Pexco Improves Safety on the 6th most Dangerous Road in the World
New Dalton Delineator Provides Durability and Improved Visibility
Tacoma, WA – Traffic safety is a serious concern on the Dalton Highway, a 414-mile road in Alaska, one of the most remote, and the 6th most dangerous highway in the world.
In order to improve the safety of this vital roadway, Pexco partnered with the Alaska DOT to develop a new design of delineator post that would improve visibility for DOT workers and “ice road” truck drivers plus reduce maintenance for the agency.
The Dalton Highway (Alaska Route 11), once called the North Slope Haul Road, was built as a supply road to support the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in 1974. This mostly gravel highway travels through rolling, forested hills, across the Yukon River and Arctic Circle, through the rugged Brooks Range, and over the North Slope to the Arctic Ocean; it is one of the most isolated roads in the United States. Along most of its length, you'll see no restaurants, no gift shops, no service stations—just forest, tundra, and mountains, crossed by a double ribbon of road and pipe.
There is no dependable medical evacuation capability for the Dalton Highway corridor. Half of all vehicle crashes occur during daylight hours, while fully a quarter of the crashes occur at night where the vehicles are travelling on non-lighted sections of the road.
In the summer of 2011, a project was begun that will provide delineation to enhance visibility for maintenance crews and users of the Dalton Highway. Inclement weather with blowing snow and whiteout conditions necessitate marking the shoulders as a safety feature to navigate this important remote highway.
The solution is the new “Dalton Delineator”, a cantilever structure consisting of a short length of a Davidson Flexi-Guide FG 400 Roadside Delineator post mounted to a special flexible coupler. The coupler in turn is attached to a square steel tube support that is installed off of the traveled roadway. The delineator post projects horizontally out from the shoulder, above the roadway; it is capable of rebounding when struck, providing excellent reflectivity at night.
The last part of the solution is the use of white delineators on one side of the road, and green delineators on the opposite side. Similar to the running lights on a boat, this color coding gives drivers clear indication of their position on the road, even in the midst of a blinding snowstorm.
Pexco’s new Dalton Highway Delineator reduces maintenance and improves safety!
Key features & benefits of the Dalton Delineator are:
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Engineering thermo-plastic provides excellent extreme-cold impact resistance
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Elevated steel arm reduces chance of damage during snow plow operations
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Unique flexible polyurethane coupler simplifies installation and removal
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Bright colors provide for color-coded road edge identification
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UV-stabilized high impact plastic components
To view more about the new Davidson Dalton Delineator, please contact Pexco or go to:
http://www.pexco.com/Pages/PexcoTrafficRDP.aspx
| Pexco LLC |
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT |
| Davidson Traffic Control Products |
Peter A. Speer |
| 3110 70th Ave East |
E-mail: peter.speer@pexco.com |
| Tacoma, WA 98424 |
Phone: (253) 284-8000 |
Davidson Traffic Control Products is a division of Pexco LLC, a global manufacturer of plastic products with decades of technical & engineering expertise. The Davidson Traffic product line includes Barricades, Channelizer Posts, Curb System Lane Separators, Work Zone Pavement Markers, Flexible Delineator Posts, Reflectors for Barrier Walls and Guardrails, Snow Poles and many adhesive products that have gained acceptance worldwide.