Published: July 05, 2009 11:36 pm      

Rumbling to safer highways

Rumble strips, widely used in the region to alert motorists when crossing the center line, will show up on the shoulders of some two- lane highways in Cambria and Somerset counties.

The work is part of the state’s efforts to increase safety while keeping costs down, PennDOT officials said.

Donegal Construction Co. of Pittsburgh will begin next month carving rumble strips on the shoulders of three roadways in Cambria County and 10 in Somerset County, Jim Hughes, PennDOT’s District 9 highway safety engineer said.

In all, more than 70 miles of roadway in the two counties will be impacted by the 2009 work, PennDOT’s Pam Kane said.

Center line rumble strips have been proven to reduce the number of head on and sideswipe accidents and studies are showing they can have the same impact on drivers running off the road edge, he said.

“People fall asleep, they’re not paying attention. For years Pennsylvania has been the number one state in the country for hit utility poles,” Hughes said.

The cost of what is planned as the first round of rumble strips is 25 cents per linear foot, a price doubled per mile because they are installed on both sides.

“They are still pretty cost effective,” Kane said.

By comparison, center line rumble strips cost 50 cents per linear foot.

Plans are to install the strips directly on the white line on a number of two lane highways with paved shoulders at least four feet wide. By year’s end they should be in place in all six counties in PennDOT’s District 9.

A greater number of Somerset County roads will receive the strips because of the availability of shoulder width, Hughes said.

They will not be installed in areas where homes are situated close to the edge of the highway because of the noise created when cars veer from the roadway.

Work will start in Somerset first then the contractor will move to Cambria.

Hughes said two machines are used in the daylight operation. Each moves at a maximum speed of two miles per hour. The first cuts the grooves in the shoulder and the second sweeps up the residue.

Travel on the roadway during the work will be limited to one lane and traffic will be controlled by flaggers, he said.

Jim Runk of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association said shoulder rumble strips are a good idea.

“I think they’re a proven commodity, not just for trucks,” Runk said. “I think they are very effective.”

Any questions about effectiveness of shoulder rumble strips can be answered by moving off the roadway when a passenger in the car is asleep, Runk said.

The biggest reason for running off the roadway may be drowsy driving, resulting in thousands of crashes a year, according to a study by the National Institute of Health and the National Highway Transportation Administration.

Research shows shoulder rumble strips are effective in alarming or awakening drivers, the study concluded.

But adding to the accident numbers are drivers who become inattentive or become distracted while using a cell phone or adjusting the radio, Kane said.

“Unfortunately it comes down to driver behavior, and this is one thing we can do to help with driver distraction,” she said.

The strips have no adverse effect on the vehicles crossing them and some motorists have reported them useful during the winter in finding the road edge, Hughes said.

There are two drawbacks.

Anti-skid collects in the grooves during the winter and they have to be milled out when the road and shoulder are repaved, he said.