The U.S. Department of Transportation is proud to announce the version 2 release of the Work Zone Data Exchange (WZDx) Specification, facilitated by the hard work of all those involved in the Work Zone Data Working Group (WZDWG).
Overview
The WZDx Specification enables infrastructure owners and operators (IOOs) to make harmonized work zone data available for third party use. The WZDx Specification is intended to make travel on public roads safer and more efficient through ubiquitous access to data on work zone activity.
What progress was made in 2019?
In 2019, the Work Zone Data Working Group (WZDWG) was established under the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Transportation Subcommittee with the primary goal of developing version 2 of the WZDx Specification based on lessons learned from version 1.1 and new insights from the user community. The WZDWG spent the latter half of 2019 encouraging discussion on the WZDx GitHub site, identifying and prioritizing changes to the WZDx Specification for version 2, and holding meetings with data producers and users representing various constituencies across the work zone ecosystem (e.g., IOOs) to review proposed changes to include in version 2 of the specification.
All of the proposed changes passed by a majority vote of the WZDWG in December 2019 and were merged into the specification to form WZDx version 2, which was released this past week.
What changes did the WZDWG make to version 2?
The following changes were made to the WZDx Specification:
- Adopted a relational data model approach to eliminate nested tables and make the specification more scalable.
- Required feeds to be published in GeoJSON to facilitate data consumption and use.
- Simplified road closure impact reporting to indicate whether a road is partially closed, fully closed, or fully open.
- Captured lane-level restrictions (when available) to specify work zone impacts for each lane of a roadway.
How can I join? Where can I learn more?
Version 2 of the WZDx Specification and release notes can be found on the WZDx version 2 release page. If you are interested in joining the WZDWG and/or contributing to the specification development conversation, please email avdx@dot.gov. For other information about the WZDx Specification, refer to the working group’s GitHub wiki page and the WZDx website.
The WZDWG looks forward to an even more productive 2020 in developing an open work zone data specification that – when broadly adopted – can save lives.