FHWA Roadway Safety and Grant Newsletter - Summer 2007
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- WORK ZONE SAFETY GRANT INFORMATION
- THE NATIONAL WORK ZONE SAFETY INFORMATION CLEARINGHOUSE: BETTER EVERYDAY!
- THE NATIONAL TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT & WORK ZONE SAFETY CONFERENCE
- AASHTO SURVEY SHOWS A NEED FOR TRAINING
WORK ZONE SAFETY GRANT INFORMATION
BACKGROUND
Work zones remain a dangerous element of the transportation network, representing over 1000 fatalities annually. The work zone realted injuries and fatalities involve motorists traveling through the work zone, as well as workers working on roadway construction/maintenance/utility projects. The trends of growing traffic, increased road construction, and public frustration with work zones have contributed to the growing intensity of work zone safety impacts on workers and traveling public. The impacts raise an urgent need for guidance and training for work zone workers, the public, and transportation agencies and groups towards prevention of highway work zone injuries and fatalities.
GRANT TASKS
The objective of this grant is to provide assistance for highway work zone safety training and guideline development towards the improvement of highway work zone safety. The Roadway Safety Coalition will perform the following tasks under this grant: Highway Work Zone Worker Safety Training; The Highway Work Zone Safety Guidelines Development; and Highway Work Zone Safety Guidelines Training.
AREA 1:
HIGHWAY WORK ZONE WORKER SAFETY TRAINING
Under this task, the coalition will provide worker training, including OSHA 10-HOUR training specifically designed for the roadway construction industry. To date, the coalition has trained over 1200 students. If you have any need for the OSHA 10-HOUR training course, please contact Bob Laramore at blaramore@artba.org
AREA 2:
HIGHWAY WORK ZONE SAFETY GUIDELINES DEVELOPMENT
The coalition is developing guidelines on a national scale that can be adapted/customised to a State or local application. Under this task, guidelines will address work zone safety and operations issues and practices including: accelerated construction, full roadway closure and lane closure, night work/off-peak work for highway construction, maintenance, and utility projects. The guidelines developed for each of these strategies will cover all elements of a construction project including: work zone(wz) planning and programming, wz design and construction, wz impact assessment and mitigation, wz law enforcement, and wz public information and outreach.
AREA 3:
HIGHWAY WORK ZONE SAFETY GUIDELINES TRAINING
The coalition is in the process of identifying and assessing gaps and needs in the industry. We are also in the process of identifying trainees and selecting materials for training. We are currently completing the development of an evaluation plan for the training activities as well conducting an evaluation of the effectiveness of the training offered. All of these materials will be submitted to the FHWA for review and approval. Once approval has been given, the coalition will begin their training efforts.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE EXCITING TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES!
THE NATIONAL WORK ZONE SAFETY INFORMATION CLEARINGHOUSE: BETTER EVERYDAY!
In April, The National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse celebrated its 9th anniversary. The Clearinghouse, a project of the American Road Transportation Builders Association's Transportation Development Foundation(ARTBA-TDF) and operated through contract to the Texas Transportation Institute, in College Station, Texas, is the world's largest Internet resource on road construction work zone safety information. The Clearinghouse contains information in work zone safety experts nationwide, traffic crash and worker accident data, work zone traffic laws and regulations, agency standards and best practices related to work zone safety, training resources and best practices related to work zone safety, training resources and publications, work zone safety equipment and technology, and past and present work zone safety research.
The Clearinghouse was initially established through a grant from the Federal Highway Administration(FHWA) to ARTBA. Over the years, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, (AASHTO), the ARTBA-TDF, FHWA, the Laborer's Health and Safety Fund of North America(LSHFNA) and other agencies and associations have contributed funds to support the Clearinghouse.
STATUS
The Clearinghouse continues to serve a vital role helping both the public and private sectors improve work zone safety. Since the inception of the Clearinghouse, nearly a half-million users have accessed its resources to find answers to all type of work zone safety-related questions.Users come from all 50 states and from dozens of countries worldwide. These users are employed in a wide variety of disciplines, including:
Federal, state and local transportation agencies;
Highway contractors;
Equipment manufacturers and vendors;
Safety training professionals;
A total of 15,000 information entries are included in the various Clearinghouse databases, The databases are easily searchable, and allow most users to find the information they need in just a few minutes. For more complicated questions, Clearinghouse staff may be contacted by telephone 1-888-447-5656 or email workzone@tamu.edu to obtain personal assistance in searching out information.
UPCOMING IMPROVEMENTS
As part of SAFETEA-LU, Congress authorized federal funding over the next several years to support ongoing operations and enhance the functionality of the Clearinghouse. FHWA, ARTBA, and TTI are working to improve the Clearinghouse in several areas including:
redesigning the website to improve its look and effectiveness to users;
establishing a video and audio library to provide users with easy access to archived webinar sessions, workshops, and other types of recorded training materials;
establishing a work zone listserv to pose questions or feedback from other users on work zone safety-related questions
establishing a mechanism to provide tailored notices to users when new information of a particular type or category becomes available and
developing new web-based training materials to host on the Clearinghouse website.
To further emphasize the new look and feel of the Clearinghouse, a redesigned logo has been developed, along with a new marketing campaign.
In addition, a more intuitive website address www.workzonesafety.org has been established to make it easier for users to find the Clearinghouse.
THE NATIONAL TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT & WORK ZONE SAFETY CONFERENCE
As part of its expanded services, the Work Zone Safety Clearinghouse is sponsoring a major national event in Fort Lauderdale, FL on October 9-12, 2007: The National Traffic Management and Work Zone Safety Conference.
The conference, being held in conjunction with Intertraffic North America and the ARTBA National Conference will bring transportation professionals from all levels of government together with private industry to discuss challenges and cutting edge solutions to help improve the safe and efficient movement of traffic under many different roadway conditions. Planned topics to be discussed during this event include nighttime road construction, law and speed enforcement in work zones, traffic and congestion management, emergency evacuation and disaster response, work zone safety training programs, work zone impact analyses, automated tolling and pricing, pedestrian and cyclist safety, trends in integrating ITS technologies, and bridging the gap between technology development and deployment. Make plans now to attend! Registration is now open and a preliminary program can be accessed via the Clearinghouse www.workzonesafety.org.
AASHTO SURVEY SHOWS A NEED FOR TRAINING
As a provider of highway work zone safety training and guideline development, the Road Construction Industry Consortium enlisted the help of American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in enhancing its interactive training tools. AASHTO's department of transportation members were asked to name the top three Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) Typical Applications for Temporary Traffic Control that should be added to the Consortium's Roadway Safety Awareness Program for the upcoming training year.
The Roadway Safety Awareness Program provides an overview of common hazards in highway and road construction and simple prevention measures. It is desgned for use by supervisory personnel with some safety and health experience or by safety and health personnel to orient new workers as they arrive on the jobsite.
Over a 30-day period last spring, 29 state DOTs provided their input to the Consortium in the areas of construction and maintenance. The Typical Applications survey was designed to identufy areas where more emphasis is needed, or areas that labor-management need to be reminded of - in other words, areas that need to be included in the training. The intention is to help companies produce the worker awareness needed to achieve best practices.
The top three choices of the State DOTs were:
- Lane Closure on Two-Lane Road Using Flaggers -- TA-10, 33%
- Lane Closure on Divided Highway -- TA-33, 21%
- Short Duration or Mobile Operation on Shoulder -- TA-4, 13%
These choices represent typical maintenance operations DOTs face daily, high risk areas, improper placement of warning signs, and the common involvement of high volume, high-speed roadways. IT was also suggested that a pocket guide of the MUTCD traffic plans and guidelines could be made available for contractor personnel, utility companies, law enforcement, towns, and municipality workers as something readily available that can be kept in trucks.
The Consortium has developed a similar survey that they plan to circulate among the many private-sector organisations participating in the program.
Marty Vitale
AASHTO, 06/22/07
FEATURED MEDIA
ROADWAY SAFETY GRANT PARTNERS
Laborers Health & Safety Fund of North America (LSHFNA)
American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA)
National Asphalt Pavement Assoc. (NAPA)
Operating Engineers International Union
James E. BrydenBryden, PE
Laborers-AGC Education & Training Fund
New York Health & Safety Fund
American Assoc. of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
CNA Insurance Company
Texas Transportation Institute
FOF Communications
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
WORK ZONE SAFETY GRANT PARTNERS:
Posted: 9/22/2008
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