For most major construction projects, the contractor is required to follow the contract's Traffic Control Plan, the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), and the highway agency's standard specifications. If the Traffic Control Plan is wisely conceived, explicit in content, and anticipates all conceivable operational and/or construction activities, safety will be well served. A dilemma arises, however, when these desirable aspects are only partially achieved, and the safety of the motoring public is left to contractor employees and highway agency resident engineers, neither of which usually has a grasp of basic safety principles.

When considering basic safety principles, Section 6B.01 of the MUTCD is a good starting point as paraphrased below:

1. Priority - Make motorist and worker safety an integral and high-priority element of every temporary traffic control zone.

    

2. Normalized Design and Operations - Apply the basic safety principals governing the design of permanent roadways and roadsides to the design of temporary traffic control zones.

    

3. Traffic Interruption - Inhibit traffic movement as little as practical. Minimize the time that work activities occupy the roadway. Restrict transition areas should be as little as possible, recognizing drivers will not reduce their speed unless a real need is seen.

    

4. Positive Guidance - Guide drivers with traffic control devices that give a clear and positive message.

    

5. Training - Only assign people who are trained in proper traffic control practices to the responsibility of selecting, placing, and maintaining temporary traffic control devices in work zones. Also train every person whose actions affect safety, from upper-level managers to field workers, those principles consistent with the job decisions they are required to make.

    

6. Clear Roadside Recovery Areas - Keep roadside clear zones free of equipment and materials.

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