Shoulder Drop-off/Mounding Severity Determination

Every two weeks the Ohio Department of Transportation does visual inspections focused on identifying roadway deficiencies of various components of the infrastructure, one being the condition of the existing shoulder area. Shoulder erosion immediately adjacent to the hard surface may present a safety concern for users of the highway. When a drivers right front tire drops off onto a low berm, the driver could over correct when trying to drive back onto the roadway and travel left of center, losing control. Shoulders too high prevents water from draining efficiently or properly leaving the traveled surface. In an ideal condition, the area immediately adjacent to the paved surface should be uniform in slope, free from all ruts, erosion, irregularities, and shall slope away from the paved surface. The research goal for this project is to identify a technology and/or develop a methodology to quickly identify, record and process in a user-friendly format the existing shoulder profile or configuration, while keeping the operator in a safe environment. Providing such information in a mappable configuration is desirable. This will increase safety to the maintenance staff as well as the motoring public. The results of this research will allow ODOT maintenance managers to inspect all the roads under their responsibility on a 2-week cycle and collect the shoulder profile, configuration, cross-slope. This will allow ODOT to provide a safe environment for maintenance personnel and the traveling public.

• Record URL:
  https://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Planning/SPR/Research/reportsandplans/Lists/Final%20Reports%20All/AllItems.aspx?InitialTabId=Ribbon%2ERead&VisibilityContext=WSSTabPersistence#InplviewHash7d4d0273-6fc5-48a5-ad17-9cc3a7e83da0=

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $818287
• Contract Numbers:

  111459

  136135

  34889

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Ohio Department of Transportation

  Research Program
  1980 West Broad Street
  Columbus, OH  United States  43223
• Project Managers:

  Martindale, Jill

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Cincinnati

  Civil Engineering Department, P.O. Box 210071, 741 Baldwin Hall
  Cincinnati, OH  United States  45221-0071
• Principal Investigators:

  Nazzal, Munir

• Start Date: 20200908
• Expected Completion Date: 20250908
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Dropoffs (Pavements); Erosion; Highway maintenance; Highway safety; Inspection; Road shoulders
• Identifier Terms: Ohio Department of Transportation
• Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Pavements; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01855097
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Ohio Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: 111459, 136135, 34889
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Aug 19 2022 1:43PM