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New Measures To
Promote Hwy. Safety
New measures are being implemented to further promote safety on Virginia’s roads, the Department of Highways said today. Whenever and wherever possible, obstacles will be removed from the pavement edge in order to give motorists who inadvertently leave the road a chance to recover before hitting a fixed object. The Department proposes to do this by removing signs from the edge of the pavement whenever possible,.and mount: ing them on near-by bridges; existing signs and light standards, where feasible, will be moved further from the pavement or placed behind nearby guardrail. Guardrail ends will be turned down into the ground in order to eliminate the possibility that out-ofTcontrol vehicles will become impaled. Guardrails, also, are now being separated from support post by a block of wood to provide more cushion on impact.
Signs in the median of fourlane, divided roads wherever possible will be eliminated or either placed behind guardra il or made of breakaway design if essential. i The Department also plans to further ease or flatten slopes, thus eliminating steep drops and giving the motorist who leaves the roadway an opportunity to recover control of his vehicle and return safely. Dropped lanes—a situation which occurs when the outside lane of a high-speed highway suddenly becomes an exit lane and the motorist must either take the exit or risk burning back into a through jlane — have been eliminated [from new construction projects for the past five years. The procedure now is to continue all lanes past the interchange to give the motorist who prefers not to exit ample time to manuever safely back into a through lane. Among safety features previously implemented or announced by the Department jare:
♦The use of breakaway posts on high-speed highways where signs are not protected by 'guardrail or removed at least 30 feet away from the pavement edge.
♦The elimination and/or adjustment of crossovers on four-lane, divided roads wherever possible, and tne improvement of sight distances. To date, 16 crossovers have been either removed or relocated.
♦Plans for illumination of Interstate 95 from SprlngIfield to the Potomac River to provide for higher mounting heights in order to reduce the number of light standards neIcessary.
♦The use of “wrong way" signs to effectively indicate the direction of travel.
In addition to the new measures and those previously announced, the Departmentalso has several now understudy and expects to begin research on still more in the future.
Currently, the Department is studying safety features which include increasing horizontal clearances from pavement edges to bridge piers adjacent to traffic lanes, continuing the width of road shoulders across bridges to that the roadway doesn't narrow as it approaches the
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