Work Zone Awareness Week Begins Today

To help bring awareness for the need for work zone safety, we will have different bloggers sharing their experiences all week. Today’s safety blogger is Neal Saskowski, Vice President of Pavers, Inc., in Salina – he shares several stories of close calls in work zones – check it out here. 

Five for Friday regarding Work Zone Awareness

National Work Zone Awareness Week starts on Monday.  While it's always important to be safe when traveling through highway construction zones, this week is about raising awareness and teaching people ways they can improve safety.  Thus, today's "Five for Friday" feature covers a few things you may not know about work zones.

1. Who is most  likely to be injured in a work zone crash?

 Nearly 90 percent of the time, it’s the motorist. Driving safely in work zone protects you as well as the highway workers.

2. On a 25-mile trip, if you drive 65 mph instead of 55 mph, how much time will you save?     

Four minutes. And work zones are always much shorter than that – remember, a minute or two is not worth risking injury or death.

3. It’s Sunday and there’s no work taking place in a highway work zone. Are the fines still doubled?            

Yes.

4. What color is associated with work zones?

Orange.  So when you see orange signs and cones, please slow down and pay attention.

5. What can you do to increase safety in work zones?

Pay attention, follow traffic control, don’t speed, expect delays, allow ample space between you and the car in front, change lanes when directed to do so, and be patient.

Throwback Thursday

Here's a shot of Front Street in Dodge City from June 1964.  Doesn't this make you want to take a spring drive out to visit it?

A Well Orchestrated Demolition

In London, the bridges might just fall down. But it takes a little dynamite to remove an old Kansas bridge. 

With about 26,000 bridges, Kansas ranks fourth nationally in the number of bridges.  Most of these bridges were built in the 1950s and 1960s.  And since the average lifespan is about 50 years that means many bridges were due to be replaced within the last decade.  Thus, many old bridges have had to be demolished to make way for a more modern bridge.  (Thanks to better materials and design practices, the new bridges are likely to last 100 years or more).  Our staff put together a video of the bridges and overpasses KDOT has had to demolish in recent years.  If you like explosions or orchestral music, this video is for you.

Five for Friday on the Freight Advisory Committee

On Tuesday, KDOT Secretary Mike King announced the members of the newly-formed Kansas Freight Advisory Committee. During the Kansas Transportation Summit last fall, citizens said that our agency needed to have a better understanding of the demands of expanding freight within Kansas.  This committee was assembled to help provide input on these issues.  We caught up with John Maddox, KDOT's freight and rail program manager, to learn more about this committee and freight issues in Kansas.

1. What will be the committee's areas of focus? 

The Kansas Freight Advisory Committee Mission is to Advise, Assist and Advocate:

• Freight Transportation Trends, Issues and Needs
• Priority Freight Corridor Base Criteria
• Multimodal/Intermodal Freight Infrastructure Improvement Needs
• The need for, and the benefit of, a seamless, multimodal freight transportation system for the movement of Kansas products throughout the state, region, nation and around the globe.

2. What do you consider to be some of the greatest challenges/issues with regards to freight?  
The efficient movement of freight from origin to destination whether it be via motor carrier, rail, waterway, pipeline, air cargo or any combination of those modes. 

3. About how much freight is transported in Kansas each year?  Is that increasing/decreasing? 
Across all freight transportation modes hundreds of millions of tons of freight are hauled from, to, through and within Kansas annually.  Overall freight transportation growth is anticipated to be approximately two percent per year. 

4.  What was the selection criteria for committee members? 
The members of the Freight Advisory Committee were selected based on their experience and knowledge pertaining to freight transportation logistics.  The committee is composed of a diverse group of individuals representing transportation companies, shippers, industry organizations, state governmental agencies, local planning organizations and industry/manufacturing.

 5. When is the first meeting?
April 2^nd in Topeka.

 Below is a list of the Freight Advisory Committee members.

 

Throwback Thursday

Today we venture back to 1972 and the construction in Overland Park. As you can see, it was pretty rural back then.

 Here is a view of how that same area looks today.

Wednesday's Words Regarding Senior Drivers

“Senior drivers are our safest drivers. Because of their vast experience as drivers, they tend not to engage in dangerous behaviors, such as speeding, drinking and driving, they tend to self-regulate their driving by not driving as much at night or in heavy traffic."

"However, they are over-represented in fatal crashes because of their fragility. Issues with vision, reaction time, and understanding other mind and body changes become more of an issue as we age. The problem is that we all age differently. On average, men and women outlive their ability to drive by six to ten years, respectively, so it is increasingly important that we take a new view of planning for driving retirement, similar to the way we plan financially for retirement.”

-- Jim Hanni, executive vice president of public affairs for AAA in Kansas.

These remarks were made during the March 18 Kansas Senior Driver Summit in Topeka.  The event was sponsored by AAA Allied Group and KDOT.