Rumble strips to be installed on Route 24

Audible rumble strips will be installed on a 3.1-mile stretch of Route 24 in Flanders as a precaution to avoid head-on collisions from cars drifting over the center median line.

The audible rumble strips make sounds and send vibrations through cars to alert drivers they are drifting into an oncoming lane.

Assemb. Fred W. Thiele Jr. (I-Sag Harbor) said the strips are a low-cost measure to combat distracted driving and also help drivers whose visibility is impaired during snowstorms.

Route 24 runs north and south, from the Long Island Expressway to Montauk Highway in Hampton Bays.

A 2009 study by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program supports the use of centerline rumble strips as a safe and cost-effective collision countermeasure, citing a 64 percent reduction in head-on and opposite-direction sideswipe crashes that result in fatalities or injuries in urban areas, according to Thiele’s research.

The work will begin this fall.

The state Department of Transportation is also installing centerline rumble strips at four other locations, all on Route 25 in Brookhaven and Riverhead towns.

Those locations are 1.5 miles between Wilson Avenue and Rocky Point Road in Middle Island, 0.3 miles between Ridge Road/Medford Lane and Ruth Lane in Ridge, 7.8 miles between William Floyd Parkway in Ridge and the Splish Splash driveway in Riverhead, and 1.3 miles between the Tanger mall driveway and Raynor Avenue in Riverhead.