Guide for Preventing and Mitigating the Risk of Bridge and Tunnel Strikes by Motor Vehicles

Bridge/tunnel strikes inflict serious damage to vehicles (including commercial motor vehicles, recreational vehicles, buses, and agriculture and industrial equipment) and highway bridges/tunnels, cause injuries and fatalities in initial and secondary crashes, impose detours and costly delays on other highway users, and require expensive incident responses from bridge/tunnel owners, state departments of transportation (DOTs), and public safety agencies. Attempts to prevent bridge/tunnel strikes include signing, lighting, height detection systems, and actuated warning devices. These measures have achieved limited success. The objective of this research is to develop a guide to help state DOTs, public safety agencies, and the motor carrier industry prevent and mitigate the risk of bridge/tunnel strikes by motor vehicles. At the minimum, the research team shall: (1) develop a sustainable national clearinghouse for collecting and analyzing data, and communicating bridge/tunnel strike data and bridge/tunnel clearance information. This clearinghouse will be used to store and maintain data collected under this project and future data collected by other agencies after completion of this project; (2) identify and evaluate the nationally and internationally implemented countermeasures to prevent bridge/tunnel strike; (3) develop a risk-based data driven approach to evaluate the risk of bridge/tunnel strike; (4) develop prevention and mitigation strategies that consider bridge/tunnel design, policy and operation, and utilizing technologies to prevent bridge/tunnel strike; (5) analyze the relationship between the vehicle permitting processes (including roadway network dimensions, oversize vehicle routing systems, routing compliance for oversized loads, and pilot car escort guidance ) and bridge/tunnel strike; (6) develop training and outreach materials for motor carrier industry, traffic operation groups, vehicle permitting, and public safety agencies; and (7) develop a roadmap for state DOTs and other transportation agencies to implement and maintain the national clearinghouse for data collection after completion of this project.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=4950

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $500000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 08-139

• 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:

  Abu-Hawash, Ahmad

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

  College of Engineering & Applied Science
  3200 North Cramer Street
  Milwaukee, WI  United States  53217
• Principal Investigators:

  Qin, Xiao

• Start Date: 20211001
• Expected Completion Date: 20240401
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Best practices; Bridges; Clearances (Navigation); Highway safety; Oversize loads; State departments of transportation; Truck crashes; Trucking safety
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; Motor Carriers; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01739642
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 08-139
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: May 20 2020 3:01PM