Years of Safety Data Highlights Need for Road Improvements
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe successfully completes improvements (see Figure 1) for their Chicken Coop-Zaccardo Road Intersection project in cooperation with Clallam County and Washington State Department Of Transportation. The Tribe is located in the Pacific Northwest on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula along State Route 101(SR 101), a route that sees a heavy influx of summer travelers every year. This project was part of the Tribe’s Long Range Transportation Plan and Strategic Transportation Safety Plan. In addition, the Tribe used a variety of funding sources, including a grant from the Tribal Transportation Program Safety Fund, to construct this project. Chairman Allan had the following to say about the project. “This project and its’ ability to provide safety for all those traveling on Highway 101, particularly those who use the Chicken Coop and Zaccardo Roads was long overdue. Our Tribe is thankful to the funding agencies and all those who contributed to the design, engineering, and construction of the project. It resulted in a huge safety improvement to the Blyn community and the travelers to the Olympic Peninsula.”
Chicken Coop/Zaccardo Road is within a 43-mile section of State Route 101 that had been designated as a safety corridor due to the significant collision history. Nine fatality crashes occurred between 2000 and 2004 along this 43-mile stretch and in an effort to reduce the collision rate a safe driving campaign was launched. Further insight into the intersection collision data within the 43-mile section, which includes the Chicken Coop Road and Zaccardo Road intersections, led the Washington Department of Transportation to designate this segment as a high accident corridor. The Tribe along with its’ State and County partners supported safety improvements throughout the 43-mile stretch of SR 101 to reduce the collision rate.
For its’ part the tribe focused on the Chicken Coop Road and Zaccardo Road intersections’. A safety audit in 2014 analyzed collision rates going back ten years for the one mile segment of the SR 101 roadways approaching and departing the Chicken Coop Road/Zaccardo Road intersection area. Data from that safety audit revealed that the collisions occurred mainly as rear end collisions or when vehicles entered SR 101 at an angle. Resulting in the recognition that the significant skew of Chicken Coop Road approaching SR 101 was a contributing factor to the collision rate. Nineteen conflict points made it dangerous for vehicles entering or exiting SR 101 at Chicken Coop and Zaccardo Road and further complicating that factor was left turn and right turn pockets were not provided from SR 101 onto Chicken Coop or Zaccardo Road. Additionally, the intersections of Chicken Coop Road and Zaccardo Road had inadequate illumination.
Figure 2 illustrates how the road intersections of SR 101 with Chicken Coop Road and Zaccardo Road, both on the south side of SR 101, were less than 60 feet apart and each connected to SR 101 at an angle. Zaccardo Road connected to SR 101 at a 75-degree angle, and Chicken Coop Road made two connections, one at 27 degrees (see Figure 3) and one at 80 degrees (see Figure 4). Safety funds were used to engineer and construct one “T” intersection with SR 101, a new intersection of Zaccardo Road with Chicken Coop Road, a center turn lane on SR 101, and an approach acceleration/deceleration lane on a widened section of SR 101. The new single intersection for Chicken Coop Road at SR 101 was constructed 600 feet further east reducing the conflict points to 6.
The safety improvements the Tribe has completed have led to a decreased chance for collisions along this segment of State Route 101 and a 72% reduction in accidents at the intersections of Chicken Coop and Zaccardo roads with State Route 101. The Transportation Manager had this to say about the project. “The Chicken Coop-Zaccardo Road project is complete after years of planning, engineering, and developing a funding package. It was well worth the time and effort as the new road configuration is safer for our Tribal Citizens and staff as well as for the entire community of road users. The Tribe served as the project lead but worked closely with our Clallam County and State partners to accomplish this safety/mobility intersection improvement. We are hopeful it will serve as an example for other county/state road intersection upgrades.”