| Abstract: | The objective of this research was to evaluate the impact performance of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Type C2P Bridge Rail according to the safety-performance evaluation guidelines included in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) for Test Level Four (TL-4). This report describes the TxDOT Type C2P Bridge Rail , documents the impact performance of the bridge rail system according to MASH TL-4 evaluation criteria for longitudinal barriers, and presents recommendations regarding implementation. MASH Tests 4-10 and 4-11 evaluate a barrier's ability to successfully contain and redirect passenger vehicles and evaluate occupant risk. MASH Test 4-12 evaluates the structural adequacy of the bridge rail. All three tests were performed on the TxDOT Type C2P Bridge Rail. For Test 4-12, the post welds were not properly fabricated according to the project design drawings. As a result, some post welds in the immediate impact area did rupture from the MASH Test 4-12 truck impact. These ruptured post welds did aggravate the stability of the single unit truck during the test. For subsequent tests, the posts were welded correctly as per the project drawings. The bridge rail posts, with the correct post welds, should only improve the performance of the single unit truck. The TxDOT Type C2P Bridge Rail performed acceptably for MASH TL-4. |
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