Construction Project Administration and Management for Mitigating Work Zone Accidents and Fatalities: An Integrated Risk Management Model
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)
Summary
This research addresses the persistent safety crisis in highway work zones, where over 900 fatalities and tens of thousands of injuries occur annually in the United States. The study aims to mitigate these crashes and fatalities by developing an integrated risk management model that can be utilized throughout the entire construction project life-cycle, from planning through construction. The motivation stems from the observation that current practices rely heavily on standardized physical traffic control measures during construction, which often fail to prevent accidents and focus more on liability mitigation than actual crash prevention. The authors argue that a more effective approach involves addressing safety risks during earlier administrative and management phases, such as planning and design, rather than relying solely on reactive physical countermeasures. The methodology involves creating a formalized risk management framework based on standard components: risk identification, risk analysis, and risk response. The researchers defined the project development process into five stages: planning and programming, preliminary design, final design, letting and award, and construction. To develop the model, the team conducted a literature review to establish a baseline for risk management in construction and utilized Iowa statewide work zone crash data from 2001 to 2008 to assess crash severity and frequency. The study also employed focus groups and surveys with industry professionals to identify specific hazards and appropriate mitigation strategies for each project phase. The resulting model provides a step-by-step process for managers to identify hazards, assess their likelihood and severity using a qualitative method, and implement countermeasures categorized into methods such as alerting, assisting, controlling, informing, or protecting motorists and workers. The findings present an integrated risk management model that serves as a checklist for hazards and mitigation strategies across all project phases. The analysis of Iowa crash data revealed patterns in crash severity and vehicle involvement, which informed the risk assessment matrix. The study identified specific hazards with high, elevated, and moderate risk potential, linking them to corresponding mitigation strategies. For instance, the model categorizes risks based on their contribution to crash factors like speed, inattentive driving, and merging patterns. The research demonstrates that by formalizing risk management into the corporate structure of transportation agencies and contractors, stakeholders can proactively manage risks rather than reacting to them during construction. The model allows for the allocation of resources based on the likelihood and cost of risk, aiming to reduce project delays, liability, and most importantly, loss of life. The significance of this work lies in its holistic approach to work zone safety, shifting the focus from physical construction-phase interventions to administrative and managerial risk mitigation throughout the project life-cycle. The integrated model provides a standardized, objective procedure for identifying and responding to risks, which can be adapted by any organization involved in highway construction. By embedding risk management into existing corporate structures, the study offers a framework that not only addresses work zone crashes but can also serve as a template for managing other construction-related risks. The authors conclude that this proactive, formalized process enhances decision-making and resource allocation, ultimately contributing to safer work zones and reduced fatalities.
Key finding
The study develops a formalized integrated risk management model that provides a step-by-step methodology for identifying hazards and selecting mitigation strategies across all stages of the highway project life-cycle to reduce work zone crashes and fatalities.
Methodology
mixed_methods
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.
Information type
What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).
- Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes