An Assessment of Safety and Geometric Design Criteria for Diverging Diamond Interchanges

The use of Diverging Diamond Interchanges (DDI), also referred to as Double Crossover Diamonds (DCD), has become more prevalent throughout the United States over the past 3 to 5 years. Overall, DDIs are gaining momentum within the interchange design community. However, only a limited amount of guidance on the design of these types of interchanges exists. The first DDI in the US was constructed in 2009 by the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). The DDI design accommodates left-turning movements at signalized, grade-separated interchanges of arterials and limited-access highways while eliminating the need for left-turn phasing. On the arterial, two-phase traffic signals are installed at the ramp terminal intersections to shift traffic over to the left side of the roadway between the nodes of the interchange. Once on the left side of the arterial roadway, vehicles can turn left onto limited-access ramps without stopping and without conflicting with through traffic. Currently, there are no existing guidelines/standards for design of this type of interchange. The design is extremely dependent on site-specific conditions which are demonstrated by the variations in the design elements of the DDIs constructed to date. Additionally, there is relatively little accident history available as no DDIs existed in North America prior to 2009. Analysis of the actual safety and operational performance of DDIs has been limited to a handful of in-service DDIs. An assessment of the current design process and safety analysis is needed to ensure that recent advances and emerging issues are appropriately leveraged and/or reflected in design practices, guidelines, and policies. The research objective is to identify, review, and evaluate the geometric design features and the associated safety and operational performance of in-service DDIs across the US. This information will then be utilized to develop recommendations for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Technical Committee on Geometric Design for consideration as future geometric policy and guidelines. Two basic questions will be addressed: (1) What are the essential design characteristics of a DDI and how should an engineer utilize this information in the design of a DDI and (2) What are the safety and operational benefits of utilizing a DDI and how might the designer utilize this information in their design?

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=3815
• Supplemental Notes:
  • AASHTO Highway Subcommittee on Design. Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $500000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 15-58

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite 225
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Project Managers:

  Derr, B

• Start Date: 20141113
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: RiP Project 37596

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Diamond interchanges; Diverging traffic; Geometric design; Highway design; Left turns; Signalized intersections; Standards
• Identifier Terms: Missouri Department of Transportation
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01543401
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 15-58
• Files: TRB, RiP
• Created Date: Nov 14 2014 1:01AM