Greetings from Bridging Solutions!
We hope you find some value when we reach out to keep in touch and share some fast facts about bridge design, construction and maintenance. In this installment of “A Bridge Moment” we are sharing some information about bridge railings/barriers.
1. For government owned bridges, engineers rely on standard design details for bridge barriers that are based on crash tests conducted by the Federal Highway Administration. Here is a link for more information: safety.fhwa.dot.gov/roadway_dept/policy_guide/road_hardware/barriers/bridgerailings
2. This reliance on standards is understandable due to the high probability that the bridge railing will be impacted by traffic and the high potential for liability related to injuries to motorists.
3. On privately owned bridges on land development projects, most developers don’t want to use standard bridge barriers due to the lack of aesthetic appeal.
4. The most widely used aesthetic barrier by engineers on public roadways is the Texas Standard Barrier. See the photograph below. This is a crash tested barrier that was developed in Texas and it is limited to use on roadways with a speed limit of 45 MPH or less. Many other states have adopted this standard design and incorporated into their own standards.
5. To meet a private developer’s requirement for an aesthetic bridge barrier, engineers have the option to design a custom barrier as long as it is designed in accordance with the requirements of Section 13 in the AASHTO code. See some photographs of some aesthetic barriers below.
