Road Work Safety Requires Good Planning: Elevating Safety in Quality-Managed Roadway Projects Is a Key Goal for Departments of Transportation

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2002 statistics on highway fatalities show them at the highest level since 1990. As work-zone fatalities continue to climb each year, so, of course, do traffic volumes. The need for integration of roadway safety solutions at every stage of roadway project management has never been clearer. ATSSA encourages state roadway quality partnerships and advocate for a greater emphasis on quality management in all highway construction projects. Along the way, they will remain vigilant, every hour of every day, about the safety of workers and the roadway users they serve. ATSSA’s president emphasizes four themes: continual retraining and recertification; context-sensitive solutions for individual work zones; public awareness campaigns; and the use of technology for injury prevention.