Noteworthy Practice 

FUNDING HIGH RISK RURAL ROAD PROJECTS 

Overcoming Limited Data in Kansas 

States responsible for maintaining signifcant road-miles on rural facilities often face a difcult challenge in 

both collecting adequate data to conduct traditional safety analysis and identifying areas in need of safety 

treatments. Even agencies that do have extensive data on rural road safety conditions face challenges due to the 

relatively low average daily trafc on these rural roads, making accurate analysis problematic. 

Prior to 2010, Kansas was facing a challenge in identifying 

projects that could qualify for High Risk Rural Road funding. 

“We were trying to do everything through data-driven 

justifcation. The problem was, we didn’t have a lot of 

detailed data,” said Tod Salfrank, the Assistant Bureau Chief 

for Local Projects at Kansas Department of Transportation 

(KDOT). 

In 2010, the agency was able to fund about half of the 

project proposals submitted by counties based on criteria 

that included documented crash records indicating a 

history of fatal and severe injury crashes exceeding the 

statewide average for similar roads. However, KDOT realized 

that a lack of site-specifc rural road data along with the 

randomness of crashes on county roads restricted the 

agency’s ability to complete data-driven analysis. The push 

to think outside the box was on. 

Since 2011, KDOT has focused its HRRR funds on low cost 

countermeasures such as installing the SafetyEdgeSM 

pavement markings, rumble strips, tree removal, enhanced 

signing and improvements to roadside barriers such as 

culvert headwalls and guardrails. Source: FHWA 
FUNDING HIGH RISK RURAL ROAD PROJECTS 

A New Approach to Rural Road Safety 

Kansas had used the systemic approach successfully on lighting and 

pavement marking projects funded through the State’s Highway 

Safety Improvement Program, but not on local road projects. While 

working to conceptualize a new project selection methodology, 

staf in the Bureau of Local Projects connected the systemic concept 

to the rural road challenge. The result was a white paper that 

became the basis for KDOT’s HRRR program, allowing the agency to 

apply low-cost treatments systemically on county roads.1 

“We realized we were not going to move the numbers on the local network if we only do one or two 

big projects per year [with our funding],” said State Safety Engineer Steven Buckley, who oversees the 

State’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). “As part of our SHSP, we have a Local Roads Emphasis 

Area Team. Using a low-cost systemic approach was routinely discussed at team meetings, and it was 

unanimously agreed to be good idea,” Buckley added. 

With FHWA’s concurrence, KDOT established an HRRR program that uses a systemic approach to address 

roadway departure crashes on major and minor rural collectors and other paved rural county roads. 

Based on the data available, KDOT focused the program on reducing roadway departures to decrease 

the most common rural fatality crash type on non-State rural roads: collision with a fxed object. KDOT 

focuses its HRRR funds on low cost countermeasures such as installing the SafetyEdgeSM, pavement 

markings, rumble strips, tree removal, enhanced signing and improvements to roadside barriers such as 

culvert headwalls and guardrails. 

According to Salfrank, these locations are “the most likely place for unfamiliar drivers to run of the road, 

so it gives us the best bang for the buck.” He noted the program has been welcomed and is increasingly 

popular among local agencies, which are realizing the value systemic treatments add to their system. 

When asked what KDOT would say to other agencies interested in starting a similar program, Salfrank 

ofered the following advice: 

 Involve the local agencies.

 Involve your FHWA Division Ofce Safety Engineer.

 Work as a team.

Working as a team was the one thing that really helped the KDOT program get started, he noted. 

“We had local agencies, the LTAP and FHWA, a [metropolitan planning organization], our association 

of counties, even county police and EMS, all working together.” 

In terms of success, said Buckley, “we know the roads are safer than they were, but an important 

factor in gauging success is the ever-increasing popularity of the program. Local agencies are 

realizing the value this approach is adding to their system by increasing safety.” 

1

 See “KDOT Proposal for Systematic Use of HRRR Funds,” available at: 

http://www.ksdot.org/Assets/wwwksdotorg/bureaus/burLocalProj/BLPDocuments/ 

Programmatic_FHWA_BLP.pdf. 

FHWA-SA-18-070