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FHWA Home / Safety / Roadway Departure / Good Practices: Incorporating Safety into Resurfacing and Restoration Projects

Good Practices: Incorporating Safety into Resurfacing and Restoration Projects

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U.S. Department of Transportation

Federal Highway Administration

December 2006

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CHAPTER 4: LOCAL GOVERNMENT PERSPECTIVES

Local governance structures and emphasis on highways vary across the States visited. In all except one State visited, counties have significant levels of highway ownership. In Pennsylvania, a small fraction of rural highway mileage (less than 0.1 percent) is under county jurisdiction. In contrast, counties in Washington State are responsible for over 35,000 centerline miles (approximately 57 percent) of rural roads and nearly a quarter of the State's urban mileage. State DOTs provide varying levels and forms of assistance to local agencies. The LTAPs operate in all States. Some DOTs provide substantial financial resources to local governments and have dedicated organizational units to facilitate effective and eligible expenditures. In some States, the level of State-local interaction appears low, at least with respect to resurfacing programs and associated safety considerations.

The Scan Team met with county engineers in Iowa, New York, and Washington State. Funding for local public agency (LPA) resurfacing is derived from three sources: (1) Federal-aid passed through the State DOT, (2) State-aid, and (3) locally generated revenues (e.g., property, sales taxes). All of the county personnel were engineering professionals and displayed a high level of commitment to safety improvement. The counties have systematic processes to maintain and improve infrastructure and safety.

LPAs in Washington State are very active in the transportation arena. Substantial Federal-aid and State-aid is provided to LPAs. The Scan Team met with 17 representatives from 15 counties, including nine county engineers. The WSDOT Highways and Local Programs Division have a principal mission of assisting local governments use their Federal-aid funds efficiently and in compliance with applicable requirements. A member of this WSDOT division participated in the entire Washington State scan visit. The arrangements between WSDOT and local government units appear to be extremely cooperative and productive. Key mechanisms used to provide assistance to local agencies are noted below.

Certification Acceptance (CA) is a method of delegating certain Federal-aid highway program decisions to non-Federal transportation agency partners. State DOTs routinely accept these responsibilities, duties, and authorities. In Washington State, approximately 100 local agencies, including all counties, operate under CA. These agencies can expedite project delivery by self-approving many items (e.g., location and design, utility agreements, public hearings, plans, specifications and estimates, contract awards, construction administration) that would require WSDOT and/or FHWA approval if the administering agency did not have CA.

WSDOT has developed Local Agency Guidelines Manual (LAG) and City and County Design Standards (published as Design Manual, chapter 42). The LAG outlines procedures for the following phases:

The City and County Design Standards contains design criteria and guidance for three types of projects: (1) new construction and reconstruction, (2) 3R projects, and (3) 2R projects. The publication pertains to facilities classified as principal arterials, minor arterials, and collectors. Separate committees develop the city and county standards, each comprised of six representatives from the relevant level of government unit (i.e., city or county). Other participants include representatives from WSDOT, the FHWA Division Office, and four other organizations. The joint committee is chaired by a WSDOT Highways and Local Programs representative, who has approval authority for the document.

The Washington State counties range widely in population, geography, and demography. King County has a population of approximately 1.8 million, while Wahkiakum County has about 3,800 residents. The larger counties tend to incorporate all anticipated improvement in resurfacing projects. Conversely, larger, urban LPAs often develop separate projects for basic paving and specialty work that provide for one or a few items (e.g., guardrail, pavement reflectors, or signs). Some LPAs use rigorous pavement management systems to identify needs and projects. Other local counties plan resurfacing programs using a fixed cycle and treatment (e.g., chip seal every 7 years). Despite the variations, a number of comments were common to several county engineers:

County personnel in several States noted the lack of in-house technical specialists. Each State has an LTAP center, supported by Federal and State funds, which provides technical assistance to local governments on transportation matters. Each State center operates somewhat differently but most provide training programs, an information clearinghouse, newsletters and personalized technical assistance. The LTAP centers and State DOT personnel can provide valuable specialized technical knowledge. Resurfacing and safety programs are principal areas of subject areas for all LTAP centers. Additionally, the State DOTs in Iowa and Washington State have prepared technical publications related to LPA-administered resurfacing projects. These publications were frequently mentioned in discussions with agency personnel.

Budget and cost considerations motivate innovation. This is especially true for local agencies and the Scan Team observed several low-cost measures. An example is the use of plastic pipe side drains in conjunction with slope flattening.

"We don't have a lot of funds, so I have to use what we get efficiently. The assistance I get from NYSDOT safety personnel helps me do that."

Fred Howard
County Engineer
Rensselaer County, NY

As noted, the Scan Team met with county engineers in Iowa, New York, and Washington State, all of whom obtained crash data from the State and used this information to identify safety problems. County engineers also had close working relationships with law enforcement agencies, sheriffs and local units of State police. These relationships are useful in working on short- and long-term traffic safety problems.

Many of the institutional practices and all of the technical good practices observed could be useful to local government transportation organizations.

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