Session 7C: Applying HSM for PennDOT and Low Cost Safety Improvements
Session Description: The session will start with project-specific lessons learned from applying the HSM for two PennDOT projects, including an interchange evaluation in District 8 where the HSM assisted in the preferred alternative; and an urban roadway study in District 11 to determine B/C ratios for the various improvement options. The remaining speakers will discuss low-cost safety improvements (1) on a local roadway in District 5, which constructed low-cost safety improvements with results from preliminary before/after crash data; and (2) at Maryland toll plazas, focusing on pavement marking treatment options.
Moderator: Bryan Hanover, PE, PTOE, McCormick Taylor
- Applying the Highway Safety Manual: Project-Specific Lessons Learned, Greg Frisby, PE, PTOE, Project Engineer, WRA
- Basin Street Low-Cost Safety Improvement Project, Jeannette Quirus, PE, PTOE, Director, Traffic Engineering, McCormick Taylor
- Safety at Toll Plazas – Pavement Marking Strategies, Serena Liu, PE, PTOE, Traffic Manager, Maryland Transportation Authority
Speaker Bios:
Greg Frisby is a project engineer with WRA in the firm’s York, Pennsylvania office. He has more than seven years of experience in providing traffic engineering services for transportation-related projects throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region, including: traffic safety studies, pedestrian safety studies/audits, a statewide strategic highway safety plan, capacity analyses studies, traffic signal warrant analysis, and the design of maintenance and protection of traffic plans and signal plans. Since 2010, he has played a key role in the development and implementation of Delaware’s Highway Safety Improvement Program and has applied Highway Safety Manual methodologies as part of numerous safety and alternative analysis studies. Greg is a licensed professional engineer and holds a bachelor of science in civil engineering from Penn State.
Jeannette Quirus has more than 20 years of experience. She is the manager for McCormick Taylor’s traffic department; managing staff, coordinating traffic workloads, work sharing, and staffing needs. She has extensive experience in project management and a wide range of traffic engineering activities ranging from studies and operations to final design. She is an active volunteer in professional societies, having served in elected positions, including president of MASITE in 2007; president of ITE District 2 in 2010; and member of the board of directors for the Engineer’s Club of Philadelphia from 2010 until 2015. She also served as the program chair for the 2010 Transportation and Engineering Safety Conference held at Penn State. She currently sits on the Montgomery County Transportation Authority, of which she was elected vice chair in 2014. Most recently, Jeannette was appointed to the Whitemarsh Township Authority. She is a licensed P.E. in eight states, and has her PTOE. She has both a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.
Serena Liu is the traffic manager for Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA), an agency that is customer-driven to deliver safe, sustainable, intelligent, and exceptional transportation solutions in order to connect customers to life’s opportunities. Serena is a licensed professional engineer (PE) and certified professional traffic operations engineer (PTOE) with more than 12 years of traffic and transportation engineering experience in both public and private sectors. In her current position, she is responsible for overseeing traffic engineering analysis, operations, and design as well as the signing, safety, and traffic data collection programs of MDTA facilities. Serena holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).
