Seizing Opportunities for Safety 

Improvement in Maine 

When Maine DOT began looking into installing 

rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFB) at 

crosswalks in rural towns and villages, staff saw that 

using standard contracting methods for installation 

could result in a final cost of more than four times the 

purchase price of the devices. Working with the FHWA 

Maine Division Office, Maine DOT determined that 2 

CFR Part 200 would make it possible for the State to 

buy materials using Highway Safety Improvement 

Program (HSIP) funds while the localities would install 

them. By working closely with the FHWA Division 

Office and the State DOT’s legal team, Maine DOT 

determined this approach would save time and get 

safety devices implemented more quickly. 

Upon receiving FHWA approval to use this materials 

procurement approach, the FHWA Maine Division 

Office and the Maine DOT safety office, which manages 

the State’s HSIP funds, established a process for 

implementation. Under this approach, the State’s Local 

Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) is responsible 

for selecting recipients of the signs based on the 

information localities submit in an application form. 

While Maine DOT looks at the sign program as a 

systemic approach to improving safety, buy-in from 

municipalities is necessary since they must perform 

installation. Since 2011, the program has purchased 

and distributed 543 RRFBs and more than 250 dynamic 

speed feedback signs. This year, the agency will also 

distribute 48 post-mounted school zone speed limit 

sign arrays that feature flashing beacons and dynamic 

speed warning signs.

Due to the small populations of many of the towns 

and villages in the State, Maine DOT has faced several 

challenges in implementing the program, including 

lack of local personnel knowledgeable enough to 

install and set up the devices, lack of computers, and 

computer operating systems that are too outdated 

to run the devices’ software. In one community, State 

law enforcement officers downloaded the required 

software onto their government-issued computers and 

now run the speed feedback signs for the town. An 

unanticipated benefit is that this software is able to track 

the times of day when speed warnings are triggered 

more frequently, enabling officers to improve safety by 

targeting their enforcement efforts to those periods. 

In addition to law enforcement, the State’s LTAP 

also plays a significant role in helping localities with 

training and is a key element of the program. The LTAP 

staff assists local governments with the application 

process and then distributes the devices to recipients. 

Innovative Materials Procurement Practices Lead to Improved 

Local Road Safety

To accelerate the process of purchasing federally funded safety devices and installing them on local and 

rural roads to address safety concerns, State departments of transportation (DOTs) are developing innovative 

approaches to materials procurement and installation. These methods are resulting in faster installation of 

proven, low-cost safety countermeasures that are saving lives today. 

HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM – 

NOTEWORTHY PRACTICES

Innovative approaches to delivering Federal-aid 

road safety projects.

Source: Getty Images
HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM – NOTEWORTHY PRACTICES | PROCUREMENT PRACTICES

Championing Safety on Ohio’s 

Rural Roadways

In Ohio, the Township Sign Grant Program has been 

a significant factor in improving safety on that State’s 

extensive network of local and rural roadways. In the 

nearly 10 years since its inception, the program has 

been a notable success due mostly to the tireless efforts 

of its champions, who conduct extensive outreach to 

the 2,300 local public agencies responsible for 

84 percent of centerline miles in Ohio. 

In 2013, Ohio DOT’s Safety Office had been upgrading 

signage on rural roads, but the agency could only 

apply these low-cost devices on State-owned roads. 

To reach the local road level, the Safety Office began 

working closely with a champion within the State’s 

LTAP, and together they developed the Township Sign 

Grant Program. 

To support the program, each year, Ohio DOT runs 

crash analyses and develops a set of township-focused 

reports, including hot-spot maps and crash trees. These 

crash maps depict each township’s roadway system and 

highlight the locations of crashes and crash severity 

levels. The 200 townships with the worst crash problems 

are invited to participate in the State’s Township Sign 

Grant Program and apply for funds that will be used 

to purchase signs. The State’s LTAP provides grant 

recipients with a list of the eligible sign types they can 

select from and install and then moves projects through 

the Federal funding process, ordering the materials on 

1 ODOT waited until 24 of the originally invited townships had at least 12 months of post-installation crash data before engaging in a 

comparison to measure success. The comparison measured the decrease in crashes in three categories—overall crashes, serious injuries, and 

fatalities. The period measured for each township was the 12 months of calendar year 2016. Fatal and injury crash data were measured as an 

annual average of 4.67 fatalities prior to sign installation and 0 fatalities for the 12 months after installation in these 24 townships. For more 

details, please see Beale, V. F., Troyer, D., Chock, A., Hopwood, C., & McNeill, M. (2018). “Getting to Zero Deaths on Ohio’s Low-Volume Roads.” 

Transportation Research Record. 2672(32): 40–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198118782022.

behalf of the township. Once the signs are delivered 

by the manufacturer, the township is responsible for 

installing them within 1 year. After installation, Ohio 

DOT conducts spot inspections to ensure they were 

installed correctly and provides additional instructions 

and guidance on corrective actions if needed. Ohio DOT 

also continues to collect data on treated locations to 

measure improvements over time. 

As part of this performance assessment, Ohio DOT 

conducted an assessment of the first 24 townships that 

participated in the program and found that overall 

crashes decreased 10 percent, serious injury crashes 

decreased by 35 percent, and fatal injury crashes 

decreased 100 percent.1

 Using the Highway Safety 

Manual method for calculating comprehensive and 

human capital costs, Ohio DOT found that the program’s 

return on investment reflected a benefit-cost ratio of 

21.5:1 in human capital cost savings and 62.6:1 in terms 

of comprehensive societal cost savings. 

Exploring innovative materials procurement approaches 

can result in significantly increased safety on local and 

rural roadways across the country. Safety professionals 

in both Maine and Ohio encourage those interested in 

starting similar efforts to start small, identify and work 

with others in their agency and among safety partners 

with similar safety improvement goals, and build on 

successes to advance roadway safety across their State. 

For more information on this practice, please contact 

your State’s FHWA Division Office.

https://highways.dot.gov/safety

April 2023  FHWA-SA-23-015

“From the safety program perspective, another measure of success was that we were able to 

extend our reach down to township level. Townships have the same safety problems as larger areas. 

They just have fewer resources to address them.”

—Michelle May, HSIP Program Manager, Ohio DOT