Abstract
The purpose of this research was to test and evaluate the effectiveness and practicality of deploying and implementing work zone intrusion alarm (WZIA) systems in California work zones. Five WZIA systems were selected for evaluation, three of which were from the previous research. The detailed evaluation framework and testing protocols used in the previous research was revised to accommodate for the additional two WZIA systems selected for evaluation in Active work zone conditions. Training sessions were conducted to provide the Caltrans maintenance staff an opportunity to understand the setup, deployment, operation, and retrieval each selected WZIA system and to document their initial impressions through a survey questionnaire. Two rounds of Active work zone testing were conducted to evaluate each of the selected WZIA systems’ performance in various types of work zone closures, with surveys being distributed only after the second round. Though the results of the Active work zone testing proved insightful, additional testing may be useful for further evaluation of the selected WZIA systems’ performance in Active work zones and to strengthen the conclusions.