Truck Emergency Escape Ramp Design and Operation

Book excerpt: "Many state departments of transportation (DOTs) build and operate escape ramps to allow heavy trucks that cannot maintain safe speeds on steep downgrades to safely exit the highway instead of losing control and crashing. Some escape ramps use upward-sloping beds of loose aggregate to slow the vehicles, while others employ passive or active mechanical devices such as cables to slow the vehicles. Some agencies use intelligent transportation technologies to detect trucks that are driving at excessive speeds for the location and to provide information to truckers regarding emergency escape ramp locations.NCHRP Synthesis 621: Truck Emergency Escape Ramp Design and Operation, from TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program, documents practices used by state DOTs to design and operate facilities to detect, guide, and capture out-of-control vehicles travelling on steep downgrades." -- publisher's website.