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Title:

Optimization of Guardrail Length-of-Need for Interstate Highways

Accession Number:

01555717

Record Type:

Component

Availability:

Transportation Research Board Business Office

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Abstract:

Guardrails have commonly been installed to prevent errant vehicles from impacting roadside hazards. However, guardrail impacts have contributed to numerous serious injuries and fatalities. Plus, guardrails are generally impacted more often because they are installed closer to the edge of travel way and are much longer than the shielded hazard itself. Thus, in order to reduce the frequency of guardrail crashes, an optimized length should be determined. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Roadside Design Guide (RDG) has suggested guardrail runout lengths which are dependent on posted speed limit and traffic volumes. Crash data analyses and simulation using the recently-updated Roadside Safety Analysis Program (RSAPv3) was conducted to evaluate the guardrail length-of-need (LON) associated with the lowest crash cost (i.e., cost associated with injuries and property damage) and maximum cost effectiveness for freeways. Crash data involving Kansas guardrail, which were compliant with recommendations provided in the 2006 AASHTO RDG and occurring on freeways with divided medians, were collected and analyzed. The frequency, rate, and risk of shielded hazard crashes were extremely low. RSAPv3 analyses indicated that there was both an economic and safety benefit to reducing the installed LON as well as utilizing different runout lengths for left- and right-side departures for divided roadways.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFB20 Roadside Safety Design.

Monograph Accession #:

01550057

Report/Paper Numbers:

15-3366

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Albuquerque, Francisco Daniel B
Stolle, Cody S
Sicking, Dean L
Faller, Ronald K
Lechtenberg, Karla A
Emerson, Erik

Pagination:

14p

Publication Date:

2015

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References; Tables

Subject Areas:

Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I20: Design and Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I85: Safety Devices used in Transport Infrastructure

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2015 Paper #15-3366

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Dec 30 2014 1:08PM