ESTABLISHMENT OF INTERIM GUIDELINES FOR BRIDGE RAILS REQUIRED TO CONTAIN HEAVY VEHICLES VOLUME 3. APPENDICES TO TECHNICAL APPROACH

Existing specifications for highway protective barriers such as bridge railings are based on containment of 4000 lb. passenger vehicles. In general, bridge rails designed according to these specifications are not capable of containing heavier trucks and buses weighing upwards of 40,000 lb., nor do they perform safely for smaller subcompact vehicles (2250 lb.) and indeed can cause intolerable decelerations for the occupants of average passenger sedans. The work described in this report (Volumes 1, 2 and 3) involves the development of interim guidelines for the design of which performance bridge rails which would safely contain all vehicles in the range from subcompacts (2250 lb.) right through heavy vehicles (40,000 lb.) under specified impact conditions. The report is in three volumes, Volume 1 Statement of Criteria, Volume 2 Technical Approach, and Volume 3 Appendices to Technical Approach. A fourth volume is currently in preparation which describes a computer program (modified BARRIER VII) which will allow highway engineers to check tentative bridge rail design against the guidelines. In Volume 1 the guidelines for both flexible and rigid barriers are concisely explained and examples of their application given. In Volume 2 the computer simulation approach used to derive the guidelines is described. In Volume 3 specific details of the computer programs are given. /FHWA/