Poor Work Zone Delineation Causes Accident
At least one person was taken to the hospital following a crash in a construction zone on a Boise road, but we have learned this driver is not the first to be confused by the poor delineation of the work zone. Boise resident Joy Patterson drives the route about twice a day and said she has witnessed confused drivers several times before the crash.
“I’ve been concerned since they set the cones (delineators) up there for several days,” said Patterson. “It was hard to know whether you were to be in the outside lanes or in the center lane or where they did want you to go or where they didn’t want you to go.”
Witnesses including Patterson said the driver appears to have failed to properly navigate through the construction zone and drove his SUV into a hole in the road. She, along with other witnesses, said there were not flaggers at the site when the crash occurred.
“The cones (delineators) that they do have running down the lanes are very, very far apart, but there is nothing blocking where they don’t want you to go,” said Patterson.
The project is being done by a contracted company for the Boise City Public Works Department on an Ada County Highway District Road, according to ACHD spokesperson Christine Myron. However, Myron says that even before Tuesday’s crash occurred, a driver complaint came in to ACHD about the confusion at the construction site.
“There was some concern about the marking and the delineation of the closed area versus the open area,” said Myron.
In response to the concern, ACHD ordered for an inspector to go to the construction site and evaluate, and now changes are set to be made according to Myron.
We hope they will choose to utilize LCD’s. A Longitudinal Channelizing Device (LCD) is a federally-designated type of traffic barricade. LCD’s are designed to provide visual guidance for motorists and pedestrians. They do not provide positive protection. An LCD fills the void in safety between the hazard that concrete barrier posses to motorists versus the gaps in lines of drums that allow vehicles and pedestrians into the work zone.
