Cecil Ashburn Drive in Huntsville, AL is a major collector road that connects Big Cove, Hampton Cove, and southeastern Madison County with south Huntsville and Redstone Arsenal. It is a heavily travelled artery with an average daily traffic count of 15,700 vehicles per day. This is almost as much traffic as Highway 53 outside of Huntsville city limits handles in northwest Madison County (highest is 18,700 just northwest of Research Park Blvd).
This road passes through a gap in Green Mountain. It is one of only four roads that one can use to cross the mountains east of Huntsville. Cecil Ashburn Drive was built in the 1990’s. For a two-lane road, it is not a bad road. It has wide 10 foot paved shoulders that double as bike lanes. Also, between Old Big Cove Rd on the east side of the mountain and Avalon Drive on the west end of the mountain there is basically no roads or driveways along the route, so it is somewhat like a limited-access facility.
However, a week ago we were reminded of how dangerous this road can be. Two young women were killed from a head-on collision on this road near Avalon Drive. The collision was due to one of the vehicles losing control as it came around the curve. This is also a road that is among the first to close in Huntsville when icy or snowy conditions are present. What can be done to make this road safer?
Without looking into extensive accident data for this stretch of road, there are some things that could be done to improve safety. One idea would be to put rumble strips along the road. Usually rumble strips are placed along the shoulder of a freeway so that it makes a very audible noise when you cross over them. It is meant to get your attention if you swerve out of your lane and off the road. Recently, rumble strips have also been placed along two-lane roads and four-lane boulevards for the same reason. In other states, rumble strips have also been placed along the center line of two-lane highways.
For Cecil Ashburn Drive, placing rumble strips along both the shoulder and center line of the road would be a good way to increase safety. This could be done when the road is resurfaced.Rumble strips may interfere with bikes using the road, but this can be mitigated by painting a dedicated bike lane on the right side of the shoulder rumble strip. This has been done along Hal Rogers Parkway in eastern Kentucky, which is a limited-access two-lane road that connects the cities in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky with London, KY and Interstate 75.
It would help in those cases when the driver accidentally swerves into the opposing lane, but in the case of rainy weather, as was the case last week, a rumble strip may not have prevented this tragedy from occurring.
A more drastic solution would be to place a center divider along the length of the road. Either a double-faced guardrail or even a jersey barrier could be used to deflect oncoming traffic back into their lane if one swerves out of their lane. This would be expensive to do for two reasons. Firstly, a lot of steel and concrete would be required for the barrier itself. Also, since the addition of a solid barrier such as a jersey barrier would require a drainage system to be placed in the centerline to catch water. This would not be a problem if a double-sided guardrail was used since water could just pass underneath the rail. Another issue with the barrier is that it may also make drivers more nervous about driving on this road. However, the extra nervousness may mean that the driver may be more careful, which may prevent accidents as well.
About six to eight feet in the center of the road would be needed for the jersey barrier and a buffer zone where rumble strips and a yellow line could be placed on either side of the barrier. The existing double yellow line takes up around three feet, so at the most five additional feet would be needed from the shoulders (2.5 feet from each shoulder). This is doable since the road is already has paved shoulders. Also, there won’t be a need for breaks in the barrier except for the parking area for the Certain Tract south of Cecil Ashburn Drive at the top of the mountain. The barrier could start at Donegal Drive on the west side and go east over the mountain to Old Big Cove Rd.
Another proposal would be to widen the road to two lanes in each direction. If this is done, then a center jersey barrier would be needed much more. Maybe the addition of a barrier could happen when the road is widened, but for now rumble strips may do the trick.
Do you have any ideas? What do you think of this proposal? Let me know in the comments!
Everyone have a safe holiday and Merry Christmas!
This road passes through a gap in Green Mountain. It is one of only four roads that one can use to cross the mountains east of Huntsville. Cecil Ashburn Drive was built in the 1990’s. For a two-lane road, it is not a bad road. It has wide 10 foot paved shoulders that double as bike lanes. Also, between Old Big Cove Rd on the east side of the mountain and Avalon Drive on the west end of the mountain there is basically no roads or driveways along the route, so it is somewhat like a limited-access facility.
Figure 2: Typical section of Cecil Ashburn Drive, courtesy of Google Street View
However, a week ago we were reminded of how dangerous this road can be. Two young women were killed from a head-on collision on this road near Avalon Drive. The collision was due to one of the vehicles losing control as it came around the curve. This is also a road that is among the first to close in Huntsville when icy or snowy conditions are present. What can be done to make this road safer?
Without looking into extensive accident data for this stretch of road, there are some things that could be done to improve safety. One idea would be to put rumble strips along the road. Usually rumble strips are placed along the shoulder of a freeway so that it makes a very audible noise when you cross over them. It is meant to get your attention if you swerve out of your lane and off the road. Recently, rumble strips have also been placed along two-lane roads and four-lane boulevards for the same reason. In other states, rumble strips have also been placed along the center line of two-lane highways.
For Cecil Ashburn Drive, placing rumble strips along both the shoulder and center line of the road would be a good way to increase safety. This could be done when the road is resurfaced.Rumble strips may interfere with bikes using the road, but this can be mitigated by painting a dedicated bike lane on the right side of the shoulder rumble strip. This has been done along Hal Rogers Parkway in eastern Kentucky, which is a limited-access two-lane road that connects the cities in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky with London, KY and Interstate 75.
It would help in those cases when the driver accidentally swerves into the opposing lane, but in the case of rainy weather, as was the case last week, a rumble strip may not have prevented this tragedy from occurring.
A more drastic solution would be to place a center divider along the length of the road. Either a double-faced guardrail or even a jersey barrier could be used to deflect oncoming traffic back into their lane if one swerves out of their lane. This would be expensive to do for two reasons. Firstly, a lot of steel and concrete would be required for the barrier itself. Also, since the addition of a solid barrier such as a jersey barrier would require a drainage system to be placed in the centerline to catch water. This would not be a problem if a double-sided guardrail was used since water could just pass underneath the rail. Another issue with the barrier is that it may also make drivers more nervous about driving on this road. However, the extra nervousness may mean that the driver may be more careful, which may prevent accidents as well.
About six to eight feet in the center of the road would be needed for the jersey barrier and a buffer zone where rumble strips and a yellow line could be placed on either side of the barrier. The existing double yellow line takes up around three feet, so at the most five additional feet would be needed from the shoulders (2.5 feet from each shoulder). This is doable since the road is already has paved shoulders. Also, there won’t be a need for breaks in the barrier except for the parking area for the Certain Tract south of Cecil Ashburn Drive at the top of the mountain. The barrier could start at Donegal Drive on the west side and go east over the mountain to Old Big Cove Rd.
Another proposal would be to widen the road to two lanes in each direction. If this is done, then a center jersey barrier would be needed much more. Maybe the addition of a barrier could happen when the road is widened, but for now rumble strips may do the trick.
Do you have any ideas? What do you think of this proposal? Let me know in the comments!
Everyone have a safe holiday and Merry Christmas!
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