Connected Work Zone Implementation Guidance Standardization (CWZ Standard) 

Work zone safety is of utmost concern to transportation agencies. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2020, there were 857 fatalities and an estimated 102,000 work zone crashes in the United States. There have been numerous Connected Vehicle (CV) research projects, deployments and standards developed to support work zone safety. However, there have been inconsistencies with the interpretations and implementation of the existing standards, and with the use and expectations of the data exchanged between the infrastructure devices (e.g., mobile dynamic message signs) and CV devices. These include  the roadside units (RSUs) and on-board units (OBUs) on vehicles.  There are also inconsistencies between deployments, such as usage of different data and data formats across interfaces, and security requirements.  Another discovery was that most infrastructure owner operators (IOOs) do not have the manpower or technical knowledge to properly deploy and operate these CV-enabled work zones. These deployment issues highlight a need for an industry standard that enables national interoperability and provides guidance to IOOs on how to deploy, operate and maintain the CV-enabling devices.

USDOT is sponsoring the Connected Work Zones Standard Implementation (CWZ Standard) to develop, publish, verify, and validate a Connected Work Zone (CWZ) Standard that defines the data elements, capabilities, and interfaces a connected work zone must support to ensure interoperability for state/local infrastructure owner/operators (IOO) and vehicle operators. A connected work zone is defined as a set of technologies that generates or collects work zone information (whether automatically or manually) as well as the infrastructure that broadcasts/distributes this information to the public and to vehicles.

Project Objective 
 

The primary objective of this project is to publish a non-proprietary, industry-based consensus standard that defines the key data elements, capabilities, and interfaces for a CWZ Standard, utilizing the USDOT-chartered WZDx Specification version 4.1 as a starting point, if available, otherwise we shall follow version 4.0.

The CWZ Standard will:

• address ambiguities and gaps identified by early deployers, and consolidate multiple independent implementation and standards efforts, to lead to the interoperability of future CWZ deployments across the United States; and
• be published as a Connected Transportation Interoperability (CTI) document.

The outputs of this project may include implementation guides, validation reports, reference implementations, presentations, and recommendations to other referenced standards, to support the developed CWZ Standard as determined by a consensus process.

• Standards Development Process Chart
• ITE's Antitrust and Conflict of Interest Meeting Guidelines
• CWZ Standard Working Group 

Here is the link to access the Microsoft Team: WG - Connected Work Zones Stnd

To join this project as a stakeholder, send an email to Standards@ite.org subject line: CWZ project

Notice of Intent (NOI) to Adopt the CWZ Recommended Standard (Review Period

Completed Successfully)

The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) intends to adopt the following Connected Work Zone (CWZ) Recommended Standard (RS) assuming no final comments or appeals are received. The final draft version of the CWZ proposed Recommended Standard (pRS) was approved as the Recommended Standard (RS) by the CWZ Working Group made up of representatives of ITE, AASHTO, and NEMA on May 03, 2024.  Please check below for the final draft version of the standards, the Standards Development Report, and a notice as to whether this version has been adopted by ITE.  When adopted, this standard will be jointly published by ITE, NEMA and AASHTO.

• Notice of Intent (NOI) to Adopt CWZ Recommended Standard
• CWZ Recommended Standard
• CWZ Standard Development Report

The deadline to appeal (provide comments) the adoption of this standard as an ITE standard is August 28 (Closed) 

Please see the attached NOI above to have more information about how to file an Appeal and how ITE will proceed if an Appeal is received.

If no appeals are filed, the ITE International Board of Direction will ballot the standard and it will be available for a no-cost free download for a period of at least one year. The 508 Compliant version will also be available.