Signing Strategies for Low-Water and Flood-Prone Highway Crossings (0-6262-1)

In Texas, approximately eight flood-related fatalities occur each year--the majority of these (78.6 percent) involve motorists that are trapped in their vehicles or washed away. In many cases, victims, not wanting to take a lengthy detour, ignored barricades and tried to drive across a flooded street or low-water crossing--literally driving themselves into harm's way. It takes as little as 2 ft of water to float most cars. Several districts in Texas have developed different signing strategies for warning motorists of low-water crossings. As part of this research, the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) developed guidelines and recommendations for creating signing uniformity for low-water and flood-prone sections of roadways. Signing guidelines were created for the following situations: 1) roadway sections that have several low-water crossings where water flows over the roadway in wet conditions, 2) actual low-water crossings, and 3) temporary road closures due to high water. TTI also developed criteria for when to implement active water-level detection and advance warning systems at low-water crossings and flood-prone roadway sections.