Linn, Jones counties try new, safer shoulder design

It's a fairly common story: An inattentive or drowsy driver drops their vehicle's right-side tire(s) off the edge of the pavement, then over corrects, sending them into the oncoming lane.

County Enginner Steve Gannon hopes a new paving technique will prevent at least a few such accidents along County Road E-34 at the Linn-Jones county line.

“It makes it much safer for the car, because it's essentially got support for the wheel”  drops off the pavement, Gannon said.

Safety Edge adds a sloped nine-inch apron along each side of the road. After paving, crews can bring the gravel shoulder up over the apron, easing the pavement-to-shoulder transition and providing more support for a wheel that strays off a few inches.

The technique also makes a more durable pavement edge. Gannon said crews are sent out to re-groom the edge whenever the dropoff reaches two inches.

Horsfield Construction of Epworth recently finished paving the approximately four-mile stretch of E-34 (County Home Road through much of Linn County) with the Safety Edge. The technique has been used with asphalt paving, but Iowa is the first state to apply it to concrete roads, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Gannon said Safety Edge adds about $20,000 per mile to the cost of a resurfacing project, which usually runs about $300,000 a mile.

“It'll depend on safety statistics” if Safety Edge used on future projects, Gannon said. “We'll use it on projects that have crash statistics that warrant it.”

The paving project was paid for with $836,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvesment Act – the federal stimulus. Gannon said federal funding also paid for fabricating the attachment to Horsfield's paver.