Innovation Description and Benefit:

This innovation is an Excel spreadsheet that estimates intersection sight distance based on the vertical alignment of the road using data collected by ARAN on two-lane roads. Hill cutting projects to improve intersection sight distance are one of MoDOT’s common safety improvement tools.  Traditionally, these projects are developed based on complaints and crash history-both reactive approaches.  This innovation takes a proactive approach by evaluating the entire MoDOT network in the Kansas City district to identify the intersections with the worst sight distance, allowing MoDOT to better allocate our safety funds to intersections before crashes occur.  In addition to evaluating hill cutting projects, this tool can be used in conjunction with SAFER, flagging intersections with lower sight distances for consideration of other low-cost improvements.