Develop Assessment and Mitigation Guidance for Ancillary Highway Structures with Existing Cracks

Ancillary structures (AS) exist in a wide variety of applications critical to safety and daily needs of the travelling public (e.g. HMIP, COSS, and traffic signals). The long-term corrosion performance of these structures is of utmost importance to prevent deterioration and extend the structural design life and safety. While hot-dipped galvanizing provides excellent long-term behavior for corrosion control of these critical structures, over the past 20 years this process has been found to create extensive cracking of welds on base plate connections that is detrimental to the fatigue lives of these poles. Although improved details are used in new designs, thousands of HMIP, COSS, and signal poles exist in Texas with varying levels of cracking in the welds between the baseplates and pole shafts. The research outlined in this proposal identifies and provides critical assessment parameters and guidance for Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to determine if cracks should be monitored, repaired, or the structural component replaced. The proposed research includes a representative assessment of weld cracking in the AS inventory, the development of monitoring hardware and techniques, the development and assessment of repair techniques, and the development of certification methods/standards for inspection personnel.

• Record URL:
  https://library.ctr.utexas.edu/Presto/project=0-7193

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $1493580
• Contract Numbers:

  0-7193

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Texas Department of Transportation

  125 E. 11th Street
  Austin, TX  United States  78701-2483
• Managing Organizations:

  Texas Department of Transportation

  125 E. 11th Street
  Austin, TX  United States  78701-2483
• Project Managers:

  Odell, Wade

• Performing Organizations:

  Center for Transportation Research

  3925 W. Braker Lane
  Austin, TX  United States  78759

  Texas A&M Transportation Institute

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

  Helwig, Todd

• Start Date: 20230901
• Expected Completion Date: 20260831
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Corrosion resistance; Cracking; Maintenance management; Monitoring; Performance tests; Repairing; Support poles; Traffic signals; Weld strength
• Geographic Terms: Texas
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01894847
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Texas Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: 0-7193
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Sep 27 2023 3:58PM