High Friction Surface Treatment for High Crash Locations

Horizontal curves are over-represented, high-frequency, high-severity crash locations. A relatively new and innovative, yet somewhat more costly, horizontal curve crash mitigation strategy is high friction surface treatment (HFST). The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) currently has an initiative to begin trial implementation of HFST on horizontal curves throughout the state. However, no formal criteria for consideration of HFST application has been established. The objective of Phase 1 of this project is to develop a preliminary HFST candidate site selection criteria and apply this criteria to identify appropriate candidate high speed, primary and secondary paved horizontal curves for HFST application. The primary focus of this research effort is utilization of disparate data sets to develop site selection criteria, and ultimately identify candidate sites, for HFST application to improve traffic safety. This will allow the Iowa DOT to allocate limited resources to locations with the most need, which addresses the Midwest Transportation Center (MTC) theme of optimized decision making. A future Phase 2 effort will focus on evaluation of HFST as a mitigation strategy, which directly relates to the MTC theme of data-driven performance measures for safety. The results of this project may establish a framework for determining which horizontal curves may be the best candidates for HFST, given the many other possible mitigation strategies available. Future analyses may be used to further assess or refine these criterion. Highway agencies may then more confidently utilize HFST in their safety arsenal, which addresses the MTC focus area of technology transfer.

• Record URL:
  http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/mtc/index.cfm/research/project/project/2024370363
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Iowa Department of Transportation ($1,000,000.00) USDOT/OST-R ($34,999.00) Total: $1,034,999.00

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $1034999.00
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT13-G-UTC37

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Midwest Transportation Center

  Iowa State University
  2711 S Loop Drive, Suite 4700
  Ames, IA  United States  50010-8664

  Department of Transportation

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Iowa Department of Transportation

  800 Lincoln Way
  Ames, IA  United States  50010
• Managing Organizations:

  Midwest Transportation Center

  Iowa State University
  2711 S Loop Drive, Suite 4700
  Ames, IA  United States  50010-8664
• Performing Organizations:

  Iowa State University, Ames

  Center for Transportation Research and Education
  2711 South Loop Drive, Suite 4700
  Ames, IA  United States  50010-8664
• Principal Investigators:

  Smadi, Omar

  Hans, Zachary

• Start Date: 20140701
• Expected Completion Date: 20180630
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: RiP Project 39361

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Decision making; High risk locations; Highway curves; Performance measurement; Surface treating; Traffic safety
• Geographic Terms: Iowa
• Subject Areas: Construction; Design; Highways; Pavements; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01560547
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Midwest Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: DTRT13-G-UTC37
• Files: UTC, RiP
• Created Date: Apr 16 2015 1:01AM