Application of Road Weather Safety Audit to the Wisconsin Highway System

There is a perception that transportation professionals can do little about adverse weather effects because it is “Mother Nature”. Accordingly, most of the weather responsive strategies are reactive such as speed management, access control and other operational practices. In fact, particular weather factors should be considered during the design, perhaps even the project planning stages, to avoid large remedial costs. The objective of this study is to develop a pragmatic safety audit process and procedure in which roadway and weather-related issues can be addressed proactively. The paper introduces the development of the road safety checklist with the emphasis on potential weather influence on highway safety. A total of five road safety audit checklists were developed for a series of stages from the project development to the project completion: Feasibility Stage; Preliminary Stage; Detailed Design Stage and Pre-Opening Stage. Consistency and usability were key elements in the checklists development. A quantitative method is also provided to assist auditors in evaluating the severity of road weather safety problems. Meanwhile, this paper proposes an approach to institutionalizing the road weather safety audit by incorporating the road safety audit procedure as part of the Facilities Development Manual (FDM) which is the departmental procedure guidance for the development of road projects in Wisconsin.