Develop Countermeasure Strategies for Protecting Bridge Girders Against Overheight Vehicles Impact

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently developed an energy-dissipative system prototype using a combination of a steel box beam with aluminum honeycombs for the protection of bridge girders from over-height impacts. This innovative protection device will be effective in preventing damages to concrete and steel beams, while sustaining moderate to severe damage to itself, depending on the intensity of the impact. This project focuses on the full scale testing, field installation and evaluation of the effectiveness of this prototype against over-height truck impacts. The innovative steel beam/honeycomb protective system is anticipated to dissipate a large portion of the energy from the colliding truck by crushing/deforming the honeycombs. The effectiveness of this device has been investigated recently by large-scale testing in collaboration with the researchers at Hunan University, where over-height impact was simulated through a drop hammer system. With the success of the large-scale testing program, the actual field installation of full scale model is deemed necessary to validate its effectiveness to protect existing bridge structures. In particular, this project aims at the following: (1) Design of the full-scale testing program and selection of bridge site for the field installation; (2) Custom construction and installation of the full-scale model of the prototype attaching to the existing facial girder of the selected structure; and (3) Full scale testing and evaluation of the system with actual over-height truck impact on site.

• Record URL:
  http://www.pooledfund.org/Details/Study/712

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Programmed
• Funding: $1434558
• Contract Numbers:

  TPF-5(484)

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities

  Research Development & Technology Transfer
  3132 Channel Dr
  Juneau, AK  United States 

  New York State Department of Transportation

  50 Wolf Road
  Albany, NY  United States  12232

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development

  P.O. Box 94245
  1201 Capitol Access Road
  Baton Rouge, LA  United States  70804-9245

  Virginia Department of Transportation

  1408 E Broad Street
  Richmond, VA  United States  23219

  Georgia Department of Transportation

  600 West Peachtree St
  Atlanta, GA  United States  30308

  New Jersey Department of Transportation

  1035 Parkway Avenue
  Trenton, NJ  United States  08625

  Oklahoma Transportation

  200 NE 21st Street
  Oklahoma City, OK  United States  73105
• Project Managers:

  Chiarito, Vincent

• Start Date: 20231213
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Box beams; Bridges; Countermeasures; Design methods; Dissipation; Energy absorption; Girders; Height; Highway safety; Honeycomb structures; Impact loads; Oversize loads; Prototype tests; Steel; Trucks
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Highways; Materials; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01776728
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Federal Highway Administration
• Contract Numbers: TPF-5(484)
• Files: RIP, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jul 19 2021 9:15PM