The Michigan DOT (MDOT) will invest about $1 million to install 382 miles of sinusoidal corrugations—or ''mumble strips"—on asphalt shoulders along various state trunkline routes in several counties in the Upper Peninsula.
These variable-depth strips will be installed on shoulders 6 ft wide or less in Alger, Baraga, Chippewa, Delta, Gogebic, Houghton, Luce, Mackinac, Marquette, Menominee, and Ontonagon counties beginning June 1. Work will be carried out on U.S. 41, U.S. 45, M-26, M-28, M-35, M-123, M-129, and M-203.
MDOT says rumble strips are a proven countermeasure to lane departure crashes brought on by driver drowsiness, distraction, or inattention. Mumble strips, pioneered in Minnesota and tested over the past few years on several stretches of highway in the Upper Peninsula, can be installed on narrower asphalt shoulders and are designed to create less noise outside of the vehicle but have the same effect of alerting the driver.
The project is a mobile operation, and the work will require single-lane closures with one lane of alternating traffic maintained via traffic regulators.
--------
SOURCE: Michigan DOT
