Mortimer Downey, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation, will visit the Texas Transportation Institute on Tuesday, March 24 to announce the establishment of a $1 million program designed to reduce the number of crash-related deaths and injuries in highway work zones.
Each year across the United States, more than 20,000 traffic accidents occur in highway work zones, killing more than 700 people and injuring another 5,000. The cost of these tragedies totals more than $3 billion every year.
The National Work Zone Safety Clearinghouse is being established at TTI by the Federal Highway Administration and the American Road & Transportation Builders Association. The clearinghouse — the only one of its kind in the United States — will collect, organize and provide information to transportation and law enforcement agencies, contractors, labor unions and other organizations in an effort to make road construction zones safer for highway workers, motorists and pedestrians. Funding for the project will come from a combination of federal and industry sources.
Downey’s announcement will take place at 10:40 a.m. at the corner of Texas Avenue and Walton Drive in College Station, adjacent to a construction zone where crews are widening the area’s busiest thoroughfare.
TTI, a member of the Texas A&M University System, is the largest university-based transportation research agency in the U.S. Patented TTI innovations have been credited with saving lives, time and money for motorists throughout the nation.