01088473

Component

In Minnesota, concrete pavements are finished by dragging an inverted turf or a stiff-bristled broom longitudinally on the surface of freshly placed concrete pavements, right behind the paving machine. Prior to 1998, most concrete pavements were finished with a combination of the burlap-drag and transverse-tining. Subsequently those pavements were reconstructed and finished with current broom or turf drag. The study sought to ascertain if current texturing techniques resulted in higher wet weather accident events. A Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) study selected segments in the network where current texturing techniques replaced previous textures. Annual wet weather accidents data from the Mn/DOT database were analyzed. By examining annual wet weather accident counts, total accident counts and crash rates for a ten year period, current textures were compared to previous textures. The paper discusses how three statistical tools were used to compare wet weather accident data from previous texturing to data from current texturing. Statistical tools showed that current texturing practices did not cause an increase in the annual wet weather accidents and crash rates, as well as ratio of wet to dry weather accidents, in the chosen test sections.

01084478

08-2261

English

16p

2008

Transportation Research Board 87th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures; Photos; References (11) ; Tables (6)

Concrete pavements; Crash data; Crashes; Dry weather; Physical properties; Texture; Weather conditions; Wet weather

Minnesota

Construction; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I52: Construction of Pavements and Surfacings; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2008 Paper #08-2261

TRIS, TRB

Jan 29 2008 4:36PM