Interstate 37 in Texas Interstate Access Justification

Federal Highway Administration2022PDFTech ReportKersavage, KristinHamilton, IanVHB/Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc.United States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of SafetyRoche, JerryPascual, Sarah WeissmanUnited States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of SafetyUnited StatesTexasInterstate highwaysSafety analysisTraffic safetyPavement wideningSafetyHighway Safety SoftwareHighway Safety ManualInterstate accessHSSFHWA-SA-21-076DTFH61-16-D-00052Roche, JerryCase StudyThis case study presents a safety analysis performed by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for an Interstate Access Justification Report. The Interstate 37 (I-37) corridor is an important freight route, critical hurricane evacuation linkage, and the only crossing of the Nueces River within 25 miles. This corridor is part of the National Primary Highway Freight System. US 77, which connects to I-37 at the end of the project area, is a part of the Texas Highway Freight Network. Several planning studies, including the I-37 Corridor Study Report, I-69 to I-410, identified the need for mainline widening and the replacement of the Nueces River Bridge. As a result, TxDOT planned a widening project along this stretch of interstate to accommodate greater traffic demand, necessitating additional travel lanes and several key design changes, including environmentally sensitive alterations to the Nueces River Bridge. TxDOT reviewed the study area\u2019s historic crash frequency and rates to make targeted improvements to the project design. After this review, the TxDOT project team used the Highway Safety Software to predict crashes along I-37 for both a No Build scenario with no changes to the corridor and a Build scenario with proposed capacity, mobility, and safety alternatives. The results indicated that predicted crashes are expected to decrease with implementation of the proposed improvements compared to the existing conditions for both the base (2020) and design (2040) years. Total crashes are expected to decrease by 7.53 crashes (12.8 percent) per year for the base year and by 13.44 crashes (14.3 percent) per year for the design year.137