Evaluating the Cost-Effectiveness of Roadside Culvert Treatments
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 12
Abstract
Roadside cross-drainage culverts have been found to affect vehicle accident injury levels. As a result, highway designers have commonly used three safety treatments to protect errant motorists from striking culvert openings. These safety treatments have included: culvert extension, guardrail installation, and the application of safety grating. However, the identification of the most appropriate safety treatment for roadside culverts may be challenging; accident costs may dramatically change under different road and traffic characteristics. The purpose of this study was to estimate accident costs for a wide range of road and traffic scenarios and then define the safest treatment (i.e., treatment with lowest accident cost) for a variety of traffic, roadway, and roadside characteristics. Over 3,000 highway scenarios were modeled using the Roadside Safety Analysis Program (RSAP). This study showed that the selection of culvert safety treatments should be flexible when considering different road and traffic characteristics. The findings demonstrated that culvert extension and grating were found to produce the lowest accident costs for all highway scenarios that were modeled, and guardrail protection was not recommended for any of the scenarios. Therefore, it is believed that the expanded adoption of culvert extension and culvert grates can improve overall highway safety.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers wish to acknowledge the Iowa Department of Transportation for funding this study.
References
AASHTO. (2002). Roadside design guide, Washington, DC.
Albuquerque, F. D. B., Sicking, D. L., and Lechtenberg, K. A. (2009). “Evaluation of safety treatments for roadside culverts.” Midwest Research Rep. No. TRP-03-201-09, Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE.
Campbell, B., and Humphrey, T. F. (1988). “Methods of cost-effectiveness analysis for highway projects.” NCHRP Synthesis of Highway Practice No. 142, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
Coon, B. A., Sicking, D. L., and Mak, K. K. (2006). “Guardrail runout length design procedures revisited.” Transp. Res. Rec., 1984, 14–20.
Cooper, P. (1980). “Analysis of roadside encroachments: Single vehicle run-off accident data analysis for five provinces.” British Columbia Research Council, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Edwards, T. C., Martinez, J. E., McFarland, W. E., and Ross, H. E. (1969). “Development of design criteria for safer luminaire supports.” NCHRP Rep. No. 77, AASHTO, Washington, DC.
Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS). (2007). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Washington, DC.
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). (1988). “Benefit to cost analysis program.” Publ. No. FHWA-TS-88, Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, McLean, VA.
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). (1994). “ROADSIDE,” McTrans Center, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Glennon, J. C. (1974). “Roadside safety improvement programs on freeways—A cost-effective priority approach.” NCHRP Rep. No. 148, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
Hutchinson, J. W., and Kennedy, T. W. (1966). “Medians of divided highways—Frequency and nature of vehicle encroachments.” Engineering Experiment Station Bulletin No. 487, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL.
Kohutek, T. L., and Ross, H. E. (1978). “Safety treatment of roadside culverts on low volume roads.” Rep. No. FHWA-TX-77-225-1, Texas Transportation Institute, College Station, TX.
Mak, K. K., and Sicking, D. L. (2003). “Roadside safety analysis program (RSAP)—Engineer’s manual.” NCHRP Rep. No. 492, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
Mak, K. K., Sicking, D. L., and Zimmerman, K. (1998). “Roadside safety analysis program: A cost-effectiveness analysis procedure.” Transp. Res. Rec., 1647, 67–74.
Miller, T., Blomquist, G., Dillingham, A., Douglass, J., Gellert, W., and Pindus, N. (1991). “The costs of highway crashes.” Rep. No. FHWA-RD-91-055, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, DC.
Polivka, K. A., Sicking, D. L., Reid, J. D., Bielenberg, B. W., Faller, R. K., and Rohde, J. R. (2007). “Performance evaluation of safety grates for cross drainage culverts.” Transportation Research Rep. No. TRP-03-196-07, Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE.
Ross, H. E., Jr., et al. (1982). “Safety treatment of roadside drainage structures.” Transp. Res. Rec., 868, 1–12.
Weaver, G. D., Post, E. R., and Woods, D. L. (1975). “Cost-effectiveness analysis of roadside safety improvements.” Transp. Res. Rec., 543, 1–15.
Wolford, D., and Sicking, D. L. (1996). “Guardrail runout lengths revisited.” Transportation Research Record, 1528, 78–86.
Zegeer, C. V., Parker, M. R., and Goodell-Grivas, I. (1983). “Cost-effectiveness of countermeasures for utility pole accidents.” Rep. No. FHWA/RD-83/063, Federal Highway Administration, Washington, DC.
Zegeer, C. V., Reinfurt, D. W., Hunter, W. W., Hummer, J., Stewart, R., and Herf, L. (1988). “Accident effects of sideslope and other roadside features on two-lane roads.” Transp. Res. Rec., 1195, 33–47.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 12 • December 2011
Pages: 918 - 925
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 16, 2009
Published online: Feb 3, 2011
Accepted: Feb 16, 2011
Published in print: Dec 1, 2011
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.