The Strada dei Parchi organization operates according to the principles of planned maintenance, that is, rather than carrying out interventions aimed at repairing degradation once it has occurred, it intervenes periodically before the onset of the degradation itself according to cycles of activities aimed at continuously maintaining prefixed performance standards of the facilities.
This management model, which continuously ensures an efficient infrastructure for traveling customers, requires continuous work scheduling to make the need to have the entire road section available for vehicular flow compatible with the need to occupy part of it for maintenance work.
In fact, the presence on roadways of a construction site results in the closure of a part of the normally available road section, such as a:
- Curtailment: installation of a construction site that occupies one or more lanes of a single roadway where traffic travels on the lane(s) of the same roadway that remain available. In the event that transitable lanes are temporarily diverted from their original location, while remaining within the same roadway, a “flexure” occurs.
- Detour: installation of a construction site that fully occupies one of the two highway carriageways, and traffic travels on the opposite carriageway, which is reorganized to allow two-way flow of vehicles. In case a lane is kept passable or emergency is used, for entering a service area/parking lot, or exiting on a station/junction, a “slip road detour” is had.If the detour is implemented partially, keeping a passable lane on the roadway occupied by the construction site, a “slip road detour” is had.
When the work area moves continuously along a section, signaling can be accomplished with mobile devices that follow its movement, “moving yard,” or proceeding by modular sections, moving the signaling each time, “advancing yard.”
Work scheduling, carried out on a monthly basis and supported by appropriate computerized procedures, involves defining each worksite in its characteristic elements:
- Location of the site and extent of it;
- Characteristics of the affected highway site;
- Starting dates and times and duration of the construction site;
- Type of signage placed in place;
- Type of work (daily or permanent);
- Nature of the work to be performed;
- transitability;
- Company performing the work;
- The analysis of compatibility with other planned interventions and impact on expected traffic conditions over the period.
The scheduling is followed, in the operational phase, by the management of the works carried out on a daily basis by the operators of the Operations Room and the Highway Safety Centers, who provide for the monitoring of the construction site during its execution, from the moment of installation to the moment of removal, with regard to everything concerning interference with traffic.
The same shall provide for any force majeure or emergency closures that may occur as a result of unforeseen events (due to accident, blockages, interruption of power lines, telephone lines, pipelines, etc.).
The establishment of a construction site on roadways is carried out through the delineation for the duration of the work of the affected area with specific delineation.
The construction site is preceded by a warning and pre-signaling system consisting, on a case-by-case basis, of specific signs placed along the section of highway immediately preceding the area affected by the work in order to gradually convey vehicles from the normal section to the reduced section by reducing their speed.
