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ABSTRACT

This report documents one full-scale crash test conducted in support of a study to investigate the safety performance of the Hawaii Department of Transportation’s 34-in. tall aesthetic concrete bridge rail with pedestrian handrail system. The barrier system consisted of two 11-ft long concrete rails and three 22-ft long concrete rails anchored to the concrete tarmac. The expansion joint consisted of 24-in. long, No. 8 ASTM A615 Grade 60 steel bars that were casted into the concrete and inserted into PVC pipes on the upstream side of the expansion joint. Joint sealant expansive material was placed between consecutive joints. A handrail system consisting of welded HSS3x3x¼ tubes supported by 2½x2½x¼ posts welded to baseplates was fastened to the back side of the parapet with ⅝-in. threaded rods that were post-epoxied into the parapet back surface, such that the top height of the handrail was positioned at 42 in. Test no. HP34-1 was conducted according to the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware 2016 (MASH 2016) safety performance criteria using Test Level 3 (TL-3) test designation no. 3-11. In test no. HP34-1, a 2270P vehicle impacted the bridge rail at a speed of 62.2 mph and at an angle of 24.9 degrees. Test no. HP34-1 resulted in the vehicle being safely contained and redirected without violating any evaluation criteria. Therefore, test no. HP34-1 successfully met the TL-3 safety performance criteria defined in MASH 2016. The 1100C small crash test was deemed unnecessary due to prior successful testing on an identical bridge rail without the handrail and no risk of vehicle contact with the handrail.

KEYWORDS

Highway Safety, Crash Test, Roadside Appurtenances, Compliance Test, MASH 2016, Aesthetic, Bridge Rail, Concrete Parapet, Pedestrian Handrail, Combination Rail, Handrail

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