Evaluating the Cost-Effectiveness of Roadside Culvert Treatments

Roadside cross-drainage culverts have been found to affect vehicle accident injury levels. As a result, highway designers have commonly used three safety treatments to protect errant motorists from striking culvert openings. These safety treatments have included: culvert extension, guardrail installation, and the application of safety grating. However, the identification of the most appropriate safety treatment for roadside culverts may be challenging; accident costs may dramatically change under different road and traffic characteristics. The purpose of this study was to estimate accident costs for a wide range of road and traffic scenarios and then define the safest treatment (i.e., treatment with lowest accident cost) for a variety of traffic, roadway, and roadside characteristics. Over 3,000 highway scenarios were modeled using the Roadside Safety Analysis Program (RSAP). This study showed that the selection of culvert safety treatments should be flexible when considering different road and traffic characteristics. The findings demonstrated that culvert extension and grating were found to produce the lowest accident costs for all highway scenarios that were modeled, and guardrail protection was not recommended for any of the scenarios. Therefore, it is believed that the expanded adoption of culvert extension and culvert grates can improve overall highway safety.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000266
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/8674831
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Copyright © 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers
• Authors:
  • de Albuquerque, Francisco Daniel B
  • Sicking, Dean L
  • Faller, Ronald K
  • Lechtenberg, Karla A
• Publication Date: 2011-12-1

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 918-925
• Serial:
  • Journal of Transportation Engineering
  • Volume: 137
  • Issue Number: 12
  • Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers
  • ISSN: 0733-947X
  • Serial URL: https://ascelibrary.org/journal/jtepbs

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Cost effectiveness; Crash severity; Culverts; Highway engineering; Highway safety; Roadside; Traffic crashes
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I85: Safety Devices used in Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01363906
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, ASCE, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 28 2012 7:19AM