Ranking Low Guardrail Sites for Remedial Treatment

Abstract

A scoring procedure has been developed for prioritizing low guardrail sites for remedial treatment. The relative hazard of individual guardrail sections is estimated based on traffic volume and speed, roadway curvature, soil conditions, and severity of vehicular penetration as well as height, length, type and location of the guardrail. An intermediate step is provided which estimates the expected number of guardrail impacts per year. The procedure draws heavily on the guidelines developed for the installation of permanent and temporary barriers and on empirical results of a variety of highway studies.