OR 18 Safety Corridor to be decommissioned

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page.

March 16, 2015                                                       For more information: Lou Torres503-986-2880

3-49-R2                                                              email at: louis.c.torres@odot.state.or.us

 

OR 18 Safety Corridor to be decommissioned

Highway crash rates are below statewide average

 

SALEM – The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is decommissioning the 18-mile OR 18 Safety Corridor in Polk and Yamhill counties after the corridor experienced a sustained reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes. The average crash rate for the entire corridor has been below the statewide average for similar roads for the last five years and no longer qualifies under the program. As of March 31, all safety corridor signs will be taken down and the safety corridor designation will no longer be in effect.

 

The safety corridor is one of six statewide and was located from Fire Hall Road in Grand Ronde to west of McMinnville near SW Sauter Road (mileposts 20.7 to 38.4).   The route was designated a safety corridor in August 1996. It becomes the 14th safety corridor to be decommissioned since the program began in 1989. Safety corridors are decommissioned when the fatal and serious injury crash rate is reduced to the statewide average or below for similar roadways.

 

“This is good news for motorists. Traffic safety has improved significantly on that stretch of highway,” said Nicole Charlson, Traffic Safety Coordinator for ODOT. “Also, it has been our experience that fatal and serious injury crash rates do not increase after a safety corridor is decommissioned.”

 

ODOT has worked closely with Polk and Yamhill counties, Spirit Mountain Casino, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, area citizens and other local jurisdictions to take actions to make the corridor safer. Actions to increase safety have included: increased police enforcement; engineering and construction improvements to the highway; and increased public awareness (education).

 

Since the OR 18 Safety Corridor was established in 1996, the state has taken a variety of steps to improve safety in the corridor including:

  • Added traffic enforcement      and increased public education efforts; completed a safety improvement      study; extended and added designated No Passing areas; installed new      Intersection Ahead signs and road names; installed sight posts;
  • Installed access      improvements including building a grade-separated intersection at Spirit      Mountain Casino at a cost of $2.5 million paid for by the Tribal Council;
  • Installed centerline      rumble strips to reduce head-on crossover crashes and sideswipe crashes      and replaced some flashing beacons; and
  • Completed the Fort Hill      Interchange Project and added median concrete barrier along a stretch of      OR 18 east of Fort Hill and provided intersection improvements at Red      Prairie Road.

 

Over the years, education efforts included a public education program, bumper stickers promoting safety, theater advertising, billboards and the use of other educational materials.

 

“We aren’t finished,” Charlson said. “We will continue to monitor crashes, patrol the highway, encourage safe driving behavior and work with the community on other ways to further improve safety in that area.”

 

The corridor will continue to see further improvements. ODOT is planning to build a left turn refuge on OR 18 at Christiansen Road, and close the west connection of Caleb Payne Road to improve safety in that area.

 

“ODOT would like to thank all of our partners for making this safety corridor such a success. It is communities working together that make such a difference and save lives,” Charlson said.

 

For more information on transportation safety and the safety corridor program, visit ODOT’s web site at http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TS/safetyprograms.shtml.

 

Know Before you Go.

 

For the latest road conditions, visit www.tripcheck.com