WSDOT posts its Quarterly Performance Report

OLYMPIA - The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) released its quarterly performance report, “The Gray Notebook: Measures, Markers and Mileposts” for the quarter ending December 31, 2007. This edition of the “Gray Notebook” includes annual performance reports for pavement conditions, highway maintenance, pedestrian and bicycle safety, and environmental programs. Also, WSDOT provides quarterly reports on worker safety, workforce levels and training, highway safety, incident response, rail, and ferries. The December 31 edition covers the fourth quarter of 2007 and is now available.

The “Beige Pages” show a quarterly performance assessment of WSDOT’s project delivery. The overall performance of the highway program remains strong. The 125 Transportation Partnership Account and Nickel highway construction projects completed to date have been delivered at 0.01 percent below the $1.3 billion budget that the Legislature allocated for these projects. Of those projects, 91 percent of the individual projects have been delivered on-time, 88 percent have been delivered on-budget, and 82 percent on-time and on-budget.

The Pavement Condition Assessment Annual Update analyzes the 20,099 “lane miles” of state-owned pavement in Washington State. For 2006, 93.5 percent of the state-owned pavement was in good or fair condition. Lane miles count the number of lanes, ramps, collectors and special use lanes on a given stretch of highway; for example, a one-mile segment of four-lane highway is four lane miles of pavement. The results of a WSDOT commissioned study examining the performance of Portland Cement concrete pavements on I-5 in King County revealed that 129 lane miles (66 percent) of the concrete pavement in this area is in need of rehabilitation or reconstruction.

The Highway Safety Annual Update reports that 49 safety improvement projects have resulted in a six percent reduction in all collisions and a 19 percent reduction in all injury and fatal collisions at these project locations. In 2006, Washington ranked 15th lowest in the nation for pedestrian fatality rates, improving from 16th in 2005, and 10th lowest in the nation for bicycle fatality rates, improving from 25th in 2005.

The Highway Maintenance Annual Update shows WSDOT has achieved 17 of 32 highway maintenance activity targets for 2007, a 53 percent achievement rate. The decrease in the number of targets achieved is due to the increase in the amount of infrastructure that needs to be maintained, inflation in maintenance costs, and the deferral of lower priority maintenance needs.

The Incident Response Quarterly Update reports that during the fourth quarter of 2007, WSDOT Incident Response units responded to 12,560 traffic incidents, with an average clearance time of 16 minutes, a 10.7 percent improvement over the fourth quarter in 2006. In addition, WSDOT achieved its goal to reduce the average duration of incidents that last longer than 90 minutes by five percent on key corridors; the average duration of these types of incidents fell from 174 minutes as of June 30, 2006 to 161 minutes as of December 31, 2007, a seven percent improvement.

The Environmental Programs and Compliance Annual Update reports WSDOT’s performance in the categories of environmental management systems, erosion control, water quality, stormwater treatment facilities, monitoring replacement wetlands, and environmental compliance assurance. WSDOT’s successes in these programs include delivering 106 percent of the required wetlands mitigation acreage. WSDOT has created or enhanced more acreage than it has been required to do so since 2001.