Framework for Incorporating safety in Corridor Planning and Preliminary Design

This paper inTroduces a framework inTegraTing available elemenTs of a safeTy conscious design process in one concise, pracTice-orienTed algoriThm. implemenTaTion of The proposed framework should enhance The consisTency and depTh of safeTy consideraTions in TransporTaTion corridor planning and design projecTs. inTroducTion It is relatively common for safety issues to remain undetected at the transportation corridor planning and design stages and only manifest themselves after the roads are built and put into operation. This can be largely explained by the absence of a generally accepted framework to incorporate road safety at the early stages of project development. The pre-opening road safety audit of Highway 407 in Ontario, Can-ada, which was conducted in 1998, may be the most high-profile demonstration on the savings and benefits possible when more effort is devoted to the incorporation of road safety in the planning and design process. Several national highway guidelines , regulations and procedures contain provisions for incorporating road safety in planning and design; however, there is no clarity on how these provisions could be integrated within specific transportation corridor planning and design projects. As a result, project owners and designers are often hampered by uncertainty. It is not uncommon that requests for proposals (RFPs) for planning and design services contain only general statements regarding incorporation of road safety. As a result, there is no consistency in the level of effort exerted by design teams to improve safety of the design and opportunities to proactively improve safety by " correcting a line " on a design drawing instead of implementing physical changes on a constructed road often go missing. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a framework that integrates the available elements of a safety-conscious approach into one concise , practice-oriented algorithm. It is believed that many deficiencies in the existing corridor planning and preliminary design process can be eliminated by the acceptance and adherence to the introduced framework. For example, the proposed