State of the art in work zone safety: A systematic review

The ever-increasing number of accidents is detrimental to the sustainable objectives of work zones. Exploring the causes for work zone safety (WZS) issues, countermeasures, and effectiveness is significant to enhance the WZS. Therefore, this research aims to identify the factors influencing the WZS, identify the established countermeasures, examine the effectiveness of countermeasures, and develop a decision support framework to enhance WZS.

This study addresses the issue by utilizing the Scopus database and the VOSViewer data mining tool. A Bibliometric search followed by a Scientometric analysis was conducted to identify the highly researched areas. Qualitative content analysis was performed by exploiting the results, findings, and discussions from influential articles. A systematic coding process was carried out by employing Nvivo software to establish factors that influence the WZS and possible countermeasures.

The most influencing factors were driver speeding, inattention, non-compliance to traffic control measures, poor work zone (WZ) layout, lane closures, and adverse weather conditions. Highly discussed countermeasures include changeable/variable/dynamic message signs, advance traveler information systems (ATIS), channelizing devices, merge guidance and police enforcement presence. Further, a framework to support WZS decision-making is developed to assist industry practitioners in making informed decisions on WZS. The academic community can benefit from identifying the core literature related to urban WZS and knowledge gaps that need to address in the future.