Safety Philosophy

The following was issued for the Federal Lands Highway Program in March 2008:

In support of the national goals set forth within the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, the Office of Federal Lands Highway (FLH) is equally committed to reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries and improving the overall safety of transportation on Federal and Indian lands. Building on our strong history in leading context sensitive engineering solutions, FLH will continue to evaluate individual projects and their appropriate functional classification to balance the FHWA mission of the Federal Lands Managing Agencies (FLMAs). Appropriate safety applications are to be incorporated while respecting the resource impacts, historic and cultural values of the associated facility. This is to be achieved through a collaborative and cooperative effort between FLH and the FLMAs. This includes:

  • Collection and reporting of accurate and timely accident data
  • Implementation of Safety Management Systems and principles
  • Early consideration of safety in all highway programs and projects
  • The identification and investigation of impacted hazardous locations and features, and establishing countermeasures and priorities to address the identified or potential hazards
  • Incorporating appropriate safety improvements in all FLH projects
  • Systematic upgrading of roadside features and elements will be designed to meet current nationally accepted standards for crasbworthiness

It is our conviction that our respective statutory missions relating to enhancing safety are compatible. The FLHP Vision is "Creating the best transportation system in balance with the values of Federal and Tribal lands." This requires a unique effort to build a harmonic blend of the transportation access and environmental and resource protection elements of our respective missions. We are confidant that our efforts in providing project-specific context sensitive engineering solutions will result in a successful partnership dedicated to addressing public safety concerns and historic and cultural issues that compliment the unique setting of our projects. The overall goal is to work cooperatively to integrate safety as a basic business principle in all activities jointly undertaken by the FLH and FLMAs.

Signed by:

John Baxter, P.E.; Associate Administrator for Federal Lands
Melisa L. Ridenour; Division Engineer, EFL
Ricardo Suarez, P.E.; Division Engineer, CFL
Clara H. Conner; Division Engineer, WFL

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