Safety
Safety is a top priority with everyone involved in the road- and bridge-building market. The Safety Channel is a reflection of the commitment to reduce injuries and fatalities at the jobsite. Enhancing this section is Roads & Bridges' continued partnership with the American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA). ATSSA has represented companies and individuals in the traffic control and roadway safety industry for 35 years. Over 1,800 members provide the majority of safety features, services and materials used on the nation's roadways.
Image source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) delayed enforcement of the crystalline silica standard for the construction industry to September in order to conduct additional outreach and provide educational materials and guidance for employers.
OSHA issued a...
Roadway construction already is a dangerous working environment with over 700 fatalities annually in work zones alone. With connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) beginning to launch on our roadways, workers and motorists will have even more dangers facing them each day. Because the majority of...
Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law Tuesday that prohibits texting while driving in Texas, ending a decade-long effort by safety advocates to reduce potentially deadly driver distractions on the road.
Texas will become one of the last states to adopt some kind of texting-while-driving ban...
The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) has been in the process of inventing a new way to combat wrong-way driving, after several years of studying ways to engineer a system that would reduce the number of wrong-way incursions, collisions, and deaths on metro Phoenix freeways.
ADOT says a...
Years ago, you’d have to drive 50 miles on the interstate to see one.
Now, it seems, you can’t go five miles without getting tangled up in one.
They are roadway work zones, and they are here to stay for years to come, as part of the American landscape.
The significant increase in the amount...
Vision Zero is a movement based on the Safe Systems approach to road safety, which is centered on the idea that “no loss of life is acceptable on our streets and roadways.”
Originating in Sweden in 1997, that country’s incorporation of the Vision Zero framework into roadway planning and...
The Zoo Interchange project is the largest in Wisconsin at $1.7 billion, and bears the state’s most complex work zone.
Almost 100 years ago, in the fall of 1917, June McCarroll implemented an idea to designate roadway lanes by painting a mile-long white line down the center of a highway in California.
She campaigned for this idea to be employed statewide, and in 1924 the California Highway Commission agreed,...
California’s S.R. 299 is the main east-west artery between U.S.101 in Humboldt County on the northwest coast and I-5 in the northern Sacramento Valley.
Although it is one of the most beautiful drives in California, nestled within dense forest land, the Buckhorn Grade portion of the route has long...
The Traffic Critical Projects (TCP) program was started in 2014 by members of the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) Offices of Traffic Operations and Traffic and Safety.
A call to action from department management prioritized safety and mobility within work zones leading to the...
Visit our homepage and take this week's poll, which discusses results from a survey regarding work-zone traffic incidents.
As auto accidents and fatalities increase on America’s roads, 12 states have taken legislative action this year to further combat distracted driving.
According to an analysis by the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), nine states have enacted laws and three states have...
Image source: KARE-TV
The University of Minnesota (U of M) Center for Transportation Studies has developed an app that will pair directly with technology in construction areas to alert drivers approaching work zones.
Workers can send messages to drivers as they approach construction zones. The idea is not for the...
Today, 3M and the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) announced they are partnering to utilize connected-vehicle technologies along more than three miles of I-75. Using roadway solutions from 3M, the current I-75 work zone in Oakland County will be transformed over the course of four...
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has launched a pilot project to better prevent wrong-way crashes.
Several roads in Sacramento and San Diego have been designated for the two-year test program. Caltrans uploaded a video to YouTube explaining their high-tech wrong-way driver...
Image: Idaho Transportation Department
According to the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD), though crews are working to remove around 25 derailed rail cars from U.S. 95 about 10 miles north of Athol, both southbound lanes will remain closed for approximately two weeks.
Two-way traffic has been moved to the northbound lanes. ITD...
Visit our homepage and take this week's poll question, which discusses implementing intelligent work-zone safety features on construction projects.
Image source: KTVH-TV
New data from the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) shows traffic fatalities and serious injuries are declining on Montana roads. So far this year, there have been 36 traffic-related deaths compared to 52 at the same time last year.
In 2014, MDT launched Vision Zero, its mission to bring...
With a deadline approaching, one backed by a very large fine if it were missed, officials of the city of Cleveland, Ohio, recently reopened the part of Superior Avenue that runs through Public Square downtown.
The following timeline is an overview of the circumstances that led to the reopening of...
Highway work zones are hazardous, both for drivers who must maneuver through traffic control arrangements and for construction workers who operate steps away from passing vehicles. In this environment, a split-second distraction or unexpected incident can have grave consequences. To prevent serious...
The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) has started another round of safety improvements on Rte. 130, the road dubbed the state’s most dangerous.
Rte. 130 has been repeatedly singled out by pedestrian-safety groups because of a high number of fatalities over the last few years.
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