The guidelines represent an overhaul of MTO's Prioritized Contract Content Guidelines. In developing the guidelines, particular emphasis was placed on improving the methodology used to calculate safety benefits through the use of Collision Modification Factors (CMFs) deemed to be reliable and appropriate for Ontario conditions.
The guidelines were augmented by a quantitative supporting tool to facilitate the integration of engineering and economic principles and allow a meaningful assessment of project effects and placement of a value on such effects.
In developing the new HEIR guidelines, Morrison Hershfield:
- Conducted a literature review on current best practice
- Carried out a survey of MTO staff to identify key issues
- Developed a set of guiding principles for addressing safety in design
- Established the process for assessing cost-effectiveness
- Reviewed the appropriateness of the Collision Modification Factors used to estimate safety benefits
- Identified non-quantitative factors that should be considered in decision-making, and prepared narrative guidance on relevant design trade-offs
- Established documentation requirements and roles and responsibilities
- Developed a spreadsheet calculation tool to simplify the calculation process
- Developed training material, and trained nearly 400 MTO staff and consultants
The HEIR Guidelines and accompanying spreadsheet calculation tool have the potential to significantly improve highway infrastructure decision-making in Ontario by providing information to decision-makers that was previously unavailable.
The HEIR Guidelines also provide a solid and formal basis for assessing the merit/cost-effectiveness of improvement options, and establishing the most appropriate implementation time-frame. The guidelines provide insight into which highway elements to improve beyond standard, where significant benefits can be achieved by doing so.
The development of formal guidelines and supporting tools can help make design decisions more consistent, economically justified, and well-documented.