Roadway and intersection design and safety

How safe, drivable and walkable are the roadways and intersections in your community? Are you prepared for the future of roadway design? Our knowledgeable, experienced and forward-thinking team understands the evolution of design, from traffic control to signage and geometrics to obstacle management. Traffic and roadway design are quickly evolving, and we can help you stay ahead of the curve.

Maintenance of traffic and temporary traffic control

We recognize the importance of public safety during — providing your community’s motorists and pedestrians a path through or around work zones and maintaining access to homes, businesses and other points of interest while allowing contractors the space and protection to work. Our engineers specialize in maintenance of traffic and traffic control in construction zones; two of our roadway engineers collaborated on the Maintenance of Traffic Design and Construction Staging chapter in the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ 2009 Traffic Engineering Handbook.

Signs and pavement markings

One of the marks of a successful roadway project is the visibility and clarity of its signs and pavement markings. With an aging population and automated vehicle technologies on the rise, signs and stripes must perform as intended and stand out to motorists. We understand the critical nature of temporary and permanent signs and markings, and we can help you make your roadway as safe as possible.

We’ve helped with their roadway marking guidelines, and we will use state-of-the-art design software to lay out signing plans and develop sign panels for your projects. Supplementing Hanson’s rail team and their capabilities, we have developed specialized marking plans for at-grade rail crossings, such as for the Florida Department of Transportation’s Statewide Traffic and Railroad Initiative.

Roadside safety

Your community’s safety is a top priority, and our designs follow the recommendations of the Federal Highway Administration’s Roadside Design Guide regarding protecting the traveling public from potentially hazardous conditions. We will design guardrail, barrier and attenuation devices for your project that meet National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 350: Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features and the American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO) Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware requirements.

We were the first engineering firm to design the placement of cable median barrier on the Illinois Tollway, and we can provide you with benefit-cost analyses for barrier options. Because of our proficiency with its roadside safety software and barrier evaluations, the Illinois Tollway asked us for help to review a new version of the software and provide recommendations on revisions to its traffic barrier guidelines.

Geometrics

Whether your project has straightforward or complex geometrics, we can deliver what you need. We follow local design guidance and supplement it with our knowledge of A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets from AASHTO.

We understand the importance of the relationships between line, grade and section in our designs. We use equations, but we also graphically evaluate sight distances to identify potential intersection or stopping-sight-distance concerns. Our staff has participated in the evolution of geometric design criteria and geometric-related NCHRP research project panels. When traditional transitions lead to potential hydroplaning problems, your project can also benefit from the superelevation transitions our team has developed with 3D modeling.

The roadways we plan and design fit the context of your project and include complex directional interchanges, freeways, arterials, collectors and local roads and streets. In addition to roadways, we have experience with a variety of intersection types, including innovative designs such as roundabouts, J-turns and diverging diamonds.

We know keeping drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists safe is a priority, and we plan and design projects with them in mind. By applying “complete streets” and “road diet” design principles, we can adjust the accessibility, walkability and safety elements in pavement-heavy traffic corridors.