PennDOT isn’t just concerned with fixing the roads…they want to make them safer, too.
District 10 Assistant Engineer for Maintenance Brian Allen says crews have been focusing on applying a “high friction surface treatment” to roads that have seen their fair share of violent crashes.
The higher pavement friction helps motorists maintain better control in both wet and dry conditions.
“It’s pretty granular,” Allen said during an annual transportation outreach meeting in Cranberry Township on Monday. “It almost feels like a sharp surface if you run your hand over it.”
In PennDOT’s District 10- which includes Butler, Armstrong, Clarion, Indiana and Jefferson counties- there were 6,500 crashes involving slippery or wet pavement between 2013 and 2017. In those crashes, 71 people were killed and another 175 seriously hurt.
Forty-one percent of those crashes were on curved roads.
PennDOT says applying a high friction surface treatment is a cost-effective solution that dramatically, and immediately, reduces crashes.
