Highway Design and Safety
Dr. Govatos began his career with Deldot in the office of Planning Research and Evaluation where he was charged with implementing
Federal Regulations for environmental policy as they relate to major highway projects. He was also responsible for reviewing
and disseminating highway research throughout the department. Later in his career he was retained by Deldot in his consulting capacity
to evaluate the degradation of concrete roadways on interstate highways. As part of that work he was placed in responsible charge for
rehabilitation of portions of I-95, I-495 and I-295.
Dr. Govatos has since been retained to evaluate numerous cases in which
highway defects were alleged to have caused an accident or increased damage severity and occupant injury. During his 30 years
of experience, Dr. Govatos has found that many highway accident cases have been caused by guardrail that was improperly designed and
or placed, heavy or stiff roadside objects placed too close to the travel way, and improperly placed traffic control devices such
as signs, roadway striping and traffic signals. Photos below demonstrate some of these issues.
Improperly designed guardrail allowed a guardrail section to penetrate the occupant compartment.
This utility pole was placed too close to the edge of the road allowing impact to occur from only a slight deviation from the
travel way.
These traffic signal heads were not placed over the Lane which they were meant to control. This caused driver confusion which
resulted in a fatality during an ensuing collision.