Monitoring and Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Overheight Detection System at Eklutna, Alaska

摘要

An overheight detection system is typically installed on highway roadsides at a distance in frontof an overcrossing bridge that had previously sustained frequent impacts from trucks with loadstaller than the bridge clearance. Until the study described in this paper, there is no formalstudy conducted to assess the effectiveness of an overheight detection system. Thus, there islimited information for states who are considering overheight detection systems for theirimpact‐prone bridges. This paper describes the efforts involved in adding surveillancecomponents to an existing overheight detection system. It also presents the findings fromanalyzing the video data collected from the added surveillance components. The mostimportant finding from this study is that the false alarm rate of an overheight detection systemstrongly depends on the physical environment and the particular weather events at thedetector location. The results of this study provide useful information for the transportationofficials of the state of Alaska when considering overheight detection systems at other locationsin the state. The results can be used by other state DOTs interested in adopting overheightdetection systems as some of the issues identified may be relevant to similar systems in otherstates.