Lighting Design Requirements for Highway Nighttime Construction

The utilization of nighttime construction in highway projects has been increasing in recent years in order to alleviate construction-related traffic congestions and delays. In order to ensure quality and safety in these nighttime construction projects, proper and adequate lighting conditions need to be provided on site. This paper presents the findings of a recent study that focused on (1) identifying lighting requirements for nighttime construction operations in highway projects; and (2) developing a practical design tool to address these requirements. Survey and site visits were conducted to identify the current practices and requirements of highway nighttime construction operations. The analysis of the survey results have led to a number of important findings, including: (1) participant Departments of Transportation (DOTs) reported that an average of 17% of their construction projects involved nighttime work in fiscal year 2001; (2) standards to regulate work zone lighting were found to be lacking in many states as 60% of responses received from state DOTs indicated that they do not have lighting standards or guidelines for nighttime construction operations; and (3) the main challenges in nighttime construction lighting were identified to be insufficient lighting, non-uniformity of provided lighting, and glare to road users. This paper also presents a design and optimization tool to address the needs of highway nighttime construction operations that were identified in the above survey. This tool can be utilized by contractors in design and implementation of lighting arrangements, and by resident engineers in the inspection of lighting conditions on site.