A $3.1 million project aimed at reducing wrong-way crashes on Arkansas freeways has finally been given the go-ahead.
The work focuses on installing warning signs and markings with better visibility on the freeway system's 351 off-ramps, 20 percent of which are on Pulaski County freeways.
The project was developed from a state Highway and Transportation Department study of 64 wrong-way crashes that left 20 people dead between 2009 and 2013. That study recommended that given the random nature of the crashes, the best course was to improve all off-ramps to lessen the likelihood of drivers entering a freeway in the wrong direction.
Nationwide, wrong-way crashes result in 300 to 400 fatalities annually, accounting for about 1 percent of the total traffic deaths each year, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
While the overall percentage is small, wrong-way crashes often involve head-on collisions or sideswipe crashes at high speeds and, therefore, tend to be more severe than other crashes, the Highway Department said.
In November, the department rejected the single bid of $3.8 million it received for the ramp work as too high.
The contract for the work was awarded in January to Ewing Signal Construction LLC of Nixa, Mo. Its low bid was $3,098,847.80. All three bids submitted this time were lower than the one bid in November, said Danny Straessle, a department spokesman.
The department is required by state law to evaluate all crashes specifically involving motorists driving the wrong way. The latest evaluation was for 2014.
The department found eight crashes involving two serious injuries but no fatalities in 2014. Seven of the eight happened at night, and five involved motorists impaired by alcohol.
According to a 2012 Illinois study, often cited as a major source of information on characteristics involving wrong-way crashes, a large proportion of wrong-way crashes occur between midnight and 5 a.m. on weekend nights, and more than half of the drivers were under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Age also is among the largest factors in wrong-way crashes, according to a review of literature on such crashes by the California Department of Transportation.
Arkansas was the site of two recent deadly wrong-way crashes.
Brittany Schock, 23, of Little Rock and Corey Box, 30, of Stuttgart died in a wrong-way crash last month in west Little Rock.
Box's Dodge Ram pickup was traveling the wrong way on the overpass on Financial Centre Parkway in the left lane when it collided with Schock's white Nissan Cube as she exited Interstate 630. Two passengers in the pickup were injured.
An Arkansas State Police trooper, Roy Moomey, was severely injured when he used his cruiser to intercept a motorist going the wrong way on a stretch of Interstate 40 in Crawford County during the early hours of Aug. 8. The driver, Matthew Choate, 24, of Fort Smith, died in the crash.
Under the project, standard Wrong Way, Do Not Enter and One Way signs will be replaced at exit ramps with signs that have brighter sheeting. They also will be installed at a lower mounting height, which would allow them to be better illuminated by headlights and make them more visible at night. All told, there are 4,428 of those signs, according to the department.
The contractor also will be required to put down more noticeable wrong-way pavement arrows, directional arrows, yield lines and stop lines, which a Virginia study showed to be an effective countermeasure for wrong-way drivers.
Reflectors on top of small poles, which are called ramp delineators, also will be installed on both sides of the off-ramps. Motorists going in the correct direction would see white delineators on the right and amber delineators on the left. Motorists going the wrong way would see red delineators on both sides of the ramp.
Pulaski County alone has 70 off-ramps on which motorists could enter a freeway inadvertently.
Interstate 630 that goes through the heart of Little Rock between Interstate 30 and Interstate 430 is the route with the most off-ramps in the county with 16, according to department data.
I-30 is next with 13 off-ramps in the county, Interstate 40 has a dozen, U.S. 67/167 has nine, I-430 and Interstate 440 are next with eight each and Interstate 530 has four.
The county with the second-highest number of off-ramps is Crittenden with 28, all on I-40. The county with the least is Monroe with one, also on I-40.
Interstate 49 through Northwest Arkansas has 26 off-ramps targeted for improvement -- 14 in Washington County, eight in Benton County and four in Crawford County.
Construction is scheduled to begin in two to four weeks, weather permitting, the department said. Completion is expected late this year.
Department officials say the improvements carry no guarantees that they will eliminate the possibility of wrong-way crashes.
"What we can do is make it as apparent as possible that one could reasonably determine this is the wrong way to get on a freeway," Straessle said. "In the end, it comes down to driver behavior."
Metro on 02/18/2017