Kolluri
expands Cross Median Accident Prevention and Safe Corridor programs
NJDOT
installs
median barrier on Route 1 and 9 in Linden
(Trenton)
Commissioner Kris Kolluri today announced that the New Jersey
Department of Transportation (NJDOT) installed a median
barrier and shoulders on Route 1 and 9 in Linden. Kolluri also
designated the site part of a Safe Corridor which will now cover
Route 1 and 9 from Gill Lane in Woodbridge to North Avenue in
Elizabeth. NJDOT installed the median barriers and designated
the area a safe corridor in response to a fatal cross-median accident
that occurred on Route 1 and 9 in Linden in 2003.
“Governor
Corzine made it clear that increasing traffic safety must be a
top priority," said Commissioner Kolluri. “The Cross
Median Accident Prevention and Safe Corridor programs enable NJDOT
to save lives by implementing site-specific safety improvements
on roadways with troubling crash histories.”
Safe
Corridor designation is based
upon crash rates, fatalities, traffic volume and other highway
traffic safety criteria. Fines for motor vehicle offenses
such as speeding, reckless driving, and failing to stop at a stop
sign are doubled within Safe Corridors. Funds collected
from fines within Safe Corridors are disbursed equally to municipalities
that contain Safe Corridors. The funds may be used for education,
enforcement, and capital projects that promote highway safety.
NJDOT's
installation of 1,900 feet of median barrier and 5.25' inside
shoulders on Route 1 and 9 will help prevent cross-median collisions.
The NJDOT Cross Median Accident Prevention Program identifies
locations where cross-median head-on collisions have occurred
and provides median barriers designed to prevent such occurrences
at identified locations. NJDOT developed
the Cross Median Accident Prevention Program in response to a
series of cross median accidents that occurred on a single day
in 2002. NJDOT originally identified and treated 14 accident
hot spots with medians less than 30 feet wide. Since then, NJDOT
expanded the program to include Interstates and freeways with
medians less than 60 feet wide.
NJDOT
has designed or installed 90.45 miles of median barrier on Routes
24, 287, 80, 280, 78, 295, 42 and 95 as part the Cross Median
Accident Prevention Program at a cost of $19,318,103. NJDOT by
July will install over 20,000 feet of new guiderail and
replacing 18,000 feet of existing guiderail on Routes 24, 78,
80, 280 and 287 in Bergen, Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset and Union
counties.
The
list of existing roadways designated as Safe Corridors can be
viewed via the following link:
http://www.nj.gov/transportation/refdata/traffic_orders/safe_corridors/
