Performance of High Friction Bridge Deck Overlays in Crash Reduction
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 31, Issue 2
Abstract
In recent history, a number of State Departments of Transportation have looked at providing safer driving conditions on bridges. One improvement method is placing high friction overlays on bridge decks. This study analyzed crash data to evaluate the performance of high friction overlays in reducing crashes. This study was completed by analyzing 10 years of data for nine bridges encompassing four different proprietary overlay systems. Within one of the overlay systems, three different aggregate types were also compared. Crash characteristics analyzed included the crash time, weather conditions, bridge surface conditions, average annual daily traffic, and severity of crashes. This study is part of a comprehensive study that includes extensive field evaluation and comparative performance analysis between different systems to evaluate their effectiveness on bridge decks in Minnesota. While the data presented herein is from bridge sites located in Minnesota, the findings apply to most of the northern tier states in the United States as well as other countries with colder climatic conditions. The analysis of data suggests that although there is a reducing trend in overall number of crashes; a reduction in crashes on bridges cannot be completely attributed to the use of high friction overlays. Furthermore, the presence of high friction overlays are unable to play a role in winter crash prevention. Thus this study shows that forensic evaluation of accident data does not support commonly anticipated crash reduction benefit of high friction overlays.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express sincere gratitude to the Minnesota Department of Transportation for supporting the research presented in this paper. The views expressed in this paper are that of the authors and do not reflect those of sponsors.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 31 • Issue 2 • April 2017
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 14, 2015
Accepted: Jun 3, 2016
Published online: Sep 13, 2016
Discussion open until: Feb 13, 2017
Published in print: Apr 1, 2017
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