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Providing the recommended clear zone and roadside slopes allows drivers to safely recover control of a vehicle in <br />the event they do leave the roadway and helps ensure fixed-object hazards do not cause fatal or serious injury <br />accidents, The aforementioned roadway geometry and clear recovery area is the goal in improving roadside safety <br />but is often cost prohibitive due to the geography of the area and is not supported by rural character or practical <br />design. ln cases where it is cost prohibitive to eliminate roadway curvature and create an unobstructed traversable <br />roadside, alternative improvements that may reduce the severity of an accident or alert a driver to a hazard should be <br />considered. This safety plan focuses on roadway segments and intersections where low-cost high benefit <br />countermeasures and improvements can be implemented, These countermeasures and improvements may include <br />improved or increased pavement markings, breakaway features on posts, guardrail deployment, bridge rail retrofits, <br />rumble strip installation, and signing and traffic delineation upgrades, all of which may be implemented to reduce fatal <br />and serious injury collisions. <br />Based on the crash data for 2015-2019,76,2o/o percent of the total crashes involved roads with an average daily <br />traffic (ADT) of 175 or more and with a speed limit of 35mph of higher. ln order to have the greatest potential impact <br />in reducin! collisions, the county considered roads for evaluation and prioritization of safety improvements with the <br />followi ng characteristics : <br />MINIMUM CRITERIA FOR INCLUDING ROAD SEGMENTS IN SAFETY PLAN: <br />. Paved: Asphalt Concrete Overlay (ACP), Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA), or Bituminous Surface Treatment <br />(BST).. ADT of 175 or more.e Posted speeds of 35 mph or more,. Collision within segment in the past five years. <br />The minimum criteria include the preliminary eligibility requirements as defined by the U,S, Department of <br />Transportation Federal Highway Administration's Highway (FHWA) Safety lmprovement Program (HSIP) as stated <br />under the 2021 County Safety Program: Call for Projects solicitation for grant funding. Additional scoring criteria has <br />been developed by Kittitas County Public Works Staff and used consistently throughout multiple years of safety <br />planning to provide scoring and prioritization continuity. The additional criteria include a heavier weighted score for <br />segments listed in the previous County safety plan, inadequate clear zones with embankments or ditches, fixed <br />objects in the clear zones, roadway curvature - horizontal curve, and collision seriousness (injury, serious, or fatal), <br />County road segments possessing the minimum criteria characteristics, as well as the additional criteria <br />characteristics, were evaluated and scored by the weighted method shown in Table 3. The complete list of resulting <br />road segment prioritization is shown in Appendix B. <br />8