway permit application on a two-lane road that carries >15,000 vpd. I'd like to add a stipulation to the permit that the permittee must have both lanes open to traffic when the volume is too great for flaggers to control. This leads to the question, how much traffic can flaggers handle?


If I must, I'll fall back to the old standard of prohibiting lane closures from 7 - 9 AM and 4 - 6 PM. The problem is this may be overkill on some roads, and insufficient on others.

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"Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys typing on a million typewriters, and the Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare.

Blair Houghton