Abstract
Transportation agencies have become more efficient in maximizing the utilization of roadway space because of financial and regulatory constraints. Safety must manifest itself in all aspects of the transportation infrastructure. One notable challenge is the use of high-speed highways within urban environments. A noise reduction facility, such as a noise abatement wall (NAW), has to be incorporated along the roadway to reduce the traffic-generated noise impact on the urban population. However, adding such a facility requires a minimum 4 ft offset from the barrier per existing American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) standards. These constraints were eliminated in this study through the design of a tall barrier that reduced the interaction between the leaning truck trailer and the NAW to insignificant rubbing. This paper presents the design of the barrier-NAW system, the results of the finite element simulation that verified the performance of the system, and the successful outcomes of the full-scale crash testing according to AASHTO Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware guidelines.
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