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North Dakota’s Experience. Work Zone Focus State Workshop April 19, 2005. North Dakota’s Roads. Rural state with 640,000 residents Roads mainly product to market roads. Project Area. I-29 Connects Canada to Mexico (I-35) Metro area approaching 250,000 residents Traffic counts
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North Dakota’s Experience Work Zone Focus State Workshop April 19, 2005
North Dakota’s Roads • Rural state with 640,000 residents • Roads mainly product to market roads
Project Area • I-29 Connects Canada to Mexico (I-35) • Metro area approaching 250,000 residents • Traffic counts • I-29 40,000 projected to exceed 70,000 • Crossroads about 35,000
Project Characteristics • Reconstruct I-29 through Fargo – 8 Miles including all interchanges and new underpasses • Reconstruct Main Avenue one mile each side of I-29 • Lengthen Railroad Separation • Started in 2000 and will continue into 2008 • $130 million project
Public Concerns • One of four major north south routes in Fargo • Regional Hospital and College on north side • Large number of employees on the south side • Regional shopping center along corridor • Closed main entrance into mall during construction • Affected almost everyone in town • Night closures for beam setting and underground • Closed ramps at I-29/I-94 detoured onto city street
Outreach Efforts • Overall goal was to reduce crashes and inform public of travel interruptions • $380,000 over four years • Primarily targeted roadway users
Barriers and Obstacles • Biggest barrier was changing mindset that construction was horrible and life altering • Overcome by educating and obtaining public buy in
Pre-Construction Outreach • “Normal” public process during environmental process • Business Advisory Group between environmental process and bidding • Co-sponsored by Chamber of Commerce • Small group of affected businesses met quarterly to discuss plans and work zone traffic control • Allowed businesses to plan for construction
During Construction Outreach • Safety message – “Let’s get there together, safety first” • Tools used • Website • Leave behinds • Press releases • Live webcams of workzone • Difficult to keep information current in a rapidly changing workzone
During Construction Outreach • Contractor public relations • Contract required contractor to provide a public information person to update affected property owners • Required weekly contact and updates to the property owners • Contractor controls schedule and resources so they know best what is going to happen • ER Book
Results of Outreach • Successful • Website • Buying advertising • Picking a media firm • Leave behinds • 2000 42 crashes without PIC • 2001 19 crashes with PIC
Lessons Learned • Lessons learned • Time invested up front pays off • Working hard at keeping lines of communications open • Develop partnerships • What could be done differently in the future • Get to the affected property owners earlier
Summary • Summarize key points (i.e., top 5 things to keep in mind when developing/implementing an outreach campaign) • Closing comments/last thoughts to help attendees develop their own strategies and plans later in the day