Road Workers Are Sitting Ducks
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mnltap.umn.edu Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program June 2020 Vol. 28, No. 2 INSIDE: COVID-19 safety practices: every day, everywhere DITCHES & RUNOFF Ditch maintenance .................................... 2 Stormwater resources ............................... 2 Goat grazing for buckthorn control ......... 2 LRRB SPOTLIGHT OPERA project: side-dumping trailer ...... 3 Asset management resources .................. 3 COVID-19 Vehicles, work zones, buildings ............... 4 TURFGRASS Watering practices, course, web .............. 5 Edina irrigation project ............................. 5 INFORMATION SERVICES The Shelf & search tools ............................ 7 Livestream demonstrations ...................... 7 TRAINING 2019 Roads Scholars ................................ 8 Webinars and virtual events .................... 8 Quiz: lightning strikes .............................. 8 Now more than ever, keeping safety in mind is essential during the work day. Several organizations have compiled COVID-19 guidance for what you should do in vehicles, work zones, and elsewhere, and we share some top practices inside. Please see the Minnesota LTAP Workplace Safety web page for links and additional resources. And please stay safe! COVID-19 continued on page 4 A new view for traffic analysis Road Workers The use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), com- One of the emerging uses of UAS is in traffic anal- monly known as drones, is one of the fastest grow- ysis, where an aerial vantage point can help agencies Are Sitting ing techniques in the transportation industry. monitor traffic patterns, gain insight on driver behav- Some of the more common uses for UAS are to ior, and collect traffic data. This article discusses Ducks monitor and inspect construction projects, supple- three demonstrations performed by Josh Campbell ment bridge inspections, and perform emergency (a civil engineering student at Alabama University response and vehicle crash assessment. in Huntsville) while working for Washington County, and Joe Campbell (local programs engineer with the FHWA’s Minnesota Division and an LTAP Steering Committee member) during the summer of 2019. Slow Down. Traffic data collection in Washington County Pay Attention. While working as a traffic technician for the Save Lives. Washington County, Minnesota, public works depart- #minnesotaduck ment, Josh Campbell developed an idea that a #mnworkzonesafety UAS could assist in the collection of traffic data. He also thought that first-person vision (FPV) goggles, MINNESOTA ‘Road WorkersNetwork of Employ ersare for Traffic Safety Sitting Drones continued on page 6 Ducks’ safety campaign Speeding and distracted drivers put the lives of highway construction and other road workers at risk every day. In Minnesota between 2015 and 2019, 46 people died and more than 4,200 were injured in work-zone traffic crashes. To raise awareness of this danger, a Minnesota- specific version of the National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week campaign is hitting the airwaves this summer. The campaign features an atten- tion-grabber—Ben Afquack, also known as the “Minnesota Duck”—to get across this very serious message. Afquack continued on page 4 PERMIT NO. 90155 NO. PERMIT Minneapolis, MN 55414 MN Minneapolis, READ THE CITIES MN CITIES 2221 University Avenue SE Avenue University 2221 TWIN TWIN University Office Plaza, Suite 440 Suite Plaza, Office University University of Minnesota of University PAID EXCHANGE Center for Transportation Studies Transportation for Center Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program Assistance Technical Local Minnesota online for links to publications U.S. POSTAGE U.S. NONPROFIT ORG. NONPROFIT and other resources. MINNESOTA TECHNOLOGY EXCHANGE DITCHES & RUNOFF Are you maintaining your ditches properly? Ditches are an important component of many rural conditions suggest ditch problems: road appear- It's important to maintain a maintenance record roads in Minnesota. They are designed to drain water ance, ditch erosion or soil instability, and water flow. for defense of legal claims and to provide evidence away from the road, so their proper maintenance is Common routine maintenance problems include in the use of right-of-way. Blanck also advises agen- essential for preserving the roadway structure and correcting sediment buildup to restore water flow, cies to request assistance from their local Soil and keeping harmful runoff out of our waters. replacing damaged culverts, and managing veg- Water Conservation District or other appropriate According to retired Crow Wing county engineer etation. Maintenance staff can generally complete authority before beginning any work, especially if Duane Blanck, the best way to know if ditches are routine maintenance without major analysis or engi- there are questions. Permits may be needed if the functioning properly is to observe and inspect them, neering, Blanck says. ditch discharges to a special or impaired water, for especially during and after rain or snowmelt events Managing vegetation includes mowing, brush- example, or if it runs through a wetland. when higher flows exist. Three critical elements or ing, tree removal, and spraying. All of these areas are An excellent resource on ditch maintenance is regulated by state statutes or rules and even federal the Field Guide for Maintaining Rural Roadside Ditches. regulations, he says. The guide and other resources, such as download- Bigger problems or those requiring frequent able checklists for maintenance tasks, are on the routine maintenance to keep a ditch functional may Minnesota Sea Grant’s Maintaining Roadside Ditches require a redesign and reconstruction to reduce website. n such maintenance. Such work typically requires pro- fessional analysis or engineering and possibly one or Learn more: more permits. • Field Guide for Maintaining Rural Roadside Maintenance personnel should always clean up Ditches (University of Minnesota, 2014): the work site after completing a ditch maintenance seagrant.umn.edu/downloads/SH14.pdf project, Blanck adds. Leaving debris can undermine • Maintaining Roadside Ditches, Minnesota Sea ditch maintenance efforts and eventually lead to Grant: seagrant.umn.edu more problems. Spoil piles, cut brush, tree trimming /coastal_communities/ditches debris, or other unattractive reminders of ditch maintenance should be cleared away. Managing stormwater runoff: ditch checks, Goat grazing helps control buckthorn growth bioswales, sediment control logs U of M researchers fed buckthorn fruits to goats and recorded how Managing stormwater runoff from road- many seeds passed through their ways is a top regulatory and environmen- digestive tracts intact and able tal concern for highway departments. In to grow. Their work shows that recent months, projects by University of goat grazing is an effective way to Minnesota researchers have led to new destroy the seeds. guidance for ditch checks, bioslopes and Goat grazing to remove bioswales, and sediment control logs. invasive species has become an In one project, researchers docu- increasingly popular practice mented the performance of an iron- among Midwestern landowners. At enhanced ditch check filter to remove the same time, there’s concern the goats may be spreading the inva- phosphates from stormwater. They found sive species they’re eating through their feces. that the filter was effective, though its The study was inspired by questions from residents who had been performance decreased over time. The carefully observing goat behavior during projects in public St. Paul project was funded by MnDOT and the parks. The study found: LRRB. • Two percent of buckthorn seeds passed through goat guts In a MnDOT-funded study, researchers intact. An iron-enhanced ditch check studied the use of previously discarded • Of the seeds that appeared in the goats’ feces, only 11 percent natural materials close to construction were still viable. sites for stormwater management. They found that MnDOT could use onsite soil to For comparison, 63 percent of seeds that had not been eaten by build bioslopes and bioswales to retain the first inch of roadway runoff and associated goats were capable of growth. pollutants—with tremendous cost-saving potential. Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Invasive Another MnDOT-funded project developed two new decision tools—one for ditch Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center through the Environment and checks and one for perimeter control—to guide the selection of sediment control logs. Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative- Researchers also adapted the results of the investigations into a set of training materials Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources. n for erosion control and stormwater management. n (Reprinted from a University of Minnesota Research Brief, Apr. 7, 2020.) Learn more: • Iron-Enhanced Swale Ditch Checks for Phosphorus Retention (MnDOT and LRRB, Learn more: 2020) • Goat digestion leads to low survival and viability of common • Development and Regionalization of In Situ Bioslopes and Bioswales (MnDOT, 2019) buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) seeds (Natural Areas Journal, • Sediment Control Log Performance, Design, and Decision Matrix for Field Applications Apr. 6, 2020) (MnDOT, 2019) Technology Exchange The Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program is part Contact us Minnesota LTAP Staff Minnesota LTAP Steering Committee of the Federal Highway Administration’s Local Technical Technology Exchange is published quarterly. For free sub- LTAP Director: Stephanie