Road Safety Audit
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ROAD SAFETY AUDIT Thorndike Street City of Lowell May 15, 2016 Prepared For: MassDOT On Behalf Of: Client Prepared By: VHB 101 Walnut Street Watertown, MA Road Safety Audit—Thorndike Street, Lowell MA VHB Final Table of Contents Contents Background ................................................................................................................................. 1 Project Data ................................................................................................................................. 1 Project Location and Description .............................................................................................. 2 Audit Observations and Potential Safety Enhancements........................................................ 8 Summary of Road Safety Audit ................................................................................................. 8 List of Appendices Appendix A. RSA Meeting Agenda Appendix B. RSA Audit Team Contact List Appendix C. Detailed Crash Data Appendix D. Additional Information List of Figures Figure 1: Locus Map .................................................................................................................................. 7 List of Tables Table 1: Participating Audit Team Members ............................................................................................. 2 Table 2: Estimated Time Frame and Costs Breakdown ........................................................................... 17 Table 3: Potential Safety Enhancement Summary ................................................................................... 18 Road Safety Audit—Thorndike Street, Lowell MA VHB Final Background The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Highway Safety Section conducts Road Safety Audits (RSAs) prior to the design phase for any MassDOT project that includes a high crash location. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) defines a Road Safety Audit (RSA) as the formal safety examination of an existing or future road or intersection by an independent, multidisciplinary team. The purpose of an RSA is to identify potential safety issues and possible opportunities for safety improvements that consider the needs of all roadway users. This RSA evaluates the intersections of Thorndike Street/Dutton Street/Fletcher Street, the Lord Overpass (Thorndike Street/Middlesex Street/Appleton Street/Chelmsford Street), Thorndike Street/Gallagher Terminal, Thorndike Street/Highland Street, and Thorndike Street/Hale Street (YMCA Driveway) in Lowell, Massachusetts. A review of the MassDOT top crash location database showed that all five locations are 2011-2013 Highway Safety Improvement Project (HSIP) clusters and that the intersection of Highland Street at Thorndike Street is number 74 of the top 200 high crash locations in the State. Project Data An RSA was completed for Thorndike Street corridor on Friday, March 18, 2016 at the UMass Innovation Hub at 110 Canal Street, Lowell. The agenda for this RSA meeting is provided in Appendix A of this report. As shown below in Table 1, the audit team was multidisciplinary with representatives from state, regional and local agencies providing expertise in the engineering, planning, and maintenance fields. Contact information for the RSA attendees is provided in Appendix B of this report. Background material was provided within the email invitation sent on March 14, 2016 to each participant in the RSA. This information included collision diagrams, crash data summaries, volumes and speeds for the study area. During the RSA meeting, these materials were reviewed as a group prior to the field visit to the intersections. During the RSA field visit, various safety issues were observed and identified. Following the RSA field visit, the team returned to discuss additional concerns and potential solutions for the existing safety issues. Page 1 Road Safety Audit—Thorndike Street, Lowell MA VHB Final Table 1: Participating Audit Team Members Audit Team Member Agency/Affiliation Sara Timoner MassDOT District 4 Traffic John Mastera MassDOT Highway Safety Lisa DeMeo City of Lowell – Engineering Adam Prichard MassDOT Highway Safety Mike Mauro NMCOG Nicolas Bosonetto City of Lowell - Planning George Anastas LRTA Brian Levine MassDOT District 4 Projects Christopher Cameron MassDOT District 4 Projects David Frechette Lowell Police Barry Golner Lowell Police Phillip A.J. Charron Lowell Fire Craig Thomas City of Lowell - Planning Matt Kealey VHB Amy Silbovitz VHB Pete Sorensen VHB The crashes and collision diagrams were based on crash data collected between January 2011 and December 2013 provided by the Lowell Police Department. Project Location and Description The study area for the RSA encompasses Thorndike Street from Fletcher Street/Dutton Street to Hale Street/YMCA Drive. The following intersections were examined as part of the RSA: • Thorndike Street at Fletcher Street/Dutton Street • Lord Overpass (all four intersections) • Thorndike Street at Gallagher Terminal • Thorndike Street at Highland Street • Thorndike Street at Hale Street/YMCA Drive The following text provides a summary of the crash history at each intersection for the three-year period between January 2011 and December 2013. Fletcher Street at Thorndike Street and Dutton Street Fletcher Street at Thorndike Street and Dutton Street is a T-shaped, partially signalized intersection under the city of Lowell, MA jurisdiction. The three intersection approaches are functionally classified as urban Page 2 Road Safety Audit—Thorndike Street, Lowell MA VHB Final minor arterials under the City of Lowell, MA jurisdiction. Thorndike Street (the southern approach) provides two through lanes and a left-turn storage lane, approximately 150 feet long, and has a regulatory speed limit of 30 mph. The northbound through movements do not operate under signal control, but the northbound left-turn movement operates under signal control. Dutton Street (the northern approach) provides one through lane and one through right lane and operate under signal control with a regulatory speed limit of 30 mph. Thorndike Street and Dutton Street are median divided. Fletcher Street (the western approach) provides two right-turn only lanes, and operates under signal control with a regulatory speed limit of 30 mph. There were 43 crashes reported between January 2011 and December of 2013. Of the 43 crashes reported at this intersection, the majority were rear-end crashes (42%-18 crashes). The remaining crashes included angle crashes (28%-12 crashes), eight sideswipes, four single vehicle crashes and one unknown crash. Crashes were most common in April (14%-6 crashes), August (16%-7 crashes) and December (14%-6 crashes). Nine out of the 43 collisions resulted in personal injury. Three out of the 43 crashes involved non-motorists (bicycle/pedestrian). Lord Overpass (Diamond Interchange & Rotary) The Lord Overpass is diamond interchange with a signalized rotary functionally classified as an urban principal arterial under City jurisdiction. For this discussion, the signalized rotary was broken into four separate intersections providing location specific details. The Southbound and Northbound on ramps are discussed as afterwards as distinct crash sites. 1. Middlesex Street East at Lord Overpass Middlesex Street East at Lord Overpass is at the northeast corner of the Lord Overpass. Middlesex Street (east approach) provides one through-right turn lane and one through only lane, approximately 200 foot long, and one receiving lane eastbound. This portion of Middlesex Street has a regulatory speed limit of 30 mph. The Lord Overpass south approach, provides one through-right turn lane and one left-turn only lane northbound. This is a one-way approach. This portion of Lord Overpass has a regulatory speed limit 30 mph. There were nine crashes reported between January 2011 and December of 2013. Of the nine crashes reported at this intersection, the majority were rear-end crashes (67%-6 crashes). The remaining crashes included angle crashes (22%-2 crashes), and one sideswipe. Crashes were most common September (22%-2 crashes) and November (22%-2 crashes). The majority occurred on dry pavement (100%- 9 crashes) and in clear weather (67%-6 crashes). Thursday was a high crash day accounting for 56% of the crashes. Two out of the nine collisions resulted in personal injury. 2. Middlesex Street West at Lord Overpass Middlesex Street West at Lord Overpass is the northwest corner of the Lord Overpass. Middlesex Street (east approach) provides a through only lane and a left-turn only lane westbound. This is a one- way approach. Middlesex Street (west approach) provides two right-turn only lanes eastbound and one receiving lane westbound. This portion of Middlesex Street has a regulatory speed limit of 30 Page 3 Road Safety Audit—Thorndike Street, Lowell MA VHB Final mph. The Lord Overpass off ramp (north approach) provides two through lanes and a channelized right-turn. This is a one-way approach. This portion of Thorndike Street (Route 3A) has a regulatory speed limit of 30 mph. There were 28 crashes reported between January 2011 and December of 2013. Of the 28 crashes reported at this intersection, the majority were angle crashes (57%-16 crashes). The remaining crashes included rear-end crashes (14%-4 crashes), four sideswiped, two single vehicle crashes, and two head on collisions. Crashes were most common January (21%-6 crashes) and October (18%-5 crashes). Eight out of the 28 collisions resulted in personal injury