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American Traffic Safety Services Association
CIRCLE OF
INNOVATION
Circle of Innovation
©
Workshop Brings
State DOTs and ATSSA Members Together
ATSSA’s Circle of Innovation
©
(trademark pending) workshop, now in its sixth year, is held during
ATSSA’s Annual Convention & Traffic Expo. It was created to offer public transportation officials a
unique opportunity to present their ideas for future worker, motorist and roadway safety innovations to a
large group of ATSSA members who manufacture and install these types of products. ATSSA members
have the chance to offer their solutions, services and devices for these needs, helping transportation
officials perform their tasks more efficiently and safely while improving roadway safety for workers and
motorists.
ATSSA publishes
The Circle
newsletter on a regular basis throughout the year, allowing ATSSA members
an opportunity to respond to the needs of public officials who provide input during the workshop.
The most recent issue of
The Circle
featured exit gore signs (a result of the discussion during the
workshop). A participant said: “I’m going to bring up exit gore signs, one of the things I know we’ve
been looking for here at the Traffic Expo. We had an employee killed replacing an exit gore sign. That’s
one of our number one hit signs out there. So, we’re looking for devices to protect the exit gore sign so
that maybe drivers won’t come through that gore—a fast method for our employees to go out there once
in a while to make changes and return safely.”
ATSSA members responded immediately with their solutions to the exit gore problem. Craig Schulz,
design engineer/technical sales for Pexco, LLC, in Tacoma, Wash., offered the company’s new product
called the City Post that has worked well in this application in other states.
The City Post,
by Pexco, LLC
“The City Post is an ultra-high impact performance channelizer post that has a high target
value, looks to the motorist like it might be a metal bollard, but yields under impact and
rebounds time after time,” said Schulz. “Should the post ever need replacement, it can be
accomplished in a matter of seconds with a spin-out/spin-in deployment.”
The IRS Sergeant Stripes and Type III Object Markers,
by Impact Recovery Systems, Inc.
Sue Reiss, national sales manager for Impact Recovery Systems, said the company has, for a
number of years, has promoted the use of devices to make the gore areas more visible to the
motorist and for the protection of workers and often the impact attenuators at those locations.
Two possible solutions are the installation of a series of flexible, reboundable sergeant stripe
units and Type III hazard markers in advance of the sign and/or attenuator. This is inexpensive
insurance for the trade-off of losing much more expensive equipment, and more importantly,
the loss or injury of a highway worker. Or one can use curbing products with uprights to make
the exit more visible to motorists. Exit lane delineation is already a practice in many states,
and the use of a similar product for the identification of the exit gore would seem appropriate.
Mobile Barriers MBT-1,
by Mobile Barriers LLC
Kevin Groeneweg, CEO of Mobile Barriers LLC, said the Mobile Barriers
MBT-1 is a highly mobile, positive protection system with interchangeable
right/left configuration that can be effectively used for work at exit gores to
protect workers and motorists. The modular, efficient, self-contained system
includes lighting and storage and is considered “movable longitudinal barrier”
by the FHWA. This product is currently in use on various toll roads and state
routes. It also has military, security and defense applications.
