The Madison Beltline Flex Lane project has been awarded the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Wisconsin Engineering Excellence Grand Award. In a partnership with HNTB, a dynamic part-time shoulder use facility – also referred to as the Flex Lane – was implemented on the Madison Beltline. The Flex Lane is open to users during peak travel times and during special events to help decrease congestion on the beltline.

We have been involved on the Flex Lane from its inception. Our initial involvement with the flex lane included a study of the dynamic part-time shoulder use concept as part of a 2017 Beltline study.  We continued our involvement in the design phase where we led the elements of systems engineering documentation, drainage design, preliminary ITS design, final ITS design, environmental documentation, and public involvement. The public involvement effort included leading the development of a how-to-video illustrating what the public could expect when the system went into operation. The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V46QJE9QLEc.

Our involvement in the Flex Lane continued beyond the design phase as we led oversight of the 2022 Flex Lane construction. We are currently leading a performance measurements analysis that will take an in depth look at the impact the Flex Lane has on traffic volumes, travel times, travel time reliability, and crash trends.