Estimating capacity and traffic delay in work zones: An overview

•Provide a critical review on the approaches to estimating work zone capacity and traffic delay in work zones.•Identify the limitations and shortcomings of these approaches.•Provide some directions and recommendations for future research.

This paper presents a review of the approaches to estimating the work zone operational issues: capacity and traffic delay in work zones. It first explores the factors affecting work zone capacity and then critically reviews three types of approaches including parametric, non-parametric and simulation approaches to estimating work zone capacity. Subsequently, a detailed critical review of the three types of approaches for traffic delay estimation in work zones is presented. Finally, it provides some directions and recommendations for the future research.