Mitigate Traffic Congestion During Construction and Ensuring Public Safety

At the June 24, 2019 meeting of City Council, Notice of Enquiry EN19-5 was filed.

1.      What strategies does Administration have in place to mitigate traffic congestion during the construction season and if the following has been considered:

a)     Extension of construction work hours schedule where appropriate;

b)     24 hours – 7 days per week; and

c)      Overnight work for major roads

2.      Does the City of Regina have incentives with contractors to finish the job early?

Administration is providing the following information in response to EN19-5.

Through the 2019 construction season, the following strategies were used to mitigate congestion:

·         closing one side of roadways with medians so traffic can travel the other side at a higher speed

·         zipper merge - encouraging full use of roadway capacity reducing the bottleneck at construction zones

·         lane reversals/adding lanes - to utilize the full pavement width for the travelling public through innovation

·        programming signals to ensure that traffic flow is optimized during peak hours. E.g. traffic flow into and out of downtown during morning and evening rush hours

·         discouraging restrictions of lanes alongside construction as it slows projects and traffic. Closures are favoured for efficiency. For example, Lewvan Drive had a high risk of carryover if we only restricted a lane because the work zone would not be large enough to be efficient in performing their work while also delivering a quality product.

Construction is scheduled frequently on weekends to minimize impact on weekday commuters, businesses and schools. This type of work is typically limited to activities where scope and/or phasing is two days or less.

Examples of projects that have been completed in 2019 with night-time work and/or weekend work are:

·         Sewer Main Relining – large sewer trunks completed on a 24/7 schedule (i.e. 15th Avenue)

·         Sewer Main Spot Repairs – trenchless spot repairs on collector and arterial roads. One night per location

·         Sewer Cleaning – Sewer cleaning of large pipes in busy areas

·         2019 Preventative Maintenance Program (Crack Sealing) – on major roads

·         2019 – Northbound/Southbound Ring Road Bridges over Wascana Creek

·         Paving intersection of Albert Street and Saskatchewan Drive

·         Paving intersection of Victoria Avenue and Park Street

Regarding overnight construction, Administration recognizes there are advantages such as reduced traffic congestion, reduced impact on local business, and a reduced impact on commuters. The implications of overnight work have also been considered. In 2012, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released “A Guidebook for Nighttime Construction: Impacts on Safety, Quality, and Productivity” which highlights advantages and disadvantages to nighttime construction best practices. This research compliments other work across industry and highlights the following implications:

·         Employee safety – reduced lighting quality, reduced attention levels due to shift work;

·         Public safety – reduced visibility, higher rates of impaired or drowsy drivers;

The Guidebook also indicates accident rates are, on average, 75 per cent higher in work zones with lane closures when construction continues at night including increased risk of fatality of workers and members of the public.

Other factors to consider when performing overnight construction are:

·         Noise – construction is almost always adjacent to residences and/or businesses:

o       During the 15th Avenue sewer relining and Capital Pointe construction activity this past summer, the City received numerous complaints of the overnight noise;

o       The City typically receive complaints when filling potholes in the Downtown core at 4:00 a.m. to minimize traffic disruption.

·         Quality – overnight paving would still require the typical cooling period, potentially into the morning rush hour which may lead to a negative perception that workers are not present;

·         Cost – higher premium for materials, labour and additional lighting requirements in the range of 9-20 per cent higher than paving during the day.

·         Contractors – there is a labour shortage even while working during the day. Night work may impede their ability to perform construction during the day as it would be difficult to double their workforce. Also, costs for night work would be considerably higher due to increased lighting, increased labour, and increased access to support staff.

Administration has the following incentives for contractors to complete projects early based on road type and high-volume traffic users:

·         Site rental agreement-based contracts include payment from contractor for each day within construction duration and applies when starting work onsite for bridge and roads projects to motivate contractor to shorten the construction duration.

·         Bonus and penalty-based contracts are used to motivate contractor to shorten the construction duration. If a contractor finishes earlier than the set completion date, they receive a bonus. If they go beyond the completion date, they are penalized.

·         All contracts state a contract completion date. If the set completion date passes, the contractors are charged liquidated damage based on project complexity.   

When awarding contracts, contractors are first evaluated on past performance to ensure we are securing quality workmanship for the specialized and complex projects, followed by bid price.

For the 2020 construction season, Administration is using additional tools to inform the development of the construction program such as:

·         modeling expected traffic accommodations with the City’s computerized traffic model to understand the degree of cumulative traffic impacts;

·         examining the construction program over time and by area of the city to evaluate the amount of significant construction impacting residents.