Arkansas 2006 Five Percent Report
This report is in response to the Federal requirement that each state describe at least 5 percent of its locations currently exhibiting the most severe highway safety needs, in accordance with Sections 148(c)(1)(D) and 148(g)(3)(A), of Title 23, United States Code. Each state’s report is to include potential remedies to the hazardous locations identified; estimated costs of the remedies; and impediments to implementation of the remedies other than costs. The reports included on this Web site represent a variety of methods utilized and various degrees of road coverage. Therefore, this report cannot be compared with the other reports included on this Web site.
Protection from Discovery and Admission into Evidence—Under 23 U.S.C. 148(g)(4) information collected or compiled for any purpose directly relating to this report shall not be subject to discovery or admitted into evidence in a Federal or State court proceeding or considered for other purposes in any action for damages arising from any occurrence at a location identified or addressed in the reports. |
Additional information, including the specific legislative requirements, can be found in the guidance provided by the Federal Highway Administration,
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/safetealu/fiveguidance.htm.
ARKANSAS' HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (HSIP)
STATE FISCAL YEAR 2006
Prepared by the
Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department
Planning and Research Division
Traffic Safety Section
5 Percent Program Report
Introduction
As part of 23 U.S.C. Section 148, a new Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) was created as a core funding program. As a condition of obligating HSIP funds, Section 148 requires States to prepare an annual report that describes not less than 5 percent of public road locations exhibiting the most severe safety needs. This report is being submitted to fulfill these requirements.
As previously mentioned, an Arkansas State Highway Needs Study and Highway Improvement Plan identified significant routes as being important to the State’s transportation services based on their characteristics and performance. These routes were identified as the Arkansas Primary Highway Network (APHN). The APHN is a system of 8,447 miles that carry approximately 92 percent of all travel of the State Highway System. Also, this system accounts for over 50 percent of the total State Highway System. The Arkansas State Highway Commission adopted the APHN on April 14, 2004, as a grid system that provides interstate and regional movement, linkage to population centers and critical services. Routes on the APHN were the focus of the 5 Percent Program Report.
As stipulated in the reporting program requirements, the State’s methodology used to identify locations on the 5 Percent Program Report may focus on fatal and serious injury crashes. During the period of 2002 to 2004, there were a total of 5,597 fatal and serious injury crashes on the APHN system. This represents approximately 72 percent of all fatal and serious injury crashes on the State system.
Table 3 previously showed the fatal and serious injury crashes and crash rates for each road system. The results showed that the Interstate System had the lowest fatal and serious injury crash rate while US Highways and State Highways had the highest fatal and serious injury crash rates. For this reason, only US Highways and State Highways on the APHN system were considered in the 5 Percent Program Report. Though the guidelines suggested that all public roads be included in the report, limited crash data, especially the location of crashes on city streets or county roads, prevented crash queries from being conducted to identify possible safety problems. New technology such as the use of Global Positioning Systems to identify the location of a crash should enhance the crash location process and possibly enable city streets and county roads to be considered in future 5 Percent Program Reports if a high crash rate location is identified. The AHTD will continue to provide assistance to the local governments on transportation needs, including safety, through the Local Technical Assistance Program.
Methodology
In order to identify locations for the 5 Percent Program Report with a high incident of fatal and serious injury crashes on the APHN system, a process was developed as discussed below. Note: Because of time restraints, the methodology for this year was modified for selection purposes. Next year’s analysis will include all state highways.
An Access database was created for routes on the APHN system.
An Access query was made for all fatal and serious injury crashes on the APHN system for the years 2002-2004. Because of the relatively lower fatal and serious injury crash rate on the Interstate System, these routes were not considered in the 5 Percent Report. Only U.S. Highways and State Highways were considered.
A Crash Analysis Program was written to identify locations with a high rate of fatal and serious injury crashes on the APHN system. The criteria used to identify these locations were five-mile segments with fifteen or more fatal and serious injuries (KA) crashes within the three-year period of 2002 to 2004.
The Crash Analysis Program identified 15 locations that met the above stated criteria. Each location was reviewed to determine if a highway project was under construction or had recently been improved.
Fatal and serious injury crash rates were calculated for the 15 locations. The KA crash rates were based on crashes per million vehicle miles (MVM) traveled.
The list was sorted by fatal and serious injury crash rate (highest to lowest) and shown on Table 7.
Based on the 15 locations, one location (shown below) was identified as a project to include in the 5 Percent Program Report.
The top project on the 5 Percent Program is:
- Job 070280, El Dorado - Hwy. 335 (Hwy. 167) in Union County
More information for this project is provided in Table 8.
Table 7
5 Percent Program
List of KA Crash Rate Locations
District |
County |
Route |
Section |
Begin Logmile |
Length |
Number of KA Crashes |
3 Year Avg. Number KA Crashes |
ADT |
KA Crash Rate* |
PROJECT |
STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
07 |
UNION |
167 |
02 |
0.2 |
4.70 |
15 |
5.00 |
4,850 |
0.60 |
070280 |
Programmed |
05 |
SHARP |
63 |
02 |
8.15 |
4.09 |
15 |
5.00 |
5,675 |
0.59 |
|
|
06 |
GARLAND |
227 |
01 |
0.17 |
4.73 |
17 |
5.67 |
7,366 |
0.45 |
060978 |
Programmed |
05 |
WHITE |
16 |
13 |
7.4 |
4.70 |
15 |
5.33 |
7,466 |
0.39 |
|
|
06 |
GARLAND |
7 |
09 |
5.11 |
4.92 |
46 |
15.33 |
25,244 |
0.34 |
|
|
06 |
GARLAND |
7 |
10 |
0.82 |
4.77 |
15 |
5.00 |
8,600 |
0.33 |
060776 |
Programmed |
06 |
GARLAND |
70 |
08 |
12.85 |
2.13 |
16 |
5.33 |
24,200 |
0.28 |
060109 |
Programmed |
06 |
GARLAND |
70 |
08 |
7.68 |
4.75 |
19 |
6.33 |
13,233 |
0.28 |
060109 |
Programmed |
06 |
GARLAND |
7 |
09 |
0.02 |
4.38 |
19 |
6.33 |
16,525 |
0.24 |
|
|
08 |
FAULKNER |
64 |
09 |
0.07 |
4.96 |
26 |
8.67 |
23,440 |
0.20 |
080219 |
Programmed |
06 |
HOT SPRING |
270 |
07 |
1.21 |
4.79 |
16 |
5.33 |
15,166 |
0.20 |
|
|
06 |
PULASKI |
70 |
12 |
1.65 |
4.51 |
28 |
9.33 |
28,512 |
0.20 |
|
|
08 |
FAULKNER |
65 |
09 |
9.08 |
4.97 |
17 |
5.67 |
19,925 |
0.16 |
|
|
06 |
GARLAND |
270 |
05 |
16.55 |
4.34 |
17 |
5.67 |
26,640 |
0.13 |
|
|
06 |
PULASKI |
67 |
10 |
5.25 |
5.00 |
23 |
7.67 |
56,120 |
0.07 |
061177 |
Programmed |
*Statewide average KA crash rate = 0.11 KA crashes per million vehicle miles (mvm)
Criteria:
KA CRASHES in 5 Mile Segments on APHN Routes only on U.S. Highways and State Highways
Minimum of 15 Crashes from the years 2002-2004
Table 8
Highway Segment Exhibiting the Most Severe
Safety Needs for 5 Percent Report
FY 2006
| County | Termini | Length | Potential Improvement * |
Estimated Costs (M) * |
Impediments (other than costs) * |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Union | El Dorado - Hwy. 335 (167) | 4.7 | Widen to 4 lanes | $25.0 | None |
* These are preliminary comments until further studies are conducted.
