As I indicated earlier, we are being directed to accelerate our transition to MASH w-beam guardrail. One of the efforts will be to remove and replace substandard terminals such as the BCT, turn-downs, etc. Our plan calls for this to start in November.
We plan on installing a MASH terminal and then transition back down to the 27 ¾” w-beam for longer runs that still meet the height requirements. We developed our transition detail similar to Washington DOT and Caltrans designs. Can you look over the detail and let me know if you have any concerns?
Thanks for your continued assistance.
I recently provided recommendations in a draft report (out soon hopefully) that were related to this issue. I just finished evaluated of a transition from guardrail to PCBs. The transition uses MGS, but would need to transition back to G4(1S) in many cases.
I have attached that section of the draft report. It appears that your detail matches up with the second option we had listed.
You may want to consider allowing for some additional MGS between the terminal and the transition to the original guardrail. We have seen that many of the terminals have stopping distances longer than their stated length. For example, some designs have stopping distances for test 3-31 of 50’, but the terminal length is listed as 37.5’. Conservatively, we have recommended not transitioning the height within known stopping distances. It may not be an issue, but it may be simpler just to account for it.
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