From The Mississippi Link Newswire
JACKSON – The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) has received a 2011 National Roadway Safety Infrastructure Improvement Award for its “Cable Median Barrier Safety Initiative.”
The awards are a joint effort of the Federal Highway Administration and the Roadway Safety Foundation. The criteria for the awards are innovation, effectiveness and efficient use of available resources.
According to Assistant State Traffic Engineer Jim Willis, MDOT’s cable barrier safety initiative stood out from other cable barrier projects submitted because Mississippi’s initiative was large in scope, ongoing, and MDOT’s entry came with the most detailed data supporting the initiative’s effectiveness. MDOT also has tracking procedures in place to monitor the effectiveness of the cable in the future.
“The cable barrier initiative is something we are all really proud of,” Willis said. “Mississippi has long struggled with fatalities and fatality rates. But we’ve been making good progress for the last five years.
“We’ve implemented a lot of innovative practices in the last several years and our numbers have gotten much better,” Willis explained. “So it’s good to show that our efforts are really paying off.”
Brifen, the supplier of the cable, also has taken pride in the award and sent a plaque to MDOT commemorating the national safety award, Willis said.
Starting in the early 2000s, the cable barrier initiative has grown, following initial success on segments of I-55 in North Mississippi, to include every region of the state. Cable barriers have been installed on I-220 in metropolitan Jackson, on a six-mile segment of I-20 in Vicksburg and on portions of U.S. 78 in North Mississippi and on segments of I-55 around the state.
In all cases the cable barriers have provided impressive, life-saving results, Willis said, noting that everywhere the barriers have been installed there have been no cross-median fatalities and the severity of crashes has been dramatically reduced.
The cable barrier costs approximately $100,000 per mile to install, Willis said. And with its 92 percent success rate of preventing head-on collisions, it’s extremely cost effective.
In 2010, MDOT awarded more than $20 million in cable median barrier contracts throughout the state, which resulted in 209 more miles of cable barriers being installed on stretches of roadways with high crash rates. Additionally, another 150 miles of highway have been identified for future phases of installation.
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