HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-14 MDT Correspondence re highway 89 rumble strips MMontana Department of Transportation Michael T. Tooley, Director
2701 Prospect Avenue Steve Bullock, Governor
PO Box 201001
Helena MT 59620-1 00 1
August 18, 2014
Jesse May Campbell
Bozeman Area Bicycle Advisory Board
121 N Rouse
P.O. Box 1230
Bozeman MT 59771-1230
Subject: Highway 89— Rumble Strips
Jesse, thank you for your letter regarding your concern for rumble strips on this route. Your
information is correct, MDT is planning on letting two projects this August that will overlay
Highway 89 north of Gardner. One clarification, rumbles strips were actually installed in 2013
along the entire length of this route. MDT issued a safety project due to the high number of
single vehicle run of the road (SVROR) accidents. We installed rumble strips from milepost 1.2
to milepost 49.7. The accident report showed 253 crashes in a five year period with 76 of those
accidents being SVROR. One of the 76 crashes resulted in a fatality.
The safety project and the two new projects will install narrower than standard rumble strips to
minimize the impact to bicyclist. We will also install them closer to the shoulder stripe in a
further effort to minimize the impact.
Jesse, I understand and support your concern for bicycle safety and I believe the installation of
rumble strips (with the included mitigations — narrower and closer to the shoulder stripe) in this
corridor is a reasonable balance between bicycle and motorist safety.
Please feel free to contact me if you additional questions or comments.
Sincerely,
Dwane Kailey
Chief Engineer
copies: Mike Tooley— Director
Jeff Ebert— Butte District Administrator
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