West Virginia was experiencing a high number of run-off-the-road crashes throughout their highway network. To combat this problem, West Virginia has applied a High Friction Surface treatment to more than 20 sites.

In the past five years, Pennsylvania has experienced nearly 200 fatalities and 500 major injuries each year involving crashes on slippery or wet pavement. Nationally, more than 25 percent of highway fatalities occur at or near horizontal curves each year, even though these curves only make up 5 percent of the nation’s highway miles.

In 2008, the new Marquette Interchange was completed in Wisconsin. This is a heavily utilized ramp with annual daily traffic of 31,000 vehicles. Part of the design included a ramp connection from I-94 eastbound to I-43 northbound. Unfortunately, during every rain or snow event, vehicles were leaving the traveled way so frequently that the connection was shut down. In just a three-year period, 81 crashes occurred on this ramp. 

Recognizing that nearly 70 percent of their roadway crashes were related to road departure Kentucky identified a need to address road departure accidents. . Roadway departure crashes are a priority for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KTC) because they have found that these crashes tend to lead to injuries or fatalities. If a half-mile roadway section had eight or more wet weather crashes over a five-year period, the KTC proactively applied a High Friction Surface treatment if the pavement was in a good condition. All of the locations used calcined bauxite for the aggregate.

The Florida Transportation Department (FDOT) has installed a number of High Friction Surface treatments around the state to date. Among the sites with HFST installed are the northbound interchange ramp at Royal Palm Boulevard and I-75 (Broward County), the I-595 interchange ramp to the Ft. Lauderdale airport, and the west leg (downgrade) of Sheridan St. at the North 29th Ave.