Synthesis of the Performance of Portable Concrete Barrier Systems

In 2009, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) implemented an updated guideline for the evaluation of roadside hardware. The new AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) improved the criteria for evaluating roadside hardware beyond those provided in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report No. 350 through updates to test vehicles, test matrices, and impact conditions. In an effort to encourage state departments of transportation and hardware developers to advance their hardware designs, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and AASHTO have collaborated to develop a MASH implementation policy that includes sunset dates for various categories of roadside hardware. The new policy will require that devices installed on federal-aid roadways after the sunset dates must satisfy MASH. Temporary work-zone devices, including portable barriers, let on projects after December 31, 2019, must have been successfully tested using MASH 2016. Devices used on projects let before this date may continue to be used throughout their normal service lives. Thus, an opportunity exists to develop a high-performance portable barrier system that meets the MASH safety criteria as well as address the deflection, stability, and durability concerns of most current portable barrier designs. Before developing a new system, there is a need to review the performance of existing and under development non-proprietary portable concrete barrier (PCB) systems. The objectives of this research are to (1) synthesize information on the performance of existing or under development non-proprietary portable concrete barrier systems and (2) propose recommendations for future research needs to improve the performance of PCB.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=4381

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $50000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 22-36

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Dekelbab, Waseem

• Performing Organizations:

  Texas A&M Transportation Institute, College Station

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

  Dobrovolny, Chiara

• Start Date: 20180713
• Expected Completion Date: 20190312
• Actual Completion Date: 20190312
• Source Data: RiP Project 41649

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Barriers (Roads); Concrete structures; Crashworthiness; Design; Durability; Highway safety
• Identifier Terms: AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01634969
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 22-36
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: May 19 2017 9:26AM