The Cornell Local Roads Program has been awarded a 2013 Roadway Safety Award by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration and the Roadway Safety Foundation. Their entry, Inexpensive Nighttime Inspection Kits to Improve Rural Sign Safety, was selected in the Operational Improvements category. The National Roadway Safety Awards is a biennial competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Roadway Safety Foundation (RSF) to recognize roadway safety achievements that move the United States towards zero deaths and serious injuries on the Nation’s roadways. http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/roadwaysafetyawards/

This project, using FHWA Accelerating Safety Activities Program (ASAP) and Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) funding, involved collaboration between the Local Roads Program, three County Highway Departments in western New York and Cornell University Civil Engineering students.

The Roadway Safety Awards ceremony is scheduled for November 6, 2013 in Washington, DC. U. S. DOT Deputy Secretary John Porcari, FHWA Administrator Victor Mendez and elected officials from New York State are invited to the ceremony. Dr. David Orr, PE will be representing the Cornell Local Roads Program at the ceremony.

A tip sheet for making the panels and a video of how to use the panels was produced and placed on the Cornell University Local Roads Program website: www.clrp.cornell.edu. The methods for making the kits and their effectiveness were shared with the other 57 LTAP centers at the National LTAP Conference in Grapevine, TX in 2012.