$610K spent on study for road construction timing

The federal government is giving $610,000 to transportation planning agency Metroplan Orlando to study when road construction should be done. Metroplan's Eric Hill tells FOX 35 the plan is to develop something that has never been done before.  "It's a software that looks at construction projects and how we can sequence those projects to reduce the impact on traffic."

The agency is simply a pass-through for the money, according to Hill.  "Metroplan Orlando was selected to test this software by the USDOT [U.S. Department of Transportation]," he added.  The agency will use University of Central Florida engineers to develop the software and present the findings to the federal officials who hope to take this software and use it nationwide.

We went on the streets and asked several people a simple question: When should road work be done? Almost every one of them answered it should be done at night. Hill admitted that is one approach than can be used, but the hope is to design something more specific that can be used for arterial roads across the nation.

"So that they reduce impact on traffic. So people don't have to drive through as many work zones," one person told us. 

The report is due back next year.