Road Works and Weather Risk on Your Lanes

Why this matters. A work zone or a storm costs you by the hour: driver pay, truck time and a missed appointment. Most carriers feel it as a late load and a short week, not as a line in the books, so it never gets priced into a rate. The same lanes then eat margin again and again. Open data can tell you where to look. Only your own records can tell you what it cost.

What the work-zone feeds show

On Oct 9, 2026, the work-zone feeds of 14 state transportation departments listed 5,176 events in effect. 1,581 of them reported some or all lanes closed or traffic alternating one way, and 607 reported all lanes closed. These feeds follow the USDOT work zone data standard, WZDx, and each state publishes its own version.

Coverage is the first caveat. 20 feeds answered out of 43 registry rows. Large truck states such as California, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Georgia are missing from the map, because their feeds need a key we do not have, are not in the registry or blocked the request. Read the map as "what these states publish", never as "where the work is".

Source: USDOT WZDx Feed Registry and state feeds, retrieved Oct 9, 2026, via our road works radar. Each agency defines an event differently, so counts are not comparable across states. A zero means the feed reported none, not that there are none.

Florida's 1,482 does not mean Florida has more road work than Missouri. It may publish more detail. Compare a state with itself over time, or use the interstate table for hot spots inside one state. On that table, the most lane-impact events sit on I-70 in Kansas (20), I-135 in Kansas (16), I-94 in Minnesota (8) and I-65 in Indiana (7).

How long zones last

Of the 5,176 events, 3,240 (63%) are scheduled to run longer than 90 days from start to end, and 612 end within the next 7 days. A zone that has run for months is part of your lane. Build it into the rate you quote. A zone that ends this week is not worth a detour.

Restrictions need a closer look. Only 105 width values and 6 height values in the whole snapshot carry a number. Most records say "restriction" with no figure. A restriction with no number is a flag to call the state, not a green light.

What weather data can and cannot do

The National Weather Service active-alert snapshot on our weather page was retrieved on Oct 8, 2026. It shows an official alert existed for an area at that moment. It cannot show conditions on a road, because alert zones are not routes, and it cannot show that weather delayed a particular truck. Only your own records can. It is useful in one narrow way: if a receiver blames a delay on weather, a dated alert next to your own gate times is a reference.

For seasons rather than days, the weather risk calendar uses NOAA storm records for 2021 to 2025. An event-day is a calendar day with at least one recorded event in a state. It depends on reporting as well as weather, covers the whole state and says nothing about closures. Colorado, for example, averages 84 days a year with a recorded snow, ice or freezing event, peaking in January with 14.8 days.

To see where weather and freight overlap, the weather page lists the 15 states with the most truck tonnage in the 200 largest Freight Analysis Framework flows. Pennsylvania leads at 217.2 thousand tons in and out (2022 modeled history), then Illinois at 201.9, Ohio at 170.0 and Texas at 157.8. That shows where weather could matter for a lot of freight. It does not show delay.

Price the hour with your own numbers

Example data: six trucks pass a work zone four times a week. Each pass loses 20 minutes. The zone lasts 10 weeks. One truck hour costs you $75.

Source: example values in the road works radar calculator. The figures are invented placeholders. Replace each one with your own count and cost per hour.

The weather page has a similar calculator: trucks held x cost per truck-day x held days. With its placeholders, 3 trucks, $700 a truck-day and 1 day, that is $2,100. Again invented. Put in your own driver pay and lost revenue.

What to do on a lane

• Quote the zone, not the surprise. If a lane crosses a zone with a long scheduled end, add the delay minutes to your rate or your transit time.
• Measure delay from your own ELD. The feed does not measure it. A closure is a closed lane, not a measured delay.
• Write the time down. If a work zone or an alert makes you late at the dock, tell the broker and keep the message. A dated message is the evidence if a delay is disputed.
• Check the terms. Detention and layover rules may apply, but only if your rate con says so. See layover pay and detention pay, and do not bill the same hours twice.

Our road works radar, weather alerts snapshot and weather calendar hold the full tables and maps. If you want delay, detention and deadhead laid next to your actual loads, send us your last 20 loads for a free audit.