Videolog Assessment of Vehicle Collision Frequency with Concrete Median Barriers on an Urban Highway in Connecticut

Abstract

In-service performance evaluation is the process of assessing the performance of roadside safety hardware under real-world service conditions. The purpose of in-service evaluation is to determine and document the manner in which a safety feature performs during a broad range of collision, environmental, operational, and maintenance situations for typical real-world site and traffic conditions. An in-service performance evaluation of the concrete median barrier (CMB) in Connecticut was undertaken to determine how often CMBs are struck and how often such collisions are reported to the police. The method used to perform the inservice performance evaluation of the CMB is described, and the results are presented. Data were collected for a section of CMB located on I-84 in Hartford, Connecticut. Accurate information about impacts with CMBs is difficult to obtain because so many collisions are unreported. Even for severe collisions, damage to the barrier is rare, and little maintenance is required. In many cases, police reports are the only means of monitoring when, where, and how severe the CMB collision was. Videologging was used to accomplish the in-service performance evaluations of CMBs to document the extent of unreported collisions.