Assessing the Field Performance of W-Beam Terminals in Washington

摘要

A review of w-beam guardrail terminal crashes within the state of Washington was undertaken. The field performance of terminals and the ability of the crash testing specification to capture field impact conditions were evaluated. WSDOT is a leader in collecting data that can be used for in-service performance evaluations and other asset management activities. These data provide one of the few instances where crashes can be linked with a positive identification of the terminal types at the time of the crash. It was found that approximately 21 to 24 percent of the tangent terminal impacts are side impacts and twelve percent of the flared terminal impacts were side impacts, suggesting changes to the crash testing guidelines should be considered.