Indiana Aims to Improve Safety Ahead of Major Moves

As part of its commitment to improving mobility and safety in highway work zones during a decade of  Major Moves construction, the Indiana Department of Transportation recently released its first-ever work zone safety and mobility policy manual today.

“With our new work zone safety and mobility policy, we are reinforcing our work zone safety commitment during this intense period of Major Moves construction,” said INDOT Commissioner Karl Browning.

The new document, Indiana Department of Transportation Policies, Processes and Procedures on Work Zone Safety and Mobility, explains INDOT’s strategies for reducing delays through work zones while keeping motorists and highway workers safe, including:

• Keeping Interstates Moving: INDOT restricts the times and days that busy highways can be closed to minimize delays through work zones. Indiana’s busiest highways cannot be closed during high-use times without approval from upper management.

• Intense Planning for Significant Projects: Under the new work zone rule, INDOT will develop a strategic traffic management plan for each project that has a significant impact on motorists. This will include most interstate projects statewide and many non-interstate projects in Indiana’s major metropolitan areas.

• Incident Response Planning: Significant highway projects will receive detailed incident management plans. These plans will identify innovative methods to reduce crashes in highway work zones and involve partnerships with law enforcement and first responders.

• Collecting Work Zone Data: By analyzing statewide work zone crash data and performing field reviews of highway work zones, INDOT will continue to improve safety and mobility in highway work zones.

• Safety Training: The new work zone rule includes an expanded commitment to safety training for INDOT designers and traffic operations personnel in addition to training previously required for INDOT maintenance staff. 

• Public Outreach: Through its statewide network of public information officers, INDOT will keep the public informed of project developments and work zone closures through its Web site, news releases, events, public speaking engagements, meetings and publications.

To download the full version of the new work zone policy and learn more about staying safe, visit www.workzonesafety.in.gov on the Internet. To learn more about Indiana’s Major Moves highway program, visit www.majormoves.in.gov.

In other news, INDOT has updated its program to identify and evaluate areas in the state’s highway network with higher-than-average crash rates.

In the 2007 Five Percent Report, INDOT used crash data to identify 96 intersections and 14 road segments for possible safety review. The locations listed on the report account for more than 5% of Indiana fatality or serious injury crashes in the past three years.

The site selection process has been refined to place more weight on locations where fatal and serious injury crashes occurred. In addition, the scope of the report was expanded to include the intersections of state roads with local roads. In coming years, the report will be expanded to include all local road systems.

To view Indiana’s Five Percent Report, visit www.in.gov/indot/3024.htm on the Internet.

MoDOT Wins Quality Award

The Excellence in Missouri Foundation honored the Missouri Department of Transportation with the 2007 Missouri Quality Award.

Modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the Missouri honor is the official state recognition for excellence in quality leadership. Only one other state agency has achieved this honor, the Missouri Department of Revenue in 2000.

In giving the award, the foundation cited MoDOT’s visionary leadership and its use of innovative tools and programs to meet its customers’ transportation needs. The award also recognized the agency’s efforts to improve roads statewide, reduce traffic fatalities and bring projects in on time and within budget. MoDOT’s efforts to provide quality results have helped the agency go from a target of criticism to a national transportation leader, the foundation said.

“Every single MoDOT employee is responsible for achieving this recognition,” said MoDot Director Pete Rahn.