Development and MASH TL-4 Evaluation of TxDOT Large-Scupper Median Barrier for Flood-Prone Areas

Concrete median barriers are designed to mitigate serious cross-median crashes by preventing penetration of errant vehicles into oncoming traffic. When implemented in flood-prone areas, however, solid concrete median barriers can act as a dam to floodwaters, as recently seen in Texas during Hurricane Harvey or in Louisiana and Pennsylvania following severe storms. These severe weather events raise the height of floodwaters and increase the severity of flooding on highways and surrounding roads and communities. In this study, new median barrier options with openings were investigated as a way to reduce flooding. Finite element simulations were used to aid investigation and evaluation of the designs, and laboratory testing was performed to evaluate the hydraulic efficiency of barrier designs in a variety of simulated flood conditions. A concrete single-slope profile median barrier with a large scupper was selected for crash testing following Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) Test Level 4 impact conditions and evaluation criteria. The median barrier design was deemed MASH compliant and is ready for implementation in areas susceptible to flooding, with the goals of reducing flooding severity, decreasing associated risk to motorists, and reducing the level of flood damage to both highways and surrounding areas.

• Record URL:
  https://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-6976-R1.pdf
• 
• Summary URL:
  https://static.tti.tamu.edu/tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-6976-PSR.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/59215
• Corporate Authors:

  Texas A&M Transportation Institute

  Texas A&M University System
  3135 TAMU
  College Station, TX  United States  77843-3135

  Texas Department of Transportation

  Research and Technology Implementation Office
  125 E 11th Street
  Austin, TX  United States  78701-2483

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Dobrovolny, Chiara Silvestri
  • Kovar, James C
  • Bligh, Roger P
  • Johnson, Blair A
  • Barrett, Michael E
  • Klenzendorf, Brandon
  • Hendrickson, Gregory
  • Menges, Wanda L
  • Schroeder, William
  • Kuhn, Darrell L
• Publication Date: 2021-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Technical Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 264p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash tests; Design; Finite element method; Floods; Median barriers
• Identifier Terms: AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware
• Geographic Terms: Texas
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01778819
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA/TX-21/0-6976-R1, 0-6976-R1
• Contract Numbers: 0-6976
• Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Aug 9 2021 9:44AM