Transportation

Distracted Driving is Dangerous Business

You and your family are driving to Grandma’s for Easter weekend. You’re at the wheel and get a call from a relative asking about your arrival. You answer what should be a quick question but then get caught up in the conversation that lasts for several minutes. While this might seem like an innocent situation,…
Read More

Evolution of Civil and Traffic Engineering

When Sain Associates opened its doors in 1972, the business consisted of consulting engineering services and land surveying. Many projects included site engineering for enclosed shopping malls across the southeast. Believe it or not, some of the mall projects from the 1970s are still in operation today, including the Santa Rosa Mall in Mary Esther,…
Read More

Alicia Bailey’s 20th Anniversary

We are excited to recognize a huge career milestone in just a few short days – Alicia Bailey, PE, Practice Leader / Sr. Principal, is celebrating her 20th anniversary with Sain Associates. Alicia wears many hats at our company, leading our Infrastructure and Survey teams and serving as a member of our Executive Committee. We appreciate…
Read More

Dothan Long Range Transportation Plan

Long Range Transportation Plans (LRTP) are an essential element of an agency’s transportation planning process. A traditional LRTP is a 20-year planning horizon vision document that reflects the application of programmatic transportation goals to project prioritization. Transportation plans are conducted at the National, Regional, and unit level for Federal Land Management Agencies (FLMAs). LRTPs include financial components…
Read More

What is a Metropolitan Planning Organization?

A Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is a federally designated transportation policy-making body composed of representatives from local governments and transportation agencies in the designated planning region. Federal legislation passed in the 1960s required urbanized areas with a population over 50,000 to establish a metropolitan planning organization to ensure that existing and future transportation expenditures in…
Read More

Did You Know? ALDOT On-Call Contracts

Did you know Sain Associates has many on-call contracts with ALDOT? There are many benefits of on-call contracts. First, they allow Sain Associates to work with ALDOT on a range of projects. Over the years, the projects have ranged from surveying to corridor and traffic studies to a broad array of design projects. Since a…
Read More

Did you know? Rumble Strips

Have you ever wondered what that terrible noise and vibration are when you slightly veer on a roadway? Those noisy bumps are referred to as rumble strips, and they are formed when a ribbon of asphalt has been milled with a special tool. Rumble strips produce sound and vibration to alert drivers when they cross…
Read More

5 Components of Transportation Planning

With the recent trend of increased integration between transportation planning and traffic operations, it is important for new traffic analysts and engineers to understand the different levels of planning along with the most appropriate tools and methods of analysis. As planning encompasses areas ranging in size from a few intersections to entire sub regions of…
Read More

Roundabouts in Engineering

In honor of National Roundabout Week, we’re sharing a throwback blog from 2016! A few years have passed since it was last published, but one thing remains the same – roundabouts are a proven safety countermeasure because they can substantially reduce crashes that result in serious injury or death. Roundabouts can improve safety, promote lower…
Read More

Updating ALDOT’s Access Management Manual

Greek inventor Archimedes once said, “The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.” This idea is such a simple concept and can be seen in so many parts of life. For example, babies understand this concept when crawling towards their parents, and predators understand this notion when chasing their prey.  In engineering, we…
Read More