Evaluation of US 119 Pine Mountain Safety Improvements (Final Report)

The Transportation Center at the University of Kentucky was requested to perform an evaluation of the safety improvement project over a 7.1-mile section of US 119 on the Whitesburg side of Pine Mountain in Letcher County to determine whether the types of improvements undertaken affected the overall safety of the roadway. Specific attention was given to the effects of a ban on truck traffic that was implemented in March 2001. In addition, there was a need to determine if the use of flexible design was successful after removal of the truck restriction by permitting trucks with dimensions up to the WB-50 design to travel across the mountain. As a follow-up to the reconstruction project, a survey was conducted to solicit opinions of the US 119 Pine Mountain Crossing Task Force. This report documents the following: 1) the overall history of the project, 2) analyses of crash data prior to and after implementation of the truck ban and during and after construction, and 3) results of a survey of stakeholders who made up the Pine Mountain Crossing Task Force