Testing of state roadside safety systems, volume IX appendix H: crash testing and evaluation of the NETC PL-2 bridge rail design

The purpose of this study is to crash test and evaluate new or modified roadside safety hardware and, where necessary, redesign the devices to improve their impact performance. The three major areas addressed in this study are the impact performance of bridge railings, transitions from guardrails to bridge railings, and end treatments for guardrails and median barriers. This report presents the results of three crash tests conducted on a new bridge railing design by the New England Transportation Consortium (NETC) in accordance with guidelines set forth in the 1989 American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Guide Specifications on Bridge Railings for a performance level 2 (PL-2) and National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 350 for test level 4 (TL-4). The first crash test (test no. 471470-18) involved an 817-kg (1800-lb) passenger car impacting the bridge rail at a nominal impact speed and angle of 96.5 km/h (60mi/h) and 20 degrees. The second crash test (test no. 471470-19) involved a 2452-kg (5400-lb) pickup truck impacting the bridge rail at a nominal impact speed and angle of 96.5 km/h (60 mi/h) and 20 degrees. The bridge rail was judged to have performed satisfactorily in both tests. However, the bridge deck and curb section sustained some structural damage in the pickup truck redirection test. The design details for the bridge deck, curb section, and steel reinforcement were therefore revised for the third crash test (test no. 471470-29), which involved an 8000-kg (17,636-lb) single-unit truck impacting the bridge rail at a nominal impact speed and angle of 80 km/h (49.7 mi/h) and 15 degrees. The bridge rail was also judged to have performed satisfactorily in this single-unit truck redirection test. This volume is the ninth in a series of 14 volumes for the final report.