Transition of Temporary Concrete Barrier

Abstract

The objective of this research was to design a transition from temporary concrete barriers to a permanent concrete barrier for median applications. The researchers at Midwest Roadside Safety Facility utilized a combination of free-standing and tied-down Kansas temporary concrete barriers and a dual-nested thrie beam for the transition to the single-slope permanent barrier as well as a transition cap. Two full-scale vehicle crash tests were performed on the system. Evaluation of the approach transition required testing at two Critical Impact Point (CIP) locations. The first tests was performed using a half-ton pickup truck that impacted the temporary barriers 1,432 mm upstream from the permanent barrier, at a speed and angle of 100.7 km/h and 24.7 degrees, respectively. The second crash test was also performed using a half-ton truck that impacted the temporary barriers 16.6 m upstream from the permanent barrier, at a speed and angle of 100.1 km/h and 26.2 degrees, respectively. Both tests were conducted and reported in accordance with requirements specified in the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) and were determined to be acceptable according to the Test Level 3 (TL-3) evaluation criteria.