3D Modeling of Highway Guardrails for Sight Distance Assessment
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 147, Issue 11
Abstract
Safety barriers limit the severe consequences to occupants of vehicles leaving the roadway from colliding with obstacles, yet they may significantly reduce the available sight distance (). A procedure was devised to accurately recreate highway guardrails in three dimensions (3D), fitting the barriers onto the curve roadsides. The effect of these devices on the reduction of the was thus evaluated in a set of case studies comprising different curve radii overlapped with different vertical alignments and combined each with two safety barriers in two-lane rural roads. The 3D models of highway curves with the selected guardrails were created in a geographic information system. Then, a geoprocessing model was used to compute the . The results made it possible to quantify the reduction produced by the barrier with a higher containment level in relation to the highway design parameters, which can assist authorities in developing more comprehensive safety device standards.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) for research Project No. TRA2015–63579-R (MINECO/FEDER), and the European Union Erasmus + Programme funded this project. This Manuscript reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 147 • Issue 11 • November 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 31, 2021
Accepted: Jul 7, 2021
Published online: Aug 26, 2021
Published in print: Nov 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Jan 26, 2022
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