The Roadway Safety Foundation and the Federal Highway Administration recently presented seven outstanding highway safety projects with National Roadway Safety Awards.
The biennial competition honors projects that improve roadway safety at the state and local level. Awards were given in two categories: Program Planning, Development and Evaluation and Infrastructure and Operational Improvements.
In Phoenix, Ariz., the winning project was the Wrong-Way Driving Alert System, which was installed along a 15-mile segment of Interstate 17 to combat serious wrong-way driver crashes through the use of thermal camera technology.
Florida received two awards for the Alert Today Florida program, which addresses the state’s high fatality rate among bicyclists and pedestrians, and the Design-Build Push-Button Contract, which has reduced the concept-to-completion period by as much as a 75 percent.
The Median U-Turn program received recognition for its reduction of the severity of crashes and the number of fatalities along a stretch of road in central Missouri.
The High Friction Surface Treatment Project that has reduced winter weather crashes in the Blacks Hills area of South Dakota by 78 percent.
Virginia also received two awards for the Strategic Guardrail Management Program, which improved hundreds of guardrails in Virginia, and the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan, which identifies high-risk areas for pedestrians in Virginia.
The Garfield County Road Improvement Safety Plan in Washington received an honorable mention.
In 2017, motor vehicle crashes resulted in more than 37,000 fatalities and 2.7 million injuries, according to the National Highway Safety Administration.