Nebraska 2007 Five Percent Report

This report is in response to the Federal requirement that each state describe at least 5 percent of its locations currently exhibiting the most severe highway safety needs, in accordance with Sections 148(c)(1)(D) and 148(g)(3)(A), of Title 23, United States Code. Each state's report is to include potential remedies to the hazardous locations identified; estimated costs of the remedies; and impediments to implementation of the remedies other than costs. The reports included on this web site represent a variety of methods utilized and various degrees of road coverage. Therefore, this report cannot be compared with the other reports included on this Web site.

Protection from Discovery and Admission into Evidence—Under 23 U.S.C. 148(g)(4) information collected or compiled for any purpose directly relating to this report shall not be subject to discovery or admitted into evidence in a Federal or State court proceeding or considered for other purposes in any action for damages arising from any occurrence at a location identified or addressed in the reports.

Additional information, including the specific legislative requirements, can be found in the guidance provided by the Federal Highway Administration,
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/safetealu/fiveguidance.htm.

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States are required under SAFETEA-LU to report annually on a minimum of 5% of their locations with the most severe safety needs. Nebraska's list follows.

METHODOLOGY

The NDOR used its existing Hazardous Location computer program as the basis for determining the 5% list. It uses the Rate Quality Control Method to determine locations. Analysis is done by four types of locations (simple intersections, complex intersections, clusters, and sections). Statewide average accident rates are calculated for each of these types, broken down by rural and urban, and also by highway classification (6-lane interstate, 4-lane interstate, freeway, expressway, other 4-lane, 2-lane with surfaced shoulder, 2-lane without surfaced shoulder, and one-way). Given the traffic volume at a location, and the statewide average rate for the above category into which it falls, an expected accident rate is calculated. The actual accident rate is also calculated, and if the actual rate exceeds the expected rate, the site is deemed a significant location. Significant locations are then ranked by severity, based on dollar values assigned to each type of accident that occurred at the site.

Two changes were made to the procedures this year at the recommendation of the Nebraska Division of FHWA. The program was revised to include only fatal, disabling, and visible injury crashes. It was agreed that fatal and disabling injury crashes only would not be sufficient to identify crash locations in a rural state like Nebraska. Last year all crashes were included in the analysis. The process was also changed to include locations off the state highway system. Local system locations were analyzed separately, with the results merged into the state highway list. Crash data for the three years 2004-2006 were used in the analysis. Although traffic volumes for local roads are not contained in NDOR's database, they are available for the City of Lincoln from the Lincoln Public Works Department, for the Omaha metropolitan area from the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency, and for other urban areas and county major collectors from the Department's Planning and Project Development Division. Crash rates for identified off-system locations were hand calculated and combined with the state highway data.

The following list includes the top 5% from this analysis. They are not ranked, but rather appear in highway number order.

5% LOCATIONS LIST

No.	Highway	County	Land Use	Location Type	Location
1.	US-30	Buffalo	Rural	Simple Intersection	E. of Kearney – US-30 & Antelope Ave.
2.	US-34	Lancaster	Urban	Section	Lincoln – O St., 10th St. to 52nd St.
3.	N-64	Douglas	Urban	Simple Intersection	Omaha – 102nd & W. Maple Road
4.	US-77/N-32	Burt	Rural	Simple Intersection	S. of Oakland – US-77 & N-32
5.	I-80/I-480/ US-75	Douglas	Urban	Complex Intersection	Omaha – I-80/I-480/Kennedy Freeway Interchange
6.	I-80/N-370	Sarpy	Rural	Complex Intersection	I-80/N-370 Interchange
7.	I-80	Sarpy	Rural	Section	I-80, Platte River bridge to N-31 Interchg
8.	US-81/N-32	Madison	Rural	Simple Intersection	East edge of Madison – US-81 & N-32
9.	N-133	Douglas	Urban	Simple Intersection	Omaha – 90th & Blondo Street
10.	N-133	Douglas	Rural	Simple Intersection	North of Omaha – N-133 & State Street
11.	N-370	Sarpy	Urban	Simple Intersection	Bellevue – N-370 & 25th Street
12.	N-370	Sarpy	Rural	Simple Intersection	West of Papillion – N-370 & 132nd Street
13.	None	Douglas	Urban	Section	Omaha – Ames Avenue, 72nd St. to 30th St.
14.	None	Douglas	Urban	Section	Omaha – 120th Street, L St. to Blondo St.
15.	None	Douglas	Rural	Simple Intersection	NW of Omaha – 156th & Ida Street
16.	None	Douglas	Urban	Section	Omaha – W. Center Rd., 148th St. to I-680
17.	None	Lancaster	Urban	Section	Lincoln – Vine Street, 16th St. to 48th St.
18.	None	Lancaster	Urban	Section	Lincoln – 70th Street, Old Cheney to O St.
19.	None	Lancaster	Urban	Section	Lincoln – 27th St., O St. to Cornhusker
20.	None	Lancaster	Urban	Section	Lincoln – 48th St., Van Dorn St. to O St.
21.	None	Lancaster	Urban	Section	Lincoln – 48th St., O St. to Adams St.
22.	None	Sarpy	Rural	Simple Intersection	West of La Vista – 126th & Harrison Street
23.	None	Sarpy	Rural	Section	W. of LaVista – Harrison St, 168th to 120th

POTENTIAL REMEDIES

Each of the locations on the 5% List has been given a preliminary review. Several of the locations listed are high volume urban corridors with heavy congestion, many major intersections, and numerous business accesses. A single highway construction project would be unlikely to make a significant difference in the crash experience at these locations. The NDOR Safety Committee will continue to study listed locations for potential improvements. Locations off the state system are the responsibility of the city or other local agency. Projects to improve these locations may be proposed to the local agencies by the committee. More commonly, local agencies will present projects to the committee for potential HSIP funding.

Improvements are already being made to some of the listed locations. Much of Site 7 is currently under construction as a part of the plan to 6-lane I-80 from Omaha to Lincoln. This includes the rebuilding of the major bridges across the Platte River, totaling over $10 million. Site 10 is scheduled to be signalized with $285,000 in HSIP funds.