Conceptual development of an impact-attenuation system for intersecting roadways.

Details

• Creators:
  Putjenter, Joseph G. ; Bielenberg, Robert W. ; Faller, Ronald K. ; Reid, John D.
• Corporate Creators:
  Midwest Roadside Safety Facility
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Intersections
  • Guardrails
  • Bridge railings
  • Attenuation (Engineering)
  • Roadside hazards
  • Highway safety
  • Impact tests
  • Crash cushions
• Publication/ Report Number:
  TRP-03-312-15
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Nebraska
• Corporate Publisher:
  Nebraska. Dept. of Roads
• Abstract:
  Longitudinal barriers are commonly used to shield hazards, including stiff bridge rail ends and slopes. In some locations, ; a secondary roadway intersects the primary roadway within the guardrail’s length-of-need (LON). Some intersections may ; have as little as 15 ft (4.6 m) between the intersection and beginning of the bridge railing, which require short-radius ; guardrail systems. One short-radius guardrail system has passed several crash tests under AASHTO Manual for Assessing ; Safety Hardware (MASH) standards. ; Site conditions provided by the Nebraska Department of Roads were used to determine the constraints for a new safety ; treatment for intersecting roadways and include intersection radii, bridge railing offset distances, and clear zone distances. ; An examination of the site conditions determined that the bridge railing end should be treated as a hazard, as defined in the ; AASHTO Roadside Design Guide. The hazard would begin at the bridge railing end with a width extending to the clear ; zone. Several design concepts were developed to treat these situations with a preference on using existing technologies that ; could be adapted for this hazard scenario. ; Fifteen concepts were brainstormed, with three considered for further analysis and evaluation. These concepts included ; net attenuation/end terminal, inertial barrel array/end terminal, and a bullnose with a secondary energy absorber inside of it. ; All three systems were capable of stopping a vehicle in the space available, but only the net attenuation/end terminal ; concept was considered likely to accommodate the site conditions using a moderate slope behind the system. Four dynamic ; bogie tests and two static tests were performed on potential net attenuators to evaluate their use as energy absorbers in the ; preferred design concept. Recommendations for further development of the net attenuation system were provided.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  SPR-P1(13)
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/29589/dot_29589_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 41.57 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:abd7a28ca6169f801027cc8fb42ff31f99557971c01250c2477e604723a8a4e7d4cb4fb9587f529d08e1bbbbd5b9d2d433ed2230f39be4ce1201e38b8685266c