If your car is rumbling down the highway, better check your lane. The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is spending millions of dollars to grind rumble strips into the center of some of the state’s highways.
The indentations recently appeared along GA 197 North in Habersham County. Similar work is being done in other areas across the state, including the 21 counties in GDOT’s northeastern district.
“The routes and locations for rumble strip installation were identified by the district based on accident history,” says GDOT District 1 spokesperson Katie Strickland. “Additional locations were included to replace previously existing rumble strips that were eliminated by resurfacing projects.”
Although centerline rumble strips have been used in the past, they’re new to some of the roads where they’re now being applied.
The rumble strips are “a countermeasure for driver error,” according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA). They’re designed primarily to assist distracted, drowsy, or otherwise inattentive drivers who unintentionally stray over the centerline. The noise and vibration caused by driving over the strips alert drivers to get back in their lane.
The strips can also help drivers locate their travel lane in bad weather.
According to a National Cooperative Highway Research Program report, the milled centerline rumble strips significantly reduce the number of crashes with injuries on rural and urban two-lane roads.
GDOT is paying $2 million to install the rumble strips across District 1.
Strickland says the project is scheduled to be completed by June 30, 2020.
