Department of transportation maintenance foreman is electrocuted and a highway maintenance worker severely burned when truck bed contacts overhead 7,200-volt powerline - South Carolina, March 15, 1994.

1994 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Department Of Transportation ◽  
Highway Maintenance

Developing a Pre-Task Safety Briefing Tool for Kentucky Maintenance Personnel

2018 ◽  
Vol 2672 (12) ◽  
pp. 187-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zamaan Al-Shabbani ◽  
Roy Sturgill ◽  
Gabriel B. Dadi
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Safety Training ◽  
Department Of Transportation ◽  
Highway Maintenance ◽  
Safety Practices ◽  
Safety Standards ◽  
Safety Research ◽  
Safety Awareness ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Maintenance Personnel

The dangerous work environment in the construction industry and the inherent high risks associated with its work make it the focus of safety training and regulations. Highway construction and maintenance has unique hazards but seemingly less directly applicable safety standards, regulations, and programs. Department of Transportation (DOT) employees working in highway maintenance are exposed to a variety of unique hazards specifically associated with their work and not relating to the adjacent traffic. Highway site safety does not receive sufficient attention in terms of safety research and programs. As part of the efforts of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) to improve safety for their employees, this paper describes the data-driven design of a pre-task safety briefing tool. By analyzing previous incident data of KYTC maintenance workers and identifying frequent hazards present within their typical work operations and the reasons behind such hazards, the final product of this study is a tool that is relatable and relevant to KYTC maintenance workers. The tool presents these hazards along with the associated reasons and the appropriate safety practices to avoid or mitigate the associated risk. The data analysis of this study highlighted that human factors and ergonomics play a significant role in the injuries related to the subject population, yet there is little guidance or standards for addressing these factors. The goal of this safety tool is to improve the safety performance of KYTC maintenance crews by increasing workers’ safety awareness.

Developing a Storm Severity Index

2005 ◽  
Vol 1911 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilfrid A. Nixon ◽  
Lin Qiu
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Wind Speed ◽  
Severity Index ◽  
Department Of Transportation ◽  
Highway Maintenance ◽  
Winter Maintenance ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Precipitation Type ◽  
Written Descriptions ◽  
Quality Process

A primary goal in winter highway maintenance is to develop various maintenance processes so that quality control can be measured. If actions can be measured, they can be improved. A difficulty with this approach is that winter maintenance addresses the impacts of winter weather on the transportation system and that weather is inherently uncontrollable. Consequently, for a quality process to be applied to winter maintenance, the severity of individual storms must be assessed. This paper presents one way in which the severity of a storm can be measured, specifically by an index. The first step in developing an index for individual storms is to develop a method of describing storms. The method here describes storms by using six factors, including prestorm and poststorm conditions and temperatures, wind speed, and precipitation type. The matrix created is a refinement of that presented in FHWA's manual of practice for effective anti-icing. With the use of a simplified variation of this matrix-based description of storms (more than 250 descriptions), a score is generated for each storm type. This score is then adjusted so that scores for all storms fall into a normal distribution between 0 and 1. This ranking of storms was evaluated by winter maintenance garage supervisors at the Iowa Department of Transportation. Supervisors were asked to rank 10 storms (presented as brief written descriptions) from easiest to hardest to handle. Results were compared with those of the initial storm severity index. From that comparison, numerical values for certain factors were adjusted so that storm severity index scores for these 10 storms agreed with rankings given by the garage supervisors.

scholarly journals Multi-Measure Quality Analysis of Weather Forecasts Used for Winter Highway Maintenance Purposes

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunanda Dissanayake ◽  
Wei He ◽  
Dean Landman ◽  
Mary Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measure ◽  
Quality Analysis ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Department Of Transportation ◽  
Highway Maintenance ◽  
Winter Maintenance ◽  
Weather Forecasts ◽  
Best Value ◽  
Departments Of Transportation ◽  
Combined Data

State Departments of Transportation spend a considerable portion of their winter maintenance budgets getting accurate weather forecasts that are essential for proactive operations and are interested in getting the best value for their money. With that intention, the Kansas Department of Transportation obtained weather forecasts from three commercial weather data providers for four selected locations within the state of Kansas. This paper presents a quality analysis of those forecasts to identify the most accurate and reliable provider. In doing so, researchers used the prediction of frost events as the performance measure. Several different measures that were capable of quantifying the selected attributes (reliability, accuracy, and skill) were used to evaluate different forecasts for each location and for combined data.

Preserving the value of highway maintenance equipment against roadway deicers: a case study and preliminary cost benefit analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianming Shi ◽  
Greg Hansen ◽  
Monty Mills ◽  
Scott Jungwirth ◽  
Yan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Actual Data ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cost Ratio ◽  
Department Of Transportation ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Highway Maintenance ◽  
Content Type

Purpose – This paper aims to report the best practices of deicer corrosion control adopted by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to preserve the performance, reliability and value of its highway maintenance equipment assets. Design/methodology/approach – To enable quantitative analyses, data were collected from a site visit to WSDOT, as well as from a survey of maintenance practitioners from various transportation agencies. The direct costs related to equipment corrosion aggravated by the exposure to roadway deicers were analyzed, along with the direct benefits of mitigating such corrosion, using WSDOT as a case study. In addition, the same preliminary cost benefit analysis was conducted for an “average” Department of Transportation in a northern climate. Findings – Both cases show a highly favorable benefit-to-cost ratio for enhanced investment in controlling the risk of deicer corrosion. Research limitations/implications – It has not yet been possible to confirm this compelling argument because the analysis is partly based on assumptions instead of fully based on actual data. Practical implications – This work highlights the need to collect the relevant data such that future analysis and sensitivity analysis can be substantiated with actual data on costs and benefits. It concludes with a few suggestions for implementation. Originality/value – Many components in highway maintenance equipment fleet are at the risk of metallic corrosion, which is exacerbated in service environments where roadway deicers have been applied. This work lays the foundation for future research into this important issue.

An Ultrastructural Comparison of Hepatocytes from ADH+ and ADH−Peromyscus Maniculatus

1996 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 30-31
Author(s):  
J. T. Ellzey ◽  
D. Borunda ◽  
B. P. Stewart
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Adult Male ◽  
Uranyl Acetate ◽  
Model System ◽  
Deer Mice ◽  
En Bloc ◽  
Genetic Stock ◽  
Hepes Buffer ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Color Scanner

Genetically alcohol deficient deer mice (ADHN/ADHN) (obtained from the Peromyscus Genetic Stock Center, Univ. of South Carolina) lack hepatic cytosolic alcohol dehydrogenase. In order to determine if these deer mice would provide a model system for an ultrastructural study of the effects of ethanol on hepatocyte organelles, 75 micrographs of ADH+ adult male deer mice (n=5) were compared with 75 micrographs of ADH− adult male deer mice (n=5). A morphometric analysis of mitochondrial and peroxisomal parameters was undertaken.The livers were perfused with 0.1M HEPES buffer followed by 0.25% glutaraldehyde and 2% sucrose in 0.1M HEPES buffer (4C), removed, weighed and fixed by immersion in 2.5% glutaraldehyde in 0.1M HEPES buffer, pH 7.4, followed by a 3,3’ diaminobenzidine (DAB) incubation, postfixation with 2% OsO4, en bloc staining with 1% uranyl acetate in 0.025M maleate-NaOH buffer, dehydrated, embedded in Poly/Bed 812-BDMA epon resin, sectioned and poststained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate. Photographs were taken on a Zeiss EM-10 transmission electron microscope, scanned with a Howtek personal color scanner, analyzed with OPTIMAS 4.02 software on a Gateway2000 4DX2-66V personal computer and stored in Excel 4.0.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document