Retrofit of existing statewide Louisiana safety walk bridge barrier railing systems : research project capsule.

PDFTech Report16-1ST100099Bridge railingsConcrete structuresCrashworthinessPerformanceRetrofittingUnited StatesLouisianaLouisiana Transportation Research CenterWilliams, William F.Alaywan, Walid R.Texas A&M Transportation InstituteLouisiana. Dept. of Transportation and DevelopmentLouisiana State University (Baton Rouge, La.)United States. Federal Highway AdministrationRupnow, Tyson D.US Transportation CollectionCurrently, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD)maintains approximately 200 miles of concrete safety walk barrier railing systems onits bridges. Some of these vintage systems do not meet the current crash performancerequirements of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials\ue2\u20ac\u2122Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (AASHTO MASH) specifications.Most existing safety walk bridge barrier railing systems consist of a concrete curb, aconcrete safety walk, and a concrete parapet or post and rail system. The safety walkon these bridges is desirable for bridge inspection/maintenance activities, and forgeneral safety of stranded drivers or pedestrians. Retrofits that meet the current MASHrequirements for Test Level 4 (TL-4) and maintain the concrete safety walk are needed