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We have an old bridge on I-70 which, at one point in its life, was rehabilitated and new safety barrier curbs added.  In order to attach the bridge anchor section of guardrail without spanning the expansion joint, a stand-alone end post was cast and the rail attached. (See attached Figure 1)

We believe the post was insufficiently anchored because subsequent hits on the rail have caused it to move out significantly.  Obviously, we're concerned about future pocketing and know we have to fix it.  I don't want to repair this setup because I don't believe it functions as well as it could, and, as these photos show, there isn't a lot of substrate to attach to. (See Figures 2, 3, and 4) 

Do you have any ideas on how we could properly mount the bridge anchor section in this situation?  I was considering one left-out post (nearest the parapet) with a double nested, or otherwise stiffened rail to compensate

We have no intention of rebuilding the buttress because it is cost-prohibitive.  We want to tear it out and find a hardware solution.

I am attaching a copy of the report that contained the approach guardrail transition system with a post missing and a special simulated post. You will need to download the report from the UNL dropbox using the directions contained below.

NDOR may be able to provide you with the CAD details for this transition system.

The file 'TTI_NCHRP_350_Testing_404211-F.pdf' (21.0 MB) is available for download at

http://dropbox.unl.edu/uploads/20091009/8bcd9dbc1ec19ad8/TTI_NCHRP_350_Testing_404211-F.pdf

for the next 7 days.

It will be removed after Friday, October  9, 2009.