Guardrail-to-bridge rail transition systems are generally designed and tested for use on high-speed roadways. Because there are no national transition designs that have been developed and tested for lower speed conditions, the same transition standard is typically applied to all roadways regardless of speed. In order to meet new testing standards, transition systems have become much more expensive to install and maintain. Under this research, a new guardrail-to-concrete bridge rail transition was developed with the aid of Barrier VII computer simulation. It is considered suitable for use on roadways that have traffic conditions appropriate for the use of TL-2 safety hardware. Use of this system provides significant savings in material and installation cost compared to high speed (i.e., TL-3) transitions. This research received the prestigious K.B. Woods Award, which is given annually by the Transportation Research Board for the best paper in the area of design and construction of transportation facilities.
Reference
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R.P. Bligh. Transition from Guardrail to Concrete Bridge Rail for Low-Speed Roadways. Transportation Research Record 1904, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 2005.