Lessons Learned from Intersection Control Evaluation (ICE)

Gina Lopez

Senior Transportation Engineer
California Department of Transportation

Gina Lopez is a Senior Transportation Engineer with the California Department of Transportation, better known as Caltrans. She has over 16 years of transportation design related experience and is one of the State’s Roundabout Design Subject Matter Experts.

In 2013 the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) released a Traffic Operations Policy Directive (TOPD) implementing the Intersection Control Evaluation (ICE) process to increase the consideration of modern intersection and interchange designs and solutions.

The ICE presentation will cover the following areas.

A brief background on when the ICE policy was implemented, including what types of projects are subject to the policy and the two-step process that is required at the various project development stages if a project is required to implement ICE.

The lessons learned from the ICE policy thus far since its implementation in 2013. The lessons learned range from the lessons specific to how the policy was written/structured along with the guidance and tools provided to lessons based on the number of roundabouts and other intersection types constructed on the California State Highway System.

The next steps for Caltrans including a planned ICE policy update (coined internally as ICE 2.0). ICE 2.0 is a cross Divisional effort, led by District 6 Traffic Operations with assistance from the Federal Highway Administration, to update the policy based on the lessons learned. In addition to ICE 2.0, other continual efforts are being identified such as training and education on the benefits of roundabouts and other alternative intersection types.

Learning Objective 1: Identify ways other state and local agencies can successfully implement a process similar to ICE to construct safer types of intersections.

Learning Objective 2: Evaluate how a new policy similar to ICE can be combined into other existing agency project delivery processes to avoid overlapping burdensome deliverables, reports, and/or analyses.

Learning Objective 3: Successful Policies and Directives should always be accompanied and followed with training and guidance.

Target Audience: As noted in the learning objectives, the target audience includes state and local agencies.

Caltrans has identified that a significant portion of all fatal crashes occur within or near intersections, and those intersections only account for a small portion of the State Highway System; therefore, establishing a policy that requires consideration of proven safer intersections is a step in the right direction towards Vision Zero (zero deaths by 2050).