Application of Visualization and Simulation Program to Improve Work Zone Safety and Mobility

Researcher(s)

Principal investigator: Ed Jaselskis (project list)Charles Jahren (project list)Amr Kandil (project list)Shashi Nambisan (project list)

Co-principal investigators:

Ed Jaselskis, 515-294-0250, ejaselsk@iastate.edu (project list)
Charles Jahren, 515-294-3829, cjahren@iastate.edu (project list)
Amr Kandil, 515-294-8824, kandil@iastate.edu (project list)
Shashi Nambisan, 515-294-5209, shashi@iastate.edu (project list)

Project status

In progress

Start date: 04/01/09
End date: 02/28/10

Sponsor(s)/partner(s)

Sponsor(s):Iowa Department of Transportation

About the research

Research objective: A 2007/2008 study sponsored by the Smart Work Zone Deployment Initiative, demonstrated the feasibility of combining relatively available, inexpensive software programs, such as Google Earth and Adobe Acrobat, with standard two-dimensional civil engineering design programs such as MicroStation, to create animations of work zones.

With additional modeling inputs, it may be possible to enhance the animations to include visualization of conditions under different traffic volumes, weather conditions, and construction operations. The purpose of this study is to continue the work of the intial visualization project to determine the added value and resource demands created by including more complex data such as traffic volume, weather conditions, and construction operations.