Maintenance activities to improve safety
A 30-degree safety edge
County engineer Sue Miller opened this session of the TZD conference by describing Freeborn County’s efforts to eliminate little-used field approaches (driveways from a road or highway into a field). As farms get bigger, she said, so do the field approaches because they now need to accommodate semi tractor-trailers. These approaches, however, are potential obstructions for drivers who might run off the road, hit the approach, and “skyrocket into the cornfield,” Miller said. “If you don’t need that approach there, why have an extra obstruction out there for people to hit?”
She and her county’s board created a policy to charge farmers $200 for a permit to put in an approach; however, they will waive that fee for farmers who agree to give up other approaches they no longer use.
Following Miller, Mike Wagner, county engineer for Nicollet County, addressed the problem of vegetation growing unchecked in roadside ditches. Such vegetation provides protective cover for birds and other animals that could suddenly dart out into the road—and into the path of oncoming traffic. For that reason, Wagner encourages farmers to mow their ditches.
Pavement edge drop-offs can be a serious safety problem in rural areas as well. If adding extra pavement to a shoulder is not an option, Wagner recommended tapering or beveling the edge of the pavement. That way, a driver whose vehicle strays off the road will have a better chance of righting it and controlling the vehicle—without overcorrecting and veering into the opposite lane. This beveling can be done by blading, Wagner said, “and it costs basically nothing to do that when you are paving.”
Next, Jon Jackels talked about the role of pavement markings in preventing lane-departure crashes. Since so many road-departure crashes happen at night, road markings need to be retroreflective, and he told attendees to review markings at night in order to see when maintenance is needed.
Jackels said that although higher quality marking paint might be more expensive initially, it would pay for itself over the long run. Whichever road these retroreflective marking are used on, there is a good benefit-to-cost ratio, Jackels added. For example, for roadways that carry 2,500 cars per day, the cost benefit ratio is 86 to 1. “[These markings] keep people on the roadways. If you can see the road, chances are you’ll stay on it,” he said.
Jackels also recommended a handbook published by the American Traffic Safety Services Association and the National Association of County Engineers titled Low-Cost Local Road Safety Solutions. The handbook, available at www.atssa.com, describes rumble strips, rumble stripes, signing, delineation, and other techniques.
Finally, Dan Gullickson, Mn/DOT forestry program coordinator, talked about a partnership opportunity available for counties, township authorities, and trunk highway authorities to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Conservation Reserve Program to establish living snow fences. The program will pay farmers to take land out of production and plant vegetation to create a snow fence at a specified distance along a highway.
Snow fences keep blowing snow off roads and prevent it from freezing on a previously cleared road. This keeps the road open—saving maintenance costs and the costs of shutting down a major highway. In addition to reducing drifting snow, a snow fence can reduce soil erosion.
A challenge Gullickson noted is establishing snow fences on private land, since farmers are often reluctant to give up crop land for planting trees. One approach that has proved successful is to give farmers recognition in their community for doing so, Gullickson said.