Crash Testing and Evaluation of Tennessee Bridge Rail and Guardrail Designs - Phase I, Volume II (7166-2)

The objective of this study was to analyze and evaluate the impact performance of various bridge rail, guardrail, transition, and end treatment designs currently in use by the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT). The project was divided into two phases. Phase I involved the evaluation of the various bridge rail, guardrail, transition, and end treatment designs through theoretical analyses and computer simulation. Where appropriate, modifications to existing designs were recommended. Phase II will involve full-scale crash testing of the existing and modified designs selected for further evaluation. This is Volume II of the final report summarizing the results of the analytical evaluation of Tennessee guardrail, transition, and end treatment design. Volume I of the final report describes the analytical analysis and safety evaluation of six (6) Tennessee bridge railings. In this report, existing TDOT transition designs were evaluated using the Barrier VII computer simulation program. Several retrofit modifications were recommended to improve the impact performance of these installations. In addition, existing short-radius guardrail and guardrail end treatment designs were examined, and several new concepts were proposed.