Saferoads Australia, located near Melbourne in the state of Victoria, provides road safety solutions to Australia, New Zealand and the international road safety market. The company recognized the need for a solution to enhance driver awareness in work zones in order to keep road crews safe on jobsites.
Saferoads acknowledged the life-saving capability and innovative functionality of temporary rumble strips. In the spring of 2016, the company facilitated tests of PSS RoadQuake 2F Temporary Portable Rumble Strips (TPRS) for Mainroads Western Australia, a state agency responsible for the construction and maintenance of state transportation infrastructure in Western Australia.
The main test objectives were to provide visual and audio prompts that increase driver awareness of an upcoming work zone, and to reduce end-of-queue (EOQ) work-zone crashes. Tests were conducted in 60- and 80-kph active work zones, with 2 arrays of 3 strips each, placed 3.3 m apart.
Results of the tests were positive, as vehicle speed reductions were observed with an 8 kph speed reduction at all locations. Due to these findings, Mainroads issued interim approval for the use of RoadQuake TPRS, with full approval as the next step.
Saferoads, which has served as a representative and exclusive distributor for PSS in Australia since 2014, also reported they conducted tests in late 2016 for Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), a government agency in New South Wales, Australia. RMS sought solutions to reduce EOQ work-zone crashes.
Results of those tests have been positive as well. Saferoads reported that RMS has deployed rumble strip arrays in several work sites in the last year to slow down approaching worksite traffic and “wake up” inattentive drivers. Since deployment, work zones using the rumble strips have not experienced an EOQ work-zone crash.
While no hard data is available from these tests yet, Saferoads has posted a testimonial on their website from Superior Traffic Management on their experience using the rumble strips.
