Retrofit of Existing Statewide Louisiana Safety Walk Bridge Barrier Railing Systems
Louisiana has approximately 200 miles of vintage 1960s concrete safety walk bridge rail systems currently in use on bridges throughout Louisiana. Many of these systems do not meet the current crash performance requirements of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware Second Edition (MASH) specifications for Test Level 3 (TL-3). Researchers at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) have conducted a full literature review of various bridge railing retrofits that have been used throughout the United States and abroad. A literature review search was performed using the Transportation Research Information Services database to document the pertinent findings of others on this proposed study. TTI researchers also obtained all available design information and details of safety walk barriers used throughout Louisiana. Two of the most common types of vintage bridge railings with safety walks were selected for further analysis and details. These included a concrete post and rail system with a sidewalk and a solid concrete parapet system with a sidewalk. Retrofits were developed that can be used on both common rail types used in Louisiana. Two full-scale crash tests were performed on the retrofit design anchored to the concrete post and rail system. During MASH Test 3-10 on the Louisiana Retrofit post and beam bridge rail with safety walk Option 1, the vehicle experienced occupant ridedown accelerations above the limit of 20.49 g as specified in MASH. The bridge rail was redesigned, and MASH Tests 3-10 and 3-11 were repeated. The Louisiana Retrofit post and beam bridge rail with safety walk Option 2 met the requirements for MASH TL-3 longitudinal barriers.
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Corporate Authors:
Texas A&M Transportation Institute
Texas A&M University System
3135 TAMU
College Station, TX United States 77843-3135Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development
Baton Rouge, LA United StatesFederal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Authors:
- Williams, William F
- Menges, Wanda L
- Griffith, Bill L
- Schroeder, William
- Moran, Sana
- Kuhn, Darrell L
- Publication Date: 2022-1
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Edition: Final Report
- Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 333p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Bridge design; Bridge railings; Crash tests; Crashworthiness; Retrofitting
- Identifier Terms: AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware
- Geographic Terms: Louisiana
- Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01835536
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA/LA.17/658, LTRC Project Number: 16-1ST, SIO Number: DOTLT1000099
- Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
- Created Date: Feb 7 2022 5:26PM