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North Carolina 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.

THE NC FIVE PERCENT REPORT

Introduction

This "5 Percent Report" provides an overview of the intersections, sections, bridges and bicycle/pedestrian locations identified by our Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). The North Carolina Crash Data System allows us to clearly identify specific locations with severe but correctable crash patterns. The screening process has the capability to include all public roads within our state. The higher ranked locations were listed in the 2005 North Carolina Highway Safety Improvement Program Report. These locations were labeled as Potentially Hazardous (PH) locations.

North Carolina's HSIP and the PH locations mentioned in this "5% Report" are integrated into the Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). As mentioned in our SHSP report, the NC Executive Committee for Highway Safety has developed Working Groups to tackle such safety issues as lane departure, intersection safety, and bicycle & pedestrian safety. The Traffic Safety Systems Section has also developed location listings and safety data for Older Drivers, Motorcycle, Commercial Motor Vehicle and other key emphasis area from the AASHTO SHSP in support of our Strategic Highway Safety Plan.

Methodology

The listing of Potentially Hazardous locations covers from 5 to 10 percent of the locations within the state. These locations were flagged for exhibiting the most severe safety needs because these locations showed the strongest pattern of severe and correctable crashes. The criteria used to identify our PH locations were previously outlined in the "HSIP Report". Further information on site identification can be found in the introductory section of the 2005 North Carolina Highway Safety Improvement Program Report.

Ranking/Prioritization

The ranking methodologies for each location type are detailed in the APPENDICES E through I of the HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM OPERATIONS MANUAL. These appendices have been attached to this report.

Potentially Hazardous Locations Identified

The safety warrants from the 2005 Cycle of the HSIP flagged the following number and type of locations:

The 2005 North Carolina Highway Safety Improvement Program Report lists only the top 400, 200, 100, and 100 potentially hazardous locations in the intersection, section, bicycle and pedestrian intersections and bicycle and pedestrian section categories, respectively. It contains all bridge locations. It also contains all excluded locations by category type with the reasons for not initiating a new investigation for the excluded locations.

With the CD ROM version of the 2005 NC HSIP Report, the user has the ability to view a listing of all PH locations. The Report Generator function of the CD can create special reports with specified filters for viewing. The available reporting criteria include location type, county, city, Traffic Safety Unit region, Highway division, NC highway patrol troop and maximum rank. Corridor reports lists all PH locations in a specified county grouped by highway route.

Remedies

The 2005 North Carolina Highway Safety Improvement Program Report listed 3465 locations. Due to the lack of resources, crash data verification and an engineering investigation has not been completed for the majority of the PH locations listed. Crash data verification and the engineering investigations are necessary to fully assess conditions and select the best safety countermeasure. Possible remedies for these locations include: add/upgrade/remove traffic signal and/or phasing, construct/improve channelization, widen pavement and/or shoulder, install rumble strips, install/upgrade guardrails and/or barriers, construct traffic calming features, install flashing beacons, install lighting, etc.

Costs

The estimated cost of all the potential remedies can not be determined until the countermeasures are selected by engineering investigations. Signage improvement recommendations can cost a few hundred dollars to implement while recommendations to upgrade an at-grade intersection to an interchange can cost several million dollars to complete. Furthermore, some PH locations do not warrant safety improvements but these decisions can not be made until analyses and investigations are completed.

At the end of Calendar Year 2005, 178 locations were listed on the "On Hold List" of the Spot Safety Program. The total estimated cost of the 178 projects was $20,182,717. This averages to $113,386 per project. The current maximum allocation for Spot Safety Projects is $250,000.

At the end of Calendar Year 2005, 25 locations were listed on the "On Hold List" of the Hazard Elimination Program. The total estimated cost of the 25 projects was $28,503,070. This averages to $1,140,122 per project. The traditional cap for this program is $1,000,000.

The 2005 HSIP Cycle flagged 3465 locations in May 2005. During calendar year 2005, the Spot Safety Program (SSP) and the Hazard Elimination Program (HEP) funded 103 projects in total. There are 203 projects remaining on the "On Hold Lists" totaling an estimated $48.7 million. It should be noted that not all of the funded and/or programmed locations originated from the 2005 HSIP. It should also be noted that an undetermined number of PH locations were improved with operation/maintenance funds, discretionary funds and other funding sources. However, this leaves nearly 3159 PH locations in various stages that have not been programmed for HSIP funds, but were flagged by the 2005 HSIP cycle.

For the purposes of this report only, rough estimates for potential remedies can be calculated using the average cost of projects on the "On Hold Lists", assuming that the remaining 3159 PH locations warrant safety improvements. If we use the current ratio of Spot Safety projects to Hazard Elimination Projects, then we can assume that the remaining PH locations will create 389 HEP projects and 2770 SSP projects. Thus, the roughly estimated cost of the safety remedies would be approximately $314 million for Spot Safety projects and approximately $444 million for Hazard Elimination projects. We are also assuming that the number of 2005 Cycle PH locations funded by non-HSIP sources is equal to the number of HSIP funded locations not listed by the 2005 cycle. When the previous numbers are added to the cost of projects on the "On Hold Lists", the total amount of the potential remedies would be over $806 million. It should be noted that this estimate for potential remedies is not based on a major engineering study. Therefore, these estimates should not be used for planning or programming purposes.

Other Impediments to Remedies

The impediments to implementation of the remedies other than costs can not be determined until they are discovered during an engineering investigation. The list of possible impediments include environmental permits, right of way acquisition, resident/property owner opposition, local government opposition, and utility conflicts. Other possible impediments include competent engineering and technical manpower necessary for investigation, design, construction and evaluation of safety projects.

This document was prepared by:
Stephen D. Lowry, P.E.
Traffic Safety Unit
Traffic Engineering & Safety Systems Branch
North Carolina Department of Transportation
122 N. McDowell Street
Raleigh, North Carolina 27611
919-733-3915
slowry@dot.state.nc.us

 

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