Guardrail Evaluation for Embankments and Culverts for Kansas Low-Volume Rural Roads

The State of Kansas has a significant amount of rural roadways with over 109,000 centerline miles. These roadways consist of thousands of bridges, culverts, and hazards in which guardrail protect the vehicles from striking these objects when they depart the roadway. As the Kansas rural road system ages, so does the guardrail. Additionally, changes in roadway alignment may present new hazards in which guardrail should be considered. The Kansas Department of Transportation has a significant amount of guardrail currently deployed on rural roadways system. The guardrail location, condition, and replacement decision may be known and decided on by local knowledge. The objective of the research project is to assist not only KDOT, but county engineers and local road supervisors on deciding if a section of guardrail that has either been struck previously, or is in disrepair is in need of repair or replacement depending on current roadway geometry and clear zone features. To accomplish this objective, the research team proposes the use of RSAP Version 3 software to simulate possible roadway geometric variables, crash costs, AADT, and other critical variables that can easily be determined in the field.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $69,456
• Contract Numbers:

  K-TRAN: KSU-19-4

  RE-0750-01

  C2131

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Kansas Department of Transportation

  Eisenhower State Office Building
  700 SW Harrison Street
  Topeka, KS  United States  66603-3754
• Project Managers:

  Salfrank, Tod

• Performing Organizations:

  Kansas State University Transportation Center

  Kansas State University
  Department of Civil Engineering
  Manhattan, KS  United States  66506
• Principal Investigators:

  Fitzsimmons, Eric

  Dissanayake, Sunanda

• Start Date: 20180815
• Expected Completion Date: 20200831
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data analysis; Data collection; Guardrails; Highway safety; Low volume roads
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01704509
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Kansas Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: K-TRAN: KSU-19-4, RE-0750-01, C2131
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: May 8 2019 9:40AM