Pennsylvania 2007 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.

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Pennsylvania's Highway Safety Needs and Remedies

This annual report is submitted in accordance with Section 148 (c) (1) (D) of Title 23 of the United States Code entitled Highway Safety Improvement Program Reporting "5 Percent Report." As a condition for obligating HSIP funds, Section 148 (c)(1)(D) requires States to prepare an annual report that describes not less than 5 percent of their public road locations exhibiting the most severe safety needs. What follows describes the extent of the analysis coverage and the methodology utilized to prepare the list of locations attached as Table 1.

Extent of Analysis Coverage:

This year's report on Pennsylvania's most severe highway safety needs is based on State-owned roads only. Pennsylvania is working toward creating a master linear reference system that can be used by all municipal law enforcement to locate crashes with their reporting methods. This will allow PENNDOT to perform system-wide analysis of safety issues on all public roads (including locally owned and maintained roads) across the state. This enhanced analysis capability is expected to be in place by August 31, 2009.

Methodology Utilized to Prepare List:

1. Our approach to identifying the number of locations to include in the 5% list was to identify at least the top 5% of the locations on a State's hazardous locations list (which is based primarily on fatalities and serious injuries).
2. Having an objective of reducing fatalities, locations were only considered which have a history of major injury or fatal crashes in order to minimize the effect of a large number of low severity crashes on location selection.
3. In order to identify not only priority road segments but also intersections which have a high number of severe crashes, two sub lists were generated: an intersection and non-intersection priority list.
4. In the production of the standard cluster list, it is desirable to look at segments of roadway which are long enough to allow reasonable project lengths. As such, clusters were generated with minimum lengths of 5000 feet.
5. For intersections, consideration should be given to approaches to intersection points. As such, the radius of consideration was set to 500 feet.
6. For intersection and non-intersection locations, 5 years of crash data were evaluated (2001-2005). Locations having an average of more than one fatal or major-injury crash per year in the 5000 foot minimum, or 500 foot radius, were considered for the evaluation of rank. Locations not meeting these parameters were not considered hazardous locations for this exercise. This resulted in 335 locations of varying lengths.
7. The cluster parameter was set to 5 fatal or major-injury crashes in 5 years within 5000 feet. CDART has dynamic clustering capabilities. CDART moves along a roadway until it encounters the first fatal or major-injury crash. Then it looks ahead 5000 feet to determine if at least 5 select crashes occurred in that length. If so, it moves to the second crash and measures another 5000 feet to inspect. Thus the cluster may be a short distance if 5 crashes are grouped together or it may be very long if the concentration of select crashes persists through a corridor.
8. The two "cluster" lists were generated statewide.
9. For the ranking of non-intersection clusters, we assume that project cost is no consideration.
10. The first ranking round sorted the list in descending order according to the number of major injury or fatal crashes in 5 years at each location.
11. Once the standard cluster location was ranked, the intersection cluster was evaluated to determine if any intersection clusters were not included in the segment ranges of the standard cluster list. Intersections which were not on the standard cluster list were added to the list according to the number of fatal or major injuries occurring at the intersection.
12. This list was ranked.
13. The second ranking round sorted the list in descending order according to the fatal and major-injury crash rate (which normalizes for traffic volume). This list was ranked.
14. The third ranking round sorted the list in descending order according to the number of fatalities. This list was ranked.
15. Next, all three ranking numbers were summed for each location for a total ranking. Then the list was sorted according to the total ranking number.
16. So by the above-stated criteria, for 2007, the PA state hazardous locations list has 335 locations. The top 5% are the top 17 locations.
17. These 17 locations are described in Table 1. Each location is labeled 1 through 17.
18. Nine locations have an existing project in process. Some projects are on the TIP with HSIP funding or other funding sources. A road safety audit was funded by an MPO. A low-cost safety improvement project was completed with 100% state safety money.
19. Eight locations are not currently planned for projects. The Department will begin investigating these locations to determine what hard-side or soft-side countermeasures may be applicable and determine any impediments to implementation.

Please contact Lydia E. Peddicord, P.E., Highway Safety Liaison Engineer, from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Bureau of Highway Safety & Traffic Engineering (lpeddicord@state.pa.us) if you have any questions about this report.

This traffic engineering and safety study is confidential pursuant to 75 Pa. C.S. 4 and 23 U.S.C. and may not be disclosed or used in litigation without written permission from PENNDOT.

Lydia Peddicord, P.E. 8/27/07
PENNDOT
BHSTE (717 705-1706)

Table 1 - PA Top 5%

Top 5% of Clusters of 5 Fatal or Maj Inj crashes in 5000 ft in 5 yrs (2001-2005) [or within 500 ft of an intersection]

RANK	MPMS	Project Funding	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Project Description	Targeted Crash Type	Estimated Construction Completion Date	Estimated Total Cost	Potential Remedies	Street Name
			DIST.	CO Number	COUNTY	ROUTE	BEG SEG	BEG OFF	END SEG	END OFF
1			04	40	LUZERNE	0093	0060	772	0110	0
	9227, 47966	TIP (Non-HSIP)				93	20	0	110	3894	Signalized corridor improvement.  Broad St. corridor, 8 intersection LPL locations and multiple other clusters.	Angle/All	11/11/2009	$8.2 M
2			06	67	PHILADELPHIA	0611	0010	738	0180	1141
	17652	TIP (HSIP)				611	0080	1724	0160	0857	upgrade traffic signals	ped/angle	12/15/2010	$1.9 M		Broad St
3			06	67	PHILADELPHIA	1004	0010	3388	0060	2109	Not Currently Planned	Ped/HFO				Erie Ave
4			11	02	ALLEGHENY	3069	0050	900	0060	1710	Not Currently Planned				Delineate utility poles.  Stripe for current 4-lane use.  Speed and DUI enforcement.
5			06	23	DELAWARE	0013	0180	247	0210	2629
	47994	TIP (Non-HSIP)				0013	150	1760	0270	2193	Signal upgrade/left turn lanes	Angle/rear	9/15/2010	$ 6.2 M		Chester Pike
6			06	67	PHILADELPHIA	2014	0050	0	0100	0
	57893	TIP (Non-HSIP)				2014	0040	0926	0100	2079	Signal upgrade (23 I/S), minor roadway imp	ped/angle	FY2012	$ 2.6 M		Lehigh Ave
7			11	02	ALLEGHENY	3089	0150	392	0160	1354
	67731	Gov. Safety Budget									Slow curve pavement markings	HO/HFO	2003	$2,740	These measures have shown a reduction from 6 fatal or major injury crashes from 2000-2003 to 1 fatal crash from 2003-2006.
	68090	Gov. Safety Budget									Centerline rumble strips	HO/HFO	2003	$2,000
8			06	67	PHILADELPHIA	3017	0020	2120	0060	199	Not Currently Planned	Ped/HFO				52nd St
9			08	36	LANCASTER	0741	0460	0	0480	154	Not Currently Planned				Intersection Improvement with SR 2035
	74787						390		540		Scratch & Overlay		11/21/2006
10			06	09	BUCKS	0132	0282	0	0302	158	Not Currently Planned.  Twp installed ped countdown timers at Mechanicsville Rd	Angle/Ped				Street Rd between Mechanicsville Rd and Humelville Rd
11			12	26	FAYETTE	0711	0090	896	0110	1915
	30003	TIP (HSIP)				711	30	0	80	2785	Project includes a study of truck traffic. Short term improvements including truck pull-offs and an escape ramp. Long term improvements include possible relocations and re-routing of truck traffic.	Heavy Truck	12/15/2010	$ 2.6 M
12			06	67	PHILADELPHIA	2004	0010	0	0030	915	Not Currently Planned	Ped				Market St From First St to 13th St
13			06	67	PHILADELPHIA	2016	0030	0	0110	1672
		RSA funded by DVRPC				2016	10	0	100	0	RSA completed/Future HSIP Project: Signal Imp/Bridge Ends	Angle, Ped				Allegheny Ave
14			11	37	LAWRENCE	0065	0190	618	0200	675	Not Currently Planned				Centerline rumble strips.  Speed enforcement
15			05	06	BERKS	2077	0010	0	0010	2365
	77059	Gov. Safety Budget				2077	10	0	10	2597	Upgrade old post and cable guide rail	ROR, HFO	5/21/07	$12,000		Bristol Pk
		County Maintenance				2077	10	0	10	500	Intersection with SR 724.  Intersection pavement warning markings, upgrade signs to Type III reflective sheeting, clear vegetation		8/7/07
	57429	TIP (Non-HSIP)				422 662 2077	640 10 10	0 0 2100	671 11 10	0 400 2597	Signalizes 2077 River Bridge Road intersection with SR 422	stop int.	12/30/08	$ 4.1 M
	10899	Not yet on TIP				2077	10	1861	10	2108	Narrow Bridge Replacement	Hit bridge, Head on		$ 0.8 M		Olney Ave
16			06	67	PHILADELPHIA	4004	0080	0	0100	2540	Not Currently Planned	Angle/Ped
17			06	09	BUCKS	0013	0170	380	0210	645
	13745	TIP (Non-HSIP)				13	0010	0000	0200	0836	Signal Upgrade/Intersections geometry improvements at two intersections	Angle/rear	5/1/2008	$ 5.2 M
	47392	TIP (Non-HSIP)				13	0200	0000	0310	0000	Highway restoration/Left turn lanes/Sidewalk/Median	ped/angle	5/15/2012	$ 17.0 M