NMITE Monthly Meeting - December 7, 2023 - US 287 Vision Zero
US 287 is a four lane highway parallel to I-25 that provides connectivity between Denver Colorado and the north front range cities of Loveland and Fort Collins. The portion of US 287 that this study covers starts just north of Denver in Broomfield, Colorado, and continues for approximately 24 miles to the north Boulder County border. The corridor starts in the urbanized area of Broomfield and extends through the urbanized areas of the Tow of Lafayette and the City of Longmont. Approximately 14 miles of the corridor are surrounded by rural land use so there are long stretches of high-speed rural conditions. There has been an average of over 3 fatal crashes and 10 severe injury crashes per year on the corridor and that number has increased recently. Most of the fatal and severe injury crashes occurred in the rural segments but there have also been a significant number of injury crashes in the urbanized areas, mostly related to intersection and driveway crashes and bike and pedestrian crashes. This study focuses on first identifying overall crash trends and hot spots on the corridor where crashes are over-represented and then recommending and ultimately implementing mitigation to reduce overall crashes and strive to eliminate injury and fatal crashes.
Crash analysis was completed using software that utilizes the Highway Safety Manual methodology calibrated to Colorado Drivers. The software allows us to sort through recent crash data to look for crash trends on the corridor. It also allows us to focus on intersection, driveway, and non-intersection crashes and to look at crash types to determine if they are more than what is expected indicating that mitigation could help. We are able to determine locations where there is high probability that certain crash types are over-represented and we are able to test mitigation to determine an expected crash reduction. Bike and pedestrian crashes were also analyzed by reading each individual crash report and looking for trends in the data.
The deliverables for the project include a summary report that documents the safety findings, a safety toolkit that identifies mitigation that can be used for certain crash types and concepts for medialization in the rural segments and intersection improvements at some of the intersections in the urbanized areas. Concepts were also developed including intersection improvements and adding a barrier in the median of the rural segments to eliminate head-on crashes. In addition, recommendations were given for bike improvements including recommendations for a proposed US 287 bikeway alignment and preliminary analysis on potential environmental and historic impacts. The project included an inclusive stakeholder and public outreach effort with the goal of informing the stakeholders and public and gathering input from the people that manage the corridor and drive the corridor on a regular basis.
Ben Waldman's Bio:
Ben Waldman, PE PTOE, is a Senior Project Manager and a leader in the Consor Denver, CO, USA office. He has more than 26 years of experience in both the public and private sector of the transportation engineering industry including serving as city traffic engineer for a large suburb west of Denver. Ben has managed projects in all areas of transportation planning, engineering, and design, and he focuses on projects that make our transportation infrastructure safer and more efficient for all modes of transportation. He is also passionate about mentoring young engineers and he is a recipient of the ITE Western District Mentor of the Year award. Ben has held many leadership roles in ITE, including Colorado/Wyoming Section President (2009-2010) and Mountain District President in 2021. He is also a graduate of the inaugural (2014) LeadershipITE class and was an active member of the Public Agency Committee. Ben is a graduate from the University of Texas where he received both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Civil Engineering, and where he first began his journey with ITE. He lives with his wife, Carmen and his three boys in Denver.
