NCHRP Report 350 Assessment of Existing Roadside Safety Hardware

Federal Highway Administration2000PDFTech ReportButh, C. EugeneMenges, Wanda L.Schoeneman, Sandra K.United States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Safety and Traffic Operations Research and DevelopmentTexas Transportation InstituteMcDevitt, CharlesUnited States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Safety and Traffic OperationsUnited StatesGuardrail terminalsGuardrailsCrash testsHighway safetyBeamsTerminalsTransitionsLongitudinal barriersCable barriersGuardrailsCrash testingRoadside safetyFHWA-RD-01-042DTFH61-97-C-00039McDevitt, Charles F.Research Study Title: Assessment of Existing Roadside Safety Hardware - II; Contracting Officer\u2019s Technical Representative (COTR): Charles F. McDevitt - HRDS-4The Federal Highway Administration initiated this contract with the objective to crash test and evaluate several terminals, transitions, and longitudinal barriers to NCHRP Report 350. NCHRP Report 350 specifies crash tests and evaluation criteria for three performance levels for terminals and six performance levels for transitions and longitudinal barriers. The buried-in-backslope terminals evaluated were the G4 on steel posts and wood blockouts with a rub rail and a 6 to 1 vee ditch and the G4 with steel posts and wood blockouts with a 4 to 1 slope. Both met specifications for NCHRP Report 350 test 3-35. The 3-strand New York cable terminal was evaluated and met requirements for NCHRP Report 350 test 3-34. The transitions evaluated under this contract included the vertical wall transition (W-beam with W-beam rub rail and steel posts), the vertical flared back transition (W-beam with channel rub rail, steel posts, and routed wood blockouts), the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (DOT) transition (vertical flared back concrete parapet with W-beam, rub rail, steel posts, and routed wood blockouts), the Nebraska thrie beam transition (vertical wall parapet with thrie beam), and the Connecticut W-beam transition (NJ-shape wall with W-beam and channel rub rail). All the transitions met the required criteria for NCHRP Report 350 test 3-21, except for the vertical flared back transition. The MB1 median cable barrier chosen for evaluation was the Washington State DOT (WSDOT) cable barrier with a New York cable rail terminal. The thrie beam guardrail with steel posts and routed wood blockouts and the strong wood post thrie beam guardrail were also evaluated. The cable barrier and both thrie beam guardrails met the required specifications for NCHRP Report 350 test 3-11. The modified thrie beam guardrail with 2.1-m-long W150x14 steel posts and W360x33 blockouts (Design No. SGR09b) was evaluated and met specifications for NCHRP Report 350 test 4-12. Construction details for all the terminals, transitions, and longitudinal barriers evaluated are reported herein. Also included are details of the crash tests performed and the assessment of each test.96