Work zone taper length (MUTCD)
Taper length, channelizer count and spacing, and advance warning sign spacing for a lane closure.
Get this tool with its role plan
This is a premium tool. It comes with its role's plan: sign in, then add the role in Billing.
Comes with the foreman and site lead plan: every tool for the role, from $10.20 a month at the launch price.
- Your own numbers, worked out as often as you like
- The full setup sheet you can print or save to My work
- 4 cited sources, linked, with the checks to make
- Every other tool for the same role, in the same plan
- A plain-words read of your result (a fuller AI read with the Bifrost AI add-on)
Included in these role plans
Example result · fictional numbers
What you get: setup sheet
Worked out by this tool from its default inputs. Its role plan lets you run your own numbers, print the sheet and save it.
3,000 ft zone: 3 signs, 30 devices with spares, $78.00 for 1 day
- Merging taper L
- 540 ft
- Merging taper length
- 540 ft (minimum)
- Channelizers on taper
- 13 at 45 ft max spacing
- Spacing along tangent
- 90 ft max
- Advance warning sign spacing (A / B / C)
- 500 ft / 500 ft / 500 ft
Layout (distance from the first sign a driver meets)
- Third sign (the first a driver meets)
- 0 ft
- Second sign
- 500 ft (spacing C)
- First sign (closest to the work)
- 1,000 ft (spacing B)
- Start of the merging taper
- 1,500 ft (spacing A, 500 ft past the first sign)
- Taper length
- 540 ft, 13 devices at 45 ft or closer
- Buffer space
- 360 ft at 45 mph, kept clear of workers, equipment and materials
and 3 more lines
Also on the sheet
- Devices and signs · 6 lines, starting with “Taper”
- Rental cost, 1 day · 3 lines, starting with “Devices”
- Compliance check · 3 lines, starting with “Taper”
The plain-words read of this example
At 45 mph with a 12 ft shift, the merging taper is 540 ft with 13 devices. Add 360 ft of buffer space from the MUTCD table and 1,500 ft of advance warning signs, so the zone runs 3,000 ft in all. Load 30 devices and 3 signs. For 1 day the rental comes to about $78.00. The approved traffic control plan and your state supplement govern over these numbers.
4 cited sources
- Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), Part 6: Temporary traffic control (Federal Highway Administration)
- MUTCD 2009 edition, Part 6 (Tables 6C-1, 6C-2, 6C-3 and 6C-4) (Federal Highway Administration)
- 29 CFR 1926.201, Signaling (OSHA)
- Work zone training and certification (flagger and traffic control technician) (American Traffic Safety Services Association)
Plus 5 step-by-step checks, a print layout and a link that reopens it with your numbers.