The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) recently awarded 27 traffic safety projects statewide $61 million in Highway Safety Improvement Program grants.
The program is one of the largest traffic safety programs in the country. A committee of ODOT staff selected the projects. Committee members have backgrounds in funding and program management, safety analysis, traffic operations, roadway design, and highway management.
“Our top mission is to ensure that our roadways are built to be as safe as possible. The measures we’re implementing with this program further that mission not only on roadways that ODOT maintains, but those maintained by local partners too,” ODOT Director Jack Marchbanks said.
The grants will fund the installation of restricted crossing U-turns, roundabouts, sidewalks, and other safety measures including a roadway reconfiguration known as a road diet. A road diet re-allocates a cross-section of an existing roadway to better serve all modes of travel.
A total of 17 roundabout projects received funding. The roundabouts were designed taking into considering large trucks and farm equipment and will include a “truck apron” in the middle that allows larger vehicles to drive over a curb.
When compared to a signalized intersection, roundabouts reduce crashes by more than 48 percent, and serious injury and deadly crashes by nearly 80 percent.