Abstract Manager

Highway 15 (A15) near Mirabel Airport is a crucial highway for Montreal. The average daily traffic in the area exceeds 145,000 vehicles. The main work involves adding an 8 kilometers reserved lane on the northbound A15.

To ensure the safety of users and workers, several traditional measures have been implemented to address this major issue: upstream signage, rigid concrete barriers for worker protection, variable message signs, etc.

In addition to these traditional measures, we have implemented two components to improve safety on the site: the installation of highway logos (in color) and merging arrows painted on the road surface upstream of configuration changes, and the establishment of a cloud-based information sharing site with police authorities.

A significant configuration change was necessary to allow the work to be carried out. At the same location as this configuration change, we had to maintain an exit ramp. The combination of these two conditions had to be announced upstream of the decision point for the user. The use of colored logos painted on the road surface increased safety for road users. An accident inventory was carried out, and we found that the area with significant configuration changes was less prone to accidents during the work period than all other areas of the site without such signage.

One of the best preventive measures that can be used is the presence of police authorities within the construction zones. When issuing a ticket, police officers must document it adequately, considering the construction site situation, including the signage in place for the protection of users and workers. Knowing that issuing a ticket in a construction zone requires significant evidence gathering, police officers are less inclined to conduct exhaustive and recurring checks on construction sites.

To facilitate the work of police officers in gathering this evidence and to limit the possibilities of disputes by offenders, we have set up a cloud-based directory accessible to all police officers. This directory contains all the temporary signage plans and is kept up to date to show the configuration in place.  Along with these plans, we have also included a technical note listing the contractor's obligations, requiring them to always maintain compliant signage.

With this collaborative tool, we have achieved constant police presence in the construction zone, which has most likely helped limit speeding, and consequently increase the safety of users and workers.