In-Service Performance Evaluation (ISPE) of New England Transportation Consortium (NETC) Steel Bridge Railings

According to the Joint Agreement between AASHTO and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), each state is required to specify Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) compliant bridge rails for new and full replacements on the National Highway System (NHS) with contract letting dates after December 31, 2019. In accordance with those requirements, a project was recently completed to evaluate the crash performance of the New England Transportation Consortium (NETC) bridge rail systems under the MASH criteria using finite element analysis. (Plaxico and Ray 2020) The study concluded that the existing NETC bridge railing designs would meet the new crash testing standards, but also recommended minor design modifications to further improve performance. Establishing that these long-standing bridge railing designs are performing well in the field would provide further confidence that the current, as well as the improved, NETC bridge railing designs adequately meet the performance criteria of MASH without the need to perform additional full-scale testing. While the in-service performance of the NETC bridge railings is believed to be good, an in-service performance evaluation (ISPE) has never been conducted to confirm that impression. The objective of this project was to determine the in-service performance of the NETC steel post-and-beam bridge railings and transition systems using evaluation procedures provided in the recently completed NCHRP Project 22-33, “Multi-State In-Service Performance Evaluations of Roadside Safety Hardware”. (Carrigan and Ray 2022)

• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/76982
• Corporate Authors:

  Roadsafe LLC

  Canton, ME  United States 

  New England Transportation Consortium

  Augusta, ME  United States 
• Authors:
  • Carrigan, Christine E
  • Plaxico, Chuck A
  • Ray, Ethan
  • Ray, Archie
  • Ray, Malcolm H
• Publication Date: 2023-10-27

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 58p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridge railings; Crash tests; Finite element method; Performance tests
• Identifier Terms: AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01929756
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 20211012000000000359
• Files: NTL, TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 6 2024 4:58PM