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International Road Federation World Meeting & Exhibition

IRF 2021: Advances in Road Infrastructure and Mobility pp 850–867Cite as

Stiffening Guidance for Temporary Concrete Barrier Systems in Work Zone and Construction Situations

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Part of the Sustainable Civil Infrastructures book series (SUCI)

Abstract

Portable concrete barrier (PCB) systems are utilized in many situations, including placement adjacent to vertical drop-offs, work zones, and construction areas. Free-standing PCB systems are known to have relatively large deflections when impacted, which may be undesirable when dealing with limited space behind the barrier, such as on a bridge deck or with limited lane width in front of the barrier system. The risk of injury to workers in the work zone or construction area from displaced PCB systems is great. In order to allow PCB systems to be used in space-restricted locations, a variety of PCB stiffening options have been used, including beam stiffening and bolting or pinning the barriers to the pavement. This research evaluated the safety performance of the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) PCB, Type 4 in various stiffening configurations according to the Test Level 3 (TL-3) criteria set forth in MASH 2016. All tested configurations successfully met all the requirements of MASH 2016 test designation no. 3–11 which was a 2,270-kg pickup truck impacting at a speed of 100 km/hr and \(25^\circ\). This research further reviewed and correlated stiffening techniques to dynamic deflection and working widths, as well as barrier segment damage. Implementation guidance is provided for the various PCB stiffening options to help protect the workers in work zone and construction areas.

Keywords

  • Crash test
  • Temporary concrete barrier
  • Portable concrete barrier
  • MASH
  • Stiffening
  • Bolting
  • Pinning
  • TL-3

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge several sources that made a contribution to this project: (1) New Jersey Department of Transportation for sponsoring this project and (2) MwRSF personnel for constructing the barriers and conducting the crash tests.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Karla Lechtenberg, Chen Fang & Ronald Faller

Authors
  1. Karla Lechtenberg
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  2. Chen Fang
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  3. Ronald Faller
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karla Lechtenberg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Construction Management, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA

    Dr. Amin Akhnoukh

  2. School of Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Prof. Dr. Kamil Kaloush

  3. International Road Federation, Alexandria, VA, USA

    Mag. Magid Elabyad

  4. International Road Federation, Brussels, Belgium

    Brendan Halleman

  5. KemetPro, LLC, Greenville, NC, USA

    Nihal Erian

  6. Street Transportation Department, City of Phoenix, Phonix, AZ, USA

    Samuel Enmon II

  7. Charlotte, NC, USA

    Cherylyn Henry

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Lechtenberg, K., Fang, C., Faller, R. (2022). Stiffening Guidance for Temporary Concrete Barrier Systems in Work Zone and Construction Situations. In: , et al. Advances in Road Infrastructure and Mobility. IRF 2021. Sustainable Civil Infrastructures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79801-7_60

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